Skip to content

Home

Jump to bottom
Peter Kwan edited this page Jul 26, 2023 · 19 revisions

Getting started with VBIT-IV

Installation

These instructions are for Linux machines. Tested with Ubuntu/Debian and Raspberry Pi OS. First install vbit2. vbit2 generates a T42 stream that can be fed into vbit-iv.

source <(wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/peterkvt80/vbit2/master/getvbit2)

Install any teletext services that you want and set them to update. Do NOT run vbit or set it to run at boot.

git clone https://github.com/peterkvt80/vbit-iv.git

Raspberry Pi OS already has python3 installed, for other systems you'll have to install it yourself. Then install a few extra bits that the code needs.

pip3 install screeninfo
pip3 install readchar
pip3 install zmq
cd vbit-iv
sudo cp *.ttf /usr/local/share/fonts

Now you should be able to run the code assuming that you did the cd vbit-iv already

./innervision.py

If you want to specify the page number then you can run it like this:

cd to the directory containing the files and run the system with a command like this. The two numbers at the end are the magazine and the page number.

$HOME/vbit2/vbit2 --dir $HOME/.teletext-services/Teefax/ | ./vbit-iv.py 7 92

Remote control

You can control vbit-iv from another shell using your network. Open a shell on the same machine. It is best run on a different monitor. It accepts keyboard commands and forwards them to vbit-iv. You can remote control from a different machine. Edit the source of vbit-remote and find the host= line and set the IP address to your target vbit-iv.

host = "tcp://127.0.0.1:7777"

Run the remote like this:

./vbit-remote

Problems

Your Python3 installation may need some libraries. Use pip3 to add them.

pip3 install screeninfo
pip3 install readchar

On Debian or Raspberry Pi OS install the fonts from your vbit-iv folder:

sudo cp *.ttf /usr/local/share/fonts

If you update vbit2 and it stops working, this is because the config file changed in July 2023. Update to the latest vbitconfig.py and it should all start working again.

FLIRC

Flirc is an infra-red remote control receiver that can be configured to work with vbit-iv. It works by pretending to be a keyboard. It then lets you map remote control buttons to key presses. For example, pressing the Program Up button could issue an 'f' on the keyboard. vbit-iv and Muttlee use numbers 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,h=hold,r=reveal,u=red,i=green,o=yellow,p=cyan,f=next page,b=previous page, d=random page.

  • Install the FLIRC GUI app.
  • Plug in the FLIRC USB receiver and have a TV remote with the appropriate teletext buttons.
  • Run the FLIRC GUI app
  • Select Controllers->Full keyboard.
  • Click a key to start recording.
  • The prompt will tell you to press the corresponding remote control button.
  • repeat for all the buttons that you want Once programmed, the FLIRC USB can be moved to any PC or Raspberry Pi running vbit-iv or browsing to a Muttlee (Xenoxxx.com) page.

Future development

  • Add missing features: box.
  • West Europe language support
  • Other languages support.

Note for developers

Your account will need an ssh public key installed. Then you will be able to do git pull and git push after you have set up your repository like this.

git remote set-url origin git@github.com:peterkvt80/vbit-iv.git

LAUNCHERS

It is possible to add desktop icons to launch services or run services that are not on a repository. See the readme.txt in the launchers folder.

Clone this wiki locally