If you solemnly swear that you are up to no good, and you happen to spend most of your time in Manhattan below the mid-90s, then you will appreciate this Raspberry Pi-based Manhattan Marauder’s Map.
Not that a Harry Potter-themed map was necessarily [GawkyFuse]’s intention when creating this interesting build; it’s just that the old-time print of Manhattan — it shows Welfare Island in the East River, which was renamed Roosevelt Island in 1971 — lends a nice vintage feel to the build. Printed on plain paper, the map overlays a 64×32-LED matrix, which is driven by a matrix HAT riding atop the Pi 3.
[GawkyFuse] uses the OwnTracks app on his and his wife’s iPhone to report their locations back to CloudMQTT. The Pi subscribes to the broker and updates his location in red and her location in blue as they move about the city; a romantic touch is showing a single purple dot when they’re together. There’s no word on what’s displayed when either leaves the map area, but the 2048-pixel display offers a lot of possibilities.
We’ve seen a Weasley clock or two around these parts before, but strangely no Marauder’s Maps like this one. Although this Austrian tram-tracking map comes pretty close to [GawkyFuse]’s nice design.
[via r/raspberry_pi]
Romantic? Creepy?
You decide.
Romantic. Action completed as requested.
Romantic? Creepy? Entirely unsurprising result of additive color mixing?
You decide.
Depends on if it was found to be romantic.
What does Harry Potter have to do with an old map of NYC? And how does an old map of NYC imply you’re searching for things to loot/steal (maraud)? On top of those questions… I don’t get how the purple dot is even interesting, unless you have children at home wondering where their parents are. Who will be there to see if, if the two people being tracked aren’t home?
But pis! And LEDs!
I never thought I’d say this…but
Not a hack
I cannot help myself, but it seems like 1024 multiplied the number of leds you actually need.
Ok when you don’t want cartesian actuated system, you can deflect a laser maybe?
It just seems like a overkill if you really want only two people location displayed – it’s modular I know. I know once you buy the LEDs and build it it’s simplier to control, but still..
Even if I cannot find a way to make it more simple and cheaper without that many leds, possibly with better location resolution? Maybe you have an idea? I do not wanna LCD display.