TallyPi

This humble tally light project has now broken into three! Now that we support both CircuitPython and the ESP32-S2 as well as the Raspberry Pi platform, the project now has three parts:

1. TallyOBS, the OBS script which can talk to both the ESP32-S2 and the Raspberry Pi remote lights
2. TallyPi, the Raspberry Pi version of the remote-controlled LED tally lights
3. TallyCircuitPy, the ESP32-S2 version powered by CircuitPython

The TallyOBS project can power either type of tally light, but the tally lights themselves can be operated independently. Since both types of lights have the same API, both platforms can be used if you want!

Also you don't need OBS to use the lights - they respond using the HTML dashboard, curl, or any method you like to send HTTP commands. If you have the hardware on hand, you can easily build out either platform quickly!

TallyPi has just moved to Python 3, and with it gained support for two new LED platforms: NeoPixel and Blinkt! pHat.

The NeoPixel platform should be widely available and well-known. In particular I have validated the 5x10 PixelLeaf RGB Matrix for use with TallyPi, using the Adafruit Blinka libraries. The LEDs are incredibly bright, even without level shifting.

Pimoroni's Blinkt! pHat doesn't have nearly as many LEDs as the PixelLeaf or the now discontinued Unicorn pHat, however installation is incredibly simple. No soldering required, and the LEDs are bright enough for most indoor conditions.

An improved HTML dashboard, much faster Python OBS script, and documentation fixes are also about to be released with version 0.5.

Now that Python support for MacOS has returned in OBS 27, Python is now re-established as the default script type for TallyPi. The Lua script will continue to be supported - so both are viable options.

Bear in mind the Lua script actually just turns around and calls curl... so it's not a portable option. The Python script is self-contained and uses the default Python HTTP libraries.

Having HTTP-controlled lights are great, but finding a headless Raspberry Pi on your network can be a pain if your gateway doesn't support proxied DNS resolution based on DHCP hostnames. Even if you grant your Pi a name like "tallypi01," it may not resolve that as a hostname on your network.

To help roll with that, TallyPi's HTTP server now supports Cross-Origin Resource Sharing, so you can execute JavaScript within your browser of choice to quickly crawl your subnet and find each light's current status. And example ships within scripts/dashboard.html - demonstrating how an HTML page served locally can find lights on your network.