many customers have weird LAN setup, custom firewall rules, no DHCP (!) so that setting up info-beamer is getting sometimes very difficult.
The obvious solution would be to roll out our own internet connectivity using a 3G shield. But I am a bit frightened, from what I have googled it does not seem like it’s a plug-and-play thing, is more something like the good old days of Windows3.1 and Trumpet Winsock and issuing AT commands (and I still thank some deity for the built in tcp stacks that came afterwards)
Does anybody have a suggestion on a 3G shield that is
No direct recommendation as I didn’t use any of them personally, but I think there are USB powered GSM routers that then open up their own accesspoint. So basically the Pi supplies power through USB and then connects to the stick using WiFi: https://consumer.huawei.com/en/mobile-broadband/e8372/
I guess the setup is then just to configure the stick so it automatically unlocks its SIM card, set a strong WiFi password and then configure the Pi as usual.
Haha!! nice idea…
basically use an external wifi router! it’s another way ot thinking about it.
We have several and we use them on the go, so it could work.
But what I am afraid is that we still have to start them up by pressing some buttons, and sometimes we have to operate on them (reboot… check connection etc). So they could not really be integrated into a Raspberry since they don’t allow for a control interface.
But it’s an idea nonetheless. Thanks for the change of perspective
Hi walter
I would definitely go with an external 3G/LTE router!
If you want to do it the hard way (like I did) I can recommend sixfab.
And don’t forget to calculate the bandwidth, it’s not fun to load video files over a 3G connection.
Didn’t know about sixfab. Seems interesting. I quickly scanned over this tutorial and it seems the modem appears as a serial device and you use ppp to establish a connection. Looks like you’re back to the good old AT commands that way
(Right now this isn’t supported by the info-beamer hosted OS and there are no immediate plans on adding support)
Thanks to both of you.
I had already stumbled upon sixfab and it seems interesting albeit a bit too complicated, and moreover it’s not supported running scripts on info-beamer hosted so it’s a no at the moment.
@jonas, have you got experience with an external LTE router that wakes up on power up of the raspberry? This is the only issue I can see.
I’ve used the devices from Teltonika with great success.
The RUT240 could be a good fit (around 100$).
It has one digital I/O and you can control it via JSON-RPC.
Interesting. But how do you power it? And then of course, you just use it as a wifi access point configuring the /config/wireless file on Raspberry hosted, don’t you?
Hello Johnnie,
thanks, it’s nice to hear of some real world experience with info beamer.
As I’ve already written, my only concern is about power downs/ups. Does the router connects automatically to the cellular network on power up?
Moreover, how do you connect to the router? Cable or wireless?
OOPss" Ive googled for the router and it’s fairly big… we usually battle for space inside a kiosk, so we should definitely search for a router with a smaller footprint
AS for data plans, in Italy we have even cheaper SIM cards, and given the amount of data we plan to transfer we could go as low as 7 or 8 euros per months, so as you say this is not really an issue.
Yeah, it’s pretty much the same size as a traditional wireless router, although the advantage is that it has ethernet ports so that’s one less potential issue.
Just out of interest, what type of Kiosks do you use, I’ve found that the cost of kiosks is really high, for what is really quite a simple product.
I’ve been searching for an affordable self standing kiosk that can house a basic monitor/TV of around 32" or 40" in portrait.
As for the kiosks, yes they are quite expensive.
Right now it’s not directly our concern, but our partner’s.
AS far as I know they have them from the like of Domino Display. I’ve also contacted RCStars from China (email to Tracine: sales3@rcstarsgroup.com) , prices are lower but shipping for a low number of units is comparable to the cost of a single kiosk. I.e. a double face monitor, 42" with IR touch was 1500 dollars, and shipping around 1200.
I’ve bought something also from JamiePro in the Netherlands.
But the bottom line is, I agree with you but building our own kiosk is out of the question so I am open to suggestions
RCStars are spammers. It got so annoying that I had to explicitly create a rule to keep their garbage out of my mailbox. Wouldn’t recommend supporting them in any way.
we are a software house so for us hardware lingo is something new we are learning. So a standard 4 pin connector for currents 9-30V is still something weird So… for me it means looking for a transformer from AC220 to 9-30V (and googling it I get awful results ). I know that sometimes in kiosks there is a power supply block with some 4 pins outlet… but you see, we still struggle
Anyway I get roughly your setup. Right now we would like to stick with info-beamer hosted since its deployment/provisioning mechanism works perfectly and is very robust.
Just as a follow up…
in the end we tested two solutions, as suggested here.
first with the TELTONIKA RUT240 external 3G/4G router. It works ok but it’s a bit cumbersome and needs an external power source.
Much neater is the Huawei Wingle (Huawei E8372h-153 Router ). At first we bought a dongle which needed a PC and drivers to work. With this Wingle instead it’s just a matter of configuring the Raspberry with Info Beamer (modify the /config/wireless file, and stick the Wingle in one of the raspbery USB ports… it works
Here is a setup with a booster antenna bought on ebay (dual TS9 connector antenna booster 35dBi)
it’s another way ot thinking about it.
