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Show HN: Public transportation departure board

21 points

by sschueller

8 days ago

| past

| 6 comments

| stationdisplay.com

| HN

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sureglymop

7 days ago

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That's really neat! And I fully get what this is for, it would actually be handy for me. Instead of having to open the SBB app I could hang this on my wall and then see when the buses I always take at the station closest to me leave.

Does it support ships, cable cars and trains that leave the country as well?

A neat additional feature could be an NFC tag next to the entries that I could tap my phone on in order to trigger a ticket purchase.

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sschueller

7 days ago

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It supports all public transportation methods. As of end of this year all public transit in Switzerland also need to provide real-time data all of which is available for free at https://opentransportdata.swiss

I had a little widget that simulated the display on the "old" website. I will need to create a new one.

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1shooner

8 days ago

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Reminds me of this project that just came up on DC's reddit:

https://github.com/TokyoExpress/metrobox/

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tomtomistaken

7 days ago

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Altogether costs: USD 15-20. Whereas the display from op costs CHF 1,449 (USD 1,700).

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rekenaut

8 days ago

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This is very cool! I love the idea of having a device dedicated to local transit as opposed to having another thing pulling me to my phone. I wish there was something similar for American cities.

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gbhdrew

8 days ago

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Maybe a Tidbyt? Looks like it works for a few US cities' transit systems. https://tidbyt.com/

I haven't used this personally, though, so can't really vouch for it yet

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andrewjf

8 days ago

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I don't like the Tidbyt v2. I hated it from the minute I unboxed it, would not recommend. The pixels are very blurry and the image is not crisp at all. The v1 was pretty good, looks more like a dot oriented board (far less resolution). more discussion: https://discuss.tidbyt.com/t/gen2-blurry-screen/6654

I replaced the tidbyts with a Dakboard, specifically a https://shop.dakboard.com/products/pixeltoptech

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sschueller

8 days ago

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Thanks. We are spoiled here in Switzerland with all the public transit data being open and available to anyone.

I may expand to more regions but at this time the device is only CE certified and for the US I would need to get FCC.

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throwaway81523

8 days ago

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Seems like it could be done as a phone app? Anyway, departure times are only part of the problem. I often want to know the arrival time of a train that has already departed, because I have to pick up a passenger who is aboard an incoming train. Or in the case of buses (nextbus.com in the US), I'm already on board bus #123 and I want to know its current location as a position on the bus route, so I can estimate how long til I reach my desired stop. This is for cases when the bus is going through an unfamiliar part of a city. The data is already on the servers, so it's annoying that the apps don't use it.

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theamk

7 days ago

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"Seems those scissors could be a knife instead? And anyway, cutting paper is only part of the problem, sometimes I want to cut steak as well. Or sometimes I want to carve something from wooden blank"

No, this could not be done as a phone app. This is a narrow-scope product with specific goal: let someone know when to depart without having to stare at the phone continuously.

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throwaway81523

7 days ago

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Nothing stops you from running the app nonstop and mounting the phone on the wall. In Android, this is called Kiosk mode. It prevents any other apps from running on the phone.

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theamk

6 days ago

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Have you seen the size of that thing? that's 48x18cm, or 20" diagonal. That's not even close to the phones.

And yes, thing thing _could_ have been implemented as a embedded large-format Android tablet with the kiosk mode app, installed in a wall-mount case. This would likely be more expensive to produce, and would look worse.

In other words yes, you can cut paper with knife.

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throwaway81523

6 days ago

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Here ya go: https://www.newegg.com/p/0JC-000D-00DU4

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busymom0

8 days ago

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This looks nice. Can you explain what the purpose of the app is though?

Also, "Indoor use only" is a very big limitation.

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sschueller

8 days ago

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The App is for configuration only. Setting up the wifi and picking which station to display as well as other options. It was the easiest for the end customer but for me a huge pain...

This version is intended for offices and indoor spaces. Outdoor would require a lot of other things which I may work on in the future.

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theamk

7 days ago

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I am curious - when I do my ESP32 projects, I often set up "start up Wifi AP when not configured that shows config page". This allows easy configuration via phone, and does not require any custom app development. The only downside is the requirement for the physical "setup" button (in case of bad wifi or something), but I don't think this would be a problem for your device?

Any reason to prefer bluetooth over local web server?

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sschueller

7 days ago

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I did this for my original project [1] but I wanted something simple for the end user. Having to explain a user to visit a specific IP on their device which may not work because of what ever routing issue is not something I wanted to have to deal with. The app does add a dependacy but all Bluetooth characteristics are public and documented [2] so you can use any Bluetooth app to configure the device.

[1] https://sschueller.github.io/posts/vbz-fahrgastinformation/

[2] https://github.com/TechdroidInc/stationdisplay/blob/main/BLE...

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v9v

8 days ago

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If this is only for Switzerland, why the English website?

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sschueller

8 days ago

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Since Switzerland has 4 national languages and I don't speak French or Italian very well I decided to use English as the alternate language for now. Although not one of the four national languages, many do read and speak it.