btc-ticker

bitcoin-ticker is a E-ink ticker that shows usefull information about bitcoin. Due to the limited refresh lifetime, new information is currently shown every 5 minutes and whenever a new block arrives.
The github can be found here: https://github.com/btc-ticker/btc-ticker

view6
view1

Hardware

I'm currently working on a 7.5 inch version with the following e-Paper:

The config.ini needs the following settings when using the 7.5 inch:

epd_type = 7in5_V2
orientation = 270

Usage

Ticker view

The Tickers the following information:

  • Block height, Mean block intervall in minutes, Time
  • Minimal Block fee for the first 7 blocks in mempool
  • Dollar price of a bitcoin
  • Satoshi per Dollar (also know as moskow time)
  • Sotoshi per Euro
  • Euro price of a bitcoin

Whenever a new block has arrived on the blockchain, the following information is shown for 120 seconds (can be disabled in the config.ini):

  • Euro price of a bitcoin, mean block intervall in minutes, Time
  • Minimal Block fee for the first 7 blocks in mempool
  • Blocks in mempook, Number of transaction in mempool
  • Blocks until next difficulty retargeting, est. difficulty multiplier, est. retarget time
  • Block height

Due to the limited lifetime of 1000000 refreshes and an expected lifetime of 5 years, the refresh period has been set to 216 seconds.

Buttons

There are four buttons which the following behaviour (Please be patient after pressing, the e-ink is quite slow):

  1. Switch through different ticker views
  2. Switch BTC/fiat graph through 1, 7 and 30 days
  3. Switch the layout of the ticker
  4. Switch inverted mode

Switching to ro-mode

Per default, the file system is mounted writable. When there is a empty ro file in /boot, the filesystem will remounted readonly.

sudo touch /boot/ro

enables the readonly remount. The file can also be created with a PC, similar to the ssh file.

Switching between ro and rw mode

After logging in with ssh,

rw

remounts the file system with write support.

ro

switches back to readonly.

Config.ini

It possible to personalize the ticker to your needs. After logging into your raspi with SSH, the config can be edited with

rw
nano config.ini
ro

After writing the change to the ini file, a restart of the btc-ticker service is needed:

sudo systemctl restart btcticker

Update btc-ticker without reflashing the sdcard

After logging into the btc-ticker with SSH, the update can be started with

rw
./99updateMenu.sh

Select now:

  • PATCH
  • Patch menu
  • PATCH
    to update the ticker to the newest updates from git.

Download image

  • Downlad version 0.6.0 from btc-ticker-0_6_0.img.gz
  • Verify SHA256 checksum. It should be: ebeb7e615237853f7388f3f8b00268c2e88b560104f711f11e76ed6e0e59805d

Flash SDcard with Raspberry Pi Imager

Use https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/ for flashing the image to the sd-card.

  • Select btc-ticker img file
  • select sdcard
  • Before writing click on settings and modify the following settings
  • enable ssh with Use password authentication
  • set username and password and write Username: admin Password: btcticker
  • enable WiFi and enter your WiFi connection details
  • start with clicking on write

wpa_supplicant.conf (only when not using settings on Imager)

When you use the Raspberry Pi Imager with settings, there is no need for adding wpa_supplicant.conf manually.
When you did not enter your wifi credentials in the settings menu, you need to do thefollowing:

  • add wpa_supplicant.conf to the boot partition when mounted on PC 
    ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=[COUNTRY_CODE]
network={
ssid="[WIFI_SSID]"
psk="[WIFI_PASSWORD]"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
  • replace [COUNTRY_CODE] with the ISO2 code (e.g. DE)
  • Set [WIFI_SSID] and [WIFI_PASSWORD]
  • On the first boot, the filesystem is mounted writable (Necessary for coping the wpa_supplicant.conf).
  • When there is no wpa_supplicant.conf at /boot, the filesystem will be mounten readonly.

Build SDcard from scratch

The SDcard build process is inspired by the great raspiblitz.

  • Download lastest raspios image
  • Write the Image to a SD card Tutorial
  • Add a ssh file to the boot partition when mounted on PC
  • Add a wpa_supplicant.conf file, as shown in the section before. More information are also available here
  • Login via SSH to ssh pi@[IP-OF-YOUR-RASPI] using password raspberry

The image can now be build with:

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/btc-ticker/btc-ticker/main/build_sdcard.sh && sudo bash build_sdcard.sh

After everything run through, it is possible to login with the password btcticker
In order to prepare everyting for release, run /home/admin/XXprepareRelease.sh. When you just want to use it for yourself, you do not need to run /home/admin/XXprepareRelease.sh.

Changing the ssh password

In order to secure your btc-ticker in your local network, you should change the SSH password after setting up everything.

  • Login via SSH to ssh admin@[IP-OF-YOUR-RASPI] using the password btcticker
  • Change the password (this will be improved in the next release) 
    echo "pi:NEWPASSWORD" | sudo chpasswd
echo "root:NEWPASSWORD" | sudo chpasswd
echo "admin:NEWPASSWORD" | sudo chpasswd

    Replace NEWPASSWORD with the new password.

Used APIs

btc-ticker is using the following APIs: