raspberry pi zero lcd display quotation

some jokes (dark jokes preferably, because I"m a horrible human being) displayed from JokeApi. I basically copied the example script and started from there.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been hard for everyone. Why not give yourself a break and create this unique Raspberry Pi Zero project. This motivational quote bot will display a new quote every hour. It sits on my desk and gets me through the day.

You will also need an installation of Raspberry Pi OS on your micro SD card. If you are unsure of how to do this, please read the post How to Install an OS on the Raspberry Pi.

Start by pushing your Raspberry Pi Zero into the provided case. Note: Please make sure your SD card is removed before trying to fit the Raspberry Pi into this case. Failure to do this will damage the card

If you have already have a Raspberry Pi Zero and you don’t have header pins, you will need to solder these pins to your board. Otherwise, the Waveshare e-Paper screen should fit right on top of your Raspberry Pi. Getting the screen into place inside the case can be a little tricky.Do not force the screen on the Pi as you will bend the pins

Place the cover on top of the case and push firmly into place. After this, carefully insert the micro SD card back into the Raspberry Pi. The final assembly should look like below:

Power up the Raspberry Pi. You will now need to clone my Pi-Motivator repository. This repository includes the necessary Waveshare libraries, fonts and a file named quotes.json which is used to store the quotes:

Open motivator.py in the editor of your choice. I will be using vim for this tutorial. Start by importing json, random and textwrap. You will be using these imports to load in the quotes.json file, picking a random quote and wrapping the text to make sure that it fits on the screen,

The motivational quote bot displays a new quote every hour. To do this let’s go ahead and create a while loop. When a message gets printed, you will want to draw a white rectangle first to clear the screen:

Once you have your quote, print it to the screen using draw.text and epd.displayPartial. After this, sleep for 60 minutes before displaying a new quote:

And that’s it for creating this unique Raspberry Pi Zero project! As always, if you have any questions or comments please feel free to post them below. Additionally, if you run into any issues please let me know

Maker Conor O"Hanlon has shared a build guide for a Raspberry Pi Zero-powered motivational message dispenser, which uses an ePaper display to keep the power draw and desk glare down.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has been hard for everyone. Why not give yourself a break and create this unique Raspberry Pi Zero project," O"Hanlon writes by way of introduction. "This motivational quote bot will display a new quote every hour. It sits on my desk and gets me through the day."

The project is built around a Pi Zero W, which includes an on-board Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radio, connected to a Waveshare 2.13" ePaper Display HAT—an add-on that connects via the Raspberry Pi"s general-purpose input/output (GPIO) port and provides a small, low-power electrophoretic display panel.

The software side is written in Python, with the code choosing random entries from a JSON-formatted file filled with motivational quotes. The chosen quote is then rendered as an image and output to the display—while a timer refreshes the quote throughout the day.

Introducing Inkyshot: an inspirational e-ink display delivering a daily shot of encouragement through a quote or personalized message for you or your loved ones. Based on a Raspberry Pi Zero and e-ink display, Inkyshot is a perfect weekend project whether you’re completely new to IoT or an experienced developer.

Not having ever built hack projects myself, discovering and experiencing the ability to remotely deploy containers represented a whole new way for me to connect in personal relationships, which fuels the inspiration behind Inkyshot.

My sister and I share an extremely close relationship, despite living in different countries since I left home for college. Throughout the years, we’ve sent each other countless care packages, along with handwritten letters intimating the endless chats hanging out in each other’s rooms at home.

When I first saw the e-ink displays for Raspberry Pi Zero, I fell in love with it, and came up with the initial idea of this project: I wanted to send personal, encouraging messages to my sister that were more intimate than a text message, and faster than our handwritten letters. I mentioned the idea to our Hardware Hacker, Chris, who also wanted to build one for his partner living in another country. Together, we built Inkyshot: an e-ink message display that can pull an inspirational quote of the day, or send messages of your choosing.

Running on balena, the device variables such as message and font can be updated from anywhere in the world, so long as the device is connected to WiFi somewhere. It does not need to stay plugged in - the beauty of this e-ink display is that it will continue to display the message even without being powered!

It’s the perfect way for me to stay connected with my sister, and give her a shot of inspiration and encouragement wherever I am in the world, letting her know that I’m always thinking of her. You can also build a number of these and send them to anyone who needs some daily encouragement (scaling is easy with balena, and free for up to 10 devices)!

