Help: Display Network File Share Details on LCD Screen?

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Hello,

I’m new to the Pi Zero so I was hoping that someone could tell me if this idea is feasible before I waste my time and money.

I would like to use a GrovePi Zero to map to an SMB network file share on my NAS and then display information on an RGP LCD screen based on what it finds. I would like it to show the current number of files in the share and maybe other information like the name of the last file saved there. It would also be great if it could light up green for a while to show a file has been added. I already have the screen from a starter kit so I would only need to purchase the Pi Zero and the Grove adapter to get this working.

Is it possible to map to a network share and extract information like this? If so, what is the easiest way to do this and display the information on the screen? If it is possible, can I do it in Scratch or do I need to learn Python? I’d really appreciate someone pointing me in the right direction.

Thanks for your time and help.

Cheers, K.

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Hi @KAD,

I think that sounds doable.
Scratch is not going to be enough, so you have to take the Python route.

Here’s one nice python library that allows you to access and transfer samba folders/files :

One more good thing about this pysmb library is that it’s in active development, which means it can be considered a “hot topic”.

Once you get to access the SMB files, you can start implementing whatever you want on your Grove RGB LCD. You could also make it to light up a green LED when a new file is added, though this depends on how the SMB server works - it should let you know of the last modified files.

So, from my side, it sure looks like it’s doable and the only thing you need to take into consideration is the time you want to allocate for this project.

Please let me know if there’s anything else you want to know about.

Thank you!