instructables

Private TV-channel for the Elderly

by SebastiaanJansen

Memories are a tricky issue for my grandmother who is turning 94 years old this year. So I added a tv-channel to her
television set to help her remember family members and key moments in her life. For this I've used a free Dropbox
account, a Raspberry Pi and a VCR, but the VCR is optional depending on your usecase.
With this system my family members can add their pictures to a shared Dropbox folder and they'll automatically
show up on the channel.

So the ow is as follows:

The Raspberry Pi has a fullscreen Chrome browser and is connected to the TV.
The Raspberry pi is connected to the local Wi-Fi network.
The Chrome browser loads the webapplication.
The webapplication talks to Dropbox and requests a random picture from a speci c folder.
The webapplication shows the picture in a nice interface together with the clock and a news ticker.

You can either connect the Raspberry Pi directly to the TV using HDMI and use that as an input source, or you can
use a VCR to make it create your own channel. Details on that will be explained in the last step.

The project is completely open-source and the source code can be found here on my GitHub page.

Supplies:

Raspberry Pi, doesn't matter which version

HDMI cable
(Free) Dropbox account
Optional: VCR

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Step 1: Setup DietPi on the Raspberry Pi

Why am I using DietPi instead of regular Raspbian? Dietpi is a more optimized operating system for multiple single
board devices and includes a handy software con gurator, including a fullscreen webbrowser.

To install DietPi on your Raspberry Pi you can follow the instructions here.

If you prefer a video tutorial, here's a YouTube video highlighting the basics of installing DietPi and software.

But the gist of it is as follow:

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 Download the latest release from their website.
Unpack the downloaded archive
Download and install Etcher
Insert the microSD card in your computer
Use Etcher to write the extracted image to the microSD card
Go To "my computer", select the SD card and open it.
Locate the le called dietpi.txt and open it with wordpad.
Set AUTO_SETUP_NET_WIFI_ENABLED=1
Open dietpi-wi .txt and open it with wordpad.
Change aWIFI_SSID[0]='MySSID' and aWIFI_KEY[0]='MyWi Key'
Save changes to edited les
Plug the microSD card in your raspberry pi, but leave it o for now, we'll set it up later.

Now you've installed the operating system Dietpi!

Step 2: Setup Dropbox

Go to Dropbox.com and create a free Dropbox account with 2GB of storage. Then add a new folder where you want
your pictures to be stored and add a few as a test.

Now for the hard part, setting up the access token. We need this to securily get the pictures from your account and
display it in the webapplication.

1. Log in to your Dropbox account and follow this link: https://www.dropbox.com/developers/apps

2. Click on the blue button with the text "Create app"
3. Select the option Dropbox API.
4. Select the option "Full Dropbox"
5. Fill the most creative name you can nd in the "App name" input.
6. Click on "Create app" to submit.
7. In the middle of the page there is a section G e ne ra t e d a cce s s t o ke n , click on "Generate".
8. Copy the generated access token and save it in a text le somewhere, we'll need it later
9. Get a rush of adrenaline because you're building something cool!

If you want to new ticker on the bottom like I have, add a le called "ticker.txt" to your pictures folder. Each line in
that txt le will then be displayed next to eachother.

Step 3: Install the Full-screen Webbrowser

Now that you have a working Raspberry Pi, it's time to make it display the stu we want!

If you have an external monitor and keyboard, you can directly work on the Raspberry pi, otherwise you'll need to

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set it up over the network with SSH. Follow the instructions of step 4 on this page to set up your SSH client. When
that's done, nd the IP address using the instructions on this page. Follow the same steps as if you directly have a
keyboard connected.

NO T E: The hostname is not ra s pbe rry pi. lo ca l but die t pi. lo ca l for DietPi.

Log in with username " ro o t " and password " die t pi ", without the parentheses. You then get the infamous bash
shell, but don't be scared! It's just as scared of you as you are of it. Once you get to know the ins and outs of the
daunting white-on-black screen, you'll realise how powerful it really is. But for now, we'll stick to just a couple of
commands to install our good ol' chromium browser.

enter the command "dietpi-software" and press the enter key.

