Raspberry PI Dashboard
This guide describes how we have setup some Raspberry Pi 3's at Cesbit HQ for our digital dashboards. 1
Intall Rspbian desktop edition
Install Raspbian Download the “desktop” edition, this more then sufficient for our needs.
Once your Raspberry Pi has started open the Raspberry Pi Configuration. (Menu → Preferences → Raspberry Pi Configuration)
Basic configuration
- Set your hostname in the system tab
- Enable VNC in the interfaces tab
- Optional: configure WLAN access
Software installation
sudo apt update && \
sudo apt remove -y apt-listchanges && \
sudo apt full-upgrade -y && \
sudo apt install -y fonts-noto-color-emoji xdotool && \
sudo apt autoremove -y && \
sudo apt autoclean
Maintenance scripts
Three script to ensure carefree maintenance are used.
These scripts are stored in the user home-drive, this is default /home/pi
Morning
Thi script updates the Pi and performs a reboot to ensure a fresh start in the morning
#!/usr/bin/env sh
# A daily upgrade is good hygiene.
sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade -y && sudo apt autoremove -y && sudo apt autoclean
# A daily restart mitigates browser memory leaks, and forces the screen to turn on
sudo reboot now
Boot
This script performs some cleanup actions after a reboot en ensure the dashboard is loaded upon a fresh start.
#!/usr/bin/env sh
# Disable screensaver. Varies across Pi models & Raspbian versions; might be outdated.
# Google "raspberry disable suspend screensaver" for help
xset s off
xset -dpms
xset s noblank
# Move the mouse cursor out of the way!
xdotool mousemove 0 0
# Avoid "Chrome didn't shutdown correctly" notification on unclean shutdown
sed -i 's/"exited_cleanly":false/"exited_cleanly":true/' ~/.config/chromium/'Local State'
sed -i 's/"exited_cleanly":false/"exited_cleanly":true/; s/"exit_type":"[^"]\+"/"exit_type":"Normal"/' ~/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences
# Start Chromium, in fullscreen "kiosk" mode, and disabling update notifications
chromium-browser --kiosk --check-for-update-interval=31536000 'https://app.infrasonar.com/dashboard'
Evening
This script turns off the display and kills the chrome browser to conserve valuable resources.
#!/usr/bin/env sh
# Shutdown screen, to save the planet
DISPLAY=:0 xset dpms force off
# Don't consume dashboard resources off office hours, to save the planet
pkill chromium
Schedule the scripts
Ensure all three scripts are executable:
chmod +x /home/pi/boot.bash
chmod +x /home/pi/morning.bash
chmod +x /home/pi/evening.bash
Add the following line at the end of the auto start script /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart to ensure the dashboard is loaded upon boot:
@/home/pi/boot.bash
and remove the following line from this file:
@xscreensaver -no-splash
Use the following command to ensure executing of the morning and evening script using cron:
(crontab -l ; echo "0 7 * * 1-5 /home/pi/morning.bash") | crontab -
(crontab -l ; echo "0 18 * * 1-5 /home/pi/evening.bash") | crontab -
If you want to edit the crontab you can do so using crontab -e
The website [crontab guru]9https://crontab.guru/) can be very helpfull to understand the crontab notation
Setup the dashboard
last step is to login to infrasonar and configure the dashboard to your liking.
Note
InfraSonar stores its dashboard configuration in local browser storage allowing you to setup multiple different dashboards using one account.
Enjoy
That's all enjoy your new dashboard!
Don't forget to send us a picture for our wall of dashboards fame!
support+dashboard@infrasonar.com