I run my rhythm stage setupon a Raspberry Pi. Mostly this works
well: I plug it in, my code and init scripts bring everything up in
the right order, in about a minute it’s taking in audio and MIDI and
putting out audio. If it doesn’t work I turn it off and on again and
then it does.
As I’m about to head off to play a dance (hi NYC!) with a heavily
refactored system that will very likely but not certainly work
properly, I’m thinking about what I might do if it needs tweaking.
I’ve had one issue so far, where an SD card stopped working, and now I
travel with a spare
prepared SD card. For other potential breakages I have spare
equipment where I could swap things around, but only if I make code
changes. Writing the code to be smart enough to understand every way
I might repatch it in response to failure would be possible, but a
huge amount of work.
When I’m home playing with things this is easy: the Pi is on my
network, I ssh in. But what about when I’m at a gig? I want an easy
way to log in. What are my options?
Keyboard (usb) and monitor (HDMI). This will definitely work,
but since I wouldn’t want to travel with a monitor I’d be reliant on
finding someone who was willing to let me use theirs. And in a “get
to the hall early, set up, something’s broken, need to tweak” or a
“dance weekend in the woods” scenario there probably isn’t anything.
People do make tiny monitors ($60),
generally marketed for Raspberry Pis, but that’s a bit expensive and
with a keyboard is also bigger than ideal.
Ethernet. Ethernet adapter on my Mac, which I already have,
into ethernet on the Pi. You don’t need a crossover cable for this
sort of thing anymore: they’ll just detect automatically. The steps
aren’t too bad:
System Preferences > Sharing > Internet Sharing > USB
10/100/1000 LAN.
Run ifconfig: Should see bridge100 listed, probably
says ip is 192.168.2.1.
Connect Pi to ethernet and power on.
ssh pi@192.168.2.2.
This would be ideal, except it only works if the Mac has WiFi. Which
is super frustrating, since I really would like a setup that works
even when there’s no internet connection to share.
RS232 (serial). A USB-to-serial adapter on each end ($10,
male, $11,
female) and they should be able to talk RS232 to each other. You
can even get a single cable that does both ($18), which looks
like a forbidden USB-A to USB-A cable. A bit more annoying to set up
on both ends, but once you do it should be very reliable and ideal for
command-line login. Kind of obsolete though.
I’m currently leaning towards serial; other options I should consider?
Remote Login For Turnkey Devices?
Link post
I run my rhythm stage setup on a Raspberry Pi. Mostly this works well: I plug it in, my code and init scripts bring everything up in the right order, in about a minute it’s taking in audio and MIDI and putting out audio. If it doesn’t work I turn it off and on again and then it does.
As I’m about to head off to play a dance (hi NYC!) with a heavily refactored system that will very likely but not certainly work properly, I’m thinking about what I might do if it needs tweaking. I’ve had one issue so far, where an SD card stopped working, and now I travel with a spare prepared SD card. For other potential breakages I have spare equipment where I could swap things around, but only if I make code changes. Writing the code to be smart enough to understand every way I might repatch it in response to failure would be possible, but a huge amount of work.
When I’m home playing with things this is easy: the Pi is on my network, I ssh in. But what about when I’m at a gig? I want an easy way to log in. What are my options?
Keyboard (usb) and monitor (HDMI). This will definitely work, but since I wouldn’t want to travel with a monitor I’d be reliant on finding someone who was willing to let me use theirs. And in a “get to the hall early, set up, something’s broken, need to tweak” or a “dance weekend in the woods” scenario there probably isn’t anything. People do make tiny monitors ($60), generally marketed for Raspberry Pis, but that’s a bit expensive and with a keyboard is also bigger than ideal.
Ethernet. Ethernet adapter on my Mac, which I already have, into ethernet on the Pi. You don’t need a crossover cable for this sort of thing anymore: they’ll just detect automatically. The steps aren’t too bad:
-
This would be ideal, except it only works if the Mac has WiFi. Which is super frustrating, since I really would like a setup that works even when there’s no internet connection to share.System Preferences > Sharing > Internet Sharing > USB 10/100/1000 LAN.
Run
ifconfig: Should see bridge100 listed, probably says ip is192.168.2.1.Connect Pi to ethernet and power on.
ssh pi@192.168.2.2.RS232 (serial). A USB-to-serial adapter on each end ($10, male, $11, female) and they should be able to talk RS232 to each other. You can even get a single cable that does both ($18), which looks like a forbidden USB-A to USB-A cable. A bit more annoying to set up on both ends, but once you do it should be very reliable and ideal for command-line login. Kind of obsolete though.
I’m currently leaning towards serial; other options I should consider?