TeleFrame is an open source digital image frame that displays images and videos, which were send to an Telegram Bot.

!!! IMPORTANT !!!

To update TeleFrame on a Raspberry PI, it is required to remove the electron folder and an additional parameter for npm to define the processor architecture! Also, make sure that you have the latest version of npm.

Execute the following commands in a terminal to do all this and be prepared for future updates, where again npm install is enough to update.

sudo npm install npm@latest -g
[ -z "$npm_config_arch" ] && (echo -e "# npm archive configuration\nexport npm_config_arch=\$(uname -m)" >> ~/.profile)
export npm_config_arch=$(uname -m)
cd ~/TeleFrame
rm -rf node_modules/
npm install --arch=$(uname -m)

Table Of Contents

• Table Of Contents
• Installation
  • Automatic Installation (Raspberry Pi only!)
  • Manual Installation
• Configuration
• Whitelist Chats
• Voice Replies using TeleFrame
• Touchscreen support
• Updating
• Addon interface
• Bot only mode (no GUI)
• Building a TeleFrame

Installation

Automatic Installation (Raspberry Pi only!)

Electron, the app wrapper around Teleframe, only supports the Raspberry Pi 2/3/4. The Raspberry Pi 0/1 is currently not supported.

Note that you will need to install the lastest full version of Raspbian, don't use the Lite version.

Execute the following command on your Raspberry Pi to install TeleFrame:

bash -c "$(curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LukeSkywalker92/TeleFrame/master/tools/install_raspberry.sh)"

Manual Installation

1. Download and install the latest Node.js version.
2. If you like to use the voice reply feature you need to install sox
3. Install Electron globally with npm install -g electron.
4. Clone the repository and check out the master branch: git clone https://github.com/LukeSkywalker92/TeleFrame.git
5. Enter the repository: cd TeleFrame/
6. Install and run the app with: npm install && npm start

Also note that:

• npm start does not work via SSH. But you can use DISPLAY=:0 nohup npm start & instead. \ This starts the TeleFrame on the remote display.
• To access toolbar menu when in fullscreen mode, hit ALT key.
• To toggle the (web) Developer Tools from fullscreen mode, use CTRL-SHIFT-I or ALT and select View.

Configuration

1. Copy TeleFrame/config/config.example.json to TeleFrame/config/config.json. \ Note: If you used the installer script. This step is already done for you.

2. Modify your required settings. Note: You only need to define settings that differ from the standard configuration.

The following properties can be configured:

Whitelist Chats

When you start your TeleFrame and send a "Hi" to the bot it will send you back the current chat id. Paste this id or several of them into the whitelistChats config option to only allow only pictures from these ids (eg [1234567, 89101010]). Leave empty ([]) for no whitelist.

Using the Touch Bar

To use a touch bar for executing commands instead of the default touch gestures you need to add a touchBar obect to your config. To open the touch bar, just touch the screen. Do the same to hide it again. The touchBar object takes the height of the touchbar, optionally the autoHideTimeout and a list of elements that should appear as keys. Availiable elements are:

Voice Replies using TeleFrame

A very simple way to respond to the images is by using TeleFrame`s voice reply feature. The feature is intended to work like this: Who ever comes by the frame presses a button, speaks their message into the frame, when there is 2 seconds of silence or the maximum time is reached the recording will stop and the telegram bot will send it to the chat where the current image came from.

Sending Admin-Commands to the TeleFrame

As administrator of a TeleFrame, it could be very useful to execute commands on the TeleFrame computer. With the TeleFrame-Bot you are able to send these commands without logging on to the remote computer.

Examples for such admin actions could be:

• Reboot the Raspberry Pi
• Restart of the TeleFrame application
• Open a VPN connection
• Close a VPN connection
• ....

To enable Admin-Action on the TeleFrame, following settings must be made in the Config file:

• Adding the Chat-ID to the list of Administators (whitelistAdmins)
• Activating the Admin Actions (allowAdminAction)
• Adding an Action Object (actions) [see adminAction-Object]
• Activation of the action object (enable)

Now the action on the TeleFrame can be triggered by sending the corresponding command (e.g. /reboot for the command named "reboot").

adminAction-object

action-object

Touchscreen support

• Navigate through the images by touching at the left or right side of your touchscreen.
• Pause and resume the slideshow by touching in the middle of your touchscreen.
• Record a voice message and reply to the shown image by making a long touch in the middle of your touchscreen. The recording starts when you take your finger off.

Updating

If you want to update your TeleFrame to the latest version, use your terminal to go to your TeleFrame folder and type the following command:

git pull && npm install

If you changed nothing more than the config, this should work without any problems. Type git status to see your changes, if there are any, you can reset them with git reset --hard. After that, git pull should be possible.

Addon interface

TeleFrame provides an addon interface to implement own extensions. See documentation addon interface.

Bot only mode (no GUI)

To run only the bot (without GUI), that saves the recieved images and videos into the folder specified in the config you need to run

npm run botonly

in the TeleFrame folder.

Building a TeleFrame

A detailed instruction on how to build your own TeleFrame will follow soon.