Stramatel Hockey Scoreboard Renderer

Small Python app that reads Stramatel hockey/floorball serial data, parses the 54‑byte frames, and serves a minimal web UI showing clock, scores, period, penalties, and timeouts. It also exposes a vMix-friendly JSON endpoint so you can feed graphics directly into vMix (see the vMix section below). A bundled test stream lets you demo without hardware.

Requirements

• Python ≥ 3.14 (project targets 3.14 per pyproject.toml)
• uv (recommended) or any virtualenv tool
• Serial support: pyserial
• Dev/testing: pytest

Install

# All deps (runtime + dev/test) into .venv
uv sync --group dev

# Runtime-only (omit dev extras)
uv sync

Notes:

• uv sync creates .venv automatically and respects uv.lock.

Running (with hardware)

uv run python main.py --com COM3

Replace COM3 with your serial device (e.g., /dev/ttyUSB0 on Linux, /dev/cu.usbserial123 on macOS). Open http://localhost:8000/ in a browser and fullscreen it on your display output.

Running (demo without hardware)

Use bundled fixture data:

uv run python main.py --fake-data

This replays tests/data/stramatel_hockey_testdata_v3_raw_with_chatter.bin on a loop.

vMix Data Source

The server exposes http://<host>:8000/vmix.json, returning a single-row JSON array with keys:

Clock, Period, HomeScore, AwayScore, Running, Horn, HomeTimeout, AwayTimeout, HomePenalties, AwayPenalties, HomePensActive, AwayPensActive, LastUpdated

Add in vMix:

1. Data Sources Manager → Add → JSON
2. URL: http://<host>:8000/vmix.json
3. Pick a suitable refresh rate, e.g. 100ms-500ms
4. In Title Editor, map fields to the column names above (or use column order).

RS-485 wiring (to USB-RS485)

Stramatel’s TV interface cable (per STRAMATEL codes.pdf) breaks out 4 wires:

• Black (Pin 1) = GND
• White (Pin 2) = Tx+ (RS-485 non-inverting)
• Yellow (Pin 4) = Tx− (RS-485 inverting)
• Red = not connected
• Blue = not connected

To make an adapter to a USB-RS485 dongle:

1. Strip the outer jacket and individual wires.
2. Crimp/solder White → A/+, Yellow → B/-, Black → GND on the USB-RS485 side. Leave others floating.
3. Plug the RS-485 converter into your computer. If you see garbage data, swap A/B — some dongles label them oppositely.
4. Run the app pointing at that COM port (--com <device>).

Making a new cable

The Stramatel cable uses a standard 5-pin DIN connector (180 degrees). Pins on male connectors are numbered (from right to left, viewed from outside of the connector, with the five pins upwards, and facing them): 1–4–2–5–3

Only pins 1, 2, and 4 need to be connected.

Wiring sketch:

Connector                        USB-RS485 dongle
-------------------------------------------------
Pin 1, GND  ------------------>  GND
Pin 2, Tx+  ------------------>  A / D+ / RS485+
Pin 4, Tx-  ------------------>  B / D- / RS485-

Testing

uv run pytest

Project Structure

• parser.py — frame constants, parsing helpers, FrameStream
• server.py — HTTP handler, shared state, data source threads (serial or fake)
• main.py — CLI wiring
• static/ — UI assets (HTML/CSS/JS)
• tests/ — parser unit tests and fixture data