A little while ago, I got a cool 11.9” screen from Amazon with plans to build my own desktop display to show timers from Rundown Studio among other things. After testing it out in the field and in my studio, I’m super happy with the end result. In this video, I share the quick process of getting it up and running, how I’ve used it already, and some plans for the future using a Raspberry Pi 4, WaveShare touchscreen, and Dashmaster 2K.
Transcript
My New Fav Screen
A little while ago, I got this cool little 11.9 in screen from Amazon with plans to build my own little desktop display to show timers from Rundown Studio among other things. And having tested it out in the field and in my studio here, I’m super happy with the end result. And I finally wanted to share the quick process of getting it up and running, how I’ve used it already, and some plans for the future.
The Hardware
So, first up, what gear are we using here? I’m using the Raspberry Pi 4 here. And of course, I have this WaveShare 11.9 in touchscreen that’ll be attached to the Pi. I’ll leave some links in the video description below to what I’ve used or similar models at least. The screen did come with the attachments that I needed. So, in this case, I have these little standoff style attachments. These are the ones I’m using. And it also comes with this little ribbon cable for connection to the Pi. Very delicate, but of course necessary for the connection back and forth. I chose to just set up the standoff style connections here just so I could detach those to something a little bit later whenever I want to rack mount it or set it up for a desk mount.
The Software
In terms of setting up the software, it’s fairly simple here. If you’ve set up a Pi before on the Raspberry Pi website, I can download the latest Raspberry Pi Imager in order to flash a copy of Raspberry Pi OS onto my micro SD card. I also needed to follow some specific documentation that came with the WaveShare screen. So, they gave me a link to their documentation website and I was able to add a few config things that made the Pi and the screen talk nicely to each other. So, I have the SD card back in the Pi and ready to get things powered on.
Connecting Internet and Power
I’m just going to add a wired internet connection here. With the Pi, you could connect to Wi-Fi, of course, here in the fixed studio. I could do that all the time, but I like the idea of bringing this out on jobs, which I’ve done before, and just connecting up to the internet through the venue, and then it just finds the internet, boots up, opens this page full screen, and I’m ready to roll. So, I do prefer the wired connection for this case, but I could do Wi-Fi if I knew that the Wi-Fi connection was always going to be the same, like it is here in my fix studio. And the power connection, which actually connects to the little screen here, not the Raspberry Pi. You can see things powering on. Here we go. One more thing I’ll need for now is a keyboard and mouse in order to set things up. So, I’m adding my wireless keyboard and mouse to the Pi.
Booted Up
So, I’m booted up into the usual Raspberry Pi OS here. And it looks, you know, as you’d expect it to, maybe just a bit shorter than usual, but um this is what I wanted to get to, the desktop. I’ll also add a link in the video description on how to set up kiosk mode, so it automatically loads up a URL whenever you boot up your Pi, and you won’t need the keyboard and mouse in future uses, but we’ll just click through it now since I have it here on the desk and connect it up. I’ve opened up a URL in the browser, and I’m just going to manually choose to set it full screen. It’s so awkward on such a small little screen here as I try to navigate through the menu and I know there is a zoom one. There it is. And now I’m full screen. Hide my mouse off to the side and I have a nice full screen clock ready to go.
Dashmaster 2k and How I Am Using It
Let’s talk a bit more about Dashm 2K. Now you can use whatever tool you want, of course, whatever URL you want. Just open it up on the Pi. But in this case, I think it’s a really good use case for Dashm 2K. A tool that we built to make dashboards for live production needs. You can use it to show live stream chat, YouTube videos, timers, clocks, have links and buttons, and even chat with others viewing the same dashboard.
