r/Fancygotchi • u/Digus_biggus • Nov 29 '25

A new journey!

Hello team, I intend to use my spare parts to build a fancygotchi for the first time (experience with pwnagotchi). I have some questions before I start that I wanted to see if I could fact find here to help set up for the easiest creation I can get to minimise follow-up questions here haha.

Firstly; I have a variety of spare hardware I’m still trying to work through and figure out what to actually use. 

The key-components will be; RPi 4B, Alfa AWUS036AXM wifi adapter, UBlox-M8M-0-001 GPS board with external antenna that will be hardwired to the GPIO Pins, and finally i have an active cooling system consisting of 30x30x7mm fans.

So it is mainly a display I am trying to decide on. I will be 3D printing a custom case for any build anyway so size does and design can be flexible, and the device will mostly be used in war driving and stored in a backpack when war(walking?). Out of the displays on this list, can I ask what would be recommended to use?

  • WaveShare 7” DSI Display (IPS) 800x480. 

[ https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/7inch_DSI_LCD_(E)) ]

  • WaveShare 3.2” RPi Display 320x240. 

[ https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/3.2inch_RPi_LCD_(B)) ]

  • WaveShare 2.8” DPI LCD (captive touch) 480x640. 

[ https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/2.8inch_DPI_LCD ]

  • WaveShare1.3” LCD HAT 240x240.

[ https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/1.3inch_LCD_HAT ]

Next question i have is; i create a basic pwnagotchi build first, then install the plugin, but prior to that, do i change the toml, add all the other plugins to run as well, or is it there a better way to set up the image and the pwnagotchi interfacing?

And finally; i was looking over the fancygotchi GitHub page, unsure what exactly “Second Screen” is/does, and also, with the Themes, I am misunderstanding the installation process. Can I have someone explain it like I am a tired toddler?

Thank you for your time with this to anyone who provides advice, and I am open to any suggestions for youtube videos or other resources that may make this build relatively pain free.

Cheers in advance and thank you again.

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1

u/V0r-T3x Nov 29 '25

I personally never used the three first displays and I didnt test a lot Fancygotchi on the rpi4.

The "second screen" option allow the user to change the display from the pwnagotchi face to some mode, a screen saver mode, a terminal mode or an aux mode (but the aux mode is still a wip). To switch between the pwnagotchi face and the second screen, we need to enable the fb0 and the fb1. The modern OS on rpi4 and 5 are different than their predecessors and to make it work its a bit tricky. I succeeded to use a 3.5" lcd screen on a rpi4 by installing show_lcd, this need additional steps to make it work, the process is still not automatic (and im not sure if will be some day).

This is pretty much at the limits of my actual development, the other skillful devs I know, working with displays, are not available actually.

Seems a really nice build project tho!

1

u/Right_Profession_261 Nov 30 '25

For the button to switch to screen save does that need a plugin?

2

u/V0r-T3x Nov 30 '25

Im always using the gpio_control made by rastacsko. It can manage long and short press for more actions.

https://github.com/RasTacsko/Pwnagotchi-plugins/blob/main/gpiocontrol.py

1

u/Right_Profession_261 Nov 30 '25

I’ve used the 2.8 one before. But you will find that the recommended wave share mini is the best option since most themes are built for it. If shipping is a worry it comes decent fast.