Published April 28, 2018 © MIT

Twitter Pager

LoFi hardware twitter news reader every nerd needs!

BeginnerFull instructions provided3 hours912

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Onion Corporation Omega2 Plus

Onion Corporation Onion Arduino Dock R2

DFRobot LCD Keypad Shield

Story

This hardware twitter client brings that lo-fi/cyberpunk vibe to otherwise mundane twitter feed viewing. I did not make any enclosure on purpose I like it this way :)

It shows tweets in a loop. Arduino dock has enough memory to hold 30 32-char pages, so it loops through them, adding new tweets as they arrive. Up/down buttons change screen brightness and left/right scroll through tweets.

Assembly

There are only three components and only one way to assemble them :) Put your Omega inside Arduino Dock, and LCD Keypad Shield on top of Arduino Dock's headers. Plug the power into Arduino Dock via either 9v into DC barrel or 5v to micro-USB port.

Installing software

I assume that you have already configured your Omega to have internet connectivity. If not, start here: https://docs.onion.io/omega2-docs/first-time-setup.html

There are few things to be installed onto your Omega (I use Omega2+). Ssh to it and run following commands:

opkg update
opkg install git git-http python python-pip pyOnionI2C
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install python-twitter
opkg install arduino-dock-2

Paste your Twitter API keys and user ids that you wish to subscribe to config file:

cp config.ini.example 
vim

You can get your API keys here: https://apps.twitter.com/ And convert twitter usernames to ids here: http://gettwitterid.com/

Upload python code to your Omega2:

scp config.ini get_tweets.py run.sh root@omega-XXXX.local

Substitute XXXX to last digits of your Omega MAC address.

Upload Arduino sketch to your Onion Arduino Dock R2 as described here: https://docs.onion.io/omega2-docs/flash-arduino-dock-wirelessly.html

Then you can ssh to your Omega and run ./run.sh. Script is working in streaming mode, so you'll have to wait until it gets some tweets. You can add run.sh to /etc/rc.local if you wish script to run on boot.

Done

Enjoy your cool hardware twitter client. Add power bank for portability, share wifi from your phone and you'll be coolest guy/gal around :)

in the wild

#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import re
import threading
import time
import logging

from twitter import Api
from ConfigParser import ConfigParser
from OmegaExpansion import onionI2C

curr_tweet = ["Waiting for tweets"]
curr_page = 0
paging_period = 4
data_lock = threading.Lock()

def load_config(filename):
    '''Load secrets from configfile'''
    config = ConfigParser()
    config.read(filename)
    user_ids = config.get("twitter", "user_ids", "783214").split(",")
    config.set("twitter", "user_ids", user_ids)
    return config


def split_the_tweet(tweet):
    '''split tweet to 32 symbol pages'''
    curr_tweet = []
    tweet = chr(2) + " " + tweet # add start tweet symbol
    try:
        while len(tweet) > 32:
            page = tweet[:32]
            sp = page.rfind(" ")
            if sp > 0:
                page = page[:sp]
            tweet = tweet[sp:]
            curr_tweet.append(page.strip())
        curr_tweet.append(tweet.strip())
    except:
        logging.exception("Error in split_the_tweet")
    return(curr_tweet)

def send(tweet):
    '''send via i2c to arduino dock'''
    for page in tweet:
        data = [ord(c) for c in page[:32]]
        i2c.writeBytes(8, 2, data)
        time.sleep(paging_period)


if __name__ == '__main__':

        logging.basicConfig(format='%(asctime)s %(message)s',
                            level=logging.INFO)

        i2c     = onionI2C.OnionI2C()

        k = load_config("config.ini")
        api = Api(k.get("twitter","consumer_key"),
                  k.get("twitter","consumer_secret"),
                  k.get("twitter","access_token"),
                  k.get("twitter","access_token_secret"))

        while True:
            try:
                for tweet in api.GetStreamFilter(follow=k.get("twitter", "user_ids")):
                        text = tweet.get("text")
                        if text is None:
                            continue
                        text = text.lower()
                        text = re.sub('http(s)?:[^\s]+', '', text) # remove urls
                        text = re.sub('#', '', text) # remove hashtags
                        text = re.sub('[\s]{2}', ' ', text).strip() # trim extra spaces
                        # ignore replies and retweets
                        if tweet.get("in_reply_to_screen_name") is not None or \
                           tweet.get("in_reply_to_status_id") is not None or \
                           tweet.get("retweeted_status") is not None or \
                           len(text) < 5:
                            continue

                        logging.info(text)

