README.md

March 8, 2026 · View on GitHub

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Raspberry Pi × Pikud HaOref - monitors Israeli Home Front Command alerts and drives an RGB LED

Why this exists →

⚠️ Disclaimer This is a personal hobby project and is not an official product of Pikud HaOref or any government body. It is not a substitute for the official Home Front Command app, sirens, or any authorised alert system. Always follow official guidance. Your phone and the sirens come first.

Architecture

Pi (alerts.py)
  polls oref API (Israel)
  handles state machine
  drives RGB LED via GPIO

  [optional] → Particle cloud → Photon → drives a second LED remotely

The Pi does all the work, it polls the geo-blocked oref API, tracks state, and drives the local RGB LED. Particle cloud integration is optional: if PARTICLE_DEVICE_ID and PARTICLE_ACCESS_TOKEN are set in .env, status changes are also pushed to a Particle Photon.

Raspberry Pi setup

bash pi/scripts/install.sh   # creates venv, installs deps, registers systemd service
sudo systemctl start pikud
journalctl -u pikud -f

See RASPBERRY_PI.md for full setup, config, and troubleshooting.

Particle Photon (optional) - particle/src/pikud.ino

bash particle/scripts/flash.sh   # compile + flash in one step

See PARTICLE.md for build, flash, testing, and LED colour reference.