Customize Your Board

Change your board's display and firmware

Prerequisite Tools and Software

1. Download the Arduino IDE
2. Download the dctransistor code
3. Download and install the USB-to-Serial Driver
4. Download required support software and libraries
   1. Add ESP8266 Board to Arduino
   2. Add the ArduinoJson, WiFiManager, and Adafruit_NeoPixel libraries to Arduino
   3. Change the target board (under Tools > Board) to “NodeMCU 1.0 (ESP-12E Module)”
5. Register for a WMATA API Key
6. Modify the DCTransistor/config.h file with your changes and WMATA API key
7. Plug in the board to your computer and upload the dctransistor sketch
   1. Make sure you have selected the NodeMCU 1.0 board, a 9600 baud rate, and the correct COM port for the board in Arduino’s Tools menu.

Customize Your Board

The board is powered by an ESP-12F chip (ESP8266 platform) and WS2812B LEDs that function with the Arduino NeoPixel library. Using some of the code on GitHub, you can upload your own code that makes the board behave however you want. Details on the code’s functionality is described as comments in the source code.

There are also simpler customizations you can make to the DCTransistor display. The configuration file (config.h) sets a number of configuration values, such as the brightness of the LEDs and the exact color used to represent each line. When customizing the board’s configuration values, pay attention to the values that are mostly aesthetic and the ones that may break the board’s functionality.