Raspberry Pi YouTube Kiosk in 5 Minutes with Thymis

Introduction

Setting up Raspberry Pis can involve a surprising amount of repetitive work. This includes downloading a base image, flashing it to an SD card, booting the device, connecting a keyboard and monitor, configuring Wi-Fi, installing software and finally running your application.

If you prefer a graphical user interface, you can use a management software such as Thymis to simplify the process. You can use the hosted Thymis Cloud or run it self-hosted.

Once the controller is up and running, you can specify the desired behaviour of the full Raspberry Pi configuration and flash a single image. The Pi will then boot with the provided settings, connect back to the Thymis Controller and start playing a full-screen YouTube video. All of this can be done without touching a keyboard or monitor.

What You’ll Need

• Raspberry Pi 3, 4, or 5
• Power cable
• Display with HDMI
• HDMI cable
• MicroSD card with at least 8GB of storage
• SD card reader
• A computer with internet access
• Access to a Thymis Controller instance

Step 1: Create a Device Configuration

In your Thymis UI:

1. Go to Configs > Create Device Configuration
2. Name it ‘Pi YouTube Demo’
3. Select your Raspberry Pi model
4. Enter your Wi-Fi credentials in the Core Device Configuration module

Step 2: Add the Kiosk Module

Add the Kiosk module and paste a YouTube embed URL with autoplay enabled. For example:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/xPPLbEFbCAo?autoplay=1&mute=1&fs=1&loop=1&playlist=xPPLbEFbCAo

This will make the Pi launch Chromium in full-screen and play the video on boot.

To enable remote screen access, activate the VNC server in the Kiosk module. This adds a VNC tab to the Thymis, allowing you to remotely view and control the Pi’s screen.

Step 3: Build and Flash the Image

1. Click ‘Download Device Image’ The first build takes around 4 minutes. Subsequent builds are faster because build steps are cached.
2. Flash the .img to your SD card using USBImager or the dd command.

You can flash the same image to multiple SD cards and all of them will use the same configuration.

Step 4: Boot the Device

Insert the SD card and connect the display via the HDMI cable. Now you can power on the Raspberry Pi.

After a short boot time, the Pi will automatically play the YouTube video in fullscreen mode. At the same time, the device will connect back to your Thymis Controller instance, allowing you to see it online, update it and manage all settings remotely.

Conclusion

Using a device management tool like Thymis reduces the time and effort required to set up new devices. You can prepare one configuration, build an image, and then flash it onto as many SD cards as required. Any configuration change you make will apply to all devices without needing to SSH into every device or even attach a monitor or keyboard. If an SD card fails, you can quickly flash a new one, with exactly the same configuration.

Content updates, handling remote access and managing bigger fleets become more straightforward, which is especially useful for kiosks and digital signage.

You can start using Thymis for free.