Raspberry Pi 3 in the House... and Running JMRI!

[mighalpern]

thanks guys.
will try tonight
Miguel

[Mike C]

After looking that over, looks like it means learning command line. Not what I was hoping for, but time spent in setup to save time in usage is worth it.

Actually command line is pretty easy . I'm not doing the pie , I have JMRI on my laptop ,  but I have Ubuntu on another laptop and had to learn to use command line there . You can pretty much google for what you need .

[John]

Select ACMO.  Then when JMRI tells you it isn't communicating, close it, reboot the Pi (click on MENU at the top of the desktop), and then reopen JMRI.  I had to do this before JMRI recognized the PR3 on the port.  If you get the same message after rebooting, close JMRI, don't reboot, then reopen JMRI.  Same message?  THen go to JMRI preferences and select the ACM1 port and try it all again.

John C.

I wasn't able to get it working like that .. I had keyboard in upper left usb, the mouse lower left, and the LOCOBUFFER in Lower right ..  nothing worked, and was getting errors from JMRI ..

I moved the Locobuffer to the upper left USB, now the JMRI shows both /dev/tty/USB0 and /dev/tty/AMAO .. it works .. weird

[eric220]

Actually command line is pretty easy . I'm not doing the pie , I have JMRI on my laptop ,  but I have Ubuntu on another laptop and had to learn to use command line there . You can pretty much google for what you need .

I've dabbled in UNIX command line before, so I thoroughly expect that I can do it. It will just be an additional pain to setup.

[mighalpern]

Well i actually got it to work very well, but first I DID move the mouse and keyboard USB connections to the left, then the PR3 to the lower right USB,  that when i was able to "see" two port assignments.  I used the AMCO port and everything took off after that.  Was running JMRI and checking my slots and running 2 trains with my phone.
 All in all very cool experience, not nearly as hard as I made it , thinking I would have to run command lines and such.  Best part is I have liberated my laptop for other stupid stuff and now have a like PC kicking under the layout letting me running via Wi throttle.
thanks to all the step by step posts and the troubleshooting from John C and C855B
this is a great place
Miguel

[C855B]

Super! That's great, Miguel.    Interesting solution with the USB ports... I learned something, too!

[RBrodzinsky]

This thread has really gotten me thinking about plunging in; as I clean up the layout, a R-Pi would be the perfect replacement for my 10-yr old ThinkPad.  But, as I look at what else will be needed (HDMI monitor A#1), was also thinking about keyboard/mouse.  As I have no good place to put a keyboard/mouse (basically would be the same as the laptop, for all intents and purposes), has anyone tried / have experience with Rii i8+  wifi keyboard?  For JMRI operations purposes, this looks like it could be ideal to connect to the R-Pi.

The monitor, now.... Besides having to get something to support HDMI input (all my old flat monitors are VGA only), I would also need to mount it above the tracks and backdrop.  The walls of the train shed are simply paneling nailed to the studs, so I suppose the best plan would be to bolt a VESA mount into a stud as well (no drywall).

[Mike C]

@RBrodzinsky  I think you could put the keyboard and mouse just about anywhere (within reason) if you go wireless with them .

[jdcolombo]

@RBrodzinsky  I think you could put the keyboard and mouse just about anywhere (within reason) if you go wireless with them .

Agree.  The Pi 3 has built-in Bluetooth, so you could use that for a wireless keyboard and mouse.  I'm probably going to try that.  As far as monitors are concerned, you can get a 19" hdtv with HDMI from Best Buy for $80.  Or if you'd rather go small, you can get a 10" display and driver board from eBay for $70.   I'm probably going to take that route and mount the display on my fascia.

John C.

[eric220]

I had a disappointing discovery today. The old laptop I've been using to run JMRI can't run the latest updates, which includes the decoder definitions for the Mk2 Tower Controllers that arrived today. It's been making some scary grinding noises recently as well. I think it's time to replace it.

Raspberry Pi has been ordered, and is due to arrive on Friday.

[mighalpern]

the monitor I am using is about 5 years old and has a DVI-D port, so i just got an adaptor that goes to HDMI.  I bet you could find a super cheap ( or even free) monitor.
Best Buy had small monitors for about 60 dollars if I remember right, and a 19 inch flat panel TV for 80 dollars, both with HDMI ports.  I just a one laptop and got tired of dragging it out and hooking it up and then waiting for windows to boot up etc...  so the Pi is great.  boots up and JMRI running in under 1 minute.

[C855B]

Something to be aware of, that just surprised me -

The Pi3 has no power glitch ride-through. I have two running video apps, and they both "went blank" at the same time. Turned out there was a sub-one-second power outage, discovered only after I noticed one of the routers in the server cabinet had also rebooted. I had to unplug/re-plug both Pi3s.

[John]

I wasn't able to get it working like that .. I had keyboard in upper left usb, the mouse lower left, and the LOCOBUFFER in Lower right ..  nothing worked, and was getting errors from JMRI ..

I moved the Locobuffer to the upper left USB, now the JMRI shows both /dev/tty/USB0 and /dev/tty/AMAO .. it works .. weird

I checked on the JMRI yahoo groups .. /dev/ttyUSB0 is correct for the Locobuffer-USB ..

Also noticed there is a Windows10 IOT OS available for free from M$ .. will need to try that at some point ..

[eric220]

And counting....

[eric220]

And several infuriating hours later, I still don't have the VNC server running. I found a guide that at least got me access to the file system through AFP, which will be crucial for transferring decoder settings and such.

http://4dc5.com/2012/06/12/setting-up-vnc-on-raspberry-pi-for-mac-access/

I may wipe the thing and start over. But enough for tonight.