Feature Request: Refresh Plugin/playlist on boot

[GeryGold]

It would be really useful, for example I built a battery powered InkyPi frame. If there would be a setting or command to refresh the current plugin/playlist on boot, you could just turn it on for a few minutes every few days to refresh the image shown to a new one without having it to run all the time and draining the battery.

[iAndrea]

Well you can do that with a workaround. If you know when you're going to turn on the device, you can set the plugin refresh to be executed around that time, setting also a thoughtful plugin cycle time.
The problem might be highlighted though if you do not know when the device will turn on.

[iAndrea]

Can we add a "mode" device setting like:

• standard - as it is now
• power saving - in this mode it will refresh the plugin at boot (and shutdown by itself perhaps)

In this case you will be able to save a lot of energy if you are using something like a real-time clock board to set your own schedule 🤔

What do you think @phattmatt ? Is it worth a try? I'm willing to do the changes even though it shouldn't be much I guess

[Jeanine-D]

I would support that @iAndrea
I'm currently in the process of building a picture / weather frame for my dad.
Currently planing to get a RP Zero 2 wh, a 4 or 5 and keep it power on anyway.
If I could boot it, change pictures, send in to sleep again every hour, it would probably last a week before recharging.

[GeryGold]

That sounds awesome @iAndrea !
@Jeanine-Duerst afaik the rpie zero 2 w does not Support any sleep states. But if you found a way i'd love to learn about it! I got mine to last about 1 1/2 days including two refreshes with a 10.000mA battery.

[phattmatt]

Hi All,

This is probably for @fatihak (as the project owner) to comment on, as it involves making changes to some core functionality.

For me, I would guess the following features might get us close to a good solution (and they could be implemented one at time):

1. Add a configurable function to shutdown the Raspberry Pi after a successful screen refresh (i.e. evaluate the next plugin item, execute the plug in to update the screen, then shutdown)
2. Add a feature that makes it easy to bypass the shutdown (to make it easy to stop it from turning off when you want to make changes, or do maintenance; maybe a file on the /boot/firmware FAT32 partition)
3. Make it easier to program the playlists and plug-in instances to refresh in a good order (i.e. ignore the datetime stamps, and just move along the playlist incrementally).

Doing the above will help those with, and without, RTC boards.

Those with will be able to program the RTC board to schedule power on times (InkyPi will power off when the screen is successfully refreshed). InkyPi will not need any special support for the RTC boards.

Those without can just plug the RPi in and it will update and then power off. They can manually unplug and replug, or use an external power device (like a smart plug), to get the screen to update again.

[iAndrea]

@phattmatt @fatihak Actually we could have kinda 2 modes with the new "battery mode" without conflict with the current approach since the bypass file is the only router. I'll try to implement something with you suggestions but I would also add:

• a grace period to keep the web server on for user changes and a keep-alive timer in the UI to prevent shutdowns if the user is actually doing something
• network check after boot to be sure that plugins can refresh before shutdown
• retries if errors happen, persisting those logs for debugging

I'll try to have something ready within the next days 👍

[deftdawg]

#451 adds --run-once command line switch to Advance to next plugin, render, and exit

[Sedromal]

Hi everyone.
I'm also planning to build a standalone weather widget in a frame using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and InkyPi. Unfortunately, the Zero 2 W doesn't support sleep modes. As an alternative, I can suggest using the Adafruit TPL5110 Power Timer Breakout. While the TPL5110 is running (but the remainder of the project is de-powered), the current draw is about 20uA. The only thing I need to do is add a function to shut down the Raspberry Pi after a successful screen update. Then, I need to apply a high voltage to the free pin of the Zero 2 W and to the DONE pin of the microcontroller.The wake-up frequency can be easily adjusted with a variable resistor. I consider the TPL5110's low power consumption a plus, which is important in standalone systems.