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Auto rotate from Raspberry Pi/RetroPie ...

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Bolthouse:
Hi All,

I understand all the mechanical and electrical aspects (wiring and switches) of a rotating monitor ... but I'm at a loss for how I'm going to get my Raspberry Pi, running RetroPie, to trigger the rotation. I see a lot of chatter about MRotate, but that seems to only work on Windows machines.

If you offer any advise, understand that I have virtually zero programming knowledge and I don't understand micro-electronics well. So explain like you're talking to a 8th grade science student. I can usually fumble my way through with a little trial and error, but I'm operating at a very basic level in these areas.

It seems like I need a motor control board for controlling the motor ... which can connect via the GPIO pins or via a USB port. But I have no idea how the software will interface with the hardware, so I'm unsure of what I'm looking for in a motor controller? The Pololu simple motor controller seems popular and appropriate, but I just have no experience to know if it's the right choice.

Obviously, I also need a motor, but I have no clue what type, style or strength of motor I'll need. It seems like a basic brushed DC motor will work for me, but I'll probably buy a bunch and test them out. That said, it would be nice to have a little direction. Mechanically, my monitor will be mounted to a swivel plate, and I will mount a laser cut acrylic gear to the back of the monitor ... so my motor will drive the monitor via that gear. It's a 19" LCD monitor, so not too big or heavy and the swivel plate will hold all the weight ... so the motor should only have to apply a bit of rotational force.

I have search the forum for this info, but it's only gotten me so far as to ask these questions.

This is all I know to ask at this point.

Your feedback is appreciated.

Thanks!

DaOld Man:
Hello Bolthouse, and welcome to the forum!
You are correct that MRotate only works with Windows.
I have tossed around the idea of a version for RPi, but havent had a lot of time to explore it.
Just right off the bat, it would probably be easier to do through the GPIO.
And we would need a way for the program to know which orientation the game being played needs.
Darthpaul just put together a console that turns on LEDs based on emulator selected, maybe he can contribute his process.
I will start thinking about that, because I may want to do the rotate screen with Pi myself.
If any programmers on here have some ideas, lets hear them.

About the mechanical part, Im interested to see your gear setup.
I used a 12 VDC motor that was made to raise the headlights on a Firebird car, very similar to a wind shield wiper motor.
These motors are very powerful and should easily turn an LCD monitor.
Looking forward to seeing how your project goes.

darthpaul:
I have been thinking about this as well but I don't think from a software point of view it's going to be easy. Retropie and Emulationstation are not built at the moment to easily do something like this but anything is possible. Since you are going to be using a LCD monitor it should be pretty straight forward rotating it.

Bolthouse:
Thanks for the warm welcome! I'm really looking forward to this project.

The GPIO pins do seem to be the more direct electronic route for most things (as I understand it, anything USB would require drivers), but it should be noted that I will have a ControlBlock (http://petrockblog.storenvy.com/products/13969497-controlblock) connected to the GPIO pins. While the ControlBlock leaves a number of pins open, it makes them a little less accessible as it covers the RPi. Also, I'm not really sure which pins do what (though I know there's a simple schematic for that), so I don't know if any of the available pins would be useful to trigger rotation.

I'll definitely share my plans and progress as soon as I have something to show. For the last month I've just been identifying, ordering and waiting for parts to arrive. I actually live in Hong Kong, which has been pretty nice for sourcing parts ... either through Ebay or the ample electronics markets in HK and Shenzhen. Oddly, the larger obstacle has been sourcing materials like wood and screws, as Asia inst really a DIY sort of culture. Fortunately, a fantastic maker space recently opened in HK; which gives me access to a wood/metal shop, laser cutter, CNC mill and 3D printers. It's rather entertaining, but the one thing I absolutely can't find in Asia, is T-molding! But I'll be back in the US in July and August, so I'll just pick some up while I'm there.

I'm just now getting into the nitty-gritty of the design and building the cabinet out in SketchUp, so I'll post that when I get it done. That will give a much better picture of the mechanics.

I also plan to publish a detailed blog, covering every aspect form parts selection, through the actual build.

Anyway, let me know if i can help in any way with getting a version of MRotate working on the RPi. Again, I'm not a programmer, so I'll probably be as useful as a sack of rocks ... but I'll do what I can.

darthpaul:
From what I have been reading, it looks like you could be the first one to do automatic monitor rotation using a Raspberry Pi. I found out you are going to have to create a small text file for every vertical game rom and place that file right below the game rom and call it, rom name.zip.cfg.
This is what should be in the text file:
video_allow_rotate = true
video_rotation = 3
I'm also thinking that maybe here is where a python script should be called that would trigger the monitor rotation. The problem then would be getting the monitor back to horizontal. I guess you could create another text file for all the vertical games and call a script that would rotate the monitor back to horizontal, or on exit of every game, the monitor would return to the horizontal position, that would only involve one call to the script placed in the runcommand file.

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