On the blue and gray screen you move your cursor using the tab and arrow keys. You select using the
enter key.
Select "Search" and press the enter key.
In the prompt enter "chrome" and press the enter key
In the search results select the "chromium fullscreen browser" and press the spacebar key.
go to "Ok" and press the enter key.
Select "Install" and press the enter key.Database
Now the browser is installing! After that's done all we need to do is set the link to our photoframe
webapp and tell DietPi to automatically start on boot. We'll do that by following these steps:
By now you're presented with the bash shell again, you know? The one with the black background
and white letters.
Enter the command "dietpi-con g" and press the enter key.
Go to "Autostart Options" and press the enter key.
You're now presented with a list containing "chromium fullscreen browser". Select it and press the
enter key.
You're now prompted the enter the url of the photo app. Remember that access token from the
previous step? We'll need it here.
The url is as follows: https://sebastiaanjansen.be/dropbox-photo-frame/?
accessToken=YOUR_ACCESSTOKEN_YOU_COPIED_BEFORE
Press the enter key to exit out of the autostart options and then again to exit the options program.
Enter the command "reboot" and behold your very own digital-photo-frame-with-own-pictures-that-
are-connected-to-dropbox, or Digital Photo Frame for short.

Congratulations! You made it to the end! So what you've con gured is a raspberry pi which contains the linux
kernel, which contains a lot of linux programs to start the chromium browser, which starts are webapp. Couldn't be
simpler, right?

Just between you and me? You did great! I'm sure it's the bestest photo-framiest photo frame in the world and you
should be very proud of yourself, I sure am!

Step 4: Optional: Set Up the VCR

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Oh, so using HDMI isn't good enough for you? Fair
enough, it wasn't good enough for me either, because
I wanted to use the built-in tv tuner to really make it a
part of the TV experience. My goal was that it really
came up as a legit tv-channel.
So since I work at the Flemish national broadcaster
VRT I asked a colleague how he would do it, expecting
a very high-tech and maybe expensive piece of
equipment. He dryly answered that it could be done
with most VCRs! At least that's the case here in
Belgium.
use adapter cables to connect it then directly to your
VCR. So if you hookup your VCR, instead of directly
plugging the coax input cable of your provider inside
your TV or decoder, you connect it to your VCR rst
and then using a second coax cable, connect it to your
TV or decoder. The VCR will create a new channel
based on the videotape, or in our case, the raspberry
pi composite input.
All that rests is using the scan function on your TV to
look for a new analog channel and it should pop right
up!

I'm very curious to see how this can be handled

Most VCRs have a composite input, that's the yellow around the world, so please don't hesitate to
barrel connector and the raspberry pi also has that comment on how you would do it!
connector, it's hidden inside the audio jack. You can

all you need is an RF adapter (basically what the VCR is functioning as), Such as
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077VRY7SC
Oh, cool to know, thanks!

they also make HDMI -> RCA boxes pretty cheap *(Great for Pi Zero/Chromecasts)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E3RBJNW
Those boxes are normally not needed for a raspberry pi, they have native composite out:
https://magpi.raspberrypi.org/articles/rca-pi-zero
Ahh, but zero requires soldering and HDMI is higher res - helpful for those that don't solder, or
those that want clearer picture (even scaled down its usually better than composite outs) and also
for the solder phobic even the pi zero wh doesn't come with the tv out(nor the reset header next to
it) header soldered hdmi also does audio that on a zero would need a usb or i2c "soundcard"
Aha, thanks for the tip!

I wish I could make one of these but electronics are not my expertise and coding, for get about it.
My old man would love this for sure. He's always pining for old movies and TV shows.
Is there maybe a hackerspace or makerspace nearby where people can help you?

That VCR thing is very clever! Definitely a helpful idea for the elderly.

Thanks for sharing the VCR tip! Going to see if I can use that for my security camera feed (rpi
chrome on hdmi now). Beats switching input for sure.
Please report back if it works!

this is actually really cool too, kudos for doing something for your comunity :)

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Thanks!

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