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OS Image

The base OS image is Raspberry Pi OS Lite 32-bit (Debian version 11 bullseye, Kernel 6.1)

Optimizing Boot Speed​

To Do - Optimized boot script to reduce boot up time

Optimizing Battery Life​

Pi Zero 2W Settings​

Restrict number of cores to limit peak power use - the Zero 2W can be limited to use two cores and is still much faster than the pi zero, but peak power use is nearly half of what 4 cores will use.

  • sudo vi /boot/cmdline.txt
  • Add "maxcpus=2" after "console=tty1".
  • Reboot

Optimizing Apps for small screens​

  • By default, the LCD display shows a character screen of 50x15. If you develop text-based apps for Beepy, targeting this format will give you compatibility with the widest userbase.

top - You can reduce the number of columns shown by default so that it shows more useful information on the sharp display.

  • ssh to the Beepy (the needed menu doesn't render correctly on the small screen)
  • run "top"
  • type "f" to enter the columns config screen
  • use the up and down keys to move, and space to remove the "*" from all of the columns except: PID, USER, S, %CPU, %MEM, COMMAND
  • type "q" to return to the main screen
  • type "W" (capital w) to save the config.
  • type "q" to quit. Then go back to the Beepy and top should have a nice setup.