5. Set up the Pironman

Note

  • This Pironman is used in the same way as PC and requires the power button to power on/off.

  • The Pironman is currently only available for Raspberry Pi OS.

Change the config.txt

Before you can start using Pironman, you need to configure the power button and the IR receiver.

Open the /boot/config.txt file with the following command.

sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Add the following text to the end of the file, noting that there should be no spaces on either side of the =.

dtoverlay=gpio-poweroff,gpio_pin=26,active_low=0
dtoverlay=gpio-ir,gpio_pin=13

Press Ctrl+X -> Y -> Enter to save and exit editing.

Then you will need to reboot Raspberry Pi to take effect.

sudo reboot

Install pironman module

Use the following commands to download and install the pironman module.

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/sunfounder/pironman.git
cd ~/pironman
sudo python3 install.py

After installation, the program will start automatically. Here are the basic configurations for Pironman.

  • The OLED screen will display the CPU, RAM and ROM Usage, CPU Temperature and IP Address of the Raspberry Pi.

  • After 60 seconds, the OLED display goes into sleep mode, and you can wake it up by a short press on the power button.

  • The fan is turned on at 50 degrees Celsius.

  • Turn on the WS2812 RGB strip so that it displays in color #0a1aff(blue) and in breath mode (change rate is 50%).

  • At this point, you can press and hold for 2 seconds to safely shut down or 10 seconds to forcibly shut down.

Note

If you are using Raspberry Pi OS Lite, you will need to install git and python3 first, which you can do with the following commands.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install git python3-pip python3-setuptools python3-smbus

Modify the Configuration

In the pironman module, we have some basic configurations for Pironman, and you can check them with the following command.

pironman -c

The current configurations are shown below.

  • The fan is turned on at 50 degrees Celsius.

  • The duration of the OLED display is 60s, after 60s it will start to sleep.

  • Turn on the WS2812 RGB strip so that it displays in color #0a1aff and in breath mode (change rate is 50%).

_images/pironman_c.png

You can also modify these configurations to suit your needs.

Use pironman or pironman -h or pironman --help to view the instructions, as follows.

Usage:
pironman <OPTION> <input>

Options:
start            start pironman service
stop             stop pironman service
restart          restart pironman service
-h,--help        help, show this help
-c,--check       show all configurations
-a,--auto        [ on ],enable auto-start at boot
                [ off ], disable auto-start at boot
-u,--unit        [ C/F ], set the unit of temperature,
                    C or F (Celsius/Fahrenheit)
-f,--fan         [ temp ], Temperature at which the fan switches on,
                in celsius (default 50),in range (30 ~ 80)
-al,--always_on  [on/off], whether the screen is always on,
                default False
-s,--staty_time  [time], screen display duration in second,
                in second, default 30
-rw,--rgb_sw     [on/off], rgb strip switch
-rs,--rgb_style  rgb strip display style, default: breath,
                in [breath / leap / flow / raise_up]
-rc,--rgb_color  [(HEX)color], set the color of rgb strip,
                default: 0a1aff
-rb,--rgb_speed  [speed], rgb blink speed (0 ~ 100, default 50)

For example, to turn off the automatic execution of programs at boot.

pironman -a off

Or reset the color of WS2812 RGB strip.

pironman -rc ff8a40

Those configurations are stored in /.config/pironman/config.txt, and you can also make changes directly in this file.

sudo nano ~/.config/pironman/config.txt
_images/pironman_config.png

Press Ctrl+X -> Y -> Enter to save and exit editing.

Note

For details on the introduction and configuration of the components in Pironman, please refer to: 6. About Hardware.