pi-timer

PI Timer, small project for SwiNOG: Goal is to remotely control a timer for conferences.

Installation of Headend

The headend (Raspberry pi zero e.g. witch 7" waveshare touchscreen 'Zero-DISP-7A') is installed with raspberry pi desktop.

• https://www.waveshare.com/zero-disp-7a.htm
• https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/Zero-DISP-7A

Base System on Raspberry

Download Raspberry PI Manager (https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/)

During Installation choose:

• Modell: Raspberry PI Zero 2 W
• OS: Raspberry Pi OS (Other) > Raspberry PI OS Lite (64bit)
• Memory: <choose the right disk :))>
• Settings:
  • Hostname: pi-timer
  • Localization: Bern / Europe/Zurich / ch
  • User: pitimer /
  • Wlan Settings: according to your data
  • SSH: activate
  • Raspberry PI connect: deactivate
• Save/Write

Changes for Waveshare Display

From the Waveshare Wiki (https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/Zero-DISP-7A):

After programming, open the config.txt file in the root directory of the TF card and enter the following codes at the end of config.txt. Then, save and safely eject the TF card.

hdmi_force_hotplug=1 
config_hdmi_boost=10
hdmi_group=2 
hdmi_mode=87 
hdmi_cvt 1024 600 60 6 0 0 0

Raspberry Configuration / Further Setup

Enable Autologin

sudo raspi-config

Select: 1 System Options > S6 Autologin

Installation OS & Tools

1. Update System:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade -y
sudo reboot

2. Install X-Server:

sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends xserver-xorg x11-xserver-utils xinit openbox

3. Install other tools:

sudo apt install git xdotool -y

4. Install lightweight Browser:

sudo apt install falkon -y

steven@pi-timer:~$ falkon --help
Usage: falkon [options] [URL...]
QtWebEngine based browser

Options:
  -h, --help                   Displays help on commandline options.
  --help-all                   Displays help, including generic Qt options.
  -v, --version                Displays version information.
  -a, --authors                Displays author information.
  -p, --profile <profileName>  Starts with specified profile.
  -e, --no-extensions          Starts without extensions.
  -i, --private-browsing       Starts private browsing.
  -o, --portable               Starts in portable mode.
  -r, --no-remote              Starts new browser instance.
  -t, --new-tab                Opens new tab.
  -w, --new-window             Opens new window.
  -d, --download-manager       Opens download manager.
  -c, --current-tab <URL>      Opens URL in current tab.
  -u, --open-window <URL>      Opens URL in new window.
  -f, --fullscreen             Toggles fullscreen.
  --wmclass <WM_CLASS>         Application class (X11 only).

Arguments:
  URL                          URLs to open

Note: modori is not supported anymore, chromium too big, ...

5. Disable unnecessary services & Disable Logging to Reduce Memory Usage:

sudo systemctl disable --now avahi-daemon.service  # Disable mDNS (not needed)
sudo systemctl disable --now ModemManager.service  # Disable modem manager
sudo systemctl disable --now triggerhappy.service  # Disable hotkey daemon
sudo systemctl disable --now systemd-timesyncd.service  # Disable time sync (use cron instead)
 
sudo systemctl disable hciuart
sudo systemctl disable --now systemd-journald
sudo systemctl disable --now rsyslog

6. Activate NTP Time Sync

sudo apt install ntp
sudo systemctl enable ntp
sudo timedatectl set-ntp 1

7. Activate Bluetooth & enable user

sudo systemctl enable --now bluetooth
sudo usermod -aG bluetooth $USER

to verify: hciconfig -a --> should be UP RUNNING

Installation Luxafer & Server

Clone Github project

git clone https://github.com/sglogger/pi-timer.git

then:

    cd pi-timer
    chmod 755 install.sh
    ./install.sh

Thanks to

Thanks to the Github project from Vince Mitchell to controll the luxafor:

• https://github.com/vmitchell85/luxafor-python

Hardware