                        send(split_the_tweet(text))
            except KeyboardInterrupt:
                print("Bye!")
                exit()
            except:
                logging.exception("Main loop")
                logging.warn("Waiting 60 seconds to avoid blocking twitter app")
                time.sleep(60)

#include <LiquidCrystal.h>
#include <LCDKeypad.h>
#include <Wire.h>
#include <avr/wdt.h>
#include <string.h>

#define ledPin 13 // Onboard LED
#define LINE_SIZE 16
#define PAGE_SIZE 32
#define NUM_PAGES 30
#define PAGE_FLIP_TIME 2500

char pages[NUM_PAGES][PAGE_SIZE+1];
int curr_page = -1;
int max_page = -1;
int scrolled_page = 0;
int scroll_return_deadline;
int page_flip_deadline;
bool need_redraw = false;

byte c_ellipsis[8] = {
  B00000,
  B00000,
  B00000,
  B00000,
  B00000,
  B00000,
  B10101,
  B00000,
};

byte c_start[8] = {
  B11100,
  B10010,
  B10001,
  B10001,
  B10001,
  B10001,
  B10001,
  B11111,
};

LCDKeypad lcd;

// Restarts program from beginning but does not reset the peripherals and registers
void _SoftwareReset() {
  wdt_enable(WDTO_15MS);
}

//Set LCD Keypad Shield backlight brightness
void setLCDBrightness(byte brightness) {
  analogWrite(10, brightness);
}

void print_page(int n) {
  char str[2][17];

  memset(&str[0],0,17);
  memset(&str[0],0,17);

  for(int j=0; j<32; j++)
  {
    str[j/16][j%16] = pages[n][j];
  }

  lcd.clear();
  lcd.setCursor(0,0);
  lcd.print(str[0]);
  lcd.setCursor(0,1);
  lcd.print(str[1]);
}

void setup() {

 lcd.createChar(1,c_ellipsis);
 lcd.createChar(2,c_start);
 lcd.begin(16, 2);
 lcd.clear();
 lcd.noAutoscroll();
 lcd.print("Arduino started\0x01");
 setLCDBrightness(100);
 pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
 digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW);

 Wire.begin(0x08); // 0x08 is the arduino dock 2 i2c port
 Wire.onReceive(i2c_on_receive_handler);
 //Wire.onRequest(i2c_on_request_handler);
}


// called when a transmission is received via the i2c port
void i2c_on_receive_handler(int bytes_received) {
  char cmd = Wire.read();

  switch (cmd) {
    case 0xde:
      char next;
      next = Wire.read();
      if (next == 0xad) {
        _SoftwareReset();
      }
      break;
     case 1:
      setLCDBrightness(Wire.read());
      break;
     default:
      curr_page++;
      if(curr_page == NUM_PAGES) curr_page = 0;
      memset(&pages[curr_page], 0, PAGE_SIZE+1);
      int i = 0;
      while (Wire.available() > 0) {
        pages[curr_page][i++] = char(Wire.read());
      }
      need_redraw = true;
      if(max_page<NUM_PAGES-1)
      {
        max_page = curr_page;
      }
  }
}

int key;
int b = 100;
#define DELAY_MS 60

void loop() {
  while(true) {
    key = analogRead (0);
    if (key < 760) {
      if(key < 30) {
          scrolled_page++;
          if(scrolled_page>max_page) scrolled_page = 0;
          need_redraw = true;
      } else if(key < 150 && b < 240) {
        b += 20;
      }
      else if(key < 360 && b > 20) {
        b -= 20;
      } else if (key < 535) {
          scrolled_page--;
          if (scrolled_page < 0) scrolled_page = max_page;
          need_redraw = true;
      }
      setLCDBrightness(b);
    }
    if(need_redraw && (max_page >= 0)) {
      print_page(scrolled_page);
      need_redraw = false;
      page_flip_deadline = PAGE_FLIP_TIME;
    }
    if(page_flip_deadline>0) {
      page_flip_deadline-=DELAY_MS;
    } else {
      scrolled_page++;
      if(scrolled_page>max_page) scrolled_page = 0;
      need_redraw = true;
    }
    delay(DELAY_MS);
  }
}

Credits

Сергей Мелехин

1 project • 1 follower

Twitter Pager

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

Assembly

Installing software

Done

Code

get_tweets.py

lcd_sketch.ino

Twitter pager github repository

Credits

Сергей Мелехин

Comments

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Twitter Pager

Twitter Pager

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

Twitter pager

Assembly

Installing software

Done

Code

get_tweets.py

lcd_sketch.ino

Twitter pager github repository

Credits

Сергей Мелехин

Comments

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