Has Anyone Built Anything With A Raspberry Pi?

Okay, I'm progressing with the TV Head project with my daughter, and unfortunately none of my threads are back yet, so I can't post thisin my previous thread for the backstory.  We mocked up the TV last weekend during our Staycation, and I we have some good ideas for the physical part of it, and I think it will look pretty cool. But the display on the screen has me worried.  I'm likely to use a salvaged LCD display from one of many discarded laptops that we have here.   And from what I have seen, the Raspberry Pi is supposed to be a good cheap way to control it and send images to the screen.   But I have never done anything with programing or logic, aside from motor controls.  

I'd like to think this is something I can figure out, but I feel like I am about to jump in the deep end without so much as water wings.   Plus, this old dog is 54, and new tricks don't come as easily as they used to when I was a pup.  Giving up is not an option.   This is very important to my daughter, and I don't want to let her down.


Anyone able to talk me through this?  (It will take more than just a simple reply, I'm afraid)

In reply to Cooter :

I personally have not, but I know a guy that makes what he calls a "PiDash" which runs tuning software for a standalone and works as a gauge pod for the car. I can get you in touch if you want. PM me.

Our (meager) progress thus far.   We've figured out cables, tubes, and knobs for the openings in the side.
 

For your purposes, there should be essentially no programming involved. Think of the Pi as just a small desktop computer, once you've installed the Raspbian operating system it will behave like any modern computer with a GUI that should feel familiar and user-friendly to anyone who uses a PC.
You could get more technical with the operating system and coding to produce something that will be lighter and run faster than the full desktop version of Raspbian, but it would be easier and more user friendly to start there and pick a standard video app or something to play back whatever file you would like to display on the screen.

Installing OS images on the Pi:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/

You could even build it as a fully functional video game emulator / arcade machine:
https://retropie.org.uk/

This might help a bit. (Really all you're doing is finding the correct LCD driver board for the LCD display.) I did the same thing to drive an old laptop screen attached to my RPi Pi-Hole.

Point being you shouldn't even need the Pi to work as the video driver. That's a pretty complicated way to accomplish what you're describing though it is a technically interesting challenge.

I've done an arcade machine with a Pi3, a several webervers with a Pi1 and Pi2, and a have a Kodi running on a Pi2.

That said, it looks like you just want to use the Pi as a video source?  There are better, cheaper, more reliable ways to accomplish that.  Example.

As far as driving your laptop LCD screen, check out some ebay LCD suppliers, as they will often supply a board that takes HDMI/VGA inputs.  Example (but get one with the button board & cables)

If you aren't married to the LCD idea, you can do a rear-projection setup, so the person wearing this can see through the screen?

I may be totally off base, I didn't see your previous thread(s)

One of the things we need to be able to do is choose which image or animation is shown at any given time.  The screen will appear to interact with what the character sees and hears.   What you linked appears to just play a loop of images or videos.  That would of course be much easier, but wouldn't have the effect we are looking for.

The reason we choose the Pi is because that is what most of the tutorials suggest, and it is cheap for what we want to do  The other idea would be to hack up a laptop or chromebook, but either way I need to somehow to come up with a simple interface or set of commands to activate the different images that come up on the screen.  That interface is what I am having a difficult time envisioning.  

Here's one of the "tutorials", which covers everything that I could easily could figure out, but doesn't tell me anything about how to actually get the images and animations to show up on the screen on command.

 

Ah, I get it now.  I would guess the best out of the box solution would be something based on Kodi or digital signage software?

But yeah, that is beyond my knowledge.  I am intrigued.  Please update when you have the chance, and good luck.