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DB Infoscreen for Home Assistant 🚆

📊 Project Status

Component Status Latest Release Date
Integration Active GitHub release (latest by date) GitHub Release Date
Backend API Upstream Backend Version Stable

🎯 Purpose & Motivation

db-infoscreen brings the experience of a physical station departure board into your smart home.

In the world of home automation, most "Public Transport" integrations focus on Routing (how to get from A to B). However, for many users—especially those living near a station—the more important question is:

"I know where I'm going, I just need to know if the next train is on time."

This integration is designed for:

  • Wall-mounted Dashboards --- Perfect for hallway tablets or kitchen kiosks.

  • Magic Mirrors --- At-a-glance information while getting ready.

  • Commuter Checks --- Quickly check if your S-Bahn is delayed before leaving the house.

📜 The Evolution: Legacy vs. Modernity

This project did not appear in a vacuum. It is the result of years of iteration and a fundamental shift in how we handle train data in Home Assistant.

🪦 The Legacy: ha-deutschebahn & ha-bahnvorhersage

If you have been a Home Assistant user in Germany for a while, you might remember ha-deutschebahn or ha-bahnvorhersage.

Why do these projects no longer exist/receive updates?

  1. Parsing/Scraping Nightmares: These older integrations relied on "web scraping"—meaning they downloaded the HTML of public websites and tried to find the departure times in the code. Every time Deutsche Bahn changed a single line of CSS or HTML, the integration would break for everyone.
  2. Unreliability: Scraping is inherently fragile. It led to frequent "Unknown" states, broken sensors, and high maintenance overhead.
  3. Complexity of Routing: They tried to solve routing (finding connections between two points). This requires complex session management and handling of many edge cases that the public-facing websites weren't designed to provide via simple GET requests.
  4. IP Bans: Automated scraping is often detected and blocked by providers, leading to users getting temporarily banned from accessing train data.

🚀 The Solution: ha-db_infoscreen

ha-db_infoscreen was born from the realization that we needed an API-first approach. By leveraging the incredible db-fakedisplay project as a backend, we moved away from fragile scraping and towards structured data.

  • Backend Stability: We use the IRIS-TTS API—the same data source that powers actual platform displays at German stations.
  • No Scraping: We receive clean JSON data. No more broken sensors because of a website redesign.
  • Focus on Departures: By specializing in "Station Departure Boards", we provide the most reliable and information-dense experience for your dashboard.

❤️ Credits & Acknowledgments

This project is a bridge between the Home Assistant ecosystem and the wider open-source world.

Project Hero: derf

A massive amount of credit goes to derf for his tireless work on db-fakedisplay.

His backend project does the "heavy lifting": aggregating data from dozens of European transport associations (DB, ÖBB, SBB, and many more) and providing a unified, stable API. Without his work, this integration would not be possible. Please consider starring his repository!

✨ Key Features

Feature Description
Real-time Data Live delays, platform changes, and quality notes (e.g., "Train reversed").
Global Coverage Supports DB (Germany), ÖBB (Austria), SBB (Switzerland), and many local associations.
Smart Filtering Exclude cancelled trains, filter by direction, or show only specific platforms.
Deep Attributes Access route info, warnings, messages, train composition (wagon_order), and unique trip_id.
Multiple Entities Main sensor, delay/cancellation binary sensors, and calendar entity for visual dashboards.
Occupancy See how full the train is (1-4 scale) before it arrives.
Station Search Intelligent autocomplete prevents typos by letting you pick from official station names with fuzzy matching.
Self-Healing Repairs Automatic issue detection with repair flows for stale data, API errors, and connection problems.
Example Automations Cookbook with alerts for platform changes, cancellations, and more.
ePaper Ready Built-in "Text View" mode for ESPHome/ePaper displays.

🚀 Getting Started

Install with HACS Station Search Guide Entities Reference Data Sources View Settings Example Automations