Raspberry Pi support - enables a hard-wired, dedicated dash

[brentp]

That's right. We will post here and everywhere else when it's ready for beta test.

[HomebuiltRacing]

Fresh Linux user here.
Raspberry Pi 3 B+, official 7 in display, light image, downloaded app version 1.16.3...
Everything is done according to manuals
When I try to start the app with run_racecapture.sh it tries to do something for couple of seconds (new line appears) but then nothing happens and it just returns to normal command prompt
Where should I start with this?

[brentp]

Hi,

Be sure you download the exact filename from the website:

https://autosportlabs-software.s3-us-we ... .3.tar.bz2

Sometimes people hand type this in and not notice the double underscores in the name.

Also double check that you're on a Pi3, the current release does not work on a Pi4.

Let us know how it works for you!

[GTIspirit]

It does seem like it should work on Pi4
https://kivy.readthedocs.io/en/master/i ... n-rpi.html

But, it seems like this requires Kivy 1.11.

I can't seem to find a file in the racecapture tarball to change these "environmental variables" to the window and GL backend for RPi4. Which Kivy is bundled in the tarball?

[brentp]

Yes, those instructions were provided by us to the Kivy team, which then published them.

To support the Pi 4 requires a new build of the RC app + a custom build of the SDL library, something that's not easily packaged in an installer. As a result we may make our own linux distribution to properly support it.

[bezabaza]

Hi Brent, when should we expect v2.0 of the app? I've put off buying a Pi4 to work with a touch screen until I can.

Cheers,
Sean

[brentp]

We estimate within a couple of months.

The 2.0 app will be released ahead of the build for the Pi4, that will be a separate effort.

-Brent

[bezabaza]

Brent***, wow sorry!

Thanks for the update that's much appreciated. Considering how cheap they are I'll get a Pi3 for now. I'm sure I'll find another use for it when Pi4 support arrives.

Cheers,
Sean

[GTIspirit]

@brentp since "Jessie Lite" is no longer available, which selection in the Pi Imager should we use?

I just tried with other -> Raspberry Pi OS Lite (32bit) thinking I don't really need a desktop environment.... But, the screen works, as a display, touch doesn't work. It works as a display, just doesn't respond to screentouch. I'm wondering if I instead should have installed the default Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit) with Desktop.

And yes, I tried the Raspberry Pi Display Troubleshooting but none of the entries say anything about display works, no response to touchscreen. And some of the information on the troubleshooting page leads me to believe it should be used with GUI version of OS.

Oh, and there was no response to

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dmesg | grep -i ft5406

I'm not sure what no response means, because the display is working just fine as a monitor.

[brentp]

Hi, You can always get older images:

http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian_lite/images/

Found via:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... p?t=193999

[GTIspirit]

This Jessite Lite is command line only, without GUI, correct?
https://blog.adafruit.com/2015/12/01/ne ... -os-image/

Therefore, I think the equivalent current version should be what I'm using, the Raspberry Pi OS Lite (32-bit) with no desktop environment.

But it's probably missing some kind of package which was included in Jessie Lite, and since dropped. Oh to figure out which apt-get install.....

[GTIspirit]

Well, interesting. I installed the standard Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit) and the touch screen works just fine as a touch screen.

But when I launch the RaceCapture app it doesn't respond to any touch commands. It gets stuck at the opening screen and when I try to press Next or Skip there is no response.

Interestingly, with a working touch screen there is the same no response to:

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dmesg | grep -i FT5406

and

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lsusb

also doesn't list the screen as an input device, even though it is in fact working as an input device.

and when I execute

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modprobe  rpi-ft5406

I see the response "modprobe: FATAL: Module rpi-ft5406 not found in directory /libmodules/5.4.51-v7"

So similar to what was reported here, Touch Screen Not working probably something changed in the distro between Jessie Lite and latest, and the RaceCapture app needs some legacy package. Hmmm.

I ran a comparison on the .info files between Jessie Lite and the Raspbian Buster Lite image in the directory Brent mentioned above but couldn't really tell. Biggest difference seems to be the python library changed from 2.7 to 3.x.

@brentp can you give a hint which libraries does the RaceCapture app use for the touch device input? Must be something more than just the mtdev-tools since I installed those.....

@brentp I kind of sort of got it. Basically, I tried following the directions here:
https://github.com/mrichardson23/rpi-kivy-screen
except not all of them worked. Got some errors trying to get the certificate.
Tried to install all the packages mentioned, a bunch of stuff happened.
ran the wget ... get-pip.py which did something, then got a 404 at the end.

ran the git clone ..kivy but got a permission denied response. Hmmm. sudo su to the rescue.

But when I tried to run the setup.py build and install commands they failed.

But since there was a kivy directory, I ran

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sudo nano ~/.kivy/config.ini

added the following two lines

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mtdev_%(name)s = probesysfs,provider=mtdev
hid_%(name)s = probesysfs,provider=hidinput

and voila, then the RaceCapture app responded to the touch screen inputs

So now the question is which of these steps is actually required....

I'm betting that RaceCapture app will run on OS Lite CLI if I install the packages, clone the kivy and modify the config.ini file.

Update, I tried it with OS Lite, here's what it takes:

Install the dependencies listed in section 9

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pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo apt-get update
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo apt-get -y install pkg-config libgl1-mesa-dev libgles2-mesa-dev
 python-pygame python-setuptools libgstreamer1.0-dev git-core
 gstreamer1.0-plugins-{bad,base,good,ugly}
 gstreamer1.0-{omx,alsa} python-dev

clone the kivy, no need for the additional steps:

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pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo git clone https://github.com/kivy/kivy

Update the config.ini file (if it doesn't yet exist, try and run the RaceCapture app to generate a config.ini file for Kivy)

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sudo nano ~/.kivy/config.ini

Add these two lines in the [input] section, after mouse = mouse

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mtdev_%(name)s = probesysfs,provider=mtdev
hid_%(name)s = probesysfs,provider=hidinput

Exit and save the config.ini file

launch RaceCapture app. Enjoy.

[brentp]

Glad you figured it out, and sorry it's so complicated. Long term plan is to make a dedicated image for the Pi to make this all work much better. It will also be needed for the Pi4, since they completely changed the display drivers.

2.0 app will be available for general beta testing soon, watch our blog and social media and forum for an announcement.

[bezabaza]

Hey, any update on when v2 of the app for raspberry pi will be available?

[JustinDuBois]

I am interested in Race Capture app running on Raspberry Pi 4b+ using a buster build.

The Pi device I have is an in-car computer with 7" touch screen from John Freund Racing https://www.jfracing.net/ - running OpenAuto Pro as a head unit replacement, which also connects to my ECU via ECMLink for engine management and capture of engine logs.

As an example of how flexible this platform is - I wrote a Python app to control a 4 relay "GPIO hat" hooked to button inputs on my Stack instrument cluster - https://youtu.be/efLD284Mx0I

I would like to add Race Capture app to the launch pad. Here is the issue:

The app after installation won't launch.

What is the current state of support for Raspberry Pi 4b?
Is there anything you would like me to try on my development platform to see if we can get this working? Purchase of RC is kind of on hold until the software launches on my platform.

Thank you
Justin