On Sat, 18 Jul 2020 01:09:02 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
I recently spotted Geoff Marshall's unboxing of this live animated LED Tube
map, which shows all LU train movements in real time. Trains on 12 lines
are represented with 333 appropriately coloured station LEDs, but how do
you represent Northern Line trains? Yup, in white.

Just the thing for a Tube nerd with £249 to spare! An ideal present for
someone who grew up in London but now lives in exile.

https://www.traintrackr.co.uk/product/tfl2

Looks to me like it only shows trains in stations, not all trains on the line.

I'd be interested in knowing where it gets its info from. Is it a public
API anyone can connect to or is it paid subscription included in the price
of the board that will eventually run out.

wrote:
On Sat, 18 Jul 2020 01:09:02 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
I recently spotted Geoff Marshall's unboxing of this live animated LED Tube
map, which shows all LU train movements in real time. Trains on 12 lines
are represented with 333 appropriately coloured station LEDs, but how do
you represent Northern Line trains? Yup, in white.

Just the thing for a Tube nerd with £249 to spare! An ideal present for
someone who grew up in London but now lives in exile.

https://www.traintrackr.co.uk/product/tfl2

Looks to me like it only shows trains in stations, not all trains on the line.

I'd be interested in knowing where it gets its info from. Is it a public
API anyone can connect to or is it paid subscription included in the price
of the board that will eventually run out.

The TfL API is public, and other apps use it. But I get the impression here
that the API is accessed from a program running on the company's server,
with the boards communicating with that. This has the advantage of being
able to handle changes to the API, but obviously depends on the company
continuing to run its server, and updating its software as required.

On Mon, 20 Jul 2020 10:01:11 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
wrote:
On Sat, 18 Jul 2020 01:09:02 -0000 (UTC)
API anyone can connect to or is it paid subscription included in the price
of the board that will eventually run out.

The TfL API is public, and other apps use it. But I get the impression here
that the API is accessed from a program running on the company's server,
with the boards communicating with that. This has the advantage of being
able to handle changes to the API, but obviously depends on the company
continuing to run its server, and updating its software as required.

Indeed. I've had that issue myself when I discovered the hard way that
the network streamer I own has to phone home first before it'll do anything
and last month the manufacturers server went down for a day and I had a
very expensive brick with an error message on its screen. I wonder how
long it'll be before I have to pay a subscription to keep it running.

Recliner wrote:
The TfL API is public, and other apps use it. But I get the impression here
that the API is accessed from a program running on the company's server,
with the boards communicating with that. This has the advantage of being
able to handle changes to the API, but obviously depends on the company
continuing to run its server, and updating its software as required.

They are using an ESP8266, which is a small, relatively
underpowered WiFi microcontroller. They say it's talking to the company
server rather than handling the full API.

There are open about that, and describe how to reflash the microcontroller
with alternative firmware if you so desire. There are other popular ESP8266
firmwares out there and it probably wouldn't take a lot to adapt to
refashion to an alternative server if the first one became unavailable.

Theo

wrote:

I'd be interested in knowing where it gets its info from. Is it a public
API anyone can connect to or is it paid subscription included in the price
of the board that will eventually run out.

Looks like TfL make the data available under certain conditions.

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/open-dat...on-this-page-2

There also appears to be third party access

https://www.programmableweb.com/api/london-tube

On Mon, 20 Jul 2020 08:27:43 -0500
Arthur Conan Doyle wrote:
wrote:

I'd be interested in knowing where it gets its info from. Is it a public
API anyone can connect to or is it paid subscription included in the price
of the board that will eventually run out.

Looks like TfL make the data available under certain conditions.

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/open-dat...on-this-page-2

Looks interesting. Might have a play around when I get some free time.

There also appears to be third party access

https://www.programmableweb.com/api/london-tube

The trouble with 3rd party stuff is eventually the dev gets bored and moves
on to something else so unless someone else picks it up thats it.

