Driver Station
While it possible to use the Gizmo software and hardware with any computer, the Gizmo Team has developed software to provide an appliance-like experience using an embedded Linux system called a driver's station.
The station code is regularly tested using a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W with a Waveshare Ethernet and USB hub. Though we don't actively qualify against the hardware, you should also be able to use our driver station system images on a Raspberry Pi 4B.
Physical Assembly
The driver's station comprises the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and the Waveshare board, which you will need to assemble. This need only be done once and once assembled there is no need to disassemble.
Consult the following graphic from the Waveshare documentation for assembly instructions, paying special attention to the order of the brass spacers that are used to assemble the PCB stack:
When installing the white cover plate, use the one without the cutout in it. Both are provided, but only the one without the cutout is required.
Software Installation
Once physical assembly is complete, you must install the software image that runs the driver's station. Ensure you have a means of writing a micro SD card for this step, using adapters if necessary.
Obtain the latest system image from the GitHub releases page. For the driver's station, use the driver-station.zip file. After unzipping the file, you'll have a file called driver-station.img.
To write the image to the SD card, you have a few choices. If you're on a mac or a Linux machine, you can use dd. On Windows you can use Win32DiskImager. If you've never written disk images before, the Gizmo team recommends you use Balena Etcher which is available for all platforms, and guides you through the process.
tip
Balena Etcher Portable edition can be used without needing to install. This can be convenient to not clutter your machine with extraneous programs, or to write files from a machine where you do not have administrative permissions to install new programs.
Writing the Gizmo driver station image with Balena Etcher looks like this:
When you open the main application screen, it will look like this:
Either download and extract the driver station file as mentioned above, or paste the URL directly into the box on the "Use Image URL" screen:
Click the "Select target" button and connect your micro SD card. The disk will appear as a target that you can use.
warning
Balena will automatically hide any volumes that it detects the system may be booted from, so generally you can't hurt your computer with this process. Be extremely careful though to select the right disk if you show hidden devices. A good way to make sure you've got the right disk is to confirm the size of the device, which should match closely to the size of your micro SD card. The exact size may differ slightly due to the way in which device manufacturers market capacity.
Once configured, the Etcher window will look similar to this:
The flashing process will take several minutes. On average with a modern computer, the Gizmo team observes this process taking about 3 minutes.
note
You may be prompted to authorize the command prompt prior to the flash process commencing, this is a normal prompt as Balena Etcher needs to access low-level system utilities to write the data to the micro SD card.
Once complete, the Etcher window will look like this:
You may now close Etcher and remove the micro SD card.
Software Configuration
Once you have successfully written the driver station image to the micro SD card, it must be configured. The driver station consumes the same configuration file as the Gizmo System Software. Locate the gsscfg.json file that was generated as part of the configuration process, and copy it to the micro SD card.
note
On some computers, you may need to disconnect and reconnect the micro SD card for it to show up as a removable disk after using Etcher.
Only one volume should attach in most cases, but in the event your
computer has additional device drivers typically only found on
developer workstations, you may see two drives when you plug in the
micro SD card. In the event you see two drives, copy gsscfg.json
to the drive that contains bootcode.bin.
Once you copy the file, eject/safely remove the drive and install it in the micro SD card slot on the driver's station. The card should be inserted with the contacts facing downwards, aligned against the flat edge of the card. Should you need to remove it, you may find tweezers useful; alternatively with the lid removed from the driver's station, it is possible to use a paperclip to push the card back out.