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PiSpot-Show

Free

A Raspberry Pi captive portal that creates a WiFi hotspot displaying a customizable web page to connected users using hostapd, dnsmasq, and nginx.

FreeFree tier
Type
Open Source
Visit Website GitHub (40 stars)

About PiSpot-Show

PiSpot-Show is a headless Raspberry Pi appliance that transforms any HDMI display into a self-updating Wi-Fi voucher kiosk with live weather integration. Designed for hotel lobbies and public-area monitors, it generates a fresh time-limited Wi-Fi voucher every hour from the Spotipo captive-portal API, fetches a live weather forecast from the Dark Sky API, and composites everything into a branded Full-HD (1920×1080) image. The image is rendered directly to the Linux framebuffer via fbi, bypassing any desktop environment for a minimal, kiosk-grade display pipeline. A PiJuice HAT provides battery-backed power management with RTC wake/sleep scheduling, a hardware watchdog, and graceful low-voltage shutdown, enabling unattended 24/7 operation. Additional features include a boot splash screen, Ansible-based deployment, error resilience with automatic retry, and a 3D-printable enclosure. Originally developed and deployed in 2018 for GPConnect, the project is now archived and no longer maintained.

Key Features

Hourly voucher rotation – generates a new Spotipo Wi-Fi voucher every hour with configurable duration, speed limits, device caps, and data quotas.
Live weather overlay – fetches temperature, feels-like, daily min/max, conditions, and forecast summary from the Dark Sky API with matching weather icons.
Full-HD branded output – 1920×1080 image composited with Pillow using custom Raleway typography, logos, SSID, voucher code, weather data, and current date.
Framebuffer rendering – pushes images directly to /dev/fb0 via fbi, bypassing X11/Wayland for a minimal, kiosk-grade display pipeline.
PiJuice power management – battery UPS with RTC wake-up alarms, scheduled shutdown via cron, hardware watchdog (5s), and wake-on-charge at 20%.
Boot splash screen – displays branding immediately on power-on via a dedicated systemd unit, before the main service starts.
Ansible deployment – single playbook provisions packages, creates users, generates SSH keys, clones the repo, registers services, configures WiFi, and optimizes GPU/USB power.
3D-printable enclosure – FreeCAD parametric designs and ready-to-print STLs for a custom case with button panel and lid.
Error resilience – on API failure, renders an error screen and retries after 60 seconds without crashing.

Pros & Cons

Pros
  • Headless, minimal footprint – no desktop environment required, pure framebuffer display
  • PiJuice battery backup and scheduled operation for reliable unattended use
  • Automated voucher rotation with configurable quotas and speed limits
  • Live weather integration adds dynamic, context-rich content
  • Ansible-based deployment simplifies provisioning and configuration
  • Error resilient design with automatic retry and graceful failure handling
  • Customizable branding and 3D-printable enclosure for physical deployment
  • Part of the PiSpot ecosystem (Watch, Show, Deployment) for scalable solutions
Cons
  • Project is archived and no longer maintained (last active development in 2018)
  • Requires specific hardware: Raspberry Pi and PiJuice HAT
  • Relies on external APIs (Spotipo and Dark Sky); Dark Sky API is now shut down
  • Only outputs to HDMI via framebuffer; limited to static image displays (no interactive UI)
  • Setup complexity due to multiple dependencies (hostapd, dnsmasq, nginx, etc.)

Best For

Hotel lobby TVs for displaying time-limited Wi-Fi vouchersPublic-area monitor kiosks with branded digital signageUnattended 24/7 Wi-Fi access management in hospitality venuesEvent Wi-Fi voucher display with weather information

FAQ

What is PiSpot-Show?
It is a headless Raspberry Pi appliance that turns any HDMI display into a self-updating Wi-Fi voucher kiosk with live weather. It generates vouchers from the Spotipo captive-portal API and composites a branded Full-HD image rendered directly to the framebuffer.
What hardware is required?
A Raspberry Pi (presumably a model with HDMI output) and a PiJuice HAT for battery-backed power management. The design includes a 3D-printable enclosure.
Is PiSpot-Show still maintained?
No. The repository was archived on May 23, 2026 and is now read-only. Last active development was in 2018. The code is preserved for reference only.
How does the display work?
The system composites a 1920x1080 image using Pillow, then pushes it directly to the Linux framebuffer (/dev/fb0) via the fbi tool. No X11 or Wayland desktop environment is used.
What external APIs does it use?
It uses the Spotipo captive-portal API for generating Wi-Fi vouchers and the Dark Sky API for weather data. Dark Sky is no longer active, so the weather feature may require modification.