WoodenBoardPi

[HermannSW]

Until now my "Raspberry laptop" consisted of several distinct parts:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 5&t=219214

Yesterday I mounted everything besides small wireless keyboard onto a 4mm thick wooden board
(backside of board I used to test wireless payload drop mechanism):
- 7inch DPI LCD (https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/7inch_DPI_LCD)
- RGB 50P TO 40/50P adapter
- Pi3B

The adapter and Pi3B with diagonal screws with nuts, the LCD with two small dots of superglue on top left and right backside.

Two USB ports are used, one for wireless keyboard dongle, the other for Scorpi B+ gooseneck camera mount (with 70mm lens v1 camera):
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 8#p1493151

This is WoodenBoardPi in its home position when not moved around. The right part of board is reserved for mobile powering with 3S 1000mAh 25C lipo. Will be filled when I have resolved the undervoltage symbol issue, perhaps caused by LM2596 adjustable step-down module I try to use. This will be a good weather only outside laptop since eveything is unprotected. I already tested that WoodenBoardPi perfectly fits onto a 1.5m high music stand's plastic music rest for indoor/outdoor operation. I use 1m long camera flex cable to be able to put gooseneck camera mount into a 2nd unpowered Pi2B apart from WoodenBoardPi:



This is a screenshot (taken with raspi2png via ssh session) showing what the 70mm lens on v1 camera does show in raspistill preview. It is rainy outside, I am quite impressed that even horizon tree tops can be seen. Even more since the image was taken through black window-frame fly-screen (2mm wide hexagonal meshes of 0.1mm filament):

Code: Select all

33.3m  next house gable top (bottom right, roughly 5m higher than camera)
62.2m  low energy street lighting top (bottom left, even higher)
>500m  horizon tree tops

This is gmaps-pedometer.com measurement between location of WoodenBoardPi in our house and street lighting top:



P.S:
I found a workaround for outdoor powering with our car:
A cigarette lighter to 5V/2.1A adapter, then one or more USB extension cables, and finally converter cable to Pi micro USB.

[HermannSW]

I switched to the other side of the house, into (also 1st floor) bathroom, this time with music stand.
WoodenBoardPi sits easily on plastic music rest, the Wireless keyboard has a safe place there as well.



The target I had was to verify clear line of sight to house of my friend Jan, 1.73km distant, on the other side of river Neckar. Clear line of sight might be advantageous for some kind of wireless communication. We want to avoid laser light, instead maybe try whether proprietary ESP32 Wifii low rate feature that is capable of doing 1km will allow for 1.73km as well. If not, with directional antenna ESP32 can even do 10km distane well, but transmit power needs to be kept an eye upon to avoid violating regulations.



My friend's house is in center of 2MP (v1 camera mode1) photo.
As can be seen clear line of sight is given to the rooms in his house's 1st floor, not disturbed by trees.
Surrounding of friend's house is a bit pale, but hey -- it is 1.73km distant:



This is screenshot showing the view I had while calibrating the 70mm lens with camera on gooseneck mount:

[B.Goode]

Thank you for sharing your 'journey' and design adventure.

I don't remember the exact details because it is some years since I had to implement links like this, but maybe simple 'line of sight' although necessary may not be sufficient for a reliable service. There is something called the Fresnel Zone which has to be interference free, and that is broader in all directions perpendicular to the point-to-point line, being at a maximum at the mid-point.

Apologies if you have already taken this into account, or if it does not impact your choice of technology.

[HermannSW]

Thanks for that information, I did not know about Fresnel zone:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_zone

All I did in the past was experimentally determine maximal length where Wifi connection works.
In basement of IBM Böblingen lab I found that even 170m inhouse in line of sight with quality 30/70 are no problem.
That surprises me now wrt Fresnel zone, since the basement floor width and height are less than 3m:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 0#p1204793

[HermannSW]

It turned out to be good to have WoodenBoardPi, for an unplanned hospital stay.
All I had to ask my family to bring to hospital was:

• the computer on the wooden board
• the white power supply with raspberry logo
• one of the small wireless keyboards

After updating /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf with the hospital network and getting login ticket, internet access did work immediately (and I was able to post this):

Code: Select all

pi@raspberrypi3B:~ $ head -8 /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=DE

network={
	ssid="GRN-Gastnetz"
	key_mgmt=NONE
}
pi@raspberrypi3B:~ $ 

P.S:
Bottle of fiz water is part of WoodenBoardPi here:

[HermannSW]

I do own and use two Waveshare 7inch displays happily (as long as the LCD is near enough to my eyes).

