ST7920 Raspberry Pi Dashboard

A Python-based project for driving an ST7920 128x64 graphical LCD over SPI with a Raspberry Pi. It displays a live digital clock, date, and current temperature using data fetched from the OpenWeatherMap API.

The project provides:

• A driver for the ST7920 LCD (driver.py)
• A lightweight 1-bit graphics library with primitives (graphics.py)
• A dashboard application (main.py)

---

Features

✅ ST7920 SPI driver with text and graphics support ✅ Bitmap-based graphics buffer with blending ✅ Shapes: lines, rectangles, circles, triangles (filled or outline) ✅ Render TrueType fonts (via PIL) ✅ Real-time clock with seconds, AM/PM indicator ✅ Weather integration via OpenWeatherMap

---

Hardware

• Raspberry Pi (any model with SPI and GPIO support)

• ST7920 128x64 LCD module datasheet

• Wiring:

  • SPI pins (MOSI, SCLK)
  • Chip Select pin → GPIO13 (configurable)
  • Reset pin → GPIO26 (configurable)

CE/RS of LCD is connected to CS pin (not SPI CE pin) as LCD expcets active high, but raspberry pi's SPI CE pin is active low.

---

Software Requirements

• Python 3.9+

• Libraries:

  • spidev
  • gpiozero
  • numpy
  • pillow
  • requests
  • python-dotenv

---

Setup

1. Enable SPI on Raspberry Pi:

   sudo raspi-config

   Go to Interface Options → SPI → Enable.

2. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/AviShahCode/st7920-dashboard.git
   cd st7920-dashboard

3. Fonts Place your TTF fonts in a fonts/ directory. The demo uses JetBrains Mono:

   • JetBrainsMono-Bold.ttf
   • JetBrainsMono-Regular.ttf

   You can replace them with any .ttf font installed on your system, although you might have to change the size and location of the widgets.

4. Environment variables Create a .env file in the project root:

   OPEN_WEATHER_MAP_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
   LAT=xx.xxxx
   LON=yy.yyyy
   

   You can get a free API key from OpenWeatherMap.

---

Running

Run the dashboard:

python3 main.py

You should see:

• Time displayed at the top
• AM/PM and seconds at the right
• Date and temperature at the bottom

---

File Overview

• driver.py → Low-level ST7920 driver (SPI communication, text & graphics mode)
• graphics.py → Bitmap-based drawing library (lines, circles, rectangles, text rendering)
• main.py → Example dashboard (clock + weather)

---

Demo

---

Future Improvements

• Icons for weather conditions (sunny, cloudy, rain, etc.)
• Animated transitions between updates
• Support for multiple pages/screens

---

License

MIT License – feel free to use, modify, and share.

---