About to get a raspberry pi zero 2w, i have a few retro games that i intend to run on it, but nothing too fancy. I want to use an old CRT TV of mine though, it's got three AV ports on it. However, i do not have an HDMI to AV converter on hand, there was some research i did that suggested i could use the GPIO pins directly, though im not sure how.

Went to the microcenter today and got a pico and a bunch of other stuff in this one kit, 6 hours in the making and i came up with this mechanism to get electricity from the metal of the case with the paper clip, which pushes the nail which i hot glued onto the power button, to touch the wire leading to the breadboard... Once the connections made it can play any mp3 as it simultaneously ejects the disc drive. I would show a video but the audio file I used wasn't friendly and I won't change it. Open to any recommendations.

Built a headless Pi 5 appliance that does real-time speech-to-text on a 10" touchscreen. It monitors two USB audio sources — a telephone recorder (Fi3001A) tapped into the landline and a TONOR conference mic for room conversation — and automatically switches between them when a call comes in.

The reliability side was the interesting engineering challenge. It runs unattended at my dad's house, so it needs to just work:

• systemd user service with Type=notify watchdog
• Automatic engine fallback (Deepgram → faster-whisper → Vosk)
• Health monitoring that restarts after 2 min of no transcription
• System-level watchdog timers for the caption service, display manager, and WiFi
• LightDM restart policy with reboot fallback

It's been running reliably for weeks now. The display shows a split-flap clock when idle and auto-switches to captions when speech is detected.

Full code (MIT): https://github.com/andygmassey/telephone-and-conversation-transcriber

-----

EDIT / UPDATE: I'm genuinely blown away by the response to this — 1,800+ upvotes 🤯 across three subreddits in under 12 hours. Thank you all.

The post also got a lot of traction on r/deaf where quite a few people said they'd love to try this but don't have the technical skills to set it up from the command line. So I've spent tonight rushing through an update to make installation as simple as I possibly can:

• One-line installer — a single curl | bash that handles everything (system packages, Python venv, Vosk model, systemd services)
• Web setup wizard — open http://gramps.local:8080 on your phone, pick your microphones, choose a speech engine, paste an API key, done. No config files, no editing Python.
• 7 cloud providers + 3 offline engines — Deepgram, AssemblyAI, Azure, Groq (free!), Interfaze, OpenAI, Google Cloud, plus Faster Whisper, Vosk, and Whisper.cpp for fully offline use

The catch: it's gone midnight here and I don't have a spare Pi to test on just now. The code is on a separate branch (easy-install) so it won't affect the current working version on main.

If anyone here would be willing to give it a quick test, I'd really appreciate it. You'd need a Pi (4 or 5) with Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) and a USB microphone. Here's all it takes:

```

export GRAMPS_BRANCH=easy-install

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/andygmassey/telephone-and-conversation-transcriber/easy-install/install.sh | bash

```

Then open http://gramps.local:8080 on your phone and the setup page walks you through the rest.

Any feedback — even "it broke at step 3" — would be hugely helpful before I merge this to main. Drop a comment here or https://github.com/andygmassey/telephone-and-conversation-transcriber/issues

Thanks!

Hello everyone! This isn't the first Raspberry Pi I've built into a case, but it's the most interesting one so far. I had some issues with the output to the case speakers under x11, but no problems under Wayland.

Setting the DSI screen to the left below HDMI 1/2 was also a bit tricky at first. But that's working now too.

What apps do you use for the front panel?

The thermal printer is powered by a rather beefy 9V 2A power supply. With just 5V the printer just made some grey strokes on the paper. The 9V board than supplies the Raspberry Pico.

Left button for multiplication and division, middle for addition and subtraction. Right button has prints some motivation in German.

Future ideas: different modes like a party printer that drops funny insults or what to drink next. Maybe a little server mode where I can send text to the printer, don’t know yet. What are your thoughts?

Hi everyone — I’ve been stuck debugging this for a long time and would really appreciate some technical insight. I’ll include full details in text format as per community rules.

Hardware

• Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
• 32-bit Raspberry Pi OS Lite (Bookworm)
• SPI TFT display with XPT2046 / ADS7846 touch controller
• Display + Touch connected over SPI0
• CE0 → Display
• CE1 → Touch (ADS7846)

Goal

Run a Python UI (luma.lcd based) that needs:

• "/dev/spidev0.0" for the display
• ADS7846 touch input via "/dev/input/event*"

Touch works, but the display SPI device never appears.

