RASPBERRY PI CALENDAR: PART 2

This is the second part of, what I hope to be, a complete build of a Raspberry Pi Calendar. Normally I write about UI/UX/Design, but I’m taking a break and sharing my techie side. Hopefully, you will find it enjoyable and amusing as I fiddle my way through a new tech project.

 On my previous post, I wrote about my desire to create a digital calendar hub for my family using an old screen from a broken laptop and a Raspberry Pi 3 I had lying around. I purchased an LCD Controller Board and had run into the problem that the card itself only had a serial port plug for video in – which worked great as a second monitor for my iMac but didn’t quite fit the bill when it came to hooking up the HDMI cable port needed for the Raspberry Pi.

To address the hookup issue, I had purchased a Serial-to-HDMI plug from Amazon. Well, it arrived shortly after writing the last blog. I hooked it up to the LCD Controller Board, fired up the Raspberry Pi, and … nothing. Drat. So, I did what any good person does when they got stuck on a problem… I jumped onto to Google to look for a solution.

After digging through some message boards, I learned that this is a common problem and that the solutions and success can vary. Several offered updating the config.txt within the Raspian OS program running on the Raspberry Pi – didn’t work. Others mentioned externally powering the Serial-to-HDMI plug … again nothing. So, I went to my office at the 1871 Accenture Operations space to see if we had Serial-to-HDMI plugins, which we did! Alas, the Serial-to-HDMI that we had at our office didn’t work either.

So feeling exhausted after going round-and-around trying to get the Raspberry Pi to connect to the Controller Board, I just gave up and ordered a new LCD Controller Card with an HDMI plug with two-day shipping from Amazon. Thankfully I had a $25 gift card for Amazon so it only cost me about five bucks.

Well, it arrived and I’m happy to report that I now have my Raspberry Pi, running a fresh install of Raspian, into the controller board and onto the LCD screen. Next, I’ll be tackling setting up the VCN for remote access to the calendar from my desktop (iMac) and fiddling with the Raspian OS to create a vertical display setting.

———–

TOTAL PROJECT EXPENSES

LCD Screen – FREE

LCD Controller Board – $18.79

AC Adapter – $7.50

Raspberry Pi 3 -FREE

16gb MicroSD Memory Card -FREE

VGA to HDMI converter -$15.99

LCD Controller Board w/ HDMI – $5.00

TOTAL EXPENSES – $47.28