r/raspberry_pi

So the other day I was thinking about how Claude has browser control and came up with a theory that I could use that tool to have Claude control a Raspberry Pi through that browser control. Today I used Raspberry Pi Connect through a Chrome browser to give Claude command over my Raspberry Pi 5 16 gb. Claude was able to control my Raspberry Pi through the browser-based terminal completely and I just told him what to do in the chat. Pretty cool, don't know if anyone else has tried this, but give it a shot if you have Claude. This did eat up my usage pretty quickly and I am only on a 20 dollar plan so your mileage may vary.

Hardware:

1. Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (3.3V GPIO)

2. 817 Module — 2 Channel Isolation (PC817 SMD optocoupler board from Amazon/AliExpress)

3. boom barrier (220V, microprocessor controller)

4. RS232 UHF RFID reader (working fine, tags reading correctly)

What works:

1. Touching a wire directly between the barrier's ▲ (open) and COM terminals opens the barrier instantly — confirmed dry-contact input, no voltage needed

2. Connecting Pi GPIO directly to ▲ and Pi GND to COM also works — barrier opens when GPIO goes HIGH (3.3V)

3. RFID tag reading, web dashboard, everything on the software side is working

What doesn't work:

1. When I put the 817 optocoupler module in between, the barrier does not respond

Wiring I've tried:

Attempt 1 (normal 3.3V drive):

- Pi GPIO17 → IN1

- Pi GND → G (input side)

- V1 → Barrier ▲ (open)

- G (output side) → Barrier COM

- Result: No response. Module likely can't trigger at 3.3V due to onