piframe/hardware.md

Bill Of Materials / Hardware Assumptions

This is a surprisingly straight forward project that has minimal in the way of hardware requirements. Below you'll find a list of everything we recommend / assume.

• Raspberry Pi 4 with at least 2Gb of RAM

  • An equivalent board with at least 2Gb of RAM capable of running Ubuntu 64bit Linux can be used instead but we do not support anything but the Raspberry Pi 4 at this time
  • Please note: RAM usage is significantly affected by source image resolution /and/ panel size. 2Gb of RAM should be enough for a 2k screen and 20Mpx source images. If you're not sure get a 4Gb Raspberry Pi.

• HDMI Monitor (Verified Working)

  • Please note: these are the panels we KNOW WORK ; do not deviate unless you want to fiddle with a lot of boot loader configuration
  • wisecoco 6" 2k lcd + driver board
    • This is the portrait panel with 1440x2560 resolution
  • wisecoco 8.9" 2k lcd + driver board
  • wisecoco 10.1" 2k lcd + driver board
  • wisecoco 13.3" 2k lcd + driver board
    • This is the portrait panel with 1440x2560 resolution
  • wisecoco 15.6" 1080p lcd + driver board

• HDMI Monitor (TESTING)

  • Please note: these are the panels we are TESTING ; do not use these unless you'd like to help us sort the settings needed for use
  • wisecoco panels

• Fan/Cooling

  • The Argon Fan Hat is a nice adjustable fan setup for the Raspberry Pis. We recommend this as the fan to use.
  • Please Note: The Pimoroni Fan Shim will cause problems. Do NOT use it for your PiFrame build. We promise, it's unwise due to the pinout and more.

• USB to Serial adapter

  • There are a lot of options, choose one you know that will work well
  • Adafruit and SparkFun are good choices for serial to usb adapters

• HDMI cable that will work with your panel and the Raspberry Pi. You can use an adapter if needed.

• USB disk (thumb drive / ssd) for storing pictures

  • This is optional but will help prevent micro sd card wear if regularly changing photos or running backups
  • The Sandisk Ultra Fit USB disks are great options and work well with the Raspberry Pi boards

• 1x micro sd card

  • Must be at least 16Gb. The base install of software consumes almost 8Gb of storage, you'll want more than 8Gb to properly buffer updates and upgrades

• Power supply (at least 2.4A to avoid voltage issues)

  • We have used the Anker PowerPort II 2 successfully