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Idea to build a LED Map of all S/U-Bahn stations in Berlin #39

Description

@Delonia438

I want to build an LED map that shows every train currently in a Berlin S-Bahn or U-Bahn station. My idea is to light up the LED corresponding to each station whenever a train is present.

Currently, I’m using https://v6.vbb.transport.rest/ to get the data, but this API only supports requesting one station at a time. With 381 stations, I’d need to poll each individually, which exceeds the API rate limit and is inefficient.

Currently, I have:

  • A Node.js server that requests train data.
  • An ESP32 microcontroller that fetches the LED color/number from the server to drive addressable RGB LEDs.

APIs to use
I’m not sure if there’s a way to query all stations at once or get train positions in bulk. The current approach (looping through each station with /stops/:id/departures) is slow and API‑intensive.

My question
Is there any way to do this more efficiently than making 381 individual station requests? Could I use a different endpoint, like one that returns all train positions or all departures in one call?

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