Train Time Ticker Will Save Your Morning Commute

The fatal combination of not being a early riser and commuting to work using public transit can easily result in missed buses or trains. Frustrated with missing train after train while fumbling with a complicated transit schedule app, [Fergal Carroll] created a Train Time Ticker to help his morning routine run right on time.

A Particle Photon hooked up to a 2.2″ TFT screen — both mounted on a breadboard with a button — fit the purpose tidily. Weekday mornings, the Ticker pulls — from a server he set up — the departure times for the specific station and platform along [Carroll]’s commute every three minutes; at all other times, the Ticker can be manually refreshed for any impending trips.

[Carroll] has provided a clear, step-by-step guide on how to wire and program your own device — subbing in transit information relevant to you, of course. Over a month of use, it has resulted in far fewer missed trains, and has probably saved some headaches in the mornings to boot!

We’ve featured some other fancy ticker projects on Hackaday — this one will keep you abreast of the latest bitcoin fluctuations, while another is a spiffy way to print off your emails.

13 thoughts on “Train Time Ticker Will Save Your Morning Commute

      1. Dumb it down for me a bit Tom. This guy, in Ireland, where we spend Euros, makes something out of general purpose stuff he has lying about and get it to do exactly what he wants, and you start quoting dollar prices (AUS? CAN? US? no idea really) for parts he already has but not the price of the smartphone you seem to be implying he should have bought.

        Tom, I cannot follow the high level, first class, grade A, Real-Hackers-Use heavyweight logic you’re laying down here. Could ya dumb it dumb it down for us highly fallible plebs who one day aspire to be like the great Tom Sandwich?

  1. A friend of mine made a far more useful and stylish version. Firstly, if you know how long it takes you to walk to the bus stop you can add some intelligence to it. Green for “have a coffee”. Yellow for “get your coat on”. Red for “run (or have another coffee because you’re going to miss it)”. He also stuck it all inside a toy London bus.

    1. It was my first ever maker project so I didn’t do anything special for the casing.I just wanted something that worked. The frame look awesome! After seeing it, I’ll definitely have a think about something better to house it in!

    2. That looks awesome Garth! This was my first maker project, so I just concentrated on making something that works. I’ll definitely be thinking about ways to house it after seeing your frame

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