Setup

This page will guide you through the setup and configuration of our custom Raspberry Pi image.
It's based on and targeted at the most recent image version.

Requirements

• Supported Raspberry Pi
• microSD card flashed with the latest image
• HDMI or GPIO display
• Power supply for the Raspberry Pi
• A heatsink for the Raspberry Pi (recommended)

Preparation

1. Install the heatsink on your Raspberry Pi (recommended, see Points to consider - Temperature)
2. Insert the SD card into your Raspberry Pi
3. Continue by connection the display
   Depending on your display of choice, this can be either done via HDMI or GPIO
4. Connect your Raspberry Pi to the power supply

Having done that, your Raspberry Pi should start booting and you should see the Raspberry Pi OS boot sequence on your display.

Raspberry Pi 4

If you're using an HDMI display on a Raspberry Pi 4, make sure to connect the HDMI cable to the micro HDMI port that is closer to the USB-C power connector.

GPIO display

If you're using a GPIO display you won't be seeing anything just yet, and your screen will most likely be completely white or black. This is normal, as you haven't installed the required driver. We will do that later on.

Configuration page

After starting the Raspberry Pi we need to access the configuration page. How you do this is dependent on how your Pi will be connected to your network.

Wireless

If no ethernet cable is connected, the Raspberry Pi will automatically start in wireless mode. Since we haven't configured anything yet, it won't be able to connect to the network just yet.

After booting the Pi will automatically open a configuration hotspot (MoBro_Configuration). Use a wireless device like your phone or notebook to connect to that hotspot, no password is required. After connecting, open a browser and go to 192.168.4.1 by just typing it into the address bar.

The Raspberry will also show these instructions on its connected screen.

tip

In case your phone fails to open 192.168.4.1 after connecting to the hotspot, you might need to temporarily disable your mobile data for the duration of the configuration process.

GPIO display

Once again, if you're using a GPIO display, you won't see anything just yet, as the required driver is not yet installed. Give the Pi a minute or two to boot up and then check for the configuration hotspot that will be created.

Ethernet

In case you connected your Pi directly via an ethernet cable, it will automatically switch into ethernet mode and connect to the network. Therefore no configuration hotspot will be created. In order to access the configuration page you will need to check for the Pis IP address within your network. After you got that, just open a browser on any device connected to the same network and navigate to that IP address by typing it into the address bar.

Initial configuration

After booting up and successfully opening the configuration page, we will now configure the Raspberry Pi. In most cases, this has to be done just once.

If you open the configuration page, this is the page that you will initially see. It lists the currently active configuration.

By clicking on the 'Configuration Wizard' button at the bottom, our interactive wizard will open and guide you through the configuration process.

Localization

First off, we need to take care of localization.

You need to set the following:

Country: In case you're using a 5GHz wireless network, you need to select the country your currently in so the networking can choose the correct frequency bands.
Timezone: This is required so the Raspberry Pi can display the correct date and time (e.g. for screensavers as explained further down)

Network

Now we need to configure the network.
If the current network mode is 'Ethernet', you can skip this section and continue as the network is already set up and connected.

In case of wireless operation, you need to set the following:

SSID: select the network you want to connect to. If your wireless network is not listed, you can also just manually input its SSID into the field
Password: the password for the selected network. Your password is only saved locally on the Rasbperry Pi and not shared with anyone.

If you need or want to specify the WPA version and encryption method, you can do this under 'Advanced settings'. If you're trying to connect to a hidden wireless network, you will need to select this as well. For a normal operation, you most likely don't need to touch these two settings.

PC connection

To display the dashboard, the Raspberry Pi needs to locate your PC on the network and connect to it.

This can be done by either of two ways:

Automatic discovery: This is the default method. The Raspberry will automatically scan your network and search for the PC running the MoBro desktop application. Make sure the network name is the same as configured on the PC application. By using the network name the Raspberry is able to distinguish between multiple PCs running the MoBro software in the same network. If you have only one PC running in your network, you can leave this at the default: mobro.

Static IP: If you know your PCs IP address, you can configure the Pi to just check this one address. This will avoid scanning the whole network and speed up the time taken to locate and connect to your PC.

Screen setup

Now we will configure the connected screen. If your screen is connected by HDMI and is already working, you're already good to go.

Display driver: If you're using a GPIO screen, this is finally the moment where we will install the required driver for it to function.
The MoBro Raspberry Pi image comes preloaded with drivers for some of the most popular displays. Just select the driver that matches your display in the drop-down.
In case the appropriate driver is not listed, just select 'Manual installation' and you can install it later on manually via SSH as described here.

Rotation: In case your screen is mounted vertically, or the content is displayed upside down, you can rotate the screen. The rotation is specified in degrees clockwise, where 0° equals no rotation.
(Does NOT apply if you manually install a display driver)

Screensaver: You can enable and select a screensaver that will kick in if the Raspberry Pi looses connection to the monitored PC. This is especially useful in case you turn off your PC but leave the Raspberry Pi running at the same time.
Once the screensaver kicks in, the Raspberry keeps checking for the PC periodically in the background. If it finds thePC to be reachable again, it will automatically connect and switch back to the monitoring screen.

Delay: A delay in minutes before the Raspberry Pi will switch to the screensaver after loosing connection to the monitored PC.

Summary / Confirmation

As a last step before applying our selected configuration is listed again. Take the time to double-check whether you selected everything correctly.

Once you click 'Apply' the new configuration will be written to the Raspberry and a reboot will be triggered. If you're using a GPIO screen and selected the correct driver for installation, you should finally see the Pi boot up again and open the MoBro on the screen.

info

The Raspberry Pi needs to reboot twice to apply the configuration. Depending on the Raspberry Pi model, this can take a few minutes.