In case I need a really big display I would buy a refurbished 19-22 inch display for 20-25$ on local amazon.
Even if they are VGA only, a cheap VGAtoHDMI converter allows to use with Raspberry PIs.

Yesterday I searched aliexpress.com for a little more than 7inch LCDs.
I was really surprised to find a 9inch 1024x600 LCD incl. driver for less than 26$ -- more for less?

Here is comparison of official Raspberry touch display, the Waveshare LCD and the new 9inch LCD.
As stated before I do not need touch on display, because I have touch on wireless keyboard:



I cannot answer "and what is the catch?" question yet, will update here when LCD will have arrived in a month or so:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32951973366.html
Btw, if ever only the LCD gets broken, a replacement 9inch LCD does cost 15$ only.

[HermannSW]

I had to delete 1st version of this posting because resolution stuff was wrong -- this is corrected version.

All fine with new display that arrived in 20 days from China -- unexpected by me that it just works!

9" HDMI LCD runs 1024x600@60Hz.
I added these lines to /boot/config.txt:

Code: Select all

pi@raspberrypi4B:~ $ tail -6 /boot/config.txt 
max_usb_current=1
hdmi_force_hotplug=1 
config_hdmi_boost=10
hdmi_group=2 
hdmi_mode=87 
hdmi_cvt 1024 600 60 6 0 0 0
pi@raspberrypi4B:~ $ 

For X11 running I created this file as well:

Code: Select all

pi@raspberrypi4B:~ $ cat .xsessionrc 
xrandr --output HDMI-1 --mode 1024x600
pi@raspberrypi4B:~ $ 

I have no spare CR2025 button cell at home, so was not able to test the IR remote control.
But the buttons allow to control LCD onscreen display, I increased brightness to 80% from default 50% which was too dark for me.
Below the OSD you can see raspivid 1920x1080 preview window at 50% size displayed.
LCD display adapter is powered vi cable plugged into one of Pi4B USB ports.

Here is 4608×3456 photo of the whole setup -- I still cannot believe that the LCD plus stuff does cost less than 26$ with free shipping in total:

[HermannSW]

With aBUGSworstnightmare's help I was able to get two different HDMI displays configured correctly for X11:
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=267450#p1624235

I did screw the display driver board as well as the keyboard plate to shelf above 1360x768 HDMI monitor.
I took LCD stand from the one of my 7" Waveshare LCDs that is superglued to the wooden board for the 9" LCD on the shelf.
"xwininfo -root" correctly reports 1024x600 | 1360x768 = 2384x768 root window ("dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d" enabled).

Right click and select "View image" to display photo correctly, and zoom into 22MP image:



P.S:
I found the explanation why the forum does display the (Samsung Galaxy A40) photo 90° rotated (when opening with gimp).
The EXIF rotate flag is ignored by forum software, or by my Firefox browser:

exif.rotated.jpg (26.92 KiB) Viewed 8929 times

P.P.S:
Display can be used outdoor as well (with good weather):
viewtopic.php?f=43&t=267563&p=1638320#p1642029

[HermannSW]

I do have two 7" Waveshare displays.
While one is always part of WoodenBoardPi, the other was seldom used (after I got previously described 9" HDMI display).

I did buy a 15$ 1.6m high light stand and 2$ 360° tripod head recrently, details here:
viewtopic.php?f=43&t=281646&p=1709485#p1708795

I did not only want to use it for Raspberry HQ camera, but for carrying a Raspberry Pi in addition, with 7" display.
Today I did it, did dremel two 3mm diameter holes and one 1/4" hole into 2*10 flat gray Lego piece.
Then I used two M3x10 screws with nuts to connect to Pi2B (for now).
Finally I superglued 2*10 normal yellow Lego piece below the flat grey one, superglue because it should not fall down,
Finally I used two drops of superglue to fixated 7" LCD on the yellow Lego piece.

