Re-installing the SPi-Box scripts on your Raspberry Pi

Note: These steps are only necessary if you have not got a pre-loaded SPi-Box microSD card from SB Components or if you need to reformat your microSD card for any reason.

Pre-requisites and assumptions

  • You have a clean install of Raspbian (visit https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/)
  • Your Pi is plugged in, powered on and connected to a monitor, keyboard and mouse, your network
  • You have downloaded and unzipped the spibox.zip file so that the following directories appear:

/home/pi/spibox

/home/pi/spibox/capture

/home/pi/spibox/capture/archive

  • You have copied the x2 .Desktop files to /home/pi/Desktop
  • You are using the default user: pi / raspberry
  • You know how to open command windows and edit files using nano

 

Enable the camera and SSH

Open up a LXTerminal session and enter:

        sudo raspi-config

 

Use the arrow keys to move down to "5 Enable Camera" and press Enter/Return and select <enable>

Back on the main config page use the arrow keys to move down to "8 Advanced Options" and press Enter/Return

Use the arrow keys to scroll down to "A4 SSH" and press Enter/Return and select <enable>

 

 

Install required packages

Open up a LXTerminal session and type:

 

        sudo apt-get update
        sudo apt-get install ssmtp
        sudo apt-get install mpack
        sudo apt-get update

 

Configure your mail account

At a command prompt enter:

 

        sudo nano /etc/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf

 

Change the lines:

 

                
        mailhub=[your smtp server or smtp.gmail.com:587 if using a gmail account]
        FromLineOverride=YES
        AuthUser=[yourEmail@address]
        AuthPass=[your email address password]
        UseSTARTTLS=YES

 

Close the file, saving your changes.

Turn off the camera's LED

At a command prompt type:

 

 

        sudo nano /boot/config.txt

 

And add the following line to the file:

        disable_camera_led=1

 

Close the file saving your change.

Change the "From name" that will appear on emails

At a command prompt enter:

        sudo nano /etc/passwd

Edit the line beginning "root" to be:

        root:x:0:0:SPIBOX:/root:/bin/bash

Close the file saving your change.

 

Schedule the spiboxmessenger script to run in the background on startup

At a command prompt enter:

 

        crontab -e

Add the following line to the end of the file:

        @reboot sudo python /home/pi/spibox/spiboxmessenger.py &
   

Close the file, saving your change.