ProtoStax_ISS_Tracker

Demo for ProtoStax ISS Tracker with ePaper Display and Raspberry Pi

using ProtoStax for Raspberry Pi B+

For further instructions, see the International Space Station Tracker Tutorial at Hackster.io

Prerequisites

• Enable SPI on the Raspberry P
• Python 3 or higher. The code and the ePaper library assumes you are using Python 3 or higher! (with Raspbian Buster, the latest is Python3.7)

Install spidev, RPi.gpio, Pillow and requests NOTE - Use sudo pip3!

sudo apt-get install python3-spidev
sudo apt-get install rpi.gpio
sudo apt-get install python3-pil
sudo pip3 install requests

Installing

This demo uses Waveshare's ePaper libary - see https://github.com/waveshare/e-Paper

but includes the necessary files from that library directly, so you don't need to install anything extra!

git clone https://github.com/protostax/ProtoStax_ISS_Tracker.git

Usage

cd ProtoStax_ISS_Tracker

NOTE - Using Python 3 or higher!

python3 iss.py

The program will run every 30 seconds, updating the display with the current location of the ISS as well as the trajectory recorded since the start.

Running the script as a service

As an alternative, the Python script can be started during boot by creating a service - more info at https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/linux/usage/systemd.md

1. Edit isstracker.service - adjust the WorkingDirectory path according to where you've installed it:

WorkingDirectory=/home/pi/ProtoStax_ISS_Tracker

2. Copy the isstracker.service file into /etc/systemd/system as root:

sudo cp isstracker.service /etc/systemd/system/

3. Start the service:

sudo systemctl start isstracker.service

4. Check if the service is running:

sudo systemctl status isstracker.service

The output should be similar to:

 isstracker.service - ISS Tracker
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/isstracker.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2020-06-30 07:00:00 BST; 24s ago
 Main PID: 585 (python3)
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 2200)
   Memory: 19.1M
   CGroup: /system.slice/isstracker.service
           └─585 /usr/bin/python3 iss.py

Jun 30 07:00:00 isstracker systemd[1]: Started ISS Tracker.

5. If the service is running fine, you can enable it and reboot the Raspberry Pi to load it automatically during boot:

sudo systemctl enable isstracker.service

6. To stop the service:

sudo systemctl stop isstracker.service

License

Written by Sridhar Rajagopal for ProtoStax. BSD license, all text above must be included in any redistribution

A lot of time and effort has gone into providing this and other code. Please support ProtoStax by purchasing products from us! Also uses the Waveshare ePaper library. Please support Waveshare by purchasing products from them!