On top of the 360° tripod mount, that fixates the grey Lego piece as well, you can see HQ camera for now.
Later I plan to mount high precision stepper pan-tilt camera system between 360° tripod mount and HQ camera:
https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=647703.0

Similat to "WoodenBoardPi" this could be named "LightStandPi":
https://stamm-wilbrandt.de/en/forum/20200808_205402.jpg
Scaled to 15%:

20200808_205402.15%.jpg

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Here you can see that Pi2B has Wifi dongle as well as Wifi keyboard dongle, 70mm lens nicely shows trees at horizon more than 500m away:
https://stamm-wilbrandt.de/en/forum/20200808_205907.jpg
Scaled to 15%:

20200808_205907.15%.jpg

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P.S:
On the photos you see the Pi powered by mains adapter.
Alternatively everything can be powered from 4S lipo via LM2596 stepdown converter for outdoor use:
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=222525&p=1364940#p1642901

P.P.S:
I added green laser (prototypical with tape for now) to LightStandPi:
viewtopic.php?f=43&t=281646&p=1709644#p1709644

[LTolledo]

nice project you have there

somehow it got me itching to make a "wooden laptop case" for such a setup
even a polycarbonate version of such

...so everything would be safe to "lug around"

[HermannSW]

Nice cheap level addon:
https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?Se ... lash+level

Placing onto HQ camera back focus lock screw holder seems to do the right thing for LightStandPi camera mounted on 360° tripod head:

20200814_144143.15%.jpg

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[HermannSW]

There is a 3 axis level version:
https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?Se ... ter+Camera

3axis.camera.level.jpg

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I will not buy that before having a real use case for it.

The use case for the bought level is to bring top of 360° tripod into horizontal for all directions.
That can be useful even when not directly mounting HQ camera on it as now.
But when inserting two axis precision stepper camera pan tilt system between 360° tripod mount and HQ camera.
That way the bottom stepper motor will turn horizontal in all directions if needed, regardless of terrain outdoor lightstand stands on.
https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topi ... msg4631628

[HermannSW]

Here is comparison of official Raspberry touch display, the Waveshare LCD and the new 9inch LCD.
As stated before I do not need touch on display, because I have touch on wireless keyboard:

I just used 7" and 9" display side-by-side, displaying same image.
26$ in total 9" HDMI display is rgb888, and not only rgb666 as 7" waveshare display !

[HermannSW]

On vacation it always took some time to setup the 9" HDMI display with display driver and manual control. And after done, it took time as well to disassemble.

Today I bought superglue in local supermarket, did cut wooden plate of WoodenBoardPi and did cut slot for flat display cable. Then I used few drops of superglue to fixate 9" display on frontside ...

20200825_145551.15%.jpg

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... and display driver and manual control on backside of wooden plate:

20200825_145624.15%.jpg

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The stand I use is borrowed from 7" Waveshare DPMI display.

ithout screws and nuts I prefer not to fixate the Pi4B on the plate for now.
Nice high 26$ in total display to work with ... I will call it WoodenBoardPi2.

[HermannSW]

After a lot of use in different environments, the drops of superglue did not hold anymore.
I will fix that with superglue when I will get superglue here in hospital.
Until then display can be used as in photo, with stand or something else keeping it nearly vertical:

WoodenBoardPi.noSuperGlue.33%.jpg

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[HermannSW]

I used LightStandPi sofar for HQ cameras only, which have a tripod mount:
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=254059&p=1739924&h ... i#p1709628

Today I wanted to use v2 NoIR camera with LightStandPi, and I used cheap smartphone holder for tripods.
I then insereted 2*8 Lego piece, which is now firmly carried by smartphone holder.
I did Dremel 2mm holes into two 2x4 Lego pieces standing out to front, and used M2 screws and nuts to fixate v2 NoIR camera.
Now I can bring v2 camera into any position, like the HQ camera:

20201104_145534.15%.jpg

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[HermannSW]

Lately I powered Pi4B with 9" HDMI display and wireless keyboard USB dongle from my 13000mAh Anker power bank (that can deliver 5V/3A):
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=222525&p=1721926