Devices in Dashmaster 2k
For this widescreen Pi setup, I’m actually taking advantage of a devices feature that we have in Dashm 2K. A Dashm 2K device is like a special link that you can generate and open on any browser. And once that’s opened, you can use Dashmaster 2K’s website to push any of our dashboards to that device. So in this case, the Pi boots up, shows the URL to the device, and then from any other computer, I can send whatever dashboard I’ve created to that device without having to mess around and connect the keyboard up again and the mouse and click around. I can just do that remotely, monitor it, and set it up from another computer. And that’s particularly useful in this case because I imagine this little Pi device will be in my rack or somewhere that it’s not so easy to get behind it and add a connection for a Bluetooth mouse or keyboard. I want to be able to control it and administrate it from afar. So the devices link is perfect for this. Now it’s nothing special. It’s just a timer right now, but I can make a change to it. And you’ll see those changes update on the Pi. So now I have two clocks because you can never have enough clocks. I’ve added one of our production clocks on the left hand side and then a built-in stage timer clock on the right. However, I can even change that to a YouTube video, for example. And what’s nice about the touchcreen here is I can actually press play on that video. When I bought this device, I wasn’t really expecting to use it with Dashm to be honest. But I think it’s actually working out really well. That’s me done talking about DashMaster. You can check it out if you want. If not, all good. Just punch in whatever URL you want to the Pi.
Already Out in the Wild
I’ve already brought this on a few jobs already, and I must say, it’s one of those instant successes where other techies on the jobs kind of come over and say, “What is that? What are you up to there? What is this device? And where can I get one?” It’s really handy for that. And it’s really discreet as well. You can just set it on a desk, underneath a monitor, on top of a monitor, in a rack, wherever you want to put it. It’s going to fit perfectly. Maybe you need to do a bit of adjustments or make a little uh foot for it, but it’s going to sit nicely on the desk around you in the production setup. And with that said, I do have some future considerations and things I’m going to tweak whenever I take it out on more jobs.
Future: 3D Printed Legs/Stand
The first thing to tweak is a stand of some sort. Now, if I set it here on the desk, the little standoffs from the Pi actually put it at a perfect angle for me viewing. So, it doesn’t look great on the camera, of course, but for me sitting at the desk here, it’s actually quite nice. Gives me a nice glancible time works perfectly for that. However, not all desks are going to be the same, and maybe I want to set it up on a monitor, or maybe I want it to be angled slightly differently. So, a small little 3D printed object to sit underneath, act as little feet would be perfect just to make it move and sit exactly how I want it.
Future: Top of Monitor Mount
Next up would be a way of placing it on top of a monitor. I’m sure there’s a little 3D printed clip that I could set up so it just sits nicely on top of a monitor. It actually fits really nicely above like a V-Mix setup or a ATM multiv- view, just on top of a TV screen or a typical monitor that you have a multiv- view on. So, I’m going to look into a nice way to get that to be stuck on top of a monitor without, you know, taping it on there. That’s always an option, but I’d rather not rely on adding tape every single time I set up a show.
Future: More of the Same
Of course, my next idea is many of these. Now, you can never have enough screens, of course, and with them being so small, it would be lovely to have multiple. I can see me using one for the current time of day. I’m going to use a countdown timer for my rundown studio setup. I could have loads of these set up in a rack or on the desk. So, multiple monitors is my future plan definitely.
Future: Rackmount
And my final improvement for the future will be just how I set it up here in the studio. I want a slightly nicer way to rack mount it. So that’ll be adding some 3D printed sides on it so it actually sets up in the rack. For now, I have it set up as you can see here. Just sort of balancing and hoping for the best. It’s perfectly fine, but I would like to feel a bit more secure about it. That’s for sure.
So When You Are Getting One?
All right. I hope you find that useful, helpful, inspiring, and you want to make something very similar. I really like this little device. It’s really been fun to bring out on shows, but also been very useful just to have sitting here in the studio. I’m sure I will have it off my eyline on plenty of these videos and live streams in the future. And let me know in the comments below if you plan to do something like this. And if you do, be sure to tag me on social media and all that good stuff. I’d love to see how you use similar little rightcreen pies to display information for your next show. All right, thanks.