What is the idea?

Lets talk about what I wanted to create. My idea was to stick with the NEO case but modify it to support a small OLED to display vital information about the RPi, such as network status, temperatures, etc., alongside a fan with speed control to adjust airflow based on system temperatures.

In the following sections, you will learn about the hardware and software I created for it.

Hardware

The first step was figuring out the hardware. I decided to go with a 12864px OLED with an SSD1306 driver and a 5V fan with a DRV8833 motor controller.

• 12864px OLED SSD1306 - I2C protocol

• Miniature 5V fan

• DRV8833 Dual Motor Driver

• Raspberry Pi 4

After testing the right configuration with the software (well discuss that later), I created the schematic to connect everything to the RPi 4. This is how I connected everything to the Raspberry Pi GPIO:

DRV8833 Driver Rasberry Pi

5V Fan DRV8833 Driver

OLED (SSD1306) Raspberry Pi

As you can see in the diagram and tables above, this is how to connect the hardware. After this configuration, its time to move on to the case and decide where to place the hardware.

3D Case

As mentioned earlier, Im using an Argon NEO Case, which has an aluminum shell with two parts, one of which can be removed (as shown in the image below). I planned to modify the top shield to contain the hardware.

I started by measuring the case and designing a 3D file for it to be printed. The plan was to assemble the OLED and fan, where the data would be displayed on the OLED, and the fan would direct airflow from the top and push it out through the rear of the shield via designed grids.

After sending the design to the 3D printer, this was the final version of the case (on the left). It was time to assemble everything and try installing it on the Raspberry Pi.

You can access the 3D design files through this link: 3D Designed Files

Assembling

Now that everything was ready for final assembly, I first soldered some wires with connector headers to make connecting to the RPi easier. Then, I fixed the components to the 3D-printed part and glued two magnets to the new case to keep it closed. You can use some electrical tape on the circuits to prevent short-circuiting and damage to the components.

Software

For the software side, I used Python to code a script that would be added to the boot services and run automatically on system boot. This way, if your system shuts down or restarts, the system states will be preservedespecially useful if youre running your Raspberry Pi headless.

Getting Started

First, clone the files from the RasPi Temp Manager GitHub repository:

git clone https://github.com/mosnfar/raspi-temp-manager.git

To run this script, you need the following libraries: gpiozero, Pillow (PIL), and adafruit_ssd1306, which are not built-in on the Raspberry Pi. To install them, navigate to the repository directory (cd raspi-temp-manager) and run:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Note: If youre using a newer version of Python, please install the libraries globally (not within a virtual environment).

Next, copy the essential files (such as fonts and boot logos) into the desired directory. First, create a directory named temp_manager at /usr/local/share/ using:

mkdir -p /usr/local/share/temp_manager

Then, use the following commands to copy files from the repo directory to that location:

cp ./fonts/lucan.ttf /usr/local/share/temp_manager
cp ./images/raspberrypi_logo_inverted.bmp /usr/local/share/temp_manager

Test Configurations

Before moving on, theres a chance the connections might not be correct or all the libraries might not be installed. I wrote a test tool to help debug these issues and ensure everything is in place. Before proceeding, you can run test_config.py, which will check:

• Required libraries installation

• I2C connection

• Fan connection

• Essential files

To run the test, use the following command:

python test_config.py

Boot Setup

If there are no errors, lets configure the script to run on boot. First, copy the script file into /usr/local/bin/:

sudo cp ./source/temp_manager.py /usr/local/bin/

Next, create a service for the script by running:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/temp_manager.service

Then, add the following content to the service file and save it:

[Unit]
Description=Temperature Manager
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /usr/local/bin/temp_manager.py
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

After saving the file, enable and start the service with these commands:

sudo systemctl enable temp_manager.service
sudo systemctl start temp_manager.service

Hooray!

Everything is now configured correctly. You can test it by running a stress test on the CPU with this command: stress -c 4 -t 900s.

Heres the final view of the project:

Lets Connect

I hope this helps! Im sharing my experience and findings on my blog, and you can follow me through 📰 newsletters. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel to find more helpful content.

Dont forget to leave your comments and feedback 🤝

Resources Here are some of the articles and content that I learned from them:

• Raspberry Pi and DRV8833 Test

• Raspberry Pi Monitoring System Via OLED Display Module

• Raspberry Pi: PWM Outputs with Python (Fading LED)

• How to Control DC motor with DRV8833

• GPIOZero PWMOutputDevice

• GPIO ZERO CHEATSHEET

• Stress Testing Your Raspberry Pi

• Pi 4 Model B pinout

Use Cases

• Online Stream of Camera

• Frame Capture for Time-lapse

How to use

First, you should install dependencies like 'ffmpeg', 'rclone'. To do it use the command below:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install ffmpeg rclone

After that, you should configure your cloud service, which here we continue with the Google Drive option. I suggest to use this two complete tutorials for proper configuration:

• Google Drive by rclone on Bealdung

• Official rclone Google Drive Document

But simply to do that start with rclone, you should use the command below and follow the given instructions:

rclone config

Now, You should have a directory on your local device to sync Google Drive with it. Here we create a directory named /home/user/path/to/, to do this you can use this command:

mkdir /home/user/path/to

So, Time to configure a webcam or camera. Here I'm using a USB webcam but if you want to use the on-board Raspberry Pi camera follow this link.

Connect the USB webcam to Raspberry Pi and find the hardware directory which in this example is /dev/video0.

Awesome, All essential parts are configured. Now the script is ready for use.
Download the script file to your local machine:

curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mosnfar/raspberrypi4-camera-to-cloud/main/run.sh -o ./run.sh

Before using the script you should change some variables in the script to work correctly. Use nano run.sh to open text editor then go to 'Configure global variables' section and change the variable.

...

# Configure global variables

DRIVE_ADD="drive:/parentfolder/subfolder" #rclone given address for drive main folder and subfolder

STORE_DIR="/home/user/path/to/" #Local directory which will link to drive
LOG_DIR="/home/user/path/for/log/" #Directory to store log for command

CAMERA_ADD="/dev/video0" #Hardware directory for Video Input

DAY_OF_STORAGE=2 #Maximum date for storage - e.g. 2 days
MAX_STORAGE_SIZE=200000000 #Maximum size for storage - e.g. 200000000 Byte -> 200 MB

INTERVAL_DELAY=10 #Interval between taking frames - e.g. 10 seconds

MAX_RETRIES=10 #Times to rclone try

...

You should change these variables:

Essential Variables

Should change this before running this script according to your configuration.

• DRIVE_ADD: The address to which you configure Google Drive with rclone command.

• STORE_DIR: This directory will be connected to Drive and sync with it.

• LOG_DIR: Where you want to store your system script logs and errors.

• CAMERA_ADD: Hardware address of video input (webcam|camera) to use.

• DAY_OF_STORAGE: By this variable, you can configure how many days should store the content.

• MAX_STORAGE_SIZE: This variable manages Drive capacity and prevents extending from Google storage limit.

• INTERVAL_DELAY: This is the gap time between taking frames.

Additional Variables

If you customize the script more, you can change this too.

• MAX_RETRIES: This variable defines how many times should rclone try.

Now everything is done and you should add run.sh command to system jobs to be run on every reboot. To do that use this command:

sudo chmod +x run.sh && (crontab -l ; echo "@reboot /real/path/to/run.sh") | crontab - && crontab -l

And its better to reboot your system.

🎉 It's Done. All is ready.

Find More

I hope this help you. You can subscribe to my yotube channel to find out more stuff which help you.

RESOURCES: Using USB Webcam, Use rclone for Google Drive, rclone, Google Drive

Extentions

So, Lets start with essential things. You need VS Code and extentions which I mentioned below:

• MicroPico(Link)

• Pylance(Link)

• Python(Link)

• IntlliCode(Link)

After installing those extensions you should configure the project and connecting Pico.

Setup MicroPython

Now connect your Pico to computer through a USB cable.

So, lets drag and drop MicroPython firmware (UF2) files into Raspberry Pi Pico.

First, you should download files from MicroPython site:

• For Raspberry Pi Pico

• For Raspberry Pi Pico W

After downloading the suitable UF2 files for your Pico, Open file manager on your system and there is an external device mounted with RPI-RP2 name. Now drag and drop your UF2 files into to mounted folder.

After that pico will be detached automatically, now we are ready to go back into VS Code.

If there was any problem you can read more about it on Raspberry Pi site.

Raspberry Pi Documentation - MicroPython
The official documentation for Raspberry Pi computers and microcontrollerswww.raspberrypi.com

Configure Project

Here you should create or select a folder where you want your MicroPython files and Pico files to be stored.

After that should press Command + Shift + P on Mac and Ctrl + Shift + P on Windows to open Show and Run Commands in VS Code.

Then type MicroPico: Configure project and press Enter

Si Vola 🥳, Here you can see some hidden files added to folder and can see Pico Connected on left bottom.

To open Pico main folder click on Toggle Pico-W-FS at bottom and now you can see files on Pico and create new files on Pico directly.

To run a code on Pico you can use Run action at the bottom of IDE or use Run commands option that we used to configure project and use a command called MicroPico: Remote > Run Current file on Pico.

Also, you can sync your local files by Upload project to Pico or Download project from Pico.

There is a lot more stuff about using VS Code and MicroPico which I hope to write more about 😊; But for now, you can see more about MicroPico settings on this link also use MicroPico: List all Commands to see all useful commands.

Also dont forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel, Im going to talk more about this stuff there 🤟

itsMosnBuild
I love creation 🪚www.youtube.com