I did use the powerbank to power LightStandPi as well, but always had to search for a place where to lay the powerbank, eg:
viewtopic.php?f=43&t=279752&p=1750312#p1750312



Today I tried the little bag that came with the powerbank, and it perfectly fits to the height-change screws of LightStandPi.
You can even see the two blue dots of powerbank through the bag, indicating that >50% power is left:

20201107_200418.15%.jpg

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[HermannSW]

Some time ago I received <4$ umbrella holder, never tested it with LightStandPi sofar.
Of course it is not needed inhouse, but it does not hurt either:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000006901743.html

Now everything is attached to light stand of LightStandPi:

• Pi2B with
  • wireless keyboard USB dongle
  • Wifi USB dongle
  • 7" display
  • HQ camera with 35mm C-mount lense
• powerbank in bag
• 360° tripod mini ballhead mount
• umbrella holder with umbrella

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EmRLbSGXUAA ... =4096x4096

20201108_032522.15%.jpg

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[HermannSW]

I found similar 10" 1024x600 HDMI display, 14$ more expensive than the 9" display:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33024642767.html

I did only order the 10" (replacement) display for 25$ with free shipping, because that display has a 40pin connector as well, and the display controller looked like the one I already have. Display did arrive yesterday after only 29 days from China.

Today I wanted to try the display, and layed my WoodenBoardPi onto ground with its 9" display on the underside. Then I disconnected the 9" display 40pin cable, connected new 10" display and booted the Pi4B connected -- works like a charme!
https://stamm-wilbrandt.de/en/forum/20201114_095219.jpg (16MP photo)

20201114_095219.15%.jpg

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So you can buy complete 9" 1024x600 HDMI display for 26$ in total, 10" 1024x600 HDMI display for 39.90$.


Recently I ordered some FPGA development boards for investigating FPGAs.
I found cheap "Lichee Tang Nano Minimalist FPGA development board", which has a 40pin display connector !
So I ordered bundle inclusive 4.3" 480x272 display for only 15.90$ plus 1.11$ shipping:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001275871300.html

Has not arrived yet, but perhaps Lichee Tang Nano can drive the 9"/10" displays I have as well ...

Lichee_Tang_Nano.png

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P.S:
I borrowed adjustable display stand for my WoodenBoardPi from a Waveshare 7" display.
Recently found that adjustable display stand on aliexepress -- two for 8.58$ in total:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33018526998.html

display_stand.png

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[HermannSW]

Today I bought superglue in local supermarket, did cut wooden plate of WoodenBoardPi and did cut slot for flat display cable. Then I used few drops of superglue to fixate 9" display on frontside ...
20200825_145551.15%.jpg


... and display driver and manual control on backside of wooden plate:

For my work on Pi400 laptop I wanted to be able to switch display (now that I have 9" and 10").
Up to now display was directly connected to wooden board with 8 drops of superglue.
As you can see in next photo, there are two flat 2x4 Lego pieces superglued onto the display backside.
And at matching positions two 2x4 flat Lego pieces to wooden board.
There is one 2x4 flat Lego piece connector for the display controller as well.
Finally there are two 2x2 flat Lego connectors for manual display control.
Lego connectors can be loosened, and eg. display can be changed back to 9" (this is 10").
All those connectors can be seen in this photo:
https://stamm-wilbrandt.de/en/forum/20201121_152529.jpg (16MP smartphone photo)

20201121_152529.15%.jpg

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This is new backside view of WoodenBoardPi3.
Power bank bag hangs on bottom 2x2 flat Lego connector between wooden board and manual control.
In it is Anker 13000mAh powerbank, as well as parts of HDMI as well as 5V display power USB cable.
Only HDMI cable connector and USB-C power cable from powerbank go under wooden board to front:
https://stamm-wilbrandt.de/en/forum/20201121_152324.jpg (16MP smartphone photo)

20201121_152324.15%.jpg

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The next photo shows why those efforts have been done.
The front of "easy to move anywhere" Pi400 laptop looks absolutely clean cable wise:

20201121_152136.15%.jpg

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The photos were taken in myGardenOffice, but today with 2°C it is really not the temperature to work outside ...

