Using the VuFine+ Wearable Display to Become a Cyborg #wearablewednesday
Last week Jessie shared a story from the The Verge which explains how to make a wearable computer using a VuFine+ heads up display and a Raspberry Pi. This week VuFine has reduced the price of their excellent HDMI 720p display by 15% if you use checkout code ‘Summer17’ [a savings of $30].
I’ve actually used the VuFine+ display as a wearable with the Raspberry Pi W and found it to be an ideal device for Open Source Hardware developers. Since the Arduino app and KiCad both run on the Pi Zero this wearable allows for writing code, uploading code to other devices and circuit board layout possible on the go.
Hardware:
- The Raspberry Pi Zero W is the perfect computing combination with this display
- Adafruit sells a full size wireless keyboard with trackpad that works seemlessly with Raspbian and is ideal for many wearable computing situations.
- Even though the Pi W has bluetooth and WiFi I would still recommend this micro USB hub to allow for additional accessories.
- A giant 10,000 mAH battery with 2A USB out is just right for powering the display and Pi Zero W.
- Don’t forget to buy a case for the Pi Zero
Software Configuration:
The tricky part with a tiny high resolution display is getting passed the initial configuration. You will want larger fonts and a light weight X11 environment to make this setup more functional.
Setup Keyboard | Resolution | SSH | CLI Booting:
– boot raspbian into X using HDMI monitor
– Raspberry Menu –> Preferences –> Raspberry Pi Configuration –> Resolution –> CEA Mode 4 1280×720 60 Hz 16:9
– Raspberry Menu –> Preferences –> Raspberry Pi Configuration –> Interfaces –> SSH –> Enabled
– Raspberry Menu –> Preferences –> Raspberry Pi Configuration –> Location –> Set Locale | Timezone | Keyboard | WiFi Country
– Raspberry Menu –> Preferences –> Raspberry Pi Configuration –> Boot to CLI checkbox
– change passwd via command line
– Terminal –> Edit –> Preferences –> Style Tab –> Terminal Font –> Monospace 18
– WiFi icon –> Select WiFi
Setup Command Line Booting font size:
– sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup
* UTF-8
* Guess Font Size
* Terminus
* 16×32
Setup Lightweight X11 environment:
– Install Lightweight X11
* sudo apt-get install ratpoison
* echo “exec /usr/bin/ratpoison” >> .xinitrc
* scp’d over .ratpoisonrc
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