PiFold

I had the chance to play around with some basic case ideas, each with a different idea in mind. Most of these are big enough to exclude use in your pocket. If you are a fellow lover of cargo pockets though you still might be golden. ymmv

1) The Adafruit Special - Adafruit has some of the coolest boxes. Over the years I have collected the big and the small. This one pictured to the far left is the perfect size to fit all the works of the PiFold with a bit of room to spare. You can easily secure them to the inside of the box and make a small opening for easy recharging. Basic Black will go well in most handbags even for the most posh of events. It would also fit right in with a backpack filled with assorted Smiths and Bahaus cassettes.

2) The Gift That Keeps Giving - Post seasonal boxes, yeah we have a few. The one pictured in the middle front was a gift card box. The PiFold works fit snugly inside. Tape shut, add an external opening for recharging...instant awesomesauce gifting.

3) Duct Tape Wallet - Yes, I have a duct tape "problem". Middle Back is a quick nearly done wallet. All that is left is to secure pifold works inside, tape the sides leaving an opening for the recharger port aaaaaaand scene. In certain circles a duct tape wallet is still an object de rigueur.

4) Magic The Servering. These boxes can be found around our house even where they should not be. The PiFold works, the MtG instructions and some cards fit nicely in this box. Good for storing sideboards, dupes, tokens or even small d20/life counters while housing your PiFold. In certain settings it will go unnoticed.

5) The Anyfesto Tower Case - http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:725343 - Its big, its red, it has openings for both recharging and antenna as well as mounting options....it is the tower case I moded up for the Anyfesto project that PiFold spawned from. As it is it can easily house the PiFold works you could add a USB Hub, maybe a USB Sound dongle and speaker, a USB SDR dongle for use as a source to repeat, a much much larger battery for longer use...etc etc etc.

Given the compact size of the PiZero and needed components the possibilities for placement are vast.

Use over the last few days has been stable. Some chnges have been put in place for shake down. Here are the particulars.

Software

I have made a few tweaks to the landing page and to the configs. In the next day or so I will lock them in and post up the changes in the instructions as well as the new landing page to reflect Mumble services and some odds and ends.

I will also post up a list of devices and apps I use as both client and admin.

PiFM is still being a royal pain. One solution I tried did weird time stretching of the sounds, other simply will not play nice on the pizero. Having one sound source being used to feed the audio stream and the fm broadcast is a big point for me. On the large stationary Anyfesto rig I use for my home net I had to use an external FM transmitter as PiFM failed totally on Pi 2's. Obviously with the PiFold that is not going to be an option. So the testing continues to find a solution that I can get working with this setup.

Hardware

I played around with different switch options to turn the thing on and off. I have not had the time to work up a solution that does a proper shutdown and poweroff, so I am still sshing in to do a sync before flipping the switch..

Rethinking placement in the wallet. I have tried using the setup in a nice leather wallet I have and yeah, I am not cutting a usb charge hol in that. What I did was orientate the charge port up so the cable can be slipped in at night. Works.

The thought came to me that maybe I need to secure the charge unit and pizero to a thin but sturdy backplane and have a velcro solution to secure that into the wallet. The goal would be to have a stable solution that you could move around when you need.

Another thought, a request actually, was to have a solution that would also allow it to be installed in a purse/handbag/backpack. Sure, the more the merrier. Reuse reuse reuse.

When I get some time this weekend I will be posting up outcomes to those thoughts.

If anyone has input on anything post em up in the next day or so and I will try to get them included

I have been loving reading all the PiZero Contest entrants. One of them, the Minecraft Rescue Radio, got me thinking about adding a Mumble server to Anyfesto and thus the PiFold.

Why? Use Case... secure local area voice chats. Mumble has clients on Android and iOs as well as Linux/Win/Mac so it has a wide base of platforms. Communication over a short distance when cellular/internet is out or not friendly is a great reason. The landing page could have info on using it , even have the various clients available for dling.

The big questions I need to answer are load issues, both cpu and bandwidth. This is definitely winding up in Anyfesto proper but load issues might keep it out of the PiFold.

Testing to start in the next day or so.

Suiting up for interviews gave me the idea of using the otherwise unused neck ornament for something different...thus the PiFold Tie Edition.

It required a bit of destitching and placement of clasp/hidden duct tape but it did work. Interesting side benefit, wiring the FM antenna thru the full run of the tie. If i were to do this up proper i would look into an easy to insert pouch solution .

End result, the swagger and sway of the tie was greatly changed. The first time your tie Clunks against a desk it will make you stop for a bit. Not sure I would wear this to any but the coolest/savvy of interviews but as an option it was a fun alternate application.

If I were more fashionable I could see this being a great addition to a cummerbund.

'We are the goon squad and we are coming to town, beep beep"

"Why the heck would you want something like that?"

Fair question for many a project. Having worked with community wireless groups, doing up a couple of different local content geegaws and in general following various sharing projects I have seen a numbers of reasons to answer Why. Here then are some that float to the top.