[RedMarsBlueMoon]

I like it!
I actually started doing a amazon-box cardboard pi I'm hoping to get back to it soon!
Do you have any tips for pegs or spacers that the pi could be mounted on?

[HermannSW]

Do you have any tips for pegs or spacers that the pi could be mounted on?

In initial posting of this thread, I did drill two holes in the wooden board and used two screws and nuts to fixate the Pi on the wooden board, no spacers needed. I had different PIs mounted on wooden board, currently its a Pi3B+.

For the Pi400 laptop nothing needs to be mounted on the wooden board, the computer is inside the keyboard

These are the three "models" dealt with in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=254059#p1550239 (WoodenBoardPi)
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=254059#p1709628 (LightStandPi)
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=254059#p1765050 (WoodenBoardDisplay [plus powerbank])

woodenPIs.jpg

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Lately I use LightStandPi mostly with HQ camera not mounted on top of light stand, but attached to my cheap Telescope (I just superglued a CStoC adapter ring to both eyepieces, now using HQ camera with Telescope is easy):
viewtopic.php?f=43&t=290331#p1759139



P.S:
The new double flat Lego piece superglue method of attaching stuff to the wooden board will allow to swap display controller out with Lychee Tang Nano FPGA development board for testing to drive the 9"/10" displays with that board instead of the delivered 4.3" display:
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=254059&p=1765407#p1760533

[HermannSW]

Recently I ordered some FPGA development boards for investigating FPGAs.
I found cheap "Lichee Tang Nano Minimalist FPGA development board", which has a 40pin display connector !
So I ordered bundle inclusive 4.3" 480x272 display for only 15.90$ plus 1.11$ shipping:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001275871300.html

Has not arrived yet, but perhaps Lichee Tang Nano can drive the 9"/10" displays I have as well ...

I did not read up on my existing bigger displays enough.

The (26$) 9" 1024x600 HDMI display (10" works as well with that driver board) has 50pin connector:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32951973366.html

9inch.50pin.jpg

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And the 7" Waveshare RGB LCD hat has 50pin connectors as well:
https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/7inch_LCD_for_Pi

Waveshare.50pin.jpg

Waveshare.50pin.jpg (39.41 KiB) Viewed 5522 times

So none of those displays will connect to Tang Nano 40pin connector.
Anyway it is interesting to have an FPGA development board that can output to 4.3" display!
Tang Nano with display arrived, but I have photo only; I am curious on dev board delivery demo when powering it when back home 12/14:
https://github.com/Hermann-SW/FPGAs#11302020




P.S:
I am happy with my wooden (cheap) constructions for my 7"/9"/10" displays.

In case you like plastic enclosures more, I just found some on aliexpress (prices with free shipping):

• 16.50$ 7" https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000662800606.html (see below bottom left)
• 19.90$ 10.1" https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000851776354.html (see below bottom right)
• 39.00$ 7" https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000847903638.html
  enclosure inclusive display and driver board;
  only 840x480, but HDMI/VGA/AV inputs

Filename File comment Size Status
display_plastic_cases.png

display_plastic_cases.png (176.84 KiB) Viewed 5522 times

[HermannSW]

And the 7" Waveshare RGB LCD hat has 50pin connectors as well:
https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/7inch_LCD_for_Pi



So none of those displays will connect to Tang Nano 40pin connector.

That is probably not true, just found this RGB to LCD adapter on aliexpress today:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33001403081.html

3. Driver Board: Support 5 inch (40PIN LCD), 7 inch(50PIN LCD), 10.1 inch(50PIN LCD)

40/50pin support is done by this adapter:

Filename File comment Size Status
RGB_50P_to_40_50P.jpg

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Maybe that adapter allows Tang Nano to drive my 50pin 7/9/10" 1024x600 displays as well ...

[HermannSW]

Ooops, I do own that adapter board already two times as part of my Waveshare 7" displays.
I was only able to see that after disconnecting the display cable from JP2:

20201210_143927.15%.jpg

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And I found the pinout for 40/50 pins for that board ...

2020-12-10-144952_1360x768_scrot.jpg

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