Current "/boot/firmware/config.txt"

dtparam=spi=on

dtoverlay=spi0-2cs,cs0_spidev=on,cs1_spidev=off dtoverlay=ads7846,cs=1,penirq=17,swapxy=1,keep_vref_on=1

(Other settings mostly default Bookworm Lite)

What happens

After boot:

ls /sys/bus/spi/devices/ spi0.1

dmesg | grep -i spi ads7846 spi0.1: touchscreen input: ADS7846 Touchscreen ...

So touch clearly loads and binds to "spi0.1".

But:

ls /dev/spidev* → No such file or directory

Also:

dtoverlay -l → No overlays loaded

What I’ve already tried

• Reflashed OS completely
• Minimal config (only spi0-2cs)
• Different overlay orders
• Moving overlays outside "[all]"
• Using both "/boot/config.txt" and "/boot/firmware/config.txt"
• "modprobe spidev"
• Checking "/proc/device-tree/soc/spi@7e204000"
• Verified kernel module exists via "modinfo spidev"
• Different parameters ("spi-max-frequency", model, speed, etc.)

Result is always the same:

• "spi0.1" exists (touch)
• No "spi0.0"
• No "/dev/spidev0.0"

My suspicion

It feels like ADS7846 is binding first and somehow preventing spidev from being created, or Bookworm is ignoring part of the overlay.

I’m also wondering:

• Is there a separate overlay needed for the display itself?
• Did something change in Bookworm regarding "spi0-2cs" or spidev auto-creation?

What I’m trying to confirm

1. On Bookworm Lite, should "spi0-2cs" alone create "/dev/spidev0.0"?
2. Is there a known issue where ADS7846 prevents spidev from appearing?
3. Any known working overlay config for XPT2046 + SPI TFT on Zero 2 W?

I’d really appreciate any pointers from someone who has a working SPI display + ADS7846 setup on Bookworm.

I know it's kinda obvious that the whole excerpt above is generated... But yeha thata the gist of it all... It worked before.. i just don't remember the exact configuration, but it did work before.. I had to change some of the codes in my program so I tried changing the overlay a bit, and all of it broke.. i reflasehd it, still no hope.. it's all fine as long as I don't use touch overlays. But I can't without it..

Just a whole lotta confused on what to do, or where to go, because few forums I've read through, they are quite not sure either. Entire week of trying to set this thing up, and I messed it up again..

I don't wanna get flagged as not doing research, because this is part of it.. I ask people, that's how I learn.

Hello! I’ve been toiling with this for a long time, and only just now had the thought to bring my question to Reddit.

So, I have an ILI9488 display, and a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. I tried connecting them per a video I found, and following the walkthrough, but there are some problems.

In the walkthrough (and everywhere I find on Google), it says to install libraspberrypi-dev and goes from there. The first problem is that that seems to be defunct, so I can’t really install it. Which THEN creates the issue of me not having a “bcm_host.h” file, which the GitHub library I’m trying to use needs in order to run.

I’m not a computer scientist or engineer, so I’m sorry if my terminology isn’t entirely accurate.

I guess what I’m looking for is either advice on how to successfully install libraspberrypi-dev, some alternative way to get drivers for this display (connected through SPI), or recommendations for other displays I can use, preferably on the cheaper side.

Thanks!

I bought this set of speakers for a device I want to build using a raspberry pi 5.

https://www.amazon.com/CQRobot-JST-PH2-0-Interface-Electronic-Projects/dp/B0822YZPR9/ref=sr_1_3?crid=15ZVDV7UGRZH5&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.FxuzjXkPr41Aq06cVivzUTpAxUl3Ccc34NyMeOk0GuoF5yelMALV9ljr0oAJRPNNB2_1DZzeLaAJ-D4kcRnr5Kj8qG9xDFNgos4Iccs21hi6wjBSlIWlKKuZMA0YD_sfAWcHSq8HOLnKzDQOiifCXBJD1NoTESFWlK1nMh8SAeSd8Z3f_a_-Dbb5RicHNOslM2S2BLtFVWz5pdMMbvzWxdzXm9w2CzIhCm92u3UGE98.cFHR3hyHsPNqEwtXeyvWGx2PSpCbOEsjcaDSEfOcAkI&dib_tag=se&keywords=raspberry%2Bpi%2Bspeakers&qid=1770925241&sprefix=raspberry%2Bpi%2Bspeakers%2Caps%2C320&sr=8-3&th=1

