Build Your Own LCD Bus Schedule

MikeLRoy writes "An engineering student in Winnipeg, tired of missing his bus to school (and waiting in the cold) created an LCD bus stop. It displays the next bus times for several stops and routes, all from the heated comfort of his kitchen. And yes, there are pics and code on the site."

incorrect perl script link on his site

[Anonymous Coward]

should be:

http://members.shaw.ca/rosensto/bus/bus.pl [members.shaw.ca]

In case slashdotted:

[Anonymous Coward]

http://saintaardvarkthecarpeted.com/bus [saintaardv...rpeted.com]

He didn't appear to have the script on his site, though.

Amazingly

[rcs1000]

In England we have a lot of this technology already.

(Amazingly, too, English people seem convinced their country is heading backwards at full speed towards the ice age, but that's another story.)

In central London all the bus stops contain LED displays showihng how long you'll have to wait for each bus. Likewise, on the tube (underground, subway) their are simialr displays. Normally they say things like "Baker Street 3minutes; Chancery Lane you'll be lucky" but hey...

There are companies like Kizoom (sp?) that offer these same services over WAP so you can make sure that when you leave your home/office then you *will* make your bus, metro, etc.

Why he needs it..

[hopbine]

A lot of replies are why does he need this not a written bus schedule. Well snow and winter tend to disrupt thing up here. The bus does not always run to the exact minute that they obviously do in New York Or London. At times in Ottawa (and Winnipeg) they may be as much as 5 minutes late. With the weather we have that's a hell of long time

Re:Why he needs it..

[passion]

Exactly, and sometimes busses come a little early. So when you get out to the stop, maybe you're on time, maybe you're not. Maybe there are people there, and perhaps there aren't.

If you're the only one, do you guess and wait for the bus - (you could be out there a long time, freezing your butt off) or do you go back in? There is definitely a great application for this, but it requires GPS (if it's not on a centralized system, like a subway).

These guys are working on a bus-tracking GPS project. [umich.edu]

Re:Eeek. Look at the klenex box.

[Hanji]

people made fun of me because I did alot of cool stuff on my TI-85 and saying I was looking at calculator porn
lol - Exact same story here, 'cept it's an 86 in my case...
Why is that everyone always assumes everything is porn?
... Aside from the fact that it usually is, of course.

Re:I wish I had thought of that...

[shird]

I'm assuming the schedules are automatically updated based on how far behind or ahead on schedule the buses are. In aus at least, the buses have little transmitters or whatever which are picked up by recievers in the road, and the LED displays at major bus stops are updated with this information. I'm guessing the web page he is pulling this info from is also updated dynamically like this.

Re:Why a bus? Why not a bicycle?

[bigberk]

Crap, would you believe Mozilla crashed on me twice while writing this reply?

I bike to university every day in Winnipeg when it's warm, but right now I need the bus. Take a look at Winnipeg's real time forecast [ec.gc.ca]. See that warning box? It means that with windchill, it's -37 C or F, doesn't matter which units at this close to the bottom of the scale.

Big red warning = you'll freeze your ass off. And that's why I'm not biking right now.

Re:Why a bus? Why not a bicycle?

[Billly Gates]

DO you have any idea how cold Winterpeg oops I mean Winnipeg is during the Winter?

Or have you ever tried to ride a bike on a snow covered road? Enough said.

..for the ignorant Americans who are unfamiliar with geography, Winnipeg is just north of Minesota, near North dakota and its even farther north then Montana.

They literally have artic winters that rival polar cities in the northern hemisphere due to their geography. The reason why the prairies of Canada are so cold is because its flat all the way to the north pole. There is nothing to stop artic air from sliding down south during the winter. The temperatures in Winnipeg are literally colder then Ankerage Alaska and vary only a few degree's of extreme northern canada. No shit. At least in the northeast and northwest there are mountains and ocean influences but not in that part of Canada.

How the early settlers survived? I have no idea. But its so cold that car owners remove their batteries out of their cars at night since they will be dead by morning.

Would you want to ride a bike in this? I think not.

Re:I am not an electrician!

[wkitchen]

Voltage doesn't matter, it's amperage that'll kill you...

That is a popular, but very dangerous idea. It is the current that can kill you, but voltage definitely does matter. How much current flows depends on both voltage and resistance. Human bodies exhibit widely varying, but usually relatively high resistance. A 12 volt car battery is capable of delivering 10 to 50 times more current than a 110V wall outlet. But you are far more likely to harmed by touching the terminals of the wall outlet than the terminals of the car battery. Unlike the 110V at the outlet, 12V usually isn't enough to cause a dangerous current to flow accross the high resistance of a human body. That the battery is capable of delivering enormous current doesn't change that. But don't let that lull you into a false sense of security either. Low voltages can sometimes cause a shock, it just requires more unusual circumstances and is much less likely to cause serious harm. Of course, electrical shock isn't the only possible hazard. Sparks igniting flammable materials, for example. Or being burned by a piece of wire that is hot because of a short. Low voltages can easily create those hazards, especially if lots of current is available

Unless you are absolutely certain that a power source is inherently capable of delivering only very small current (like your taser example, though that is not completely without danger either), "higher voltage = greater danger" is an entirely reasonable assumption.

Just a tip

[Beowulf_Boy]

If you are considering building this yourself,
I know several people who have bought from EIO.com (his LCD supplier) and its ran by one guy, and it takes forever for him to ship.

Consider a company called "timeline" instead, a simple google will turn them up.

Bussing in Winnipeg

[freeweed]

For everyone out there saying this guy should take a bike, it's no big deal waiting for a bus, etc...

Let me just tell you what it's like up here in Winnipeg.

Tonight, for example, it's going down to -35C. That's damn near -35F for you yank types (ie: DAMN COLD). Cycling to work here is almost impossible, because in addition to the cold we have almost no bicycle lanes, and driving on the road is a joke - ice and snow cover the roads for 4-6 months a year.

In short, busses are absolutely essential, and seeing as how our schedules change every couple of months, staying on top of it is one big pain. Kudos to this guy for coming up with something clever!

Re:Interesting idea

[curunir]

We have the same thing here in San Francisco (minus the non-working java applet, but with access from any Palm or web-enabled cell phone). It's only for a few of the most popular bus/metro lines, but there's been talk of expanding it system wide.

More info here [nextbus.com]