Whether you’re a full time trader or a first time cryptocurrency investor, chances are that you’re looking to keep track of the market’s performance from time to time. In this article, find out how you can do just that—by making a cryptocurrency price ticker for only around $100 in parts!

Why You Might Want a Cryptocurrency Price Ticker

The digital currency market can be extremely volatile—sometimes moving 20% within a single day. And unlike the stock market, trades are executed 24x7 and 365 days a year. All of this means that keeping track of market momentum can be extremely important.

While you could download an app on your smartphone or visit various websites to check a particular cryptocurrency’s price, neither equal the convenience of an always on display. With a live ticker, price checks become as easy as glancing at a wristwatch or wall clock.

To build such a cryptocurrency price ticker, all you’ll need is a Raspberry Pi along with a small LCD display. The Pi is a surprisingly powerful computer that sips power and outputs virtually no heat or noise—perfect for our application.

The Pi is so versatile, in fact, that we recently put together a list of awesome uses for the Raspberry Pi.

The Raspberry Pi: Which Model Should You Get?

A brand-new Raspberry Pi 4 will set you back a mere $35. If you don’t plan on running any other applications on it in the future, you could even get away with purchasing the Pi 3 for this guide. While you will sacrifice some performance overhead, the previous generation device can usually be picked up for less.

What cannot be used, however, is the Raspberry Pi Zero. As you’ll see in later sections of this guide, the ticker involves hooking up an external LCD display to the Pi via a serial interface. Most Pi Zero devices are not sold with pre-installed GPIO headers, so even just connecting the LCD display will require some tinkering and soldering first.

For maximum compatibility and the least amount of hassle, go with either the Raspberry Pi 3 or 4 models.

What You Will Need to Build a Crypto Price Ticker

Here’s a list of all the hardware you will need to complete this project:

  • A Raspberry Pi 4 or 3 B
  • A USB-C power supply, as recommended by the Raspberry Pi Foundation
  • 16GB MicroSD card for the operating system
  • A keyboard, mouse, and screen to interact with the system
  • A 3.5-inch screen and case combo that connects to the Pi via the SPI interface. We recommend this 3.5-inch TFT Raspberry Pi display for the Pi 3 or this 3.5-inch Raspberry Pi 4 display for the Pi 4.

Before configuring the Raspberry Pi to display a price ticker, an operating system must be loaded onto it.

Since the Pi is sold at a razor thin margin, you’re expected to install your own storage device. That’s exactly where the microSD card you purchased earlier comes into play.

Related: Install an Operating System on Raspberry Pi

With your Pi unplugged from the wall, insert the flashed SD card into it. Also connect a keyboard, mouse, and screen to the Pi’s USB and HDMI ports.

Finally, power on the device through its USB type-C port. The first boot may take a few minutes to complete but you will eventually be presented with the following welcome screen.

Pi welcome screen

After completing the initial set up process, make sure the Pi is properly connected to your Wi-Fi network and displays the correct time in the top right hand corner. If either of these settings are configured incorrectly, delve into the Settings app and make the requisite changes. When you're ready, shut down the Pi.

Disconnect the Pi from your monitor and connect it to the aforementioned 3.5 inch display instead. Since every screen is different, follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to do this. It should just be a matter of lining up the pins on the screen and the Pi’s GPIO header.

Plug the Pi back in; this time, it should output to the newly attached display.

Getting the Cryptocurrency Price Ticker to Run on System Boot

Once the Pi has booted, click on the black rectangular icon to the top left of your screen. This will open up a terminal window where you can perform administrative tasks such as installing software and updating the system.

To install the cryptocurrency price ticker software, copy and paste the following command into the terminal window and hit Enter.

        wget -O TICKER-INSTALL.bash https://git.io/JU6dw;chmod +x TICKER-INSTALL.bash;sudo ./TICKER-INSTALL.bash
    
Ticker install

The above command will automatically begin the installation process.

confirm defaults

Agree to continue at each step. Press 1 and then Enter.

selection screen

At the end, the installer will prompt you to reboot the Pi. The command to reboot is simple:

        sudo reboot
    

Upon rebooting, your Pi should automatically load the ticker software. From this point on, the prices and other relevant data for various cryptocurrencies will be displayed on-screen. To exit the program, all you need to do is hit Alt+F4 on a keyboard connected to the Pi.

Ethereum price

Additional Configuration

By default, the ticker will only display a handful of the most popular cryptocurrencies currently being traded. Luckily, adding or removing cryptocurrencies from your new ticker is pretty straightforward.

On the Pi—either via a remote SSH connection or a terminal window—enter:

        nano /home/pi/dfd-crypto-ticker/config.js
    

This will open a text file that holds all of the configuration values for the ticker program. Each setting within this file has a short description alongside it—so making changes should be pretty easy.

Once you’ve made your changes, press Ctrl+X and then Y to save and exit. Then, the following command will refresh the ticker:

        ~/reload
    

And that’s it! Your crypto price ticker is ready to deploy anywhere you need.

The price ticker software you’ve installed is open source and open to community feedback. If you’d like to report any issues, feel free to reach out to the project’s developers on GitHub.