Be cool Part 5 – Install the fan controller on OSMC

Be cool Part 5 – Install the fan controller on OSMC



To do the same fan controller install on OSMC we need to remote login from another machine as OSMC is headless. That means it has no desktop from which to start a terminal session. This means we need to be extra cautious as mistakes are harder to rectify if you render it unbootable.

You will have to ssh or start a putty session into the PI and login as osmc, password osmc (unless  you have changed the account or password). Using Putty.exe on windows http://www.putty.org/ or from a Linux Machine using ssh. I am not sure what Macs use.
We will need to copy the files from your PC or laptop.

Ensure that you have enabled SSH on your OSMC install.
Boot into OSMC and login from another machine. We will need to install some packages as OSMC does not have the Python development environment or Python GPIO library extensions to control to the fan yet.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python
sudo apt-get install python-dev 


to install python-rpi.gpio we need to get code from a different source (updated Aug 2018)
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential  
### this takes quite a while! 
export ARCH=arm
export CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/bin/

wget https://files.pythonhosted.org/packages/e2/58/6e1b775606da6439fa3fd1550e7f714ac62aa75e162eed29dbec684ecb3e/RPi.GPIO-0.6.3.tar.gz


tar -zxvf RPi.GPIO-0.6.3.tar.gz 
cd RPi.GPIO-0.6.3
sudo python setup.py install



if build-essential seems to freeze, try scrolling the terminal window down!

Let's make the folders

cd ~
mkdir scripts
mkdir logs

Now test the python script -

cd scripts
cd ~


press 'ctrl + c' followed by 'enter' to stop the script

If the fan runs/LED lights for 5 or more seconds then you can make the launcher executable

cd ~
cd scripts
sudo chmod +x launcher.sh
sh launcher.sh

test the launcher with

sudo sh launcher.sh

press 'ctrl +c'  then 'return' to exit

If that also works we can set up the cron script to make it run at boot

cd ~

sudo apt-get install cron 
mkdir logs
sudo apt-get install cron
sudo crontab -e


Add the following line to the end of the script (assuming your username is osmc)

@reboot sh /home/osmc/scripts/launcher.sh >/home/osmc/logs/cronlog 2>&1

sudo reboot

Your fan or LED should come on for 5 seconds at boot and work accordingly.

Of course to change the temperature settings you will have to ssh or putty in and edit the code, but after all that it should be a doddle!