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Raspberry Pi FPV Flight Board

This wiki documents a Raspberry Pi project that turns a tiny computer and a 2.15 inch Waveshare e‑paper display into a self‑contained flight‑conditions dashboard for FPV pilots. The board fetches weather forecasts from the Open‑Meteo API, compares them against configurable thresholds and shows a succinct status (GREAT/OK/RISKY/NOPE) alongside the worst‑case metrics and a trend message. The application can run on demand or via systemd on an hourly schedule.

Use cases

• Field‑ready drone dashboard – Mount the board on your FPV kit, configure your location in config.json and power up the Pi. The display will tell you at a glance whether wind, gusts, rain or temperature are within your own limits.
• Continuous monitoring – When installed as a systemd service, the updater runs every hour and refreshes the e‑paper only when conditions change significantly to prolong the panel’s life.
• Data logging – The latest version of the code records hourly status data to a CSV file. You can analyse this log to see how many flights were possible over days or weeks.
• Failure alerts – If the Open‑Meteo API fails to respond during daylight hours for several consecutive runs, the script escalates by sending warning emails using configurable SMTP credentials.

Wiki pages

• Main Module – how the updater works (fpv_board/main.py)
• Shutdown Script – clearing the display and shutting down safely (fpv_board/shutdown.py)
• Status CSV Logger – logging hourly status data (fpv_board/logging/csv_logger.py)
• SMTP Email Notification – sending warning emails (fpv_board/notify/smtp_email.py)
• State Store – persisting state across runs (fpv_board/state/state_store.py)
• Systemd Units – running the updater automatically (service & tim
• Configuration – adjusting location, display and thresholds in `fpv_board/config.json