The links above are to vendors in the UK; if you’re in the US, Adafruit provides the InkypHAT and Raspberry Pi Zero WH, and here is a link to a Female Micro USB to DIP Adapter

The hardware set-up is pretty straightforward-- you will need a Raspberry Pi Zero WH (with WiFi and the pre-soldered header, unless you’d like to solder a header on yourself), on top of that, the InkypHAT e-ink display, and a Micro-USB power supply to power the Pi Zero. You’ll also need a solid SD card: I recommend the SanDisk ExtremePro, at least 8GB.

This can be set up in various ways depending on the case you’re using, but in either case you’ll have to solder wire from the Pi Zero onto the PCB of the adapter. Chris created a build video demonstrating and explaining how to assemble the case here.

And that’s it! Your Inkyshot will now display the Quote of the Day from the They Said So ® REST API, and you can now update your Inkyshot message through the balenaCloud dashboard!

Among the many things I could have built for my Hack Friday project, Inkyshot inspired me the most - it’s something that could make use of technology to create a positive impact on my relationship with my sister by keeping us connected.

Seeing it go from an idea to completion has been a magical feeling that I hope is shared by everyone who builds this project. It is my intention that Inkyshot will bring the same joy to you and your loved ones, wherever in the world they might be, and that it inspires closer connections in our most cherished relationships.

first of all let me say that I dont have any experience with a Raspberry, Arduino etc. at all, and also dont own any equipment yet. This is more a general question to the more experienced members here, so please bear with me if this comes across as a big unfocused

What I would like to do is built a keystand for my girlfriend in a NES case, that includes a function to display random quotes in the cardridge slot on key press. Basically, everytime she leaves the house in the morning she can press a button and a nice random quote from storage will be displayed on a LED. Thats it!

I have read through a lot of post here and other forums, and I found things similar to this (I found a post about random fortune cookie quotes), but those were all a bit more focused on the coding in itself, which is not really accessible to me (i have only very basic programming knowledge, and I am not sure if I have time to learn the basics fully). I am trying to catch up on everything myself, but thought that asking my be helpful. So I just wanted to ask for opinions on the following things:

3) Is there are generally very well regarded resource for such tutorials? I have started reading the "Beginning with Raspberry Thread" here, but just in case I thought it might be good to ask.

This is very nice 10.1 inch HDMI IPS display with 1280 x 800 resolution and capacitive touch screen, perfect as a kiosk or mini computer if you combine with Raspberry Pi ..

This is new arrival 2.8 inch screen, it is designed for Raspberry Pi Zero V1.3 version and Raspberry Pi Zero W. It is a high speed screen with touch function, 640*480 resolution.

Rather than plug your Raspberry Pi into a TV, or connect via SSH (or remote desktop connections via VNC or RDP), you might have opted to purchase a Raspberry Pi touchscreen display.

Straightforward to set up, the touchscreen display has so many possibilities. But if you"ve left yours gathering dust in a drawer, there"s no way you"re going to experience the full benefits of such a useful piece of kit.

The alternative is to get it out of the drawer, hook your touchscreen display to your Raspberry Pi, and reformat the microSD card. It"s time to work on a new project -- one of these ideas should pique your interest.

Let"s start with perhaps the most obvious option. The official Raspberry Pi touchscreen display is seven inches diagonal, making it an ideal size for a photo frame. For the best results, you"ll need a wireless connection (Ethernet cables look unsightly on a mantelpiece) as well as a Raspberry Pi-compatible battery pack.

Several options are available to create a Raspberry Pi photo frame, mostly using Python code. You might opt to script your own, pulling images from a pre-populated directory. Alternatively, take a look at our guide to making your own photo frame with beautiful images and inspiring quotes. It pulls content from two Reddit channels -- images from /r/EarthPorn and quotes from /r/ShowerThoughts -- and mixes them together.

Rather than wait for the 24th century, why not bring the slick user interface found in Star Trek: The Next Generation to your Raspberry Pi today? While you won"t be able to drive a dilithium crystal powered warp drive with it, you can certainly control your smart home.

