Raspberry Pi Photo Slideshow

Automatically displays photos from a public Google Drive folder. Set it and forget it.

No API keys. No Google Cloud. No accounts.

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Install

git clone https://github.com/PSDTools/science-slideshow.git ~/slideshow
cd ~/slideshow
pip3 install -r requirements.txt --break-system-packages

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Setup

1. Make your Google Drive folder public

1. Right-click your folder → Share
2. Change to "Anyone with the link" can view
3. Copy the link

2. Get your folder ID

Your link looks like: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ABC123XYZ

The folder ID is: ABC123XYZ

3. Edit config.json

{
    "google_drive": {
        "folder_id": "ABC123XYZ"
    }
}

4. Run

python3 server.py

Open http://localhost:5000 — done!

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Auto-Start on Boot

chmod +x ~/slideshow/start_slideshow.sh
mkdir -p ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi
echo "@/home/pi/slideshow/start_slideshow.sh" >> ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart
sudo reboot

Now just add/remove images from your Google Drive folder. The Pi updates automatically every hour.

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config.json

{
    "google_drive": {
        "folder_id": "your-folder-id"
    },
    "weather": {
        "api_key": "",
        "station_id": ""
    },
    "slideshow": {
        "image_duration_seconds": 10,
        "weather_duration_seconds": 15
    },
    "server": {
        "port": 5000
    }
}

Weather is optional — leave it empty for photos only.

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URLs

URL	What it does
http://localhost:5000	Slideshow
http://localhost:5000/api/refresh	Force refresh now
http://localhost:5000/health	Status

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Portrait Mode

sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

Add: display_rotate=1 and reboot.

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How It Works

1. Pi fetches your public Google Drive folder
2. Finds all images (jpg, png, gif, webp)
3. Displays them in a fullscreen slideshow
4. Auto-refreshes every hour

That's it. No APIs, no tokens, no cloud console.