[deleted]
I don’t have actual experience duing this myself but in my opinion what you are looking for is kiosk mode. Here is an article raspberrypi.com/…/how-to-use-a-raspberry-pi-in-ki…
[deleted]
Submitted 3 weeks ago by baconmonsta@piefed.social to selfhosted@lemmy.world
Comments
inzen@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Black616Angel@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
Okay, let me get your current setup/needs right:
You have multiple rooms with dedicated Raspberry Pis, that each run PiSignage to display automatically forwarding (google) slideshows.
You now want to minimally change this setup to allow people to manually forward slides.
This begs some questions:
- How are the slides selected/uploaded?
- How are the slides forwarded?
- How does the setup know if it’s an automated slide or not?
In my head the new setup would look something like this:
The Pis stay, as does PiSignage.
A device is added to forward slides (most likely a Bluetooth remote)Here is where it gets tricky.
On remote press, a menu could be opened, to select uploaded slides and display them via other means than PiSignage. Closing this slide opens PiSignage again.
But having this easily maintainable is tricky and it will get hacky and people will forget closing their slide and so on.
Alternatively USB-sticks could be used.
Inserting one opens the folder, a slide can be selected with the remote and removing the stick opens PiSignage.Both methods are hacky and not easily maintainable. But I can not think of other means.
Also I think that you should first think about some means of uploading and selecting slides as well as whether you even want to keep using PiSignage.
baconmonsta@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
[deleted]Black616Angel@discuss.tchncs.de 3 weeks ago
That’s great actually.
Then I would suggest using used thin clients. They cost around 50€ each, maybe less. You can install a Linux on there and remotely manage them then. They are quiet, small, not energy intensive and mostly have an x86_64 CPU, so software is also not an issue.
They also mostly have HDMI so connecting is not an issue either. If you still buy a Bluetooth remote, they can be handled without a mouse.
Software wise I am not well versed with google slides, but you can probably use kiosk mode in Firefox or chrome and just have the main page with the slides as chosen website.
roofuskit@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
A non-hacky solution would be to buy a cheap used mini-pc with an HDMI output. eBay is flush with ones from businesses. You don’t need a ton of horsepower for Google slides. Just make sure the PC is complete and working so you don’t have to buy additional parts. If you can prep a raspberry pi for a Linux install you can do the same with a mini-pc and get more performance for less money.
PriorityMotif@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Walmart sells the onn android tv sticks for $15 you can customize them and change the font end so that it’s just a few apps that are easy to navigate to.
frongt@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
We use Appspace at work. Or Azulle HDMI stick PCs if we want something with a full OS.
owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
vogi@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Maybe not really answering the question, but what goes against using an HDMI cable?
It would “be something simple, that is easy to maintain, as the presentations change daily.”baconmonsta@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Laptops are expensive, we need several of these running the same time
vogi@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
That makes sense :)
digger@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
I do something like this for work. I’ll share what I use. Take what works for you, leave what doesn’t. My feelings aren’t hurt.
Hardware: I have two TVs that are driven by Amazon Fire sticks. The software is an Android app, and we picked up the sticks on sale for $20 each. I’ve not tested the software on other hardware, but it should work on any Android based device. I have plans to switch to Android on a Raspberry Pi or similar. It’s only matter of time before Amazon breaks my setup, but for the time being (and for the last two years) this works without issue and was extremely cost effective.
Software: I want to recommend “Slideshow” by Milan Fabian. It’s an incredibly full featured slideshow app that will display anything that you throw at it (image files, videos, PDFs, spreadsheets, and more). It can also display web based things like a webpage or YouTube video. You can set timers so that certain content is displayed certain times of day. You can set times and dates so that content that is no longer relevant is no longer displayed. My description here really doesn’t do it justice. You should check it out.
My use case: I work for a school that is in a shared space. Beginning at 7am, the TVs show a slideshow of announcements from the school. It also cycles a music playlist of MP3s that are uploaded to the device. At 4pm, the TVs switch over to a web-based dashboard of where individual classes are in the building and which supervisor is closing the building (I built the dashboard in Home Assistant and it is unrelated to the Slideshow app). At 6pm, the screen goes black and the music shuts off until 7am the next morning. Because we share the space, there is a different slideshow that shows on the weekends based on what that group wants to display. When Monday comes back around, it’s back to my content. My team builds our slideshow in Canva and then pushes it to the device, but you could easily use Google Slides.
baconmonsta@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
Thanks for your input!
I’m already using https://pisignage.com/ for automatically advancing slides in the building. Now I just need a simple presentation tool to manually advance the slides during classes
digger@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
Tell me more about your use case.
clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
I really appreciate your detailed suggestion and description of what you’ve done. Especially, I like that you attribute the app developer. You’re a good egg.