Pi Media Station: Dual Pi Media player

In keeping with the other modes I would love to knock up a clock mode. This would be the standby mode.

I would love to add some kind of 'talking' feature to it when the touch screen is pressed, so it can be used to teach the time and things to my son.

Further down the line I would like to use the clock interface to define a variety of times and alarms; shutdown timers, trigger playlists and also define times for automation (think fish feeding, night lights et al).

PiTV

The first Service I want to add is a 'TV' like service; as in the previous build the main purpose of the device will be to play Media, of course. Rather than having playlists to choose from I would like to have the playlists appear as channels and make it look as if there is always something playing. Pressing the up/down buttons (or entering a number on a remote) would change the channels. I would like to also incorporate an 'Adverts' folder for us to drop content in to advertise upcoming events & news for my son, to be played between episodes of what ever channel he is on.

Channels

I would love to make this as modular as possible. I would love to use a 'Channels' folder and have my code compile it's own channel list when it starts up. In the channel folder could be scripts for defining the channel's number, name and channel information as well as a script for compiling the channel's content.

GUI

Touchscreen - when running in split screen mode (when the output pi is playing the channel content) I would like to have a simple GUI on the touchscreen with up/down and a numeric keypad for typing channel numbers (I'm thinking html for this - the main python script can then monitor the input from these buttons and pass commands to the second Pi).

When not passing media to the second Pi and just playing on the touch screen I will look into maybe playing the video with an overlay for a small up/down button in the corner. If not, no biggie; the manual buttons can be used.

I have had some time to ponder what I would like I hope to achieve with this device. I would love to make the GUI and associated coding as modular as possible in order to facilitate quick and easy expansion, and add modes and services as both my son grows and the project develops.

The device is going to feature 4 buttons on the front in a diamond configuration, and the left/right buttons shall enable scrolling/switching between the various Services of the device.

In order to achieve this I have been looking for inspiration and ideas on how to make it so, and I think I have found the answer...

GitHub user elParaguayo has been someone I have been following for a while, and his latest project features multiple services:

https://github.com/elParaguayo/RPI-Info-Screen

He refers to each services as a 'plugin', and uses a plugin folder. To add/remove services it's as easy adding/deleting them from this plugin folder.

I need to get my head around his code to see how it is done!

This is the most radical part of my rebuild; all of the other aspects have been touched on before in the previous iteration. However the introduction of a second Pi is completely new.

The two Pi's; one Model B and a B+, will be directly connected to each other with a small Ethernet cable; The Pi's do not require a crossover cable so a standard CAT5 will do.

Over this Miniature LAN the Output Pi(B+) will have all have all the media stored one memory cards/HDD, and will sit and monitor a websocket for commands to play videos from the Touchscreen Pi (B). The Touchscreen Pi will use a webserver to host the GUI and send any selected commands to the Output Pi. The touchscreen Pi will have Network File Sharing (NFS) Access to the Output Pi so it can manage playlist and also play videos itself if necessary.

So far here is how i hope to configure them:

Touchscreen Pi

• Static IP
• Tornado Web Server (handle GUI and sending play commands to the Output Pi
• NFS Client (for accessing videos from the other Pi when no output device connected)
• Wifi Dongle connected and bridged to the LAN (should allow both Pis internet access for playing youtube vids and more)
• VNC Server (For programming over the network from my Netbook)

Output Pi

• Static IP
• Web Client (for reading play commands from the web socket)
• NFS Server (for allowing access to files to the Touchscreen pi)
• VNC Server (For programming over the network from my Netbook)

I am hoping to make my GUI html based, using the Tornado Python library to serve 2 pages on the network; the actual GUI on one port and an admin-type page on another.

GUI

Serving the GUI will allow my son to access and use his Media player via his tablet when elsewhere in the house; not entirely necessary for videos but greatly useful if/when I expand the unit to run pygame games.

Admin Page

This second page will only be accessible by myself over the network to define settings for things such as timers, any automation settings etc

Using Tornado will also allow me to set up web sockets, which will be my primary method of passing command between the two Pi's - more on that in the 'Dual Pi Setup' Blog.

Using i2c and USB I would like to control various aspects of my son's room.

Things such as:

Arduino-based fish feeder

Various lights

Sound units (like sirens for Alarms etc)

I will post a sketch of what I am planning very soon:

Front Panel

Touch screen, with 4 buttons underneath for triggering underneath. Size of buttons TBC

Side Panels

Slots to hold an internal shelf, i2C and USB breakouts?

Bottom side

Holes for rubber feet to be screwed into

Back side

Power in, USB ports of Pi/s exposed for connection?

Inner shelf

For mounting Pis to.

The Enclosure could bear a resemblance to this great build; just change the disck drive on the front for some buttons and lose the keyboard/mouse :)

This one is reasonably straight forward:

• 12-19v power supply (probably from an old laptop charger looking for a new job).
• Stepdown to 12v to power the touch screen
• 3 x 5v stepdowns - 2 x Raspberry Pi, 1 x USB hub (if I chose to add one for it)

Power will go on the bottom in the enclosure.