CharlieBoard terminal CLI

Manage display settings from SSH or Raspberry Pi Connect without using the web UI on port 8000.

Install with the project (pip install -e .). The setup script puts venv/bin on your PATH in /etc/profile.d/mbta_led_controller.sh, so charlieboard works in new SSH or Pi Connect sessions. In the same terminal window where you just ran setup, use the full path once: ~/CharlieBoard/venv/bin/charlieboard show.

Commands

Show settings

charlieboard show

Prints route, display mode, power, bedtimes, brightness, and colors.

Set display mode

charlieboard set mode vehicles    # vehicles | occupancy | speed | rainbow

Picked up by the running display on the next MBTA stream event (usually within seconds).

Set power

charlieboard set power on
charlieboard set power off

Set brightness

charlieboard set brightness 0.5
charlieboard set brightness 1.0

Brightness is on a 0.0–1.0 scale (same as the web UI slider). Picked up by the running display on the next stream event.

Set bedtimes

charlieboard set bedtime --start 22:00 --end 07:00
charlieboard set bedtime --start 23:30    # end unchanged
charlieboard set bedtime --end 06:00      # start unchanged

Times use 24-hour HH:MM format.

Set colors (legend / color keys)

charlieboard set color stopped 255,0,0
charlieboard set color incoming #ff4b4b
charlieboard set color max_occupancy 255 128 0

Color names

Mode	Names
vehicles	stopped, incoming, transit
speed	min_speed, max_speed, null_speed
occupancy	min_occupancy, max_occupancy, null_occupancy

Color formats: #RRGGBB, R,G,B, or R G B (0–255 per channel).

Set route

sudo charlieboard set route Green-B

Valid routes: Red, Blue, Orange, Green-All, Green-B, Green-C, Green-D, Green-E.

Route changes require restarting services (station maps and the MBTA stream filter are set at startup). The CLI restarts mbta_display and mbta_monitor automatically after saving. Use sudo if systemctl restart needs elevated permissions.

Custom .env path

charlieboard --env /path/to/.env show

Web UI sync

• Settings are stored in .env; the web UI reads the same file on page load (GET /get_settings).
• Reload the browser after CLI changes to refresh the form.
• The web UI does not display route (setup-only); saving from the web will not overwrite a CLI route change.

Related commands

Command	Purpose
display_status	System health and metrics
display_reboot	Restart display + monitor services