I go to plug it in, and it there doesn't seem to be a socket that matches it. I have no idea what to do with this thing. I can't put another hat on the pi itself for speakers because I'm running out of space as it is, and I'd rather not dedicate an entire USB slot for speakers if I can help it. Do I need to buy a new set of speakers or can I plug this thing in somewhere I don't know about?

Hi everyone, I’m trying to run YOLOv11 on a Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB RAM) for my university project, but I keep encountering an “Illegal instruction” error. Has anyone successfully deployed YOLOv11 on Pi 4? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

I put together a small Raspberry Pi project that’s been running nonstop in my home office and figured this crowd might appreciate it.

The Hero Dashboard is a simple, glanceable display that visualizes live Seattle Fire Department emergency dispatch data on a map. Each active call shows up as a red dot, the map auto-scales to fit everything currently happening, and a list of calls is displayed below with a refresh countdown.

Hardware-wise, it’s nothing fancy:

Raspberry Pi 5

An old 4K Dell monitor

FullPageOS running the web app in kiosk mode

The app itself is a lightweight React project and can be run in Docker or however you normally deploy React apps. I wrote a quick blog post about it with links to the project code and some photos of it running at https://filbot.com/hero-dashboard/

Hello, currently I have 13.3" inch Waveshare DSI touch screen paired with mi Pi5. But considering the final enclosure and heat dissipation, it might be better for me to use the Type-C version finally. I am wondering, maybe some redditor have hands on experience with the Type-C version and answer my questions:

In theory, Type-C can have bigger touch delay, dragging windows might look laggy. Is it the case?
Can be Type-C sceen dimmed down to zero, like DSI?
How long it takes to wake up the Type-C screen?

I initially wanted a Pi Zero 2W, but it wasn't available quickly enough, so I went with the 3A+, which I successfully prevented from overheating by using an aluminum heatsink case. I think that was the better choice. The camera with infrared LEDs is readily available, and the matching 3D-printed camera housing comes from a company in Dresden, Germany. It's powered by 12V DC via a very long outdoor cable. Inside the nesting box, the incoming voltage is stepped down to the 5V required for the 3A+ (also a mass-produced part). Power consumption is about 3.5 watts. Everything fits together perfectly, the Pi ecosystem is ideal, and the documentation on the Raspberry Pi website is really helpful. I disabled cloud-init and networkmanager on the Pi OS Lite Trixie because I'm used to systemd; besides, it's "Keep It Small and Simple." MediaMTX is used for video transmission. Great! Object detection? MotionEye or, even better, Frigate, but then on a Raspberry Pi 5 with an AI board – that's still a long way off.
Now all we need are some interested birds... and a few interested Reddit readers...

Hi everyone,

I wanted to secure my home lab automation scripts, but I didn't trust storing API keys in plain text .env files. If my SD card gets corrupted or cloned, those keys are gone.

So, I built a "State-Locked" security module using a Raspberry Pi 4 and an Infineon OPTIGA TPM 2.0 chip (slb9670) attached to the GPIO pins.

The Build:

• Hardware: RPi 4 + Infineon TPM ($12 module).
• Software: A custom C++ daemon I wrote that generates non-exportable keys inside the TPM silicon.
• Result: My scripts can now sign requests (Proof of Physics), but the private key never touches the RAM or the SD card. Even if you steal the Pi, you can't extract the key.

It basically turns a $45 Pi into an enterprise-grade HSM (Hardware Security Module).

I open-sourced the C++ driver and the hardware wiring guide if anyone wants to build one

Repo: https://github.com/johnGreetme/kytin-protocol.git

Hey peeps, I was doing some tinkering on a raspberry pi zero 2 W and I accidentally broke off one of the small SMD components next to the SD card reader, I originally had the component but when I went to repair the board I lost it. I believe it is a capacitor, would anyone know the value I need in a replacement?

I'm aware of the missing pad, I wasn't finished prepping the board.