In the example above, Belkin WeMo switches and a Nest thermostat are manipulated via the Raspberry Pi, touchscreen display, and the InControlHA system with Wemo and Nest plugins. ST:TNG magic comes from an implementation of the Library Computer Access and Retrieval System (LCARS) seen in 1980s/1990s Star Trek. Coder Toby Kurien has developed an LCARS user interface for the Pi that has uses beyond home automation.

Building a carputer has long been the holy grail of technology DIYers, and the Raspberry Pi makes it far more achievable than ever before. But for the carputer to really take shape, it needs a display -- and what better than a touchscreen interface?

Setting up a Raspberry Pi carputer also requires a user interface, suitable power supply, as well as working connections to any additional hardware you employ. (This might include a mobile dongle and GPS for satnav, for instance.)

Now here is a unique use for the Pi and its touchscreen display. A compact, bench-based tool for controlling hardware on your bench (or kitchen or desk), this is a build with several purposes. It"s designed to help you get your home automation projects off the ground, but also includes support for a webcam to help you record your progress.

The idea here is simple. With just a Raspberry Pi, a webcam, and a touchscreen display -- plus a thermal printer -- you can build a versatile photo booth!

Various projects of this kind have sprung up. While the versions displayed above uses a thermal printer outputting a low-res image, you might prefer to employ a standard color photo printer. The wait will be longer, but the results better!

How about a smart mirror for your Raspberry Pi touchscreen display project? This is basically a mirror that not only shows your reflection, but also useful information. For instance, latest news and weather updates.

Naturally, a larger display would deliver the best results, but if you"re looking to get started with a smart mirror project, or develop your own from scratch, a Raspberry Pi combined with a touchscreen display is an excellent place to start.

Many existing projects are underway, and we took the time to compile six of them into a single list for your perusal. Use this as inspiration, a starting point, or just use someone else"s code to build your own information-serving smart mirror.

Want to pump some banging "toons" out of your Raspberry Pi? We"ve looked at some internet radio projects in the past, but adding in a touchscreen display changes things considerably. For a start, it"s a lot easier to find the station you want to listen to!

This example uses a much smaller Adafruit touchscreen display for the Raspberry Pi. You can get suitable results from any compatible touchscreen, however.

Alternatively, you might prefer the option to integrate your Raspberry Pi with your home audio setup. The build outlined below uses RuneAudio, a Bluetooth speaker, and your preferred audio HAT or shield.

Requiring the ProtoCentral HealthyPi HAT (a HAT is an expansion board for the Raspberry Pi) and the Windows-only Atmel software, this project results in a portable device to measure yours (or a patient"s) health.

With probes and electrodes attached, you"ll be able to observe and record thanks to visualization software on the Pi. Whether this is a system that can be adopted by the medical profession remains to be seen. We suspect it could turn out to be very useful in developing nations, or in the heart of infectious outbreaks.

We were impressed by this project over at Hackster.io, but note that there are many alternatives. Often these rely on compact LCD displays rather than the touchscreen solution.

Many home automation systems have been developed for, or ported to, the Raspberry Pi -- enough for their own list. Not all of these feature a touchscreen display, however.

One that does is the Makezine project below, that hooks up a Raspberry Pi running OpenHAB, an open source home automation system that can interface with hundreds of smart home products. Our own guide shows how you can use it to control some smart lighting. OpenHAB comes with several user interfaces. However, if they"re not your cup of tea, an LCARS UI theme is available.

Another great build, and the one we"re finishing on, is a Raspberry Pi-powered tablet computer. The idea is simple: place the Pi, the touchscreen display, and a rechargeable battery pack into a suitable case (more than likely 3D printed). You might opt to change the operating system; Raspbian Jessie with PIXEL (nor the previous desktop) isn"t really suitable as a touch-friendly interface. Happily, there are versions of Android available for the Raspberry Pi.

There’s lots to love about the new Raspberry Pi Zero 2. From the fact that it costs just $15 (making it the most affordable computer on the market), to a sweet upgrade to the CPU, it’s an intriguing addition to the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s product line. But how does it stack up when it comes to powering digital signage? Can a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 digital signage solution support business-grade use cases? That’s exactly what we set out to determine.

While Raspberry Pis offer immense value in an educational environment, they also provide huge benefits when applied to business solutions. Specifically, these small but mighty microcomputers are transformed into robust and reliable media players for digital signage deployments. However, the Raspberry Pi Zero 2’s hardware specs differ significantly from those of the more powerful RPi4. But does this impact enterprise-grade performance? Firstly, let’s take a look under the hood.

