This is a project I have been working on for my house. It makes a nice Photo Display with weather and the time. It can be easily customized to suit your needs. Below I will detail the project and how to set it up on a Raspberry Pi.
- First you will need to install Raspbian, the fastest way is to download the image from the raspberry pi site. Download the “Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit) with desktop and recommended software”
- Once downloaded extract it with windows explorer and you will now have an .img file.
- Install Etcher. Open it and select your SD card and the .img from earlier.
- Select Flash and it will write the OS to your SD card. When done insert into your PI.
- Once the SD card is inserted into your Raspberry Pi you can turn it in and it will boot into Raspbian.
- Next we will need to install Apache, Open the terminal and run the following steps….
- Install – sudo apt-get install apache2 -y
- Install PHP – sudo apt-get install php libapache2-mod-php -y
- Open the terminal (as you need elevated privileges to move files), and run the command – sudo pcmanfm
- Download my files (Link at bottom) and in the explorer windows from step 9 add to the /var/www/html folder.
- Add your own images to the folder and the PHP file will automatically find them.
- Run the code to disable the screen from going off and disable the mouse cursor.
- sudo apt-get install -y chromium-browser ttf-mscorefonts-installer unclutter x11-xserver-utils
- Now run this line to bring up the auto start file
- sudo nano /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart
- In the text editor that pops up change the line @xscreensaver -no-splash to #@xscreensaver -no-splash
- Next add the following (Note: The dashes before each word are double dashes – -)
@chromium-browser –kiosk –start-maximized –incognito http://localhost
@unclutter
@xset s off
@xset s noblank
@xset -dpms
- Press CTRL + o then Enter to save the text editor. Press CTRL + X to exit the text editor.
- To change the name on the PHP page simply open it (index.php) with a text editor like atom, or simply double click on the file and it will open on the Pi. Change the name in the h1 tag and save it.
- To change the weather location, you can go to this site https://weatherwidget.io and put in your location. Press get code and copy the URL for the widget into the widget on the PHP page using a text editor.
- And that’s it you should now have a working information screen / sideshow. Feel free to edit the page however you like. Plug it into a nice monitor and enjoy. You could also share the web folder via samba and add photos via the network. How To: Raspberry Pi Shared Folder
- Also if you need to close the sideshow to work on the PI just press Ctrl + Shift + Q
- I have also made a second version of the webpage – you can check it out here Project: Raspberry Pi Information Screen Refined
File – PHP Webpage Files and Folder
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Hi Jarrod,
I am a new PI User looking to use this code for my PC Case.
I would use a 5″ screen at the bottom of my case.
I partly understand this, but I do not really understand the code and do not want to break my pi.
Could you create a tutorial video or timelapse of what you did so I can visually follow step by step?
Thanks (:
btw I love your blog!
Hi Harrison,
Thanks so much!
That sounds cool, I don’t do videos but I have just re-written my guide and added images for reference.
Theres no way you can break your PI with software so give it a go. Worst comes to worst you can just reformat the SD Card.
If you get stuck or have any questions, feel free to comment again.