Raspberry Pi Ezbpi Touchscreen UI
Who has used a Raspberry Pi as an EZBPi Server?
Ref: The EZBPi server turns a Raspberry Pi into an EZB that robot components can connect to, and that ARC connects to. Peripherals on the Raspberry Pi (Pi Camera, GPIO, UART, etc.) become controllable by ARC when the Pi is running the server. In this setup, the EZBPi server makes the Pi act as the EZB, and ARC connects from a remote computer over WiFi or LAN.
Note: the EZBPi Server has some limitations compared to other EZBs-for example, PWM servos are not supported, but bi-directional UART/serial servos (Robotis Dynamixel, LewanSoul, etc.) are supported.
Question: Has anyone used the Raspberry Pi in this configuration to also run a touchscreen display as the robot user interface? Specifically, can the Pi host a local touchscreen UI that:
- sends inputs back to the host computer running ARC (the ARC instance running on the remote PC), and
- reads robot state information back to the display (for example via Robot Skills or scripting),
while simultaneously running the EZBPi server and controlling the Pi-connected peripherals?
I'm asking about a setup where the Pi acts as the EZB (EZBPi server + Pi peripherals) and also provides the local touchscreen UI, while ARC on a separate computer remains the central controller. Any experiences, limitations, or tips about UI-to-ARC communication, performance, or conflicts when running the server and the UI together would be appreciated.
@Athena, what do you say to this as well?
My two cents would be to use the Pi with Windows and a local instance of ARC installed, skipping the EZBPi altogether. The EZBPi essentially uses as many of the Pi's peripherals as an EZB, but they're quite limited, as you mentioned. I did respond to your other post as well, but whichever thread you answer to, the answer really could benefit from knowing what your goal is. Because that determines what sensors and peripherals you'd want to be using. For a robot that doesn't require USB peripherals, I'd just say put an ESP32Cam + PCA9685 on the robot and use the laptop.
DJ, Building a 3D printed Hero JR. working on project with a team of two others. We will post the project in the next month or so on the web. We are still iterating the 3d print file design. Here is chatGPTs rendering of the potential use of the rpi 5 and the sensors, peripherals, etc.
