A digital picture frame with weather forecast
Lessons Learned
Although creating something new with my old Raspberry Pi was really fun, I did encounter a few problems along the way. My first problem was mainly self-inflicted: I had hoped it would be possible to find an inexpensive, custom-made wooden frame online. Although I found a number of options, the real cost was shipping, which was almost as much as the cost of the frame itself.
In my last minute dress rehearsal, one difficulty turned out to be that an old USB cable I was going to bundle with the picture frame wasn't delivering enough power. Ensure you test the exact hardware you are planning to use.
The most unexpected problem was networking. My initial development used an Ethernet connection, and I never had any problems connecting. Only during my final testing with a WiFi dongle did I encountered networking problems when the network periodically stopped working. After some research, it seems that others had similar problems in the past and have solved this by restarting the networking component. I created a small script to check the Internet connection and restart it if necessary. Running this script once a minute from the root crontab solved my networking problems.
All the necessary logic for displaying the photographs and gathering the current weather forecast can be done with just a few hundred lines of Bash script (Figure 5). This new electronic picture frame should be useful for many years to come.
Infos
- SheevaPlug: http://linuxgizmos.com/the-sheevaplug-nas-mini-pc-is-back-with-dual-a53-sheeva64/
- LED cube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpUvgoLtos0
- "Streaming lullabies with a Raspberry Pi Zero" by Christopher Dock, Linux Magazine, issue 203, October 2017, pg. 26, http://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2017/203/Streaming-with-a-Pi-Zero
- Installing operating system images: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/
- gdrive: https://github.com/gdrive-org/gdrive
- dbxcli: https://github.com/Dropbox/dbxcli
- OpenWeather: https://openweathermap.org
- OpenWeather sign-up: https://home.openweathermap.org/users/sign_up
- OpenWeather download: http://bulk.openweathermap.org/sample/city.list.json.gz
- LatLong.net: https://www.latlong.net/Show-Latitude-Longitude.html
- The Apach FOP Project: https://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/download.html
- Machine generation of PDF files: https://blog.paranoidprofessor.com/index.php/2016/11/15/machine-generation-of-pdf-files-the-easy-way/
- Code for this article: ftp://ftp.linux-magazine.com/pub/listings/linux-magazine.com/233/
« Previous 1 2 3 4 5
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you've found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Kernel Reducing Long-Term Support
LTS support for the Linux kernel is about to undergo some serious changes that will have a considerable impact on the future.
-
Fedora 39 Beta is Now Available for Testing
For fans and users of Fedora Linux, the first beta of release 39 is now available, which is a minor upgrade but does include GNOME 45.
-
Fedora Linux 40 to Drop X11 for KDE Plasma
When Fedora 40 arrives in 2024, there will be a few big changes coming, especially for the KDE Plasma option.
-
Real-Time Ubuntu Available in AWS Marketplace
Anyone looking for a Linux distribution for real-time processing could do a whole lot worse than Real-Time Ubuntu.
-
KSMBD Finally Reaches a Stable State
For those who've been looking forward to the first release of KSMBD, after two years it's no longer considered experimental.
-
Nitrux 3.0.0 Has Been Released
The latest version of Nitrux brings plenty of innovation and fresh apps to the table.
-
Linux From Scratch 12.0 Now Available
If you're looking to roll your own Linux distribution, the latest version of Linux From Scratch is now available with plenty of updates.
-
Linux Kernel 6.5 Has Been Released
The newest Linux kernel, version 6.5, now includes initial support for two very exciting features.
-
UbuntuDDE 23.04 Now Available
A new version of the UbuntuDDE remix has finally arrived with all the updates from the Deepin desktop and everything that comes with the Ubuntu 23.04 base.
-
Star Labs Reveals a New Surface-Like Linux Tablet
If you've ever wanted a tablet that rivals the MS Surface, you're in luck as Star Labs has created such a device.