{"id":8982,"date":"2025-05-26T12:13:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T11:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=8982"},"modified":"2025-05-26T12:13:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T11:13:22","slug":"building-my-own-train-departure-board-because-why-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/05\/building-my-own-train-departure-board-because-why-not.htm","title":{"rendered":"Building my own train departure board (because why not?)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In the UK, we\u2019re lucky to have access to a rich supply of transport data. From <a href=\"https:\/\/data.bus-data.dft.gov.uk\/\">bus timetables<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/data.london.gov.uk\/dataset\/number-bicycle-hires\">cycle hire stats<\/a>, there\u2019s a load of open data just waiting to be used in clever ways. Some of the more interesting data &#8211; at least for geeks like me &#8211; is contained in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalrail.co.uk\/developers\/\">National Rail data feeds<\/a>. These provide real-time information about trains moving around the country. Every late-running service, every platform change, every cancelled train&#8230; it\u2019s all there, in near real-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are already some excellent tools built on top of this data. You may have come across some of these sites:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.realtimetrains.co.uk\/\">RealTimeTrains<\/a>: essential for anyone who wants to go beyond the standard passenger information displayed at the station.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/digital-signage.live-departures.info\/evocis\/4.0\/MKC\/0\/L\/departures.v3\">Live Departures Info<\/a>: perfect for an always-on browser display &#8211; e.g. on digital signage.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.leddepartureboard.com\/\">LED Departure Board<\/a>: provides a view of upcoming departures or arrivals at a chosen station.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There are even physical displays, like those from <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/ukdepartureboards.co.uk\/\">UK Departure Boards<\/a>. These look to be beautifully made and ideal for an office or hallway wall. But they\u2019re not cheap. And that got me thinking&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why not build my own?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Armed with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.raspberrypi.com\/products\/raspberry-pi-zero-w\/\">Raspberry Pi Zero W<\/a> and an inexpensive OLED display, I decided to have a go at making my own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A quick bit of Googling turned up an excellent website by Jonathan Foot, whose <a href=\"https:\/\/departureboard.jonathanfoot.com\/\">DIY departure board<\/a> guidance gave me exactly what I needed. It walks through how to connect everything up, pull real-time train data, and output it to a screen. There&#8217;s even <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/jfoot\/Bus-Departure-Board\">a GitHub repo for the code<\/a>. Perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, almost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A slightly different display<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Jonathan recommends a particular OLED display but I thought it was a bit on the pricey side. In the spirit of experimentation (and budget-conscious tinkering), I opted for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aliexpress.com\/item\/1005008183746121.html\">a 3.12&#8243; OLED display (256&#215;64, SSD1322, SPI) from AliExpress<\/a>. I think it&#8217;s the same &#8211; just from another channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This wasn\u2019t entirely straightforward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The display I received was described as SPI-compatible, but it wasn\u2019t actually configured for SPI out of the box. I sent the first one back. Then I realised they\u2019re <em>all<\/em> like that &#8211; you have to modify the board yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Breaking out the soldering iron<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There were no jumpers to move. No handy DIP switch to flick. Instead, I had to convert it from 80xx to 4SPI mode. This involved removing a resistor (R6), then soldering a link between two pads (R5). Not the hardest job in the world, but definitely not plug-and-play either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This wasn&#8217;t ideal. I&#8217;m terrible at soldering, and I&#8217;d deliberately bought versions of the Raspberry Pi and the display with pluggable headers. But hey, I&#8217;d got this far. The worst thing that could happen is that I blew up a \u00a312 display, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"360\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/uploads\/C5836CC5-3C5F-4658-A0BD-7D4B088F4941-e1747606931771.jpg?resize=360%2C360&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9016\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The modifications that I made to the display. (The information I needed is printed as a table on the back of the board.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Once that was done, though &#8211; magic! The display came to life with data from my local station, and a rolling list of upcoming arrivals and departures. It\u2019s a surprisingly satisfying thing to see working for the first time, especially knowing what went into making it happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What\u2019s next?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>All that\u2019s left now is to print a case (or find someone with a 3D printer who owes me a favour). For around \u00a350 in total, I\u2019ve got a configurable, real-time train departure board that wouldn\u2019t look out of place in a study, hallway or even the living room (subject to domestic approval, of course).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s been a fun little side project. A mix of software tinkering, a bit of hardware hacking, and that moment of joy when it all works together. And if you\u2019ve ever looked at those expensive display boards and thought, <em>I bet I could make one of those<\/em> &#8211; well, now you know&#8230; you probably can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Featured image: author&#8217;s own.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the UK, we\u2019re lucky to have access to a rich supply of transport data. From bus timetables to cycle hire stats, there\u2019s a load of open data just waiting to be used in clever ways. Some of the more interesting data &#8211; at least for geeks like me &#8211; is contained in the National &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/05\/building-my-own-train-departure-board-because-why-not.htm\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Building my own train departure board (because why not?)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218],"tags":[425,428,786,381,807],"class_list":["post-8982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-electronics","tag-open-data","tag-railways","tag-raspberry-pi","tag-transport"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Building my own train departure board (because why not?) - markwilson.it<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/05\/building-my-own-train-departure-board-because-why-not.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Building my own train departure board (because why not?) - markwilson.it\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the UK, we\u2019re lucky to have access to a rich supply of transport data. From bus timetables to cycle hire stats, there\u2019s a load of open data just waiting to be used in clever ways. 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