Prayer Times Display using Raspberry Pi

Posted on November 8, 2015 by samirsogay

In the previous post, I showed how to make a Raspberry Pi powered Prayer times display using PiTFT. In this post I will show how to make a Raspberry Pi powered Prayer times display using a TV or a monitor as not everyone has PiTFT display.

This project is based on article by Jamie Jackson “Raspberry Pi PiTFT Weather Station” and “Turn your Raspberry Pi into an Azaan/Prayer clock”. You can refer to those for more information. I am just an integrator who puts works of other people together according to my requirement.

Disclaimer: Since the Islamic date and prayer times are based upon calculations, it is very well possible that it may differ from the actual date based on moon sighting. Also, the prayer time can vary from the actual prayer time of the location.

Prerequisites

Raspberry Pi with Raspbian image
TV or monitor
Working Internet connection (for Internet Weather)

Procedure

We will begin by creating a folder in the Raspberry Pi Home directory.

mkdir prayerwall

cd prayerwall

We will go to this directory and download all necessary files.

Prior to that we must install the necessary packages. The first package is the pywapi. This package allows us to fetch weather information from sites like Yahoo weather, weather.com, etc and in an easily parse able form such that we can extract daily weather, weekly weather, temperature, pressure, humidity, etc.

wget https://launchpad.net/python-weather-api/trunk/0.3.8/+download/pywapi-0.3.8.tar.gz

we will extract and install this package.

tar -xzvf pywapi-0.3.8.tar.gz
cd pywapi-0.3.8/
python setup.py build
sudo python setup.py install

Now we need to install the module which converts Gregorian to Islamic date. The installer for the converter module “umalqurra” requires pip, so we will have to install it first.

sudo apt-get install python-pip

Now install the converter module

sudo pip install umalqurra

Files

There are several files required for the display to work.

praytimes.py : This is the file which will calculate the prayer times for us depending upon the location we live in.
prayerwalltv.py : This is the python code which combines the prayer times code, the weather code and Islamic date code.
Weather Logos: Every weather condition has an icon code at weather.com. According to these codes, the display will show an image of the weather condition.

Settings

There are several settings we need to do as weather and prayer times are location specific. Also, people at different locations follow different prayer time calculation method.

The only file that will need to be edited is prayerwalltv.py

sudo nano prayerwalltv.py

In here we have to set the Latitude and Longitude of our location. You should be able to get this if you open http://www.wikimapia.org and take your location at the cross-hair and the Latitude and Longitude will be seen at the lower left corner.

lat = 9.327531
long = 8.086139

You need to get your location code from weather.com so that you can get customized weather for your location. Go to weather.com which should show your location. Click on the location and you should see your code in the webpage URL. It should be 2 characters of country code followed by XX and another 4 numbers.

weatherDotComLocationCode = ‘KUXX1087’

We need to set the Prayer times calculation method. To know more about the calculation methods, go to http://praytimes.org/calculation

My location calculation method is Makkah so I have set it as

PT = PrayTimes(‘Makkah’)

The other options are MWL, ISNA, Egypt, Karachi, Tehran and Jafari.

You can set the display to update at defined intervals. At these intervals, the Pi will fetch weather data and refresh the screen.

updateRate = 600 will give you update interval of 10 minutes

If you would like to alter the position of any text in the display, you can use the following parameters

textAnchorX =
textAnchorY =
textYoffset =

The Origin (0,0) for the display is top left, so give the X Y coordinates accordingly.

Do CTRL-X to save the file with a yes

You can check weather it is displaying properly by executing

sudo python prayerwalltv.py

Once you confirm that it is displaying properly, you can start the script at boot time

Edit the rc.local file and add the below line before exit 0

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

sudo python /home/pi/prayerwall/prayerwalltv.py &

After this, your TV will display the Prayer Times on boot.

35 thoughts on “Prayer Times Display using Raspberry Pi”

Nabil on March 18, 2017 at 5:57 pm said:

Salam aleyka,

thank you for this tuto
Unfortunatly the files are not available anymore, could you update all of them, unless prayerwalltv.py
barakallahoufik

Reply ↓
- samirsogay on March 19, 2017 at 6:16 am said:
  
  Wa Alaikum Assalam
  I have updated the links. Please check.
  
  Reply ↓
Mehdi.Mgm on August 12, 2017 at 8:16 pm said:

Hello.
Thank you for this tuto
I tried it thoroughly but it didnt work,
After sudo python prayerwalltv.py nothing happens.

Reply ↓
- samirsogay on August 13, 2017 at 6:08 am said:
  
  Does it throw any errors?
  
  Reply ↓
Reza Hashemi on October 8, 2017 at 3:05 pm said:

Hello Samir,

i have an error :

File “prayerwalltv.py”, line 255
currPress = weather_com_result[‘current_conditions’][‘barometer’][‘reading’][:-3] + “mb”
^
IndentationError: unexpected indent

Reply ↓
- samirsogay on October 9, 2017 at 6:18 am said:
  
  Hi,
  
  The entire statement (till mb) should be in one line.
  
  Reply ↓
Faturohman on January 2, 2018 at 5:04 am said:

Hi,
i have error
File “prayerwalltv.py”, line 34
print “I’m running under X” display = {0}.format(disp_no)
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Reply ↓
- samirsogay on January 2, 2018 at 8:30 am said:
  
  It seems you have changed the location of the double quotes. Refer to the python file
  
  Reply ↓
  - Lukman Ws on February 19, 2018 at 8:11 am said:
    
    ive this error too by the way.
    and then
    i’ve error with prayerwalltv.py, it’s show :
    + weather_com_result[‘forecasts’][0][‘date’][:3]
    KeyError: ‘forecasts’
  - samirsogay on February 19, 2018 at 8:15 am said:
    
    Can you paste the snippet of code?
  - Lukman Ws on February 19, 2018 at 8:17 am said:
    
    which code?
  - Lukman Ws on February 19, 2018 at 8:23 am said:
    
    actually im not change anything.
  - samirsogay on February 19, 2018 at 8:30 am said:
    
    prayerwalltv.py?
  - samirsogay on February 19, 2018 at 8:46 am said:
    
    You are supposed to change few things as per the post to customize it according to your location.
  - Lukman Ws on February 19, 2018 at 8:42 am said:
    
    yes. prayerwalltv.py
  - Lukman Ws on February 19, 2018 at 9:22 am said:
    
    File “/home/pi/prayerwall/pywapi-0.3.8/prayerwalltv.py”, line 34
    print “I’m running under X display = {0}”.format(disp_no)
    ^
    SyntaxError: invalid syntax
Lukman Ws on February 19, 2018 at 7:53 am said:

i’ve error with prayerwalltv.py, it’s show :
+ weather_com_result[‘forecasts’][0][‘date’][:3]
KeyError: ‘forecasts’

Reply ↓
- samirsogay on February 19, 2018 at 8:02 am said:
  
  Python is very specific about spaces and lines. Compare what I have in my file with yours and don’t make major changes. Whatever I have in one line, you also use one line rather than going to second line.
  
  Reply ↓
  - Lukman Ws on February 19, 2018 at 8:17 am said:
    
    which code?
Lukman Ws on February 19, 2018 at 9:49 am said:

it works,but when i restart my raspberry it show : “Driver : Fbcon failed”

Reply ↓
kimy on October 22, 2018 at 5:52 pm said:

Assalamualaikum Sir,

i got the same error sir.

File “/home/pi/prayerwall/pywapi-0.3.8/prayerwalltv.py”, line 34
print “I’m running under X display = {0}”.format(disp_no)
^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

i not change anything…
can u help me sir.

Reply ↓
- samirsogay on October 23, 2018 at 5:48 am said:
  
  Generally this error comes due to indentation mismatch in python as python is very specific about alignment, tabs and spaces. Can you re download the file as I have changed indentation.
  
  Reply ↓
  - kimy on October 30, 2018 at 7:42 pm said:
    
    yes sir. i have download the file prayerwall.py…. after i run,the error appear.
  - samirsogay on October 30, 2018 at 6:19 pm said:
    
    Did you download the file again and then it gave error?
  - samirsogay on October 31, 2018 at 6:45 am said:
    
    Go into Python IDLE, open up the file and press Ctrl+A to select all the text. Then go to Format > Untabify Region and click ‘OK’ to the dialogue box.
  - kimy on November 7, 2018 at 4:50 am said:
    
    #!/usr/bin/python
    # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
    
    import pywapi
    import pprint
    import pygame
    import string
    import os
    import time
    import datetime
    from praytimes import PrayTimes
    # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
    
    installPath = “/home/pi/prayerwall/”
    
    # convert mph = kpd / kphToMph
    kphToMph = 1.60934400061
    
    from umalqurra.hijri_date import HijriDate
    #Get Prayer Times
    #——————–
    lat = 3.1390
    long = 101.6869
    
    class pitft :
    screen = None;
    colourBlack = (0, 0, 0)
    
    def __init__(self):
    “Ininitializes a new pygame screen using the framebuffer”
    # Based on “Python GUI in Linux frame buffer” http://www.karoltomala.com/blog/?p=679
    disp_no = os.getenv(“DISPLAY”)
    if disp_no:
    print “I’m running under X display = {0}”.format(disp_no)
    os.putenv(‘SDL_FBDEV’, ‘/dev/fb0’)
    
    # Select frame buffer driver Make sure that SDL_VIDEODRIVER is set
    driver = ‘fbcon’
    if not os.getenv(‘SDL_VIDEODRIVER’):
    os.putenv(‘SDL_VIDEODRIVER’, driver)
    try:
    pygame.display.init()
    except pygame.error:
    print ‘Driver: {0} failed.’.format(driver)
    exit(0)
    
    size = (pygame.display.Info().current_w, pygame.display.Info().current_h)
    self.screen = pygame.display.set_mode(size, pygame.FULLSCREEN)
    # Clear the screen to start
    self.screen.fill((0, 0, 0))
    # Initialise font support
    pygame.font.init()
    # Render the screen
    pygame.display.update()
    def __del__(self):
    “Destructor to make sure pygame shuts down, etc.”
    
    # Create an instance of the PyScope class
    mytft = pitft()
    pygame.mouse.set_visible(False)
    # set up the fonts choose the font
    fontpath = pygame.font.match_font(‘arial’)
    # set up 2 sizes
    font = pygame.font.Font(fontpath, 20)
    fontSm = pygame.font.Font(fontpath, 18)
    fontLg = pygame.font.Font(fontpath, 60)
    fontCn = pygame.font.Font(fontpath, 100)
    fontMd = pygame.font.Font(fontpath, 42)
    #fontLg.set_bold(True)
    colourWhite = (255, 255, 255)
    colourBlack = (0, 0, 0)
    colourYellow = (255, 255, 0)
    colourRed = (255, 0, 0)
    colourBlue = (0, 0, 255)
    colourGreen = (0, 255, 0)
    
    # update interval
    updateRate = 600 # seconds
    
    weatherDotComLocationCode = ‘KUXX1118’
    # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
    
    while True:
    weather_com_result = pywapi.get_weather_from_weather_com(weatherDotComLocationCode)
    
    today = weather_com_result[‘forecasts’][0][‘day_of_week’][0:3] + ” ” \
    + weather_com_result[‘forecasts’][0][‘date’][4:] + ” ” \
    + weather_com_result[‘forecasts’][0][‘date’][:3]
    windSpeed = int(weather_com_result[‘current_conditions’][‘wind’][‘speed’]) / kphToMph
    
    currWind = “{:.0f}mph “.format(windSpeed) + weather_com_result[‘current_conditions’][‘wind’][‘text’]
    currTemp = weather_com_result[‘current_conditions’][‘temperature’] + u’\N{DEGREE SIGN}’ + “C”
    currPress = weather_com_result[‘current_conditions’][‘barometer’][‘reading’][:-3] + “mb”
    uv = “UV {}”.format(weather_com_result[‘current_conditions’][‘uv’][‘text’])
    humid = “Hum {}%”.format(weather_com_result[‘current_conditions’][‘humidity’])
    
    # extract forecast data
    forecastDays = {}
    forecaseHighs = {}
    forecaseLows = {}
    forecastPrecips = {}
    forecastWinds = {}
    
    start = 0
    try:
    test = float(weather_com_result[‘forecasts’][0][‘day’][‘wind’][‘speed’])
    except ValueError:
    start = 1
    
    for i in range(start, 5):
    
    if not(weather_com_result[‘forecasts’][i]):
    break
    forecastDays[i] = weather_com_result[‘forecasts’][i][‘day_of_week’][0:3]
    forecaseHighs[i] = weather_com_result[‘forecasts’][i][‘high’] + u’\N{DEGREE SIGN}’ + “C”
    forecaseLows[i] = weather_com_result[‘forecasts’][i][‘low’] + u’\N{DEGREE SIGN}’ + “C”
    forecastPrecips[i] = weather_com_result[‘forecasts’][i][‘day’][‘chance_precip’] + “%”
    forecastWinds[i] = “{:.0f}”.format(int(weather_com_result[‘forecasts’][i][‘day’][‘wind’][‘speed’]) / kphToMph) + \
    weather_com_result[‘forecasts’][i][‘day’][‘wind’][‘text’]
    
    now = datetime.datetime.now()
    um = HijriDate(now.year,now.month,now.day,gr=True)
    
    Islamicdate=str(int(um.day))
    Islamicmonth=str(int(um.month))
    Islamicyear=str(int(um.year))
    
    PT = PrayTimes(‘Makkah’)
    times = PT.getTimes((now.year,now.month,now.day), (lat, long), 3,0)
    try:
    currTemp = weather_com_result[‘current_conditions’][‘temperature’] + u’\N{DEGREE SIGN}’ + “C”
    except KeyError:
    print(“Maybe net down”)
    
    try:
    humid = “{}%”.format(weather_com_result[‘current_conditions’][‘humidity’])
    except KeyError:
    print(“Maybe net down”)
    
    # blank the screen
    mytft.screen.fill(colourBlack)
    
    # Render the weather logo at 0,0
    icon = installPath+ (weather_com_result[‘current_conditions’][‘icon’]) + “.png”
    logo = pygame.image.load(icon).convert()
    mytft.screen.blit(logo, (0, 0))
    
    # set the anchor for the current weather data text
    textAnchorX = 156
    textAnchorY = 5
    textYoffset = 64
    
    # add current weather data text artifacts to the screen
    text_surface = fontLg.render(today, True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontLg.render(currTemp, True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontLg.render(currWind, True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontLg.render(currPress, True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontLg.render(uv, True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontLg.render(humid, True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    
    # set X axis text anchor for the forecast text
    textAnchorX = 10
    textXoffset = 150
    
    # add each days forecast text
    for i in forecastDays:
    textAnchorY = 450
    text_surface = fontMd.render(forecastDays[int(i)], True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontMd.render(forecaseHighs[int(i)], True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontMd.render(forecaseLows[int(i)], True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontMd.render(forecastPrecips[int(i)], True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontMd.render(forecastWinds[int(i)], True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorX+=textXoffset
    
    # set the anchor for the current Islamic date text
    textAnchorX = 612
    textAnchorY = 5
    
    # add current Islamicdate text artifacts to the screen
    text_surface = fontLg.render(Islamicdate+”.”+Islamicmonth+”.”+Islamicyear+”H”, True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    
    # set the anchor for the current Prayer time text
    textAnchorX = 868
    textAnchorY = 128
    textYoffset = 128
    
    # add current Prayer data text artifacts to the screen
    text_surface = fontLg.render(times[‘fajr’], True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontLg.render(times[‘dhuhr’], True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontLg.render(times[‘asr’], True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontLg.render(times[‘maghrib’], True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontLg.render(times[‘isha’], True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    
    # set the anchor for the current Prayer time text
    textAnchorX = 612
    textAnchorY = 128
    textYoffset = 128
    
    # add current Prayer data text artifacts to the screen
    text_surface = fontLg.render(“Fajr”, True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontLg.render(“Dhuhr”, True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontLg.render(“Asr”, True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontLg.render(“Maghrib”, True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    textAnchorY+=textYoffset
    text_surface = fontLg.render(“Isha”, True, colourWhite)
    mytft.screen.blit(text_surface, (textAnchorX, textAnchorY))
    
    pygame.display.update()
    
    # Wait
    time.sleep(updateRate)
    
    ————————————————————————————–
    Sir, this is the code that has an error… i just change the location…
  - samirsogay on November 7, 2018 at 7:52 am said:
    
    Can you just remove the line which is giving the error (the line which has print command) and see if it makes a difference.
rosman72 on January 18, 2019 at 3:28 pm said:

do i need to input time zone, its seen the time is off

Reply ↓
- samirsogay on January 23, 2019 at 3:39 am said:
  
  There is no need for time zone. The time has to be correct in Raspberry Pi system time.
  
  Reply ↓
nadjatamel on March 2, 2019 at 10:51 am said:

Salam Alyakom Bro,

Can I get a pray reminder for kodi xbmc software ?

Reply ↓
- samirsogay on March 3, 2019 at 6:46 am said:
  
  Sorry, I don’t have that expertise.
  
  Reply ↓
Rashid on July 20, 2020 at 7:28 pm said:

Assalamualaikum, I can’t find the prayerwalltv.py file in the pywapi-0.3.8 folder. Do you have this file in the package? These are the only files I can see: build CHANGELOG examples LICENSE MANIFEST pywapi.py pywapi.pyc README setup.py

Reply ↓
- samirsogay on July 21, 2020 at 8:31 am said:
  
  Wa Alaikum Assalam. These files are not part of pywapi which is the weather api. If you scroll through the post, necessary files are linked. Also, since the weather API has stopped working, you may have to remove the references for weather in the code.
  
  Reply ↓
Sat on August 2, 2020 at 6:17 am said:

Assalamualaikum brother.

What do you think would change if i want to use a led matrix like this 1 instead? https://www.adafruit.com/product/2345

Wassalamualaikum…

Reply ↓
- samirsogay on August 4, 2020 at 8:17 am said:
  
  Wa Alaikum Assalam,
  My code displays text on secondary display via mytft.screen.blit. You can replace this with whatever code is relevant with displaying text on RGB Matrix.
  
  Reply ↓