Old computers free!

[PlaneMan]

Well, paper models anyway. :wacko:

For once I want a colour printer instead of my mono laser.

Link.

[Ed P]

Thanks very nice!

If only they were 50% larger and pre-printed on foam board as they would make really nice homes for a Pi3C+3.5inch HDMI screen and a Stemma speaker.

The only thing missing is a suitable scale-size keyboard, otherwise I could be tempted to cobble something together.

[Dave Rice]

I’ve been tempted to get one of the Pi’s out for a project but I’ve been keeping them in reserve in case they’re needed as VPN servers. However the Synology NAS have been fulfilling that role very well so I’ve not need to.

Didn’t know about Stemma speakers, look like they could be useful.

[Ed P]

Dave, Stemma speakers are certainly not ;Hifi’, but great for arcade quality. A better bet if you want a somewhat better sound is the ‘Speaker Bonnet‘ plus a couple of 4cm 3 watt speakers. This will give you typical ‘portable radio’ quality. If you want something approaching a moderate HiFi then there are a number of Pi Dac products, but of course then you need powered speakers.

Disclaimer – due to years of operating steam turbines and other120dB equipment without ear protectors my hearing range is somewhat limited, so my quality ratings are very highly subjective!

[Dave Rice]

It wouldn’t be for anything vaguely quality. When I bought my first Pi 3 years ago I bought a camera module, I may do something with that, see if I can DIY a Facebook Portal. Clearly they wouldn’t be up to that but I have 2 Pi’s spare and using one of those paper models blown up is an attractive idea.

[Ed P]

Just prior to the lockdown, I liberated the cardboard container  for a Lego Ninjago arcade kit from one of the grandchildren. The cardboard screen is pretty much the same size as a 3.5inch hdmi touch screen which in turn is the same size as a Pi3C. I reinforced the insides of the cardboard with foam board, and it all fits quite neatly into it. When the speaker arrives the next task will be to set up some battery power and load it with RetroPie before handing it back to the Grandson.

I find it quite frustrating that now it takes me a day to write 50 lines of code, that in the past would have been done in an hour or less, so while the modelling will be quick the critical path bit will be the interface coding!

[Ed P]

Dave your little project  should do most Internet interfacing tasks. I find the little Pi will quite happily run three or four threads while downloading and feeding RSS feeds, with one of the other tasks being to show a small TV news screen, or Radio feed.

The following Python3 code snippet is enough to show a small BBC screen:

#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

import pickle
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
from time import localtime
from time import time
from time import sleep

# remove irritating ‘controlled by automation’ bar
# sets up selenium browser, using default path for webdriver
chrome_options = Options()
#chrome_options.add_argument(“–disable-infobars”)
chrome_options.add_argument(“window-size=398,568”)
chrome_options.add_experimental_option(“excludeSwitches” , [“enable-automation”])
browser = webdriver.Chrome(chrome_options=chrome_options)
# open the browser at a web page
browser.get(“http://www.google.com”)

# you have to open a web page before you move it into a new position

# But  you do not need to keep it around (half a second will do)
sleep(0.5)
browser.set_window_position(x=620, y=0)
# open BBC url

browser.get(“https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live/bbcone”)
browser.title
# Make time to visit pages, check boxes and build cookie record
sleep(500)
# Now save accumulated cookies
# pickle.dump( browser.get_cookies() , open(“cookies.pkl”,”wb”))
# Wait for save to complete
sleep(10)

# close web page and probably browser unless more opened
browser.close()
# Quit if necessary
# See http://toolsqa.com/selenium-webdriver/browser-commands/ for commands
browser.quit()

To run this code you will need to use pip3 to install pickle, and selenium, and also download the chromedriver from Google.

Its discovering and fixing these little prerequisites that stuffs up my coding productivity!

[Author]

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