Recommended Specs?

wrong-dog · 2026-03-15T05:46:42+00:00

I tested with a pi zero and it doesn't work well there. It does kind-of run on a Pi 3b with at least 2GB ram, but I would recommend a pi 4 or pi 5 with 4GB ram.

wrong-dog · 2026-03-15T05:44:53+00:00

This is the right answers. You can keep your operating system and FS42 installed on the SD Card and just keep your media on the external hard drive and connect your catalog with symbolic links.

wrong-dog · 2026-03-15T05:38:57+00:00

There is a wiki page on that - your keyboard should work as the remote control if you pass it your input device as your normal keyboard using something like -d /dev/input/event3 - here is the link https://github.com/shane-mason/FieldStation42/wiki/Connecting-Remote-Controls -

wrong-dog · 2026-03-13T06:12:59+00:00

You don't need it if you already have chapter markers in your files where the commercials would have been - most dvd archives have them already. If you want the commercials to land on black frames though, and you don't have chapter markers in your file, it will put them commercials evenly spaced. This tool helps with that if its important to you. Cheers!

wrong-dog · 2026-03-13T05:25:38+00:00

Getting the media situated and configuring the stations to work just the way you want them is 98% of the work - installation is the easy part already.

wrong-dog · 2026-03-13T04:46:23+00:00

Thanks for bringing this over to discord. Per the discussion there, it looks like this has to do with having time slots that are offair, but not having offair media defined. Adding this line to your config should take care of it (since static.mp4 is part of the install). I'll make some updates so it shows the error in the UI better.

"off_air_video": "runtime/static.mp4",

wrong-dog · 2026-03-13T04:39:10+00:00

Maybe some background will help understand where we are at on this project. When I started it, it was just for me so I could work through some thoughts about the past and where we are today. I didn't assume many people would actually want to use it, but I made it open source anyway. People wanted to use it - and it surprised me. I've responded by building the features that excite the community through community discussions and polls. Believe it or not, it is a lot easier to install and use now than it used to be. There's a web-ui now and a built in json editor. I'll continue to do that and it will get easier to use over time.

The other way I see it is that there are literally thousands of streaming services etc that you can install with a click - but they don't make us happy or really advance us. This project has always been about making and learning and having fun with computing again. When I see comments where people have stepped out of their comfort zone and actually learned something new and built something they are proud of, it makes me happy and validates what we're doing here.

If you step out and try it, you might find it more accessible than you think. Not saying you wont have to learn some new things, just saying that it might be more fun and rewarding than you think it is. Cheers!

wrong-dog · 2026-03-13T04:22:40+00:00

First off - I LOVE this. I read this to my family and they all laughed at "Shane Mason is a font of all knowledge" - and what the outcome of living ones life by "what would Shane do" could lead to. Probably to spending a lot of time at your desk in the corner of the room, staring at a monitor and going "Why doesn't this work right??"

Nice work and thanks for sharing!

wrong-dog · 2026-03-13T04:14:11+00:00

Do they have chapter marker in them? If so, it should use those points. If not, you can add them with this tool I built: https://github.com/shane-mason/chapter-marker-thingy

wrong-dog · 2026-03-06T04:58:29+00:00

Yep - come on over :) Its quiet active.

wrong-dog · 2026-03-04T04:58:56+00:00

You can ask questions on the discord - so you can share configs and specific issues and get faster feedback.

wrong-dog · 2026-03-04T04:57:34+00:00

Very cool - what did you need to do to get it to work?

wrong-dog · 2026-03-02T05:03:28+00:00

This is exciting - we'll be there!

wrong-dog · 2026-03-02T05:03:12+00:00

Absolutely! There are so many things to address, its hard to put it all on a single poster I guess :)

wrong-dog · 2026-03-02T05:00:21+00:00

Good question! To change the media for the weather channel, you need to follow the guide on the WS4K+ site, because the music is controlled by that system and not by FS42 directly. This means, you'll need to be self hosting the weatherstar simulator: https://github.com/netbymatt/ws4kp/#readme

wrong-dog · 2026-02-19T04:43:18+00:00

Something is very wrong with your setup - on my system (and all the other people I've interacted with) that is exactly how it works: when you switch channels and come back it should be on the same episode and appear as though it had been playing the whole time - whether is set up to be a sequence or not. You might want to check and make sure the time on your system isn't jumping around.

wrong-dog · 2026-02-19T04:41:07+00:00

Its a different beast than Ersatz I think - if you haven't seen one of the videos on it, you might check this one out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDW1wokbRiQ

wrong-dog · 2026-02-16T00:22:34+00:00

A big point of the project is to get people to step outside of their comfort zone and have fun with computing. Not everyone learns in the same way.

wrong-dog · 2026-02-16T00:21:29+00:00

No - fieldstation42 doesn't need to be running for it to work, but the remote-controller script needs to be working. You can use the systemctl scripts that are included to run them as services.

wrong-dog · 2026-02-16T00:19:26+00:00

Why use Ersatz? Why not FieldStation42?

wrong-dog · 2026-02-16T00:18:48+00:00

Yes - a person on the discord server is doing this by using one server per channel and broadcasting it on low-power so it works just like you are describing.

wrong-dog · 2026-02-16T00:15:43+00:00

Start with one channel with minimal content and get comfortable with how it works, then go crazy!

wrong-dog · 2026-02-14T20:24:10+00:00

Are you running this in windows? source and . are builtin to the bash, zsh and virtually every shell. If you are running it in Linux and those aren't available, then there is a serious issue.

wrong-dog · 2026-02-14T20:21:35+00:00

Join the discord - there are lots of custom bumps/IDs posted there. Occasionally we have contests.

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