How I made a sign kiosk for $40 and a tv

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NYSERVANT | Forum Activity | Posted: Fri, Apr 27 2018 2:12 PM

I just wanted to share a little bit of what I learned for anyone else considering doing this.  This will create a device that you can plug into a TV through HDMI that will automatically start up a chrome browser in full screen mode to your favorite website (i.e. sign feed).  I use this at my church and it works perfectly. 

 
How I set up a sign feed for about $40.

1. Purchase Raspberry Pi
1. Cheap:  http://www.microcenter.com/product/460968/3_Model_B
   I didn’t need a power supply because my USB on our TV  has enough power to power the Raspberry Pi so we have it powered from there.  Which is extra convenient because we just have to turn on the TV to power it on and push the shutdown button to turn it off.
   
   
2. Convenient:  https://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Clear-Power-Supply/dp/B01C6EQNNK/ref=sr_1_9?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1524768417&sr=1-9&keywords=raspberry+pi
   
   
2. Buy a 16gb Micro SD Card
3. (OPTIONAL) To use a “shutdown” button buy a momentary switch
   1. Cheap:  http://www.microcenter.com/product/392764/Pushbutton_Off-(On)_SPDT_Momentary_Switch   **With this you will need wire to connect it to a GPIO pin.
   2. Convenient:  https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Squid-Button-Twin-Pack/dp/B0170B75EU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524769091&sr=8-1&keywords=GPIO+momentary+switch
4. Download my image file and write it to the SD Card (Is there a place I can upload the file?)
   1. I’ve found “Etcher” to be the best option for this
5. Put SD Card into the Raspberry Pi and load it up
   1. It will automatically start Chrome browser to www.logos.com
6. Configure it to start to the website you want
   1. Exit full screen mode
   2. Open “terminal”
   3. Type:  cd .config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/
   4. Then type:  sudo nano autostart
   5. Edit the file where you see http://www.logos.com to be whatever website you want.
   6. Hit ctrl X to exit and save the changes
   7. Reboot the pi

 You're done with the basic setup.

***The image I shared also has a shutdown button program where you can wire a momentary switch to GPIO pin 17 and a ground.  Then you will be able to simply push the button and have it shutdown so not to potentially corrupt the SD card by just shutting power off to it.

****Note:  I did get the very cheap raspberry pi zero to work in the same way but it could not handle any videos or transitions.  If you just want to post slides to switch through on a very low cost machine that would work.  If you need instructions on that and an image file let me know and I’d be happy to create on like I did for the full powered raspberry pi.

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Justin (Faithlife) | Forum Activity | Replied: Sun, Apr 29 2018 6:42 AM

That's awesome, thanks for sharing!  You may be able to host it on Faithlife, or Google drive.  What kind of distribution is it?

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Bruce Wilson | Forum Activity | Replied: Wed, May 2 2018 3:49 AM

Thx. I'd love to get the IMG file.

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Justin (Faithlife) | Forum Activity | Replied: Thu, May 3 2018 1:55 PM

You could set up a Google drive.  There are other hosting sites out there as well (like this https://nofile.io/, though you will have to compress the file down 5GB).

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NYSERVANT | Forum Activity | Replied: Thu, May 3 2018 2:02 PM

Ok, I'll try to compress it to a  smaller size.  I am also trying to upload it to Logos' "amber file".  If that works I'll send the link as soon as I get it.