How to make an internet clock with NTP, Pi Zero W and RasPiO InsPiRing

I’ve been messing about with the Pi Zero W and one of my RasPiO InsPiRing boards to make a colourful clock that keeps accurate time using NTP (Network Time Protocol). Because the Zero W has WiFi onboard, it’s perfect for things like this. It’s quite a visual thing, so I made a video about it…

Here’s the Code

If you want a walk-through of the code, I made a little walk-through video of it, but decided to keep that separate because not everybody would want that level of detail. You can find that after the code.

import time
from time import strftime, sleep
from datetime import datetime
import apa           # RasPiO InsPiRing driver class

numleds = 24         # number of LEDs in our display
brightness = 0xE5    # 224-255 or 0xE0-0xFF

ledstrip = apa.Apa(numleds) # initiate an LED strip

ledstrip.flush_leds()  # initiate LEDs
ledstrip.zero_leds()
ledstrip.write_leds()

print ('Press Ctrl-C to quit.')

try:
    while True:
        timenow = datetime.now().strftime('%H%M%S.%f').rstrip('0')
        hour = int(timenow[0:2])
        if hour >= 12:
            hour = hour - 12
        minute = int(timenow[2:4])
        second = float(timenow[4:])
        print(hour, minute, second)

        ledstrip.led_set(hour*2, brightness, 0, 0, 255)      # 3 Red LEDs for the hour
        ledstrip.led_set(hour*2+1, brightness, 0, 0, 255)
        if hour == 0:
            ledstrip.led_set(23, brightness, 0, 0, 255)
        else:
            ledstrip.led_set(hour*2-1, brightness, 0, 0, 255)

        precise_minute = float(minute + second/60.0)
        ledstrip.led_set(int(precise_minute / 2.5) , brightness, 0, 255, 0) # green minute

        ledstrip.led_set(int(second / 2.5) , brightness, 255, 0, 0)         # blue second

        ledstrip.write_leds()

        # Now blank the LED values for all LEDs in use, so that if any values
        # change in the next loop iteration, we've cleaned up behind us
        
        ledstrip.led_set(int(second / 2.5) , brightness, 0, 0, 0)        
        ledstrip.led_set(int(precise_minute / 2.5) , brightness, 0, 0, 0)

        ledstrip.led_set(hour*2+1, brightness, 0, 0, 0)   
        ledstrip.led_set(hour*2  , brightness, 0, 0, 0)
        ledstrip.led_set(hour*2-1, brightness, 0, 0, 0)
    
        time.sleep(0.03)   # limit the number of cycles to ~33 fps

        if minute == 59 and int(second) == 59:    # Red wipe hourly
            for i in range(numleds):
                ledstrip.led_set(i , brightness, 0, 0, 255)
                ledstrip.write_leds()
                sleep(0.03)
            sleep(0.25)
            for i in range(numleds):
                ledstrip.led_set(i , brightness, 0, 0, 0)
            ledstrip.write_leds()

        elif minute == 29 and int(second) == 59:  # Green wipe half-hourly
            for i in range(numleds):
                ledstrip.led_set(i , brightness, 0, 255, 0)
                ledstrip.write_leds()
                sleep(0.03)
            sleep(0.25)
            for i in range(numleds):
                ledstrip.led_set(i , brightness, 0, 0, 0)
            ledstrip.write_leds()
                                                  # Blue wipe quarter-hourly
        elif (minute == 14 or minute == 44) and int(second) == 59:
            for i in range(numleds):
                ledstrip.led_set(i , brightness, 255, 0, 0)
                ledstrip.write_leds()
                sleep(0.03)
            sleep(0.25)
            for i in range(numleds):
                ledstrip.led_set(i , brightness, 0, 0, 0)
            ledstrip.write_leds()        

finally:
    print("/nAll LEDs OFF - BYE!/n")
    ledstrip.zero_leds()
    ledstrip.write_leds()

I’ll pre-empt those who are going to tell me that the animations (53-81) could be made into a single function. I know that. I just haven’t got ‘a round tuit’ yet. Here’s the code walk-through video…

If you find this interesting, you’ll probably like the RasPiO InsPiRing KickStarter. Please pop over and have a look.