Out of all these tech specs, the most important one to note centers around the combination of CPU and memory. Specifically, the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 has the BCM2710A1 die used in the Raspberry Pi 3 along with 512MB of RAM. Although the memory is still limited, there’s lots more CPU power.

What does this mean in real-world use cases and situations for digital signage? Essentially, this CPU upgrade allows the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 to load content faster. This, in turn, translates to better playback for images and videos. So it can definitely offer better support than its predecessor to businesses displaying less-demanding content on their signage screens.

This is where our experiment got interesting, because our pros & cons list revealed hidden strengths and weaknesses. More, in fact, than those that stood out at first glance when checking out the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 specs.

On the pros side, firstly we must emphasize affordability. You just can’t beat that $15 price tag – especially when you consider what you get for your money. The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 offers high-quality hardware and capabilities that justify its trailblazer status in this category.

Similarly, you can purchase a complete kit for the Zero 2, including case and cables, at a very low price. Also, the RPi Zero 2’s small size makes it a very convenient digital signage media player. Simply slip it into its case, and you can easily hide it behind your signage TVs. Most importantly, though, the RPi Zero 2 allows you to make live changes to your digital signage content. That constitutes a huge advantage for businesses who update their signage content on a daily basis.

On the other hand, we couldn’t help but notice certain important limitations. One stand-out disadvantage lies in the fact that it only has 512MB of RAM. This unfortunately directly affects digital signage use cases. Specifically, the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 can’t handle media-rich or demanding content. For instance, organizations that deploy digital signage in offices can’t use the RPi Zero 2 to display data dashboards along with widgets. Similarly, media-heavy digital menu boards or multi-layered screen layouts wouldn’t run seamlessly with the RPi Zero 2.

Another key point to make is that the Zero 2 only connects wirelessly through WiFi. Since it doesn’t have an embedded ethernet port, you’d have to use a micro USB cable to connect it to your ethernet network. However, it won’t cost you much.

This is the million-dollar question for us and for our clients. What kind of digital signage content can the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 display? Our experiments revealed that if you run simple, straightforward media, it works fine. However, if you want to turn a Raspberry Pi Zero into a Yodeck digital signage player, you can’t display demanding content.

In a nutshell, simple playlists play back great with the Zero 2. For instance, it reliably supports a playlist with images and videos because it loads each media element separately. Playlists that include content such as videos, images and a simple widget like a ticker or clock also display well. You can also add other simple widgets to a playlist, such as a date and time or weather widget.

Similarly, the Zero 2 supports reliable playback of simple screen layouts. For example, a business could use the RPi Zero 2 to display signage layouts that include a video and ticker. Playback also works well when displaying simple screen layout templates. For instance, it supports bare-bones menu board templates or layouts with only text and images but without widgets. For this reason, screen layouts should only include up to three layers when using the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 with Yodeck.

In addition to clock and ticker widgets, the Raspberry Pi Zero could easily handle light-weight weather or date and time widgets as part of playlists and screen layouts. On the other hand, what it definitely cannot support is data dashboard widgets. The RPi Zero 2’s memory can’t meet the hardware requirements of demanding content such as data dashboards and complex layouts with many layers. Dashboard widgets refresh constantly in order to reflect real-time data, so that would require a player with significantly more memory.

It might not have the power to support dashboards, but the Zero 2 supports all of Yodeck’s security features. So, for businesses that don’t have demanding content requirements of their digital signage system, but want top-notch security, the Zero 2 can align with their corporate strategy.

Although the Zero 2 can support rudimentary digital signage use cases, we can’t recommend it for most businesses. If an organization wants to deploy a digital signage solution that guarantees professional, enterprise-grade performance, our vote goes to the Raspberry Pi 4.

The Zero 2’s much more powerful big brother works perfectly as a digital signage player. The RPi4 unquestionably meets and exceeds business requirements. From displaying data dashboards in real time to powering impressive video walls, it delivers in terms of performance and reliability. In fact, we run thousands of RPi4 digital signage players and it has never let us down. Moreover, its hardware capabilities allowed us to expand our suite of features.

