Computer Shopper - UK (2020-01)

ADVANCEDPROJECTS

ISSUE383|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JANUARY2020 125

ADVANCEDPROJECTS

DIGITALMUSCCOLLECTIONShave
stopped beingpersonal, with multiroom
audio setups and Bluetooth speakers now
becoming theeenorm. But possibly the m
liberating wayyyto share your tune s
touchscreen sssystem that anyone ue
Or perhaps yooooouuuussssttttiiiillllllllwwwwaaaannnnttttttttooookkkkeeeeeeeeppppyyyyoooouuuurrrr
music to yours lf,btj t nt
fish your phone ou o our c e to
change the trrr k. Eih r t u h
jukebox is ahad agt
and pretty eas to ma ey sel.
We’ll start it ep nt,
around aRaspppppbbbbeeeerrrrrrrryyyyPPPPiiii.WWWWeeeeuuuusssseeeeddddaaaaPPPPiiii 3333
mainly becausssewehad on
need to buy yyyour Pi, you mayas
the new Pi 4(((Shopper379), as it’s t s
price.While aaacheaper,lower-power Pi Zer
WH would beeeatempting choice fora
touchscreen sssystem, it won’t fit thecases
forthe OfficiaaallllRRRRaspbbbberryPPPPiiii 7777 iiiinTTTTouchhhhscreen
that we’ve useeed. The standard case has aneat
enclosure at ttthe back r our Pi, which other
cases lack. It’sssprobably better to protect the
Pi from dust aaand knocks forthis project, as it
will be on disppplayall thetime.Witha2.5A
power supplyyyand 16GB micro that’s
atotal bill of £125 (((seethepihut.com).

READYAND CABLE

Building the unit is fairly straightforward.
The touchscreen used to come as akit,but it
arrives ready-built now.You still need to
attach it to the Pi, however.Use the four
jumper cables to connect the GND,5V, SCL
and SDApinsofthe screen’s circuitboard to
the Pi. It’s probably easiest to follow our
colour coding, and hold the Pi with the 40
GPIOs on the right (with the USB and
Ethernet ports facing you).

Next, connect the ribbon cable to the
screen’s connector.Gently prize out the two
clips, feed the cable in with the exposed side
down, and then push the clips back in. Then
loop the ribbon cable round and repeat the
process with the Pi’s ribbon cable connector.
Sit the Pi on the four standoffs of the screen’s
control board and screw the Pi intoplace.

Next, download Raspbian, the standard

operating system foraRaspberry Pi. We used

the ‘Buster with desktop’version as all we

need is abasic desktopOSwithout theextra

800MB of software.Once downloaded, use a

tool to ‘flash’the imagetothe microSD card.

We like Rufus forthis job (rufus.ie), although

others preferEtcher(www.balena.io/etcher).

Youhavetouse these tools, as merely

copying the OS image to the microSD card

won’t make the card bootable; that’s the

difference between flashing and copying.

Flashing the image to the card will createa

small partition called Boot, which should

automatically open in Explorer.Now open the

View tab in Explorer and tick File name

extensions. Right-click in the Boot partition

and choose New,Text Document. When the

file appears deletethe whole filename

(including the .txt) and replace it with ssh.

Open this file and enter the following,

replacingSSIDandPASSWORDwithyour

Wi-Fi network’s name and password:

country=GB

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_

supplicant GROUP=netdev

update_config=1

network={

ssid="SSID"

psk="PASSWORD"

key_mgmt=WPA-PSK

}

⬆Usethefourjumperwiresto connectthescreen’scontrolboardto thePi

⬆Acasewillg lllll ok,andhelpprotectitfromdustandknockkkks

SCREEN

PIN

CABLE

COLOUR PIPIN

5V Red

Second pin

down, on

the right

INT

Leave

unconnected

SDAYellow

Second pin

down, on

the left

SCL Green

Third pin

down, on

the left

GND Black

Third pin

down, on

the right