LumiBridge by Tim Vasil

Features

This is a personal hardware + software project, inspired by TheFlightWall, with the goal of pulling as much interesting live data from the internet as possible to showcase on a wide LED display over my living room fireplace. It started with a simple question, “What’s that ship passing by in San Diego Bay?,” but now answers all sorts of questions including “What’s the best time to walk the dog today?” and “What are the trending streaming shows?”

I built the display from seven 64 × 64 LED panels, driven by a Raspberry Pi. That gives me 448 × 64 pixels to work with, which is an interesting constraint (and aspect ratio) for 40+ apps! Nonetheless, I was able to take advantage of a 30 fps frame rate (on a 100+ Hz panel refresh) with full 24-bit color to craft some pretty slick visuals and animations, including map imagery that zooms and pictures of baseball players during live games.

The intro splash screen as LumiBridge boots, with sound.

The Home launcher in live mode: Autoplay, a ship, drive times, site visitors, Chats, CPI, and the grid mix — The Home screen alternates between app icons and a dashboard of live updates.

Let the apps take turns. Autoplay gives priority to timely updates, like an approaching trolley or a ship entering the bay. It resumes after the remote has been idle, so the display can mostly look after itself.
Use a remote, browser or voice. The media remote handles everyday navigation. The web interface adds a live preview and configuration tools, while speech-to-speech AI lets me ask questions or tell the display what to show.
See several apps at once. The Home screen switches between app icons and a dashboard of small live previews.
Keep it comfortable in the living room. Brightness follows local sunrise and sunset, with separate day, twilight and night levels. Scheduled on and off times use gradual fades.
Receive ship data directly. A software-defined radio and VHF antenna pick up AIS broadcasts from ships on the bay. Aircraft positions come from an online ADS-B feed.
Make room for the next idea. Each app is a Python plugin with its own settings. Panel mapping is separate from the apps, and a simulated display lets me develop on a laptop without the hardware.

Photos

The LumiBridge display in its frame on a sideboard beneath an abstract painting, showing a baseball line score with the diamond and the pitcher and batter — LumiBridge framed and ready for mounting, showing the play-by-play of a Padres game along with real-time prediction market odds of victory.

The seven panels laid face down in a row on a glass dining table, ribbon cables and red and black power leads between them, with the power supply, fuse block and a laptop at the far end — Early assembly on the dining table: daisy-chaining displays and contemplating power hookups.

The back of the frame during the build: panels on a rail, red and black power pairs and grey ribbon cables, the power supply at the top — From behind, near the end of the build: panels secured to steel rails, and the rails secured to the frame.

Looking along the back of the frame: ribbon cables zip-tied along the rail down to the Raspberry Pi — Lumi’s close up close to finished: all parts secured inside the frame.

Apps

Select an app for screenshots, capabilities, configurability, and data sources. Home and Autoplay come first; the rest are alphabetical. Use the arrow keys to browse between apps.

Remote control

I use an ordinary 2.4 GHz media remote for everyday control. The buttons follow a common pattern across apps, with a few shortcuts for Home, Autoplay and voice chat.

▲▼◀▶

Display on / off
Turns the display off or returns to the app that was showing.
Home screenHold: autoplay
Returns to Home from any app; press again for the first page. Hold to start Autoplay.
Next / prev card
Usually moves between cards or pages. Some apps use these buttons to adjust a selected value, such as a thermostat’s target temperature.
Scroll / zoom
Changes the selection or view within an app, such as a chart’s time range or the selected thermostat.
ConfirmHold on Home: move an icon
Opens an app or confirms an action. On Home, hold OK and use the arrows to move an icon.
Cancel / close
Closes the current view or returns to the first card. On Home, switches between icons and the live dashboard.
Pause displayHold: ask by voice
Pauses the display, indicated by a glow at the edges. On Home, adds or removes an app from Autoplay. Hold to open Chats.
Adjust settingVolume by default
Opens Settings and adjusts the last-used control. Use left/right to select another setting and BACK to return to the app.

Schematics

These diagrams show the frame dimensions, panel layout, and connections for power, data and the Pi’s peripherals.

The display: seven P3 panels edge to edge inside a custom-ordered wooden frame.

Back side: power

The 5 V supply (heaviest part) is in the middle, driving 7 panels through four 15 A runs protected with fuses. The Pi is on one side. Its USB-C brick and the power supply's cord plug into a single flat-plug extension cord.

Back side: data

Three HUB75 chains from the triple bonnet. Each ribbon runs up the left margin and along the rail to the chain’s first panel, the one nearest the Pi, and short ribbons daisy-chain from there away from the Pi: 7 to 6, 5 to 4, and 3 to 2 to 1.

Back side: compute

The Pi connects to the USB audio hardware and the remote’s receiver. A USB extension places the radio and VHF antenna outside the frame, away from LED interference. This setup receives ship broadcasts locally and gets aircraft positions online.

Bill of materials

Here are the parts I used, with their purchase prices in mid-2026. Honestly the build turned out to be much more expensive than I anticipated, but I like to tell myself it was overbuilt for quality and safety!