[RPi2/3] Addon Kodisplay

**vitalogy** · November 16, 2016 at 9:00 PM

Hi,

i want to bring the addon script.kodisplay to libreelec. You can find the code on github.
With kodisplay you can display stuff from kodi (datetime, played artist, play time, ... ) on a framebuffer device, like a tiny tft lcd 2,4".
The layout for a specific screen (navigation, music, video, pvr, ... ) can be defined in the file TFT.xml and can be personalized.

To get this addon to work there must be some dependencies get solved.
1. Enable fbtft in kernel for the tiny cheap tft's commit on gtihub
2. bring pygame, libsdl (SDL), sdl_ttf and sdl_image to libreelec commit on github
SDL2 is not possible, because the support for framebuffer was dropped.

The first one is very easy (but i don't know, if i should enable all the fbtft modules).
For the second i want to get a response from a libreelec-dev if i should do this way.
I can make an extra addon with the pygame and sdl stuff or bundle them within script.kodisplay to make a exclusiv addon for libreelec.
A bootscreen with ply-image could also be possible, but ply-image and a systemd service must be included.

In the fork from escalade there are also the packages for SDL present. So if the packages in libreelec gets accepted (in whatever way) then escalade has a problem with packages with the same name. I want do this right ...

Any response is welcome.

**escalade** · December 1, 2016 at 6:04 PM

In that case I'll simply use the upstream packages, so don't worry about that

**vitalogy** · December 19, 2016 at 11:46 AM

If someone is interested to test it for RPi2/3:
RPi2 LibreELEC image
RPi2 Addon KoDisplay

The LibreELEC image includes additional the fbtft kernel drivers and the addon the neccessary libs (pygame, SDL, SDL_ttf, SDL_image).
In the addon settings select fbcon and the framebuffer device for the display, typically it should be /dev/fb1.
Reboot if nothing is shown on your display.

You can define your own layouts for the modes. You find the file in /storage/.kodi/userdata/addon_data/script.kodisplay/layout.xml.

noggin · July 8, 2018 at 11:58 PM

Apologies for necro-posting - but I've been playing with this on a Pi 3B+ with an Adafruit 128x128 1.5" OLED display (SPI and supported nicely by fbtft)

This plugin is really encouraging - did it move forward?

digikey001 · September 12, 2018 at 7:46 AM

My apologies too, but I'm very interested in this addon.

I'm trying to use KodiDisplayInfo python program, but meanwhile unsuccessfuly.

noggin · November 19, 2019 at 12:32 PM

Apologies for necro-posting again - but I've been running both add ons listed here - KodiDisplayInfo (which uses web access to Kodi, but has far less advanced display functionality) and Kodisplay (which is the main topic of discussion here - but seems to be an internal add on only)

The advantage of KodisplayInfo using web access is that the SPI display and display code can be running on a small and cheap Pi Zero W or similar and SPI display, independent of your Kodi platform - which could be anything that supports LibreElec, CoreElec or Android Kodi I guess - and the Kodi device itself doesn't need to have SPI support and the code to drive SPI or similar displays.

The advantage of Kodisplay is that it has far, far more functionality and is far more extendible.

A question to those who know - is all the functionality available to an add-on, in Kodi status terms, available to an IP connected device via IP calls (JSON? http?) allowing an external device to be set-up as a comprehensive second display?

I've played with Frontvew+ on Windows on a little Windows tablet - and it also offers a lot of functionality - but doesn't quite do what I'd hoped.

(My aim is to have a bit more detail than the OpenVFD/LCDProc or similar displays - so PVR Channel logo and programme name, time elapsed/left bar graph for Live TV, Album art for Music - along with track number, track title and album title, time elapsed/left, movie name and art along with time elapsed/left etc. on a 2-3" display, possibly even something bigger like a DPI-connected Hyperpixel?)