Use an Arduino and an LED Matrix to show the elapsed or remaining time for Kodi. Now your Kodi installation can look just like and old DVD player.

• Kodi installation with the HTTP API enabled
• 32x8 LED Matrix or TM1637 seven segment "clock" display
• Arduino to drive the LED Matrix
  • Tested on: Arduino Nano, ESP8266, and ESP32
• Perl or Python installed to read data from Kodi and send data to Arduino
• Arduino connected to the RPi via USB (for serial connectivity)

• Install sketch on Arduino Nano
• Wire LED Matrix to Arduino Nano
  • DIN => Pin #13
  • CLK => Pin #11
  • CS => Pin #9
• Run Perl script to read Kodi API and send time to display
  • systemd service script provided to automate startup

Once your Arduino and display are connected you can test output with the following commands:

• run kodi-led-service.pl --test
• echo "<1236:2860:Play>" > /dev/ttyUSB0
  • (Only works after display is running)

You can send serial commands to the Arduino that affect the display. While the display is running and displaying time you can send commands:

• Show time remaining
  • echo "<!invert:1>" > /dev/ttyUSB0
• Show time elapsed:
  • echo "<!invert:0>" > /dev/ttyUSB0
• Set display intensity 0-9:
  • echo "<!intensity:5>" > /dev/ttyUSB0