Wireless Beamer with a Raspberry PI

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Without that Corona-thing it’s about once a month that I am deejaying in my favourite bar in my hometown (Trash in Osnabrück). Few months ago I bought a projector which I am using to do live visuals in parallel. It took me some time to figure it out but I think I found the setup with the best possible balance between transportability and useability.

That’s the Projector in action. It’s not that easy to find a canvas to do projections in that particular venue but everything is possible with a little fantasy and a magic arm with a Manfrotto-Clamp
I designed and printed an adapter to directly mount a Raspberry to the projector. You can get it here. The adapter is mounted to the projector’s VGA-port since that port still provides the chance to mount something to it and fix it it with screws.
All the other ports aside VGA can still be used, of course.
The adapter is small enough to make the projector still fit into its pocket while the it’s attached.
Meanwhile the 3D-Printer created some more parts
It’s a quickmount adapter for a Raspberry Pi. It can now easily be snapped onto the projector without the need for any tools.
The HAT on top of the Raspberry PI is a leftover from another project that I am currently working on. right now I am only using it to attach a DC-DC-stepper so that I can derive power for the PI from the projector’s power supply.
A short HDMI-cable does the trick. If it’s stupid but it works it ain’t stupid.
Getting data to the projector is a story on its own. I wanted to be independent from any other network and could have used my computer’s wifi interface as an access point but every now and then I am using it to access the bar’s own network to find some music online quick. That’s why I got a dedicated access point that the raspberry connects to wirelessly. I am accessing it via my computer’s ethernet interface.
I realized that there was literally zero wireless network signal received RPI as soon as the projector was in close proximity to the Raspberry (and it took me WAY too much time to find out). That’s why I added an external USB antenna to the setup. Not exactly what I envisioned but it improves the signal’s strength of the received signal tremendously.
Video data are transmitted to the Raspberry via TCPSyphon. The RPI automatically starts the TCPSyphon-Client upon boot and waits for video data being streamed. It’s rather realistic to stream FullHD to the device but it does the trick for some background-visuals in a bar. Unfortunately, the software is not actively supported anymore but I am working on an alternative right now.
Video creation and perspective warping is done in VDMX and some self-built warping-software. That will be part of another part.
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