-->September 6th, 2025<--
Thank you to GolfCharlie and Claude Code for fixing the code to work with the newly changed FAA API! They have saved a lot of time. A new image has been created and will be uploaded today and available later tonight. If you don't want or need the image, you can visit https://github.com/markyharris/livesectional and incorporate the changes into your board now.
--->September 5th, 2025<--
There has been another change to the FAA API which has again broke the map. We are currently working on this. Check back for fix. If you have the fix please post it. - Mark
So, I have been messing around with this for quite a while now and I can not get it to work. Currently I have it set up on a bread board with just the level shifter wired exactly how the how it shows on the site. The LED strand will only blink and each LED changes between blue, red, green and pink constantly. Currently it is on a RPI zero 2W. I have tried a zero w, 3B and 4B all with freshly flashed cards. I have changed the level shifter. I have even purchased another string of lights. As far as the settings go I have everything switched off, no transition, no blink for lightning, high winds, etc. I have it as basic as I can get it but I can't get it to function correctly and I am sure there is something I am just overlooking. If I turn the map off and try to select all on, all off, individual LED's I only get a spinning wheel on my browser. If I select the LED test script they cycle through all the colors. Currently at my selected airports the weather is VFR with one not reporting and one LIFR yet the LED's are still randomly cycling through green, blue, red and pink. What am I missing?
Hi, I'm sorry for the hassles. I will do my best to help.
Based on the description of the issue, it sounds like the ground for the LEDs and Rpi are at different ground planes. This is very easy to do, especially on a breadboard.
The quick answer is to connect the 3 ground wires together, the LEDs, Rpi and Power supply directly together. In fact if you want to be sure, solder them together. The ground for the level converter should also be included here too, so 4 wires total.
Ideally, putting the 4 wires into a shared row on a breadboard should work fine, but many times it doesn't.
Give this a shot, then bounce back with the results. - Mark
@markyharris I had all of the grounds in a row just like the positives but on the opposite side of level shifter. Now I have all of the grounds in the screw terminal on the female connector and it’s doing the same thing. Oddly one of the “flashes” displays what looks like the correct colors. All of my selected airports are VFR and MVFR right now and it does a mostly green and some blue flash.
Interesting. I'll have to look at it more carefully, but I'm out of country, so it will be a while. I'm glad it's working though. - Mark
