New and a little confused

WebThings
#1

Hi Guy’s,

I’m very new to RPi’s, but have some knowledge of Arduinos.

I’ve just Uploaded WebThings to a RPi 4b 4g, but get a blank screen from the monitor connected to it.

I was under the impression I could use a 7" touch screen display to have a remote unit/hub on the wall, rather than a desktop computer or moible phone.

Am I wrong with my thinking, and how would go about this?

Is there a full version of the webthings that would accomplish this?

I’d be grateful for your input, but please remember I’m new to Raspberries.

Darren.

#2

A monitor connected to the RPi will just show text (Linux) output and command line. The touchscreen would need to be connected to something that has a browser that will connect to/display the WebThings web page. There may be a way to install and launch a browser from the WebThings command line but I’m not sure about that.

#3

Hi @dsimms4,

As craigva.1 says, the WebThings Gateway Raspberry Pi image is headless by default, it’s based on Raspbian Lite which doesn’t have a graphical user interface. This is because the intended way to use the gateway is to access its web interface in a web browser on your desktop/laptop/tablet/smartphone, like you would access the web interface of a wireless router for example.

However, it should be possible to install the gateway software alongside a desktop environment if you want to, e.g. by using the .deb package or docker image on the desktop version of Raspbian.

There is some discussion about creating an alternative distribution for smart speakers and smart displays (e.g. a gateway and touch screen controller combined into one device) if you are interested in that.

1 Like
#4

Hi Guys,

Thank you for your replies. I’m very graeful.

What about candle. I’ve just come across this. Is this just the WebThings Gateway thats been further developed with a display?
Darren.