When I first visited the space over a year and a half ago now, the first thing I saw when walking in the door was a big TV showing various information, including bus times and the space’s blog. I immediately wanted to know how it worked and was told it was transmitting through a Raspberry Pi. I would later learn how they worked and, recently, what that one was doing specifically. I have dubbed the TV the “Welcome TV” and whatever runs it similarly. Since then, the RPi has stopped transmitting successfully and I began to figure out to fix it, or rather replace it.
After research and lucky guesses, I found the software it was using was Screenly. The issue with Screenly is that its not open source and very limited in the free version. Also, after reinstalling it a few times, it doesn’t seem to like our network. So I decided to use something else. I found that a Beaglebone Black should do the trick with a program called Xibo. Both are more complicated and suitable than the RPi and Screenly.
So far, I have found that Xibo should work on a Beaglebone running Ubuntu, but have not had the chance to test it since Maker Faire Detroit was this weekend and have been busy with classes otherwise. It should get tested by the end of this week and I’ll know for sure if it will work. The Xibo team does not officially support it for RPi and assumingly Beaglebone either so I’m making it using forums and the seat of my pants. Which is arguably, the best way to make.
