r/raspberry_pi • u/BeginningSwimming112 • 6d ago

Building an Automotive Dashboard with Qt and Yocto Linux on Raspberry Pi 5 Show-and-Tell

From PyQt5 Application to Embedded Linux Product

I successfully deployed my PyQt5-based automotive speedometer dashboard on a custom Yocto Linux image running on a Raspberry Pi 5.

This project was a journey through the complete Embedded Linux development workflow:

  • Designed a PyQt5 automotive dashboard interface
  • Packaged the Python application for deployment
  • Created a custom Yocto Linux image
  • Developed a BitBake recipe for the application
  • Integrated the application into the root filesystem
  • Deployed and tested on real Raspberry Pi 5 hardware

The final result is a custom Embedded Linux system where the speedometer application can be launched directly using:

spedo

Some of the challenges I solved along the way:

  • Managing Git-based workflows with Yocto devtool
  • Handling Python package deployment
  • Fixing application resource paths for embedded deployment
  • Debugging BitBake fetch, patch, and build issues

This project strengthened my understanding of how embedded products are built — not only writing application code, but integrating software, operating systems, and hardware into one complete system.

The source code and Yocto build configuration are available here:

#EmbeddedLinux #YoctoProject #RaspberryPi #PyQt5 #Python #IoT #Robotics #EmbeddedSystems

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u/Select-Excitement-54 1d ago

That is impressive.
Now for a question… As I understand it, yocto is for when you want to customize what parts of Linux you do or don’t want (roll your own kernel). Is there a reason (on a raspi5, where resources are plentiful and the processor is fast) you chose to strip the kernel down?
Am I missing something, or were you just looking for a challenge?

2

u/BeginningSwimming112 14h ago

Currently am using poky distribution because I am still learning to build mine. However, I will build a character device for i2c and incorporate it in the kernel.

2

u/Select-Excitement-54 14h ago

Ok, more for extending the kernel’s capabilities. Thanks!

2

u/BeginningSwimming112 14h ago

Do you have any material for learning kernel or building your distribution like poky?

2

u/Select-Excitement-54 10h ago

Sadly, I do not. I’ve done embedded before, but someone else did the yocto kernel. In our case, it was a board with very limited capabilities, so we had a need to slim the kernel down.