Bus Matrix

bus routes
Welcome Screen
Navbar view

Inspiration

The concept materialized a few days ago when we encountered two 32 x 32 LED matrices in a student area. This discovery inspired us to embark on a project utilizing this hardware. Our desire to explore hardware was another driving force behind our decision to pursue this project. As we pondered potential project ideas, we became increasingly frustrated with the user experience of certain commonly used apps like "Passio Go" for checking bus schedules. While these apps are convenient on smartphones, we aimed to streamline the process further by creating a real-time light board that dynamically updates based on bus locations.

What it does

By using an active bus data api of Rutgers buses, we are able to get real time data of where a bus is, where it is going and the approximate time of its arrival. The data would then be passed into an interface, that'd display the busses coming, and an ETA.

How we built it

We used Python Flask to get the JSON data from the store.transit API.

Challenges we ran into

We encountered various hurdles throughout the project. Initially, we had trouble parsing the data retrieved from the API. Subsequently, establishing internet connectivity for the Raspberry Pi posed a significant bottleneck. Additionally, maintaining a stable SSH connection proved troublesome. Furthermore, the LED matrix we intended to utilize didn't function correctly, leading to a bottleneck in the overall process. Consequently, we pivoted to developing a web application.