Pi Time Zone Clock

A Raspberry Pi dashboard clock displaying dual time zones (Jerusalem local + UTC), weather, air quality, Hebrew calendar dates, Pikud HaOref red alerts, and Times of Israel headlines. Automatically switches to Shabbat mode with parasha and candle lighting/havdalah times.

Features

• Dual clocks — Jerusalem local time + UTC, ticking every second
• Weather — Current temperature and conditions via OpenWeatherMap
• Air Quality — AQI and PM2.5 via IQAir
• Hebrew Calendar — Current Hebrew date via Hebcal
• Red Alerts — Pikud HaOref missile alerts with pulsing indicator
• News — Scrolling headlines from Times of Israel RSS
• Shabbat Mode — Auto-detects Shabbat; shows parasha, candle lighting, and havdalah times
• Settings UI — Web-based configuration at /settings
• Kiosk ready — Designed for fullscreen Chromium on a Pi

Repository Structure

├── app/                   # Application code
│   ├── server.js
│   ├── package.json
│   ├── config/
│   ├── services/
│   ├── routes/
│   ├── public/
│   └── deploy/
├── docs/                  # Design & planning
│   └── wireframes/
└── README.md

Quick Start

# Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/danielrosehill/Pi-Time-Zone-Clock.git
cd Pi-Time-Zone-Clock/app
npm install

# Configure API keys
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your OpenWeatherMap and IQAir keys

# Run
npm start
# Open http://localhost:3000

Configuration

Environment Variables (app/.env)

Variable	Description	Required
OPENWEATHER_API_KEY	OpenWeatherMap API key	Yes
IQAIR_API_KEY	IQAir API key	Yes
PORT	Server port (default: 3000)	No
LATITUDE	Location latitude (default: 31.77)	No
LONGITUDE	Location longitude (default: 35.23)	No
GEONAME_ID	GeoNames city ID (default: 281184 / Jerusalem)	No
TIMEZONE	IANA timezone (default: Asia/Jerusalem)	No

Settings UI

Visit http://localhost:3000/settings to configure:

• Bottom bar mode (auto/news/shabbat)
• Alert polling on/off and interval
• News RSS feed URL
• Time format (12/24hr)
• Location coordinates

Raspberry Pi Deployment

# On the Pi:
cd /home/pi/Pi-Time-Zone-Clock/app
sudo bash deploy/setup.sh

This installs Node.js, dependencies, creates a systemd service (pi-clock), and prepares the kiosk launcher.

# Start kiosk (fullscreen Chromium)
./deploy/chromium-kiosk.sh

# Service management
sudo systemctl status pi-clock
sudo journalctl -u pi-clock -f

API Endpoints

Endpoint	Description
GET /api/state	Full dashboard state (all services)
GET /api/weather	Current weather
GET /api/airquality	Air quality data
GET /api/hebrew-date	Hebrew calendar date
GET /api/shabbat	Shabbat status and times
GET /api/alerts	Red alert status
GET /api/news	News headlines
GET /api/settings	Current settings
POST /api/settings	Update settings

Architecture

• Backend: Node.js + Express. Each data service polls its API on independent intervals and updates a shared in-memory state object.
• Frontend: Vanilla HTML/CSS/JS. Client-side clock ticks at 1s; dashboard polls /api/state every 10s.
• No build step — lightweight enough to run directly on a Pi Zero 2W+.

Photos

Running on a 10-inch monitor:

Fonts

• Clock digits: Plus Jakarta Sans (weight 200, extra-light)
• UI text: Inter (weights 300–700)