Raspberry Pi E-Ink Task Organizer -- Episode 422

Hi Guys,

I'm thinking about start my first raspberry pi project with this task organizer.

Two questions, that maybe are silly but I really don't know anything about raspberries

1) Is it possible to integrate somehow a ETA module here? I'm gonna use the task organizer in my office and it would be GREAT if I could have a ETA to home, based on traffic from google maps

2) Is it possible to build this in a raspberry pi zero w, or it must be the 3B+?

Also, since I do not have a 3D printer, I'm thinking about doing this in a mdf stand with a compariment for the raspberry (that's why i'm wonderign about the Zero W since it's much smaller)

Thank you!

Hi Guys,

I'm thinking about start my first raspberry pi project with this task organizer.

Two questions, that maybe are silly but I really don't know anything about raspberries

1) Is it possible to integrate somehow a ETA module here? I'm gonna use the task organizer in my office and it would be GREAT if I could have a ETA to home, based on traffic from google maps

2) Is it possible to build this in a raspberry pi zero w, or it must be the 3B+?

Also, since I do not have a 3D printer, I'm thinking about doing this in a mdf stand with a compariment for the raspberry (that's why i'm wonderign about the Zero W since it's much smaller)

Thank you!

Hi Joao,

1. Yes that is possible, the general way to do such a thing is to search for an 'Application Programming Interface' (API), so in this case you'd google for 'Directions API Google Maps'. In short you'll need to have a Google account and request a key and then use that to send HTTP requests from your code. If you've never done that before, then it's worth spending some time studying and trying Python (spend at least a few weeks on it) because that's what you'll likely be using. There are courses, books, videos and lots of simple projects to learn this, it depends what way of learning you're most comfortable with. There's no real shortcut, but it's a valuable thing to learn because then you'll be able to connect to almost any API to do stuff or get information into your code.

2. I think for this project a Pi zero W could be used, but the author will know more. If you don't need the extra interfaces, or the additional memory or speed, then the Pi Zero W is a substitute (the Zero W has a very old processor on it). For learning to code, you can use a Zero W but you might want a more 'normal' Pi, e.g. a Pi 3B+ or a Pi 4 (2GB) should be adequate and fast. Don't forget to get a power supply for it (any mobile phone charger is not guaranteed to be suitable, the Pi power supply has some slight electrical differences).

Hi Shabaz,

Thanks for your help!

I just bought the Raspberry Pi model 3B and will try to configure during the weekend.

Hi Joao,

A zero can be used, the 3B was available to me so I went with that.

Thanks Kaleb!

I'm having some issues in this process...

I'm doing it with a new Raspberry Pi 4B, and in the pip install -r requirements.txt install, it says:

"Collecting spidev==3.3 (from -r requirements.txt (line 85))

Could not find a version that satisfies the requirement spidev==3.3 (from -r requirements.txt (line 85)) (from versions: 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.4)

No matching distribution found for spidev==3.3 (from -r requirements.txt (line 85))"

Should I change the requirements file?

Thanks

Actually I change the spidev==3.3 to spidev==3.2 in the requirement.txt, followed all the instructions but when I run the infowindow.py I get the error:

EXCEPTION IN PROGRAM ==================================

'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xe7' in position 6: ordinal not in range(128)

<type 'exceptions.UnicodeEncodeError'>

<traceback object at 0xb54bae68>

END EXCEPTION =========================================

DEBUG:root:DRIVER: ENTERING FOR LOOP

DEBUG:root:SENDING DISPLAY_REFRESH COMMAND

DEBUG:root:DELAY 100 MS

DEBUG:root:WAIT UNTIL IDLE

Do you know why is this happening?

Thanks

jap1906  wrote:

 

Actually I change the spidev==3.3 to spidev==3.2 in the requirement.txt, followed all the instructions but when I run the infowindow.py I get the error:

EXCEPTION IN PROGRAM ==================================

'ascii' codec can't encode character u'\xe7' in position 6: ordinal not in range(128)

<type 'exceptions.UnicodeEncodeError'>

<traceback object at 0xb54bae68>

END EXCEPTION =========================================

DEBUG:root:DRIVER: ENTERING FOR LOOP

DEBUG:root:SENDING DISPLAY_REFRESH COMMAND

DEBUG:root:DELAY 100 MS

DEBUG:root:WAIT UNTIL IDLE

 

Do you know why is this happening?

Thanks

The routine expect valid ascii below 128x and recieived e7x. Most problem like this implies the sender did not encode before sending data!

Clem

Where are your to-do's coming from, and are you sure that is where this error is originating?

And good on changing the requirements to meet your specific need.

-Kaleb