LCD 20x4 pydPiper - anyone had success with version v3.812?

Diy and Tweaks Diy and Tweaks
1

I am using version v3.812 with a 20x4 I2C (serial) LCD and pydPiper.
Using the non-Docker installation (GitHub - cedricp/pydPiper: Test project), the closest I was able to get was the clock display with “No data” shown at the bottom.

There are MANY threads on this, but most are 3 or more years old.

Thanks in advance for your help.

2

Ok, I’ve answered my own question based on a post by SimonF, and git source from CedricP. This is almost identical to SimonF’s post, but tested with a RP Zero W with Volumio version 3.812.

*This seems to work HOWEVER, once I rebooted, I had to kill the pydPiper process and restart it with: systemctl start pydpiper.service.

To fix this issue, I added a 60 second delay to the service file to allow Volumio to fully start up:

Add a delay of 60 seconds to allow Volumio to fully start up:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/pydpiper.service

Add the following line under the [Service] section to introduce a delay:

[Service]
ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 60

CTRL+x to save

Save any files that you have customized!
Uninstall the pydPiper plugin from the Volumio UI
Open SSH with putty or similar to the IP address of your Volumio

Clone the git repo from CedricP: git clone https://github.com/cedricp/pydPiper
Update packages: sudo apt-get update && upgrade
Install Python3: sudo apt-get install python3 python3-pip netcat
Change to the pydPiper directory: cd /home/volumio/pydPiper
Install: 
sudo pip3 install -r requirements.txt

edit pydPiper config: 
sudo nano pydPiper.cfg

I made the following changes:
pagefile = pages_lcd_20x4.py
display_i2c_address = 0x27
display_width = 100
display_height = 32
timezone = US/Pacific
temperature = fahrenheit

Ctrl+x to exit and save


test: 
sudo python3 -m app.pydPiper

If it all works, add it as a service →

copy to /etc/systemd/system with 
sudo cp pydpiper.service /etc/systemd/system

change permissions: 
sudo chmod 777 /etc/systemd/system/pydpiper.service

Add a delay of 60 seconds to allow Volumio to fully start up:
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/pydpiper.service
Add the following line under the [Service] section to introduce a delay:
[Service]
ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 60
CTRL+x to save 

reload systemctl: 
systemctl daemon-reload

start the service: 
systemctl start pydpiper.service

check with: 
systemctl status pydpiper.service

enable it at startup: 
systemctl enable pydpiper.service

Again, please go and give some love to CedricP on GitHub!

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