Simple Internet Status Display with Raspberry Pi Zero W

Build a straightforward internet connection monitor using a Raspberry Pi Zero W and Pimoroni Display Hat Mini 2.0 that shows your connection status in real-time.

Display showing "Wi-Fi is currently up" in green text

Over the last week, I added a couple of new Pis to my growing collection, including a new Zero W, Zero 2 W, and some accessories. I needed a quick win yesterday, so I busted out a project to play with my new Pimoroni Display Hat Mini 2.0 and the new Zero W.

Project Overview

This project displays the current internet status on a Display Hat Mini 2.0, using a Raspberry Pi Zero W. The primary code is written in Python 3 and runs via a service file that is executed on boot. When the connection is up, the display shows a green message stating "Wi-Fi is currently up", and when the connection is down, it shows a red message stating "Wi-Fi is currently down".

Hardware Requirements

  • Raspberry Pi Zero W (tested with Raspbian Bullseye)
  • Display Hat Mini 2.0

Software Requirements

  • Python 3
  • Required Python libraries:
    • RPi.GPIO
    • spidev
    • PIL (Python Imaging Library)
    • numpy
    • st7789
    • displayhatmini

Installation Steps

  1. First, follow Pimoroni's Display Hat Mini instructions to install the Display Hat Mini Python Libraries.

  2. Install the required system packages and enable SPI:

    sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3-rpi.gpio python3-spidev python3-pip python3-pil python3-numpy
sudo raspi-config nonint do_spi 0

  3. Install the necessary Python packages:

    sudo pip3 install Pillow
sudo pip3 install st7789
pip3 install displayhatmini

  4. Copy the project files to their respective locations:

    • internet_status.py → /home/pi/
    • internet_status.service → /etc/systemd/system/

  5. Enable and start the service:

    sudo systemctl enable internet-status.service
sudo systemctl start internet-status.service

How It Works

The Python script runs a continuous loop that:

  1. Attempts to establish a connection to www.google.com
  2. Updates the Display Hat Mini with the current status
  3. Waits 15 seconds before checking again

Here's the core connection checking function:

def check_connection():
    try:
        # Try to connect to Google's server
        host = socket.gethostbyname("www.google.com")
        s = socket.create_connection((host, 80), 2)
        return True
    except:
        # If connection fails, return False
        return False

The display updates in real-time, using green text to indicate an active connection and red text to show when the connection is down.

Conclusion

This project demonstrates how to create a simple but effective internet status monitor using a Raspberry Pi Zero W and Display Hat Mini 2.0. It's a fun project for those who want to keep an eye on their network connection status with a dedicated physical display.

The complete code and setup instructions are available in my GitHub repository: Raspi Zero W Internet Service Service