Raspberry Pi and Official NFL Score Board API

  • 18/9/2016
  • 2-minute read

Now that I’ve got my hands on a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Motherboard , I decided nows a good time to play around with the 16x2 LCD Module Controller HD44780 I had laying around (I’ve had this thing since December 2015).

A live NFL (National Football League) score board seemed fitting as the season just started.

I found a really good write up on raspberrypi-spy.co.uk about wiring up the controller and Pi, here is the diagram I used:

raspberry_pi_circuit

The code to power this controller is simple Python (pushed to Github ):

#!/usr/bin/env python

import time

import Adafruit_CharLCD as LCD
import requests

# Raspberry Pi pin configuration:
lcd_rs = 7
lcd_en = 8
lcd_d4 = 25
lcd_d5 = 24
lcd_d6 = 23
lcd_d7 = 18

# Define LCD column and row size for 16x2 LCD.
lcd_columns = 16
lcd_rows = 2

# Initialize the LCD using the pins above.
lcd = LCD.Adafruit_CharLCD(
  lcd_rs, lcd_en, lcd_d4, lcd_d5, lcd_d6, lcd_d7,
  lcd_columns, lcd_rows
)

# Start fetch / display loop
while True:

  # fetch current score from NFL api
  res = requests.get('http://www.nfl.com/liveupdate/scorestrip/ss.json')

  if res:

    for game in res.json().get('gms', []):

      # parse our teams and scores
      home_team = '%s %s' % (game['h'], game['hnn'])
      home_team = home_team[:13]
      home_team_score = game['hs']

      away_team = '%s %s' % (game['v'], game['vnn'])
      away_team = away_team[:13]
      away_team_score = game['vs']

      # clear lcd screen
      lcd.clear()

      # write results to lcd screen
      lcd.message('%s %s\n%s %s' % (
          home_team, home_team_score, away_team, away_team_score
        )
      )

      time.sleep(5)
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