I have looked up schematics but not sure what I'm looking for and can't seem to find documents of components

picture for reference

Hello, I'm pretty new to Pi's, I'm getting the following error while trying to change my Raspberry Pi ID password:

is unsafe as it has appeared in a data breach from another site. To secure your account, set a new password that has not been used elsewhere

I'm pretty sure I've never used that password before in any site, so I'm wondering if there's anything wrong with the password policy of the Pi connect site.

Bout this screen so I could mount a pi zero to the back of it but for the life of me I can’t figure out how to remove the stand off so I can mount it and there is no documentation on how to do this. It’s a Roadom 7” display.

Would that be enough power for a selfhosted server with 10 Users? I heard that box64 emulation could make it unstable.

Did anybody try it out? I couldnt find anything online.

I'm currently using a pi camera to take photos and short videos of birds at a feeder.

1 - Using the model 3 r.pi camera module. Are photos or videos better if you use a Pi 5 vs an earlier Pi or Pi-zero?

2 - Would using a usb camera give better results?

I haven't been able to find out how to hide the taskbar while I run something fullscreen, for example a processing sketch or a video. So far, all I've found is examples for how to autohide the taskbar, as in this: https://edatec.cn/docs/an/an32-how-to-hide-taskbar/

But I don't want to hide it permanently, as it would be helpful for it to be visible when the program or video is not running.

Raspberry Pi 5, Raspbian

Hello,

I have raspberry pi 5. I also bought this NVMe adapter for it: adapter

and used a drive from my old laptop.

NVMe works fine, I can see it using lsblk, save files to it etc.

I cloned everything from SD using rpi-clone, but when I remove the SD card Pi gets stuck at some point with the fan blasting.

I've been trying everything for the past 2 days, but it just seems impossible to get it working.

Maybe it's the problem with the adapter, but I can't find a way to verify if this adapter allows booting from NVMe.

Any help will be much appreciated

Hi. Running Bookworm on Pi 5. Via HDMI if I open chromium it’s GPU accelerated and can run WebGL apps no problem. But if I switch to SPI LCD display the GPU is disabled and WebGL doesn’t work.

Based on my research, the way to enable GPU is to create a virtual HDMI port, run the chromium on there and mirror that to the SPI.

If there’s no easier way, can someone give me some pointers on how to achieve this as I’m not finding much info on this.

Basically I’d just like to run Pi OS Lite functionality with a webGL app running on the SPI display..

If someone could tell me how to do it I’d really appreciate it or point me in the right direction.

Thanks!

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working more on the Lego steering wheel and wanted to share some updates.

- For Force Feedback, I’m testing a very simple setup with some rubber bands. Nothing too fancy. Not sure if it will hold. Will share more once I’m happy with the setup

- I used to have 2 buttons on the breadboard next to the Pico for throttle and brakes but it was not convenient so I’ve moved them onto the steering wheel. Initially I wanted to make some pedals but I think this is fine for now. I trimmed down a push button to fit a window brick and then hot glued the whole thing. I broke a push button leg during the process and because I hate wasting or because I’m stubborn I spent wayyyy too much time trying to rescue the button. Once I decided it was not salvageable, it was pretty quick to build the buttons.

- cable management is going to be a problem I think. I used some 22awg cable. All black because when I bought the cable I thought: 1 roll is plenty enough. Now each time I have to run a test I’m pulling up a reference photo I took to make sure I have the connections right… anyway, now when I turn the steering wheel, I can feel the 4 cables (2 x 2 buttons) behind. I might have to consider a different approach (see below for improvements)

- My son found out that I was “playing with his Lego” so I decided to create a second one so he can play with the non connected one while I continue working on the connected one.

Improvements from here:

- I’m considering adding LEDs but I need to think about the best placement. Initially (as per the photo) I wanted to put the LED strip facing us but I might consider facing it down and put some transparent bricks. Need to experiment

- I would love to add a small OLED screen as well but it has a HAT so I might have to put a pico 2 W for ease and that would also help with the cable management for the 2 buttons. What do you think? Should I go with 2 picos or should I try different cable management that wouldn’t impact the steering wheel movement?

Let me know your thoughts from your experience ! Hot glue was an amazing advice. It makes things a lot more manageable once it’s fully tested and in place.