Basic idea
How does it work
Step 1 Connect your led strip with your Arduino board
Step 2 Connect your Arduino board to your computer
Step 3 Upload the Arduino code
Step 4 Run the Python code
Step 5 Enjoy your real-time investment monitor

Published January 15, 2020 © MIT

Visualize your bitcoin gain and loss with arduino & python

Get real-time feedback of your crypto currency investment without keeping a close eye on the trading data. Let python and arduino help you!

BeginnerFull instructions provided2 hours1,064

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Seeed Studio Seeeduino V4.2

Seeed Studio Waterproof WS2813 RGB LED Strip Waterproof

Seeed Studio Base Shield V2

Software apps and online services

Arduino IDE

Microsoft VS Code

Story

Basic idea

Personally I'm a crypto currency investor. But I also have a hevy load of work to attend to. So I am not able to keep tracking bitcoin price like 10 times a minute. However, I still want to know whether I'm earning or lossing money. Thus, I decided to build a real-time feedback system of my investment using python. And to visualize it, I chose a led strip and an arduino. If I earned money, the leds will turn green. If I lose, they will turn red.

How does it work

To get real-time bitcoin data, I used an api provided by OKex, which is a large crypto currency exchange. Then I used python to calculate my gain and loss based on the streaming data. I set my target gain and loss to 5% everyday, which means more lights are on, my investment is closer to my target gain or loss. If all leds are turned on or off, the strip will statr to blink. So I can make decision about whether to keep holding or sell my bitcoins.

Step 1 Connect your led strip with your Arduino board

The circuit diagram is given below. But I strongly suggest you to use seeeduino and its base shield like me. Because you can just plug in the socket and forget about the complex wiring.

Step 2 Connect your Arduino board to your computer

Check the port your arduino is using. You are going to need it in the python code.

Step 3 Upload the Arduino code

The code is pasted below.

Step 4 Run the Python code

Make sure python library pyserial is installed. If you don't know whether you have installed the library, run

pip install pyserial

in your computer's terminal. Before you run it, remember to set up your initial investment.

Step 5 Enjoy your real-time investment monitor!

Code

#include <FastLED.h>

#define NUM_LEDS 30
#define DATA_PIN 6
CRGB leds[NUM_LEDS];
String dataStr;      // a variable to read incoming serial data into
int data;
int range;
void setup() //set up the strip
{
  Serial.begin(9600);
  FastLED.addLeds<WS2812, DATA_PIN, RGB>(leds, NUM_LEDS);
  FastLED.setBrightness(30);
  FastLED.show();
}

void loop() {
  if (Serial.available() > 0) {
    FastLED.clear();
    dataStr = Serial.readString(); //read data from python
    data = dataStr.toInt();
    if (data == 30 ) buy(); 
    if (data == -30) sell();
    if (data <= 0) {
      for (int i = 0 ; i <= abs(data) - 1 ; i++) // based on current loss, turn on certain amout of red leds
      {
        leds[i].setRGB(0, 255, 0);
        FastLED.show();
        delay(10);
      }
    }
    if (data > 0) {
      for (int i = 0 ; i <= abs(data) - 1 ; i++)
      {  // based on current gain, turn on certain amout of green leds
        leds[i].setRGB(255, 0, 0);
        FastLED.show();
        delay(10);
      }
    }
  }
}

void sell() //sell signal
{
  for (int i = NUM_LEDS - 1; i >= 0 ; i--)
  {
    leds[i].setRGB(0, 255, 0);
    FastLED.show(); // This sends the updated piaXel color to the hardware.
    fadeall();
    delay(10);
  }
}

void buy() { //buy signal
  for (int i = 0; i < NUM_LEDS; i++)
  {

    leds[i].setRGB(255, 0, 0);
    FastLED.show(); // This sends the updated piaXel color to the hardware.
    fadeall();
    delay(10);
  }
}

void fadeall()
{
  for (int i = 0; i < NUM_LEDS; i++)
  {
    leds[i].nscale8(250);
  }
}

import requests
import serial
import time


headers = {
    'user-agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_2) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/79.0.3945.117 Safari/537.36'}

arduino = serial.Serial('/dev/cu.usbmodem14401', 9600)
time.sleep(1)

url = 'https://www.okex.me/api/v1/ticker.do?symbol=btc_usdt'

#set up your initial investment here
basePrice = 8850.0
coins = 10
targetGain = 0.005
targetLoss = 0.005


def get_latest_crypto_price(): #get real-time bitcoin price
    res = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
    data = res.json()['ticker']
    btcPrice = float(data.get('last'))
    return btcPrice


def main():

    last_price = -1
    while True:

        price = get_latest_crypto_price()
        if price != last_price:
            if price <= basePrice:
                loss = (price - basePrice)/basePrice
                netLoss = coins * (basePrice - price) #calculate loss
                print('current bitcoin price is {}. Your loss is {} dollar'.format(
                    price, netLoss))
                rangeLed = int(loss * 30 / targetLoss) #tell arduino how many leds to turn on

                if rangeLed <= -30:
                    rangeLed = -30
                if rangeLed == 0:
                    rangeLed = -1

                arduino.write(str(rangeLed))
            if price > basePrice:
                gain = (price - basePrice)/basePrice
                netGain = coins * (price - basePrice) #calculate gain
                print('current bitcoin price is {}. Your gain is {} dollar'.format(
                    price, netGain))
                rangeLed = int(gain * 30 / targetGain)
                if rangeLed >= 30:
                    rangeLed=30
                if rangeLed == 0:
                    rangeLed=1

                arduino.write(str(rangeLed))
            last_price=price
        time.sleep(3)


main()

Credits

memoryleak

5 projects • 7 followers

A soft and hardware engineer motivated by interest and fun

Visualize your bitcoin gain and loss with arduino & python

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Basic idea

How does it work

Step 1 Connect your led strip with your Arduino board

Step 2 Connect your Arduino board to your computer

Step 3 Upload the Arduino code

Step 4 Run the Python code

Step 5 Enjoy your real-time investment monitor!

Schematics

arduino and led strip circuit diagram

Code

Arduino

Python

Credits

memoryleak

Comments

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Visualize your bitcoin gain and loss with arduino & python

Visualize your bitcoin gain and loss with arduino & python

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Software apps and online services

Story

Basic idea

How does it work

Step 1 Connect your led strip with your Arduino board

Step 2 Connect your Arduino board to your computer

Step 3 Upload the Arduino code

Step 4 Run the Python code

Step 5 Enjoy your real-time investment monitor!

Schematics

arduino and led strip circuit diagram

Code

Arduino

Python

Credits

memoryleak

Comments

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