PiXel (Pi Pixel)

Make NeoPixels react to Twitter trends

Reacting to live tweets

Reacting to a special hashtag

Overview

PiXel runs on a Raspberry Pi, and triggers LED animations based on current Twitter trends.
For every tweet in the last 5 seconds that matches one of the user supplied keywords, PiXel flashes a random LED on the strip.
If nearly the same number of tweets as pixels are found, then a random special animation is triggered
If barely any tweets are found, then the pixels glow dimly
If a user supplied special keyword or author is found, then a specific special animation is triggered.
A toggle button can be added to cycle the array between the Standby/OFF, Twitter, and Glow states

Hardware Requirements

Raspberry Pi (2x/3x) with Latest Raspbian
Raspberry Pi Power Supply (2+ Amps)
WS281X LED Strip (NeoPixel or clone)
5v Power Supply - (0.06 * Number of Pixels) Amps
Logic Level Conversion (see Adafruit Guide to Using NeoPixels with Raspberry Pi for more details on wiring)
(Optional) Toggle button (for controlling modes)

Alternatively, Order and Assemble a NeoPixel Shield

Dependencies

RPi.GPIO

Should be preinstalled in newer Raspbian

rpi_ws281x

Follow library installation instructions

Python Twitter

Install with $ pip install python-twitter or follow the link and install manually.

Setup

Follow Adafruit Guide to Using NeoPixels with Raspberry Pi to set up WS281X Strip. Connect to [GPIO18, GND]
(Optional): Connect Toggle button to [GPIO24, GND] for Mode Toggle
Install Raspbian & Dependencies on Raspberry Pi (see raspbian installation guide for more details)
Set up Twitter Dev account and register for API keys. See python-twitter docs for information about setting up API Keys
Configure conf.py with API keys, LED colors, and correct GPIO pins
run main.py with super user permissions, i.e. sudo python $PIXEL_PATH/PiXel/main.py OR to run at startup (hack-y)

## Enable PiXel @ start
if ! ps ax | grep -v grep | grep python > /dev/null; then
        screen -d -m -S PiXel bash -c 'cd $PIXEL_PATH/PiXel/ && sudo python main.py'
fi

Queries

PiXel uses 3 query types. For information about formatting, see Twitter Search API documentation. All three queries are included in the q field of a Twitter Search call.

QUERY_KEYWORDS: These keywords trigger a single flash.
QUERY_SPECIALS: These keywords trigger a special animation.
QUERY_FROM_USERS: If a tweet was written by this user a special animation is triggered.

Author

Ian McLinden, 2018

done

ianmclinden / PiXel