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Connect a Raspberry Pi

Flash the CanvasRelay Pi image, boot, and pair — the Pi becomes a dedicated signage appliance.

The Raspberry Pi is the reference player: cheap, silent, and our image makes it behave like an appliance — it boots straight into the player, restarts itself if anything crashes, and keeps playing through network outages.

Flash the image

  1. Download or build the CanvasRelay Pi image (see /players/raspberry-pi for the current options — the build script is in the runbook).
  2. Flash it to an 8GB+ microSD card with Raspberry Pi Imager or balenaEtcher.
  3. Boot the Pi with HDMI connected to your TV. First boot expands the filesystem and lands on the pairing screen.
  4. Enter the 6-digit code in your dashboard (Screens → Connect a screen), name it, assign a board.
The image runs Chromium in kiosk mode with the player URL, a systemd unit with Restart=always, and a persistent profile — your pairing survives reboots and power cuts.

Wi-Fi and networking

Set Wi-Fi credentials in Raspberry Pi Imager's customization step before flashing, or plug in Ethernet for the most reliable install. The player needs outbound HTTPS only — no inbound ports, no VPN.

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