NHL Beacon Goal Notifier

This project is a real-time NHL goal alert system built around a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. When your team scores (in this case, the Edmonton Oilers GO OIL!), the Pi triggers a beacon using a relay and GPIO output to simulate the goal light at real NHL games. The software continuously monitors the NHL live API and only activates during live games.

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🛠️ Hardware Overview

• Processor: Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
• Power Supply: 12V wall adapter
• Voltage Regulation: Off-the-shelf switching regulator drops 12V → 5V for the Pi and relay
• Relay Control: GPIO 5 triggers a relay to pass 12V to the beacon
• Beacon Output: Standard 12V beacon (external) connected via passthrough barrel jack
• Enclosure: Mounted in a black project box with the beacon decoupled for flexible mounting
• Prototype Construction: The circuit is built on prototype board and uses barrel jacks for input and output power management

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📦 Software Overview

This repo consists of three Python modules:

main.py

• Entry point for the script.
• Polls NHL API for upcoming games.
• Sleeps until the next game starts.
• When the game is live, continuously checks the current score.
• On a goal detection, activates GPIO 5 (relay) for 3 seconds.

ScheduleOBJ.py

• Pulls the schedule for a specific NHL team using the unofficial NHL Stats API.
• Extracts game IDs and their scheduled start times.
• Converts all start times to local timezone.

GameOBJ.py

• Uses a game ID to poll the /boxscore endpoint and check for score updates.
• Implements a basic scoring memory to detect if a new goal has occurred.

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🚀 How to Deploy on Raspberry Pi

1. Clone the repo or copy files to the Pi:

   git clone https://github.com/your_username/nhl-beacon-notifier.git
   cd nhl-beacon-notifier

2. Install dependencies:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install python3-requests python3-rpi.gpio

3. Run the script:

   python3 main.py

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💪 Development Notes

• If running on a PC for debug, comment out the GPIO lines in main.py and use the fallback print statements.
• The project uses the boxscore API instead of the full play-by-play feed for minimal polling delay and reduced bandwidth.
• A basic debounce mechanism is built-in to prevent false goal triggers.

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📸 Hardware Snapshot

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🧠 Future Improvements

• Support multiple teams or game selection via command-line args
• Impliment mute button
• Add delay selector to help synchronize with watch party
• Convert to daemon service for auto-run at boot

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📜 License

MIT License – idgaf.