TODO

  • raspi-dashboard
  • [ArchLinux ARM](https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv6/raspberry-pi) -> ArchLinuxARM-rpi-latest.tar.gz

  • https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/arch-linux-arm-available-for-download/

But Wait, cf.

Chromebooks and Chromeboxes support Kiosk Mode Apps.

Recently I’ve been using a Raspberry PI as a Web Kiosk. This was quite an interesting project with a few subleties over the usual.

Firstly what is a Kiosk. Kiosk Mode is a term for a mode in a web browser wherby the browser’s chrome is locked down in such a was as to only display a single web page - i.e. there is no address bar or menu accessible. This mode is usually used with a SPA (Single Page App) to provide a locked down ‘kiosk’.

This particular project, for a hotel, had a number of extra interesting features:

  • The pages diplayed could be modified by a Google Spreadsheet
    Some of these site would not be under our control.
  • The kiosk had a night mode when it would display a simple clock & weather widget
  • When in night mode, the display could be woken via a PIR detector
  • The display was mounted behind a half silvered mirror, so was effectivly invisble when not in use.

There were some limitations on what pages could be displayed - no Flash etc.

Chrome (or the Chromium project), was the obvious choice for the browser as it provided all the necessary functionality as would run quite well on a Raspberry PI B+.

Because the hardware would be installed by a third party and there would be no scope for site visits it was necessary to make as much of the RaspPIs configuration remotly held, so that if necessary a simple reboot could be used to update it.

Hardware

Raspberry PI

  • Raspberry PI B+
  • 8Gb Micro SD card, class 4 or class 6 - thought 4Gb should be sufficient for our distro, these items are very cheep

PIR

The PIR switch was quite simple to interface to the RaspPI a USB games controller was modified (hacked) to receive input from the PIR and convert them into USB key presses (The games controller looks like a USB keyboard to a PC).

This had a number of advantages:

  • The PIR could be tested quite separaly from the software
    It could simply be connected to a computer to monitor its inputs
  • There was no hardware modification to the RaspPI
  • The SPA running under Chrome could be tested on an machine with Chrome installed (& a keyboard)

Software

Distro

The Debian / Raspbian wheezy distro was chosen which should in theory instal on a 4Gb SD card but, for future expansion, has been installed on an 8Gb SD card.

Obtaining and insstalling basic distro on SD card

The wheezy distro can be found here, downlosd the xxx.img file and use dd to copy to the SD card.

Passsword pi::raspberry

Just use sudo for root or see here

Resources

  • http://blogs.wcode.org/2013/09/howto-boot-your-raspberry-pi-into-a-fullscreen-browser-kiosk/
  • http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/2059/disable-screen-blanking-in-x-windows-on-raspbian
  • http://jptoto.jp/geckboard-raspberry-pi/
  • http://lokir.wordpress.com/2012/09/16/raspberry-pi-kiosk-mode-with-chromium/
  • http://www.rs-online.com/designspark/electronics/eng/blog/installing-linux-software-on-raspberry-pi
  • http://www.rs-online.com/designspark/electronics/eng/knowledge-item/raspberry-pi-quick-start-guide
  • http://www.rs-online.com/designspark/electronics/eng/knowledge-item/how-to-create-or-update-your-raspberry-pi-operating-system

Via Debian distro

  1. Install chromium, x11-xserver-utils and unclutter

    sudo apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y sudo apt-get install chromium x11-xserver-utils unclutter

  2. We need to prevent screen from going blank and disable screen saver.

    edit /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart and comment # screen saver line and add those lines:

    @xset s off
@xset -dpms
@xset s noblank
@chromium --kiosk --incognito http://coesfaen.herokuapp.com/

Installing a image via dd under OS-X

	$ diskutil list

Identify the disk (not partition) of your SD card e.g. disk4 (not disk4s1): $ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/<disk# from diskutil> e.g. diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk4 $ sudo dd bs=1m if=image.img of=/dev/DISK e.g. sudo dd bs=1m if=2014-09-09-wheezy-raspbian.img of=/dev/disk4 This may result in an dd: invalid number ‘1m’ error if you have GNU coreutils installed. In that case you need to use 1M: $ sudo dd bs=1M if=image.img of=/dev/DISK This will take a few minutes.

$ sudo dd bs=1m if=2014-06-20-wheezy-raspbian.img of=/dev/disk2
Password:
2825+0 records in
2825+0 records out
2962227200 bytes transferred in 1717.442266 secs (1724790 bytes/sec)
$

Or use etcher, which is an Electron based SPA.

SPA

The RaspPI was configured (see above) to simply boot and then invoke Chromium in kiosk mode loading a website hosted on Heroku.

This site becomes the SPA for the kiosk and handled the PIR input, night mode and the selection, cycling and display of further web sites.

The site has a number of subpages which are displayed in full screen <iframes>.

Heroku

  • https://dashboard.heroku.com/login

    Online at http://coesfaen.herokuapp.com (or https://coesfaen.herokuapp.com)
Deply via https://dashboard.heroku.com/login

NOTE: This page will be refreshed once an hour.

TODO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6cxZp4ii6c

    becomes

http://www.youtube.com/embed/j6cxZp4ii6c?autoplay=true

Use http, not https for apps, otherwise pages won’t load.

  • https://dashboard.heroku.com/apps/screensaver-clock/deploy/dropbox
  • https://dashboard.heroku.com/apps/coesfaen/deploy/dropbox
  • http://screensaver-clock.herokuapp.com
  • http://cycle-pages.herokuapp.com/

Google Spreadsheet

  • https://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/1t-ESBjG3a9_GcbESfs02S_5od45JSN5SBApW86T-TT4/od6/public/values?alt=json-in-script&callback=rik
  • https://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/1t-ESBjG3a9_GcbESfs02S_5od45JSN5SBApW86T-TT4/od6/public/values?alt=json-in-script&callback=rik
  • https://github.com/GovLab/berrycast/blob/gh-pages/js/script.js is important. Note ..callback=? Converts to JSONP so crossdomain works etc.

You need to do file>Publish to Web then you can see via.

  • https://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/1TinGFwIIufOAzETEL4AbOFOqI_QcF7ie2M3k4-G3hrQ/od6/public/values?alt=json

  • https://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/1TinGFwIIufOAzETEL4AbOFOqI_QcF7ie2M3k4-G3hrQ/od6/public/values?alt=json-in-script&callback=rik

  • https://www.jsoneditoronline.org/#

To edit - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TinGFwIIufOAzETEL4AbOFOqI_QcF7ie2M3k4-G3hrQ/edit#gid=0

Rik, this is what you want, cell based, not list based:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/cells/1TinGFwIIufOAzETEL4AbOFOqI_QcF7ie2M3k4-G3hrQ/od6/public/values?alt=json