However, the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 can prove an attractive choice in some cases. For instance, if you know for a fact you won’t have increasingly demanding content requirements, go ahead and try it. It won’t break the bank. You can always upgrade to a RPi 4 later on which also comes with a very reasonable price tag.

Similarly, if you want to evaluate a digital signage solution using a free account, get a Zero 2. However, bear in mind that the features you run on it mustn’t exceed its capabilities. Therefore, that means you can’t test out all of the solution’s features to get an objective feel for it. You might still end up investing in a RPi 4 player. But if you feel more comfortable with a smaller hardware investment before making a decision, go for it.

Firstly, please note that we only offer Raspberry Pi 4 Players through our Portal, as they fully support our features. Also, we send them out pre-configured with your Wi-Fi credentials as a complete kit, so you’re good to go. Therefore, that means you skip Step #2 below if you purchase a RPi 4 Player from us. However, you’ll have to follow a few simple steps to create a RPi Zero 2 digital signage player:

For instance, a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B has a higher power requirement (2.5A) and, thus, necessitates a specific power brick. It will definitely still work, but a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B

The ideal board for the job is the £9.30 or AU$14.96) for the board. To set up and connect the Raspberry Pi, you will need a short HDMI cable and a microSD card of at least 8GB.

Finally, you will need supplies to mount the Raspberry Pi, the monitor"s power supply, all the cables and the female end of the extension cord on the back of the monitor. I used two-sided mounting tape. And I used duct tape to keep the excess cord attached as tightly to the back of the monitor as possible.

Typically, there isn"t enough room to install a Raspberry Pi inside the original backplate -- unless you"re using a Pi Zero W. Even then, the excess cords and the power supply for the monitor won"t fit. The monitor will sit closer to the wall without the back cover, so it"s best to discard it.

Connect the Raspberry Pi to the HDMI port on the monitor and -- without plugging in the extension cord -- connect the power cables to both the Raspberry Pi and the monitor. Use this to figure out the best layout of all the parts to keep everything as slim as possible.

As for the picture-hanging wire, there were no decent places to connect on the Dell monitor I used, so I drilled one hole on either side of the rear bezel that held the back cover on. This is where you might have to get creative, since no two monitors are the same.

Surprisingly, this project doesn"t require any special code for the Raspberry Pi. In fact, it will be running on Raspbian OS, a Linux distribution specifically for the Raspberry Pi.

DAKboard is the web interface used to display all the information on the monitor. It can be set up from the Raspberry Pi or from a computer, phone or tablet.

For background options, you can choose between a host of different sources, such as Instagram, Google Photos, Dropbox, OneDrive, Bing, Flickr, etc. After that, you can connect up to two ICAL calendars for free, select between Yahoo and AccuWeather for the forecast source, add a single RSS feed for rotating headlines, and connect Todoist, Wunderlist or Microsoft To-Do as a task manager to display and add a custom message to the DAKboard.

The idea is that, when powered on, the Raspberry Pi will automatically boot to your DAKboard. If you want to hang the monitor vertically instead of horizontally, you will also need to rotate the display.

First, power on the Raspberry Pi, open Terminal and type in sudo raspi-config. Once in the configuration tool:Go to Boot Options > Desktop Autologin Desktop GUI and press Enter.

Next, you will want to edit the config.txt file to rotate the screen 90 degrees. In Terminal, type sudo nano /boot/config.txt and press Enter. This opens the config file in the nano text editor. Add these lines to the end of the file (without the bullet points):# Display orientation. Landscape = 0, Portrait = 1

Finally, to force the screen to stay on and automatically boot with dakboard.com loaded in Chromium, type sudo nano ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart and press Enter. Inside nano, add these four lines (without the bullet points):@xset s off

Once the Raspberry Pi has fully rebooted, use a connected mouse and keyboard to log in to DAKboard. Click Login and enter your credentials. Your DAKboard should load with your previously configured settings. If you want to change anything, click the settings cog in the upper right corner of the display (move the cursor to make it appear).

Hang the monitor on the wall and you"ll have yourself a digital clock and calendar, the week"s forecast, important headlines and beautiful pictures on display all day.

DAKboard is a great way to set up a Raspberry Pi display in a hurry. It"s easy and user-friendly and it looks great. However, it has its limitations and encourages users to upgrade to Premium to unlock the best features.