Gatherings- Game nights, political rallies, hackerfests, foocamps, study groups... All these and more are places where having a local stash of info, files and media might come in handy.

Intertubez Deadspots - Hospitals, schools, regions of government regulation, Where ever it is you can not or should not use the greater internetwork of networks. If you are worried about being caught with subversive/unlegal items then the quick palming/breaking of the SD card might be an action to practice.

Silent Disco/Rave/Baroque Event- Set up the play list, hand out the SSID, put on your headphones and dance/flail/gigue about wildly.

Data Deaddrop- When used with a solar option, like the one detailed in this project, or near a reliable power source you can house this project in a nice outdoor weather shielding case and put in a location of use. Magnets work well for some placements as does gorilla strength duct tape. To help abate any moisture issue in the case pesky silica packs help keep moister away from the works, as does a diaper. Fatherhood has made for some fascinating McGuyverings.

Because, reasons... Spiritual, religious or just plain philanthropic there are reasons above and beyond the ones listed. Some call it doing a mitzvah, others pin it to dharma, still others hold that building ways to share grows better communities. Whatever the reason if you become a walking talking all dancing all sharing ap of your nearby world...then who knows what good might come of it.

Disclaimers

All of the above come with the standard terms of ymmv, consult your local laws and regulations, do not be evil and if itching persists please see a doctor.

Having spent a few days with the PiFold rig several points have risen to the top.

• I only have the one PiZero and it is being used for several projects prototypes. I have not secured it to the wallet in any but the most reversible of methods. It shifts a bit over the course of a day in a pocket. As soon as I have a second PiZero to dedicate I want to solder the power from the battery unity to it and secure it firmly to the wallet. I might also look into soldering in a very low profile USB port or even hardwiring the WIFI USB module to the PiZero
• I would love to have a power switch solution in place as well. This can be done on the Powerboost , so sooner than latter.
• I fixed the placement of the charge port of the Powerboost to be closer to the edge of the wallet so that the opening for a usb cable is much neater than before.
• I found several templates to make your own tyvek wallets online. It might be fun to have a template that is easy to customize.
• PiFM and VLC linkage still needs work. ALso placement of the antenna in the wallet is a must fix. Again having a dedicate PiZero would be a boon.
• I need to close up, or at the very least set off by default, some of the features that come with Pirate/LibraryBox. Droopy and Chat are the two I could see as being not wanted or needed by some. Should be an easy config thing.
• I find I am using it more and more as I work on it...imagine that. Having this on me means I am never far from a stash of music and books and I am able to share with others easily. I am reminded of the first family vacation I included a nas and AP into the must have equipment for the car.
• Kids want a Minecraft server included. Yeah...maybe the Pi version but not the Tekit+++ modpocylapse they think of as a server.
• More Pixies...srsly...no sleep till Debasser. Tangential to this, the idea of a DJ request msg/chat? I am not sure of this one.

During the day I noticed that while listening to the audio stream from my PiFold things stopped after every song/show. At first I though it was the device I was listening to the stream on. I tried several, all the same. Frustrating. After restarting the client on my device a few times I made a note to do some digging into the VLC wiki for mention of this.

Sure enough, there it was on the VLC Wiki .

I have updated the install steps to make the fix in /etc/vlc/start.sh

sudo -u vlc cvlc -vvv -I http --http-password $VLC_PASWD  --http-host $VLC_IP --http-port $VLC_PORT  --sout-keep --sout='#duplicate{dst=rtp{mux=ts,dst=10.11.21.1:8086},dst=gather:std{access=http,mux=mpeg1,dst=:8085},dst=display,select="novideo"}'  --loop  /home/pi/content/Radio/playlist.m3u

Once in place I have not had a stop in hours.

You will note I stuck an RTP stream option in there. It is not done fully but it is the plan to have more than one road to Rome.

As I was dorking about with PiFM I took a few moments to find a bit of code to create a playlist of all the mp3 in under the content/Radio/ directory and make that playlist the default start up media. Sprinkle the randomness and all that is needed are cheesy bumpers.

cd /home/pi/content/Radio
find /home/pi/content/Radio/ -type f \( -name "*.mp3" \) | sort > /home/pi/content/Radio/playlist.m3u
chmod a+rx /home/pi/content/Radio/playlist.m3u

sudo nano /etc/vlc/start.sh

and replace that part with.

/home/pi/content/Radio/playlist.m3u

Reboot the server

sudo sync
sudo reboot

All the mp3 files will now be served up in their time.

"I am a D.J., I am what I play" D.B.

I did some rejiggering of the landing page users will be served up when they connect to PiFold . I tried to get as much utility onto the page so that users will know what they can do and what it is they have joined.

You can get the index.html and logo.png files in the Files section of this project. Move the files over to /opt/piratebox/www/ and chmod them.

Yep, that is a mention of FM there...still working on making PiFM work a bit nicer. More on that soon.