PiMenu

README

PiMenu

Make Raspberry Pi Menus easily to display on a screen. Note: This needs to be compiled on a Raspberry Pi due to the libraries not being available for use on other systems. If anyone knows how to install them on different operating systems to allow cross-compilation then please get in touch.

Running the application

In the release folder you will find a binary (called Menecs) which is the main application. You'll need to customise the json files in the screens folder (and the folder will need to be next to the binary, along with the images folder). You'll also need to install and run the fbcp application https://github.com/juj/fbcp-ili9341. Every time a screen is changed the json file is reread so you can hot-swap json files.

Setting up the application as a service to start on startup

You will need to create a folder /home/pi/menecs/ and copy the binary into this folder as well as creating an images folder and a screens folder. (Copying the ones from this project will help you get started quickly). Also add the file service/pimenu.service to this folder. Then run the following commands:

sudo cp pimenu.service /etc/systemd/system/pimenu.service
sudo systemctl enable pimenu.service
sudo systemctl start pimenu.service

Prerequisites for development

You'll need to install the following prerequisites before getting the OpenVG library

sudo apt install -y libjpeg8-dev indent libfreetype6-dev ttf-dejavu-core
sudo apt install -y libraspberrypi-dev raspberrypi-kernel-headers
sudo apt install -y golang-google-grpc-dev
sudo apt install -y python3-grpcio python3-grpc-tools python3-protobuf
sudo apt install -y libavdevice-dev libavfilter-dev libswscale-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libswresample-dev libavutil-dev

Then install the dependencies

go get golang.org/x/exp/io/i2c
go get github.com/ajstarks/openvg
go get github.com/golang/protobuf/proto
go get golang.org/x/net/context
go get google.golang.org/grpc
go get github.com/nfnt/resize

go get github.com/giorgisio/goav/avcodec
go get github.com/giorgisio/goav/avformat
go get github.com/giorgisio/goav/avutil

go get github.com/electrocatstudios/FTXXXX_Touchscreen_Driver

Setting up a Python Client

If you only wish to consume the screen service then you will need to install the following prerequisites on the Pi:

sudo apt install python3-grpcio python3-grpc-tools python3-protobuf -y

Note: While it is available as a Pip wheel it is not recommended as it takes significantly longer, and when tested on a Pi zero appeared to grind to a halt (process abandoned after 2 hours - and a lot of heat coming off the Pi!)

An example script is included in the python_client_example folder. You will need to copy the screen_service_pb2 files into any project you instigate as these are the descriptors of the classes you'll need. The following script is a simple hello world example:

import grpc
import screenservice_pb2
import screenservice_pb2_grpc

channel = grpc.insecure_channel("localhost:7777")
stub = screenservice_pb2_grpc.ScreenServerStub(channel)
payload = screenservice_pb2.ScreenRequest()

payload.line1 = "test sending message"
payload.line2 = "another line of message"
# etc... (up to 5 lines available)
payload.length = 5 # How long (in seconds) to show - must be integer
payload.showCountdown = 2 # When to show the countdown timer in seconds remaining

stub.SendScreen(payload)

If the ScreenService app is running on the same device it should connect with no problem and the new screen should be visible for 5 seconds. Replace "localhost" with any IP address for remote connection.

Setting up a custom screen

To set up a custom screen we need to create json files which will represent the menu items on the device. The only required one is main.json which will describe the landing menu page.

Generating Python Code

You will need the python grpc tools

pip3 install grpcio-tools

Work in Progress

No support is offered at the moment for the code because it's still in development. We will update this when it's ready to use

TODO

We are working on the following:

Support for other file types Adding keyboard and pin entry screens Creating an online web app for generating screens Allowing remote administration of images and screens