“This project notifies you when the ISS rises above the horizon and it is time for you to go out and watch it.
With this project you always know when you can observe the International Space Station in the sky: An OLED display shows you the time and duration of the next pass, and as soon as the ISS rises above the horizon, an LED signals that it’s time to go out.
The ISS orbits the Earth every 90 minutes - not always directly above your head, but you still have several opportunities every day to observe its overflight. The best time to do this is early in the morning or late in the evening at dusk. Here the ISS is illuminated by the sun and the sky is still/already dark enough to be seen with the naked eye.
How the ISS Tracker works
The main building block for this project is the API of open-notify.org - a free service that calculates when the ISS will be visible in the sky at your location. For this you need your coordinates and optionally the altitude of your location above sea level.
You will request the next flight times of the ISS from the API and build a timer with it. The OLED display will show the next observation time. As soon as the ISS rises above the horizon, an animated space station will appear on your display for the duration of the flight and an LED will light up.
When the ISS has disappeared again, the LED turns off and the display shows you the next pass.
The design of the project
It only takes a few minutes to set up your ISS tracker. First connect your OLED display: GND to ground and VCC to plus. Then take care of the communication via I2C. Connect the display pin SCK to D1 on your ESP8266 and pin SDA to pin D2.
Connect the anode of the LED to pin D6 and the cathode to pin D5. From here, connect it to ground using a suitable resistor (e.g. 330 Ohm).”