lichtkrant

A Chinese Hub75 LED panel reincarnated as a fancy marquee used at DJO.

Installation

# clone the git repo
git clone https://github.com/djoamersfoort/lichtkrant
cd lichtkrant

# automatic installation for a new device
# this will create a systemctl service!
chmod +x *.sh
./setup.sh

Usage

usage: index.py [-h] [-m MODULE] [-s STATE_DIR] [-r RECURSIVE] [-d] [-o]

A driver for the DJO Lichtkrant project.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -m MODULE, --module MODULE
                        load a specific module by name
  -s STATE_DIR, --state-dir STATE_DIR
                        path to the states directory
  -r RECURSIVE, --recursive RECURSIVE
                        whether to search recursively
  -d, --dry             do not spew out pixel data
  -o, --offline         disable MQTT connectivity

Since the display makes use of the protocol Hub75, ledcat will be used. Conveniently, ledcat also has a previewing option which prints the display in your terminal, since I'm not too fond of carrying around a bulky led panel.

# use preview mode for testing purposes
./debug.sh # [extra arguments]

# driving the display using rpi-led-matrix
./run.sh # [extra arguments]

# see run.py for a 'finetuned' configuration

State Modules

The system works based on state modules. These are Python files ending in .mod.py

An example state file:

import sys
from time import sleep
from states.base import BaseState

# The state class must be called 'State' and extend BaseState for things to work
class State(BaseState):
    # give the state a name
    # this name should be unique!
    name = "example"

    # the state with the highest index is shown
    # if multiple states have the same index it will be randomly selected
    index = 0

    # delay in seconds to wait until the next update
    delay = 60

    # this function decides if the module will be shown
    # the check function must return a boolean
    # the spacestate is available as the first argument
    def check(self, states):
        return states['djo'] is False

    # a function that is called when running the module
    # in this case it just fills the screen with white
    def run(self):
        while not self.killed:
            sys.stdout.buffer.write(bytes([0xFF] * 3072))

        sleep(1)

By default, all state files are included, even in subdirectories. If you don't want this, set the flag -r, --recursive to false.

Game states

Some states are games that can be controlled with Lichtkrant Client or Lichtkrant Client CLI.

These states use socket.io for communication.

Every game is based on 2 files, Game state and Game meta. Game State is a regular state file modified with a player class and the file location of the Game meta. Game meta is the configuration for Lichtkrant clients.

An example Game state file:

import sys
from time import sleep

from states.base import BaseState
from states.socket import BasePlayer

class Player(BasePlayer):
    def __init__(self, data):
        super().__init__(data)
        self.movement = [0, 0]
    
    def on_press(self, key):
        if key == "w":
            self.movement[1] = 1
        elif key == "a":
            self.movement[0] = -1
        elif key == "s":
            self.movement[1] = -1
        elif key == "d":
            self.movement[0] = 1
    
    def on_release(self, key):
        if key == "w":
            self.movement[1] = 0
        elif key == "a":
            self.movement[0] = 0
        elif key == "s":
            self.movement[1] = 0
        elif key == "d":
            self.movement[0] = 0
            
    def on_leave(self):
        self.game.leave(self)

# The state class must be called 'State' and extend BaseState for things to work
class State(BaseState):
    # give the state a name
    # this name should be unique!
    name = "example"
    player_class = Player
    game_meta = "static/game_meta/GAME_NAME.json"
    players = []

    # the state with the highest index is shown
    # if multiple states have the same index it will be randomly selected
    index = 0

    # delay in seconds to wait until the next update
    delay = 60

    # this function decides if the module will be shown
    # the check function must return a boolean
    # the spacestate is available as the first argument
    def check(self, states):
        return len(self.players) > 0
    
    def add_player(self, player):
        self.players.append(player)

    def leave(self, player):
        self.players.remove(player)
        
    # a function that is called when running the module
    # in this case it just fills the screen with white
    def run(self):
        while not self.killed:
            sys.stdout.buffer.write(bytes([0xFF] * 3072))

        sleep(1)

An example Game meta file:

{
  "name": "My game",
  "id": "state_id",
  "description": "My game for lichtkrant",
  "color": {
    "from": "#E0C122",
    "to": "#9B8618"
  },
  "keys": ["w", "a", "s", "d"],
  "explanation": [
    {
      "type": "grid",
      "layout": [
        [null, "W", null],
        ["A", null, "D"],
        [null, "S", null]
      ],
      "description": "Movement keys"
    }
  ],
  "colors": {
    "visible": false,
    "configurable": false
  }
}

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

License

MIT