On 20/07/2020 08:48, wrote:
On Sat, 18 Jul 2020 01:09:02 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
I recently spotted Geoff Marshall's unboxing of this live animated LED Tube
map, which shows all LU train movements in real time. Trains on 12 lines
are represented with 333 appropriately coloured station LEDs, but how do
you represent Northern Line trains? Yup, in white.

Just the thing for a Tube nerd with £249 to spare! An ideal present for
someone who grew up in London but now lives in exile.

https://www.traintrackr.co.uk/product/tfl2

Looks to me like it only shows trains in stations, not all trains on the line.

I'd be interested in knowing where it gets its info from. Is it a public
API anyone can connect to or is it paid subscription included in the price
of the board that will eventually run out.


https://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/?

--
Graeme Wall
This account not read.

Graeme Wall wrote:
On 20/07/2020 08:48, wrote:
On Sat, 18 Jul 2020 01:09:02 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
I recently spotted Geoff Marshall's unboxing of this live animated LED Tube
map, which shows all LU train movements in real time. Trains on 12 lines
are represented with 333 appropriately coloured station LEDs, but how do
you represent Northern Line trains? Yup, in white.

Just the thing for a Tube nerd with £249 to spare! An ideal present for
someone who grew up in London but now lives in exile.

https://www.traintrackr.co.uk/product/tfl2

Looks to me like it only shows trains in stations, not all trains on the line.

I'd be interested in knowing where it gets its info from. Is it a public
API anyone can connect to or is it paid subscription included in the price
of the board that will eventually run out.


https://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/?


Is that for real? Many trains seem to be running cross country, running in
close formation, suddenly reversing half-way along a route, and generally
running too fast.

On Mon, 20 Jul 2020 20:11:15 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
Graeme Wall wrote:
On 20/07/2020 08:48, wrote:
On Sat, 18 Jul 2020 01:09:02 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
I recently spotted Geoff Marshall's unboxing of this live animated LED Tube

map, which shows all LU train movements in real time. Trains on 12 lines
are represented with 333 appropriately coloured station LEDs, but how do
you represent Northern Line trains? Yup, in white.

Just the thing for a Tube nerd with £249 to spare! An ideal present for

someone who grew up in London but now lives in exile.

https://www.traintrackr.co.uk/product/tfl2

Looks to me like it only shows trains in stations, not all trains on the
line.

I'd be interested in knowing where it gets its info from. Is it a public
API anyone can connect to or is it paid subscription included in the price
of the board that will eventually run out.


https://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/?


Is that for real? Many trains seem to be running cross country, running in
close formation, suddenly reversing half-way along a route, and generally
running too fast.

I doubt the API updates nearly that quickly so I suspect there's a lot of
extrapolation going on.

wrote:
On Mon, 20 Jul 2020 20:11:15 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
Graeme Wall wrote:
On 20/07/2020 08:48, wrote:
On Sat, 18 Jul 2020 01:09:02 -0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
I recently spotted Geoff Marshall's unboxing of this live animated LED Tube

map, which shows all LU train movements in real time. Trains on 12 lines
are represented with 333 appropriately coloured station LEDs, but how do
you represent Northern Line trains? Yup, in white.

Just the thing for a Tube nerd with £249 to spare! An ideal present for

someone who grew up in London but now lives in exile.

https://www.traintrackr.co.uk/product/tfl2

Looks to me like it only shows trains in stations, not all trains on the
line.

I'd be interested in knowing where it gets its info from. Is it a public
API anyone can connect to or is it paid subscription included in the price
of the board that will eventually run out.


https://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/?


Is that for real? Many trains seem to be running cross country, running in
close formation, suddenly reversing half-way along a route, and generally
running too fast.

I doubt the API updates nearly that quickly so I suspect there's a lot of
extrapolation going on.



I've just looked at it now, and it seems to be behaving more sensibly. I
don't know if they're correct and up-to-date, but the train movements are
plausible. There must have been a glitch yesterday, when they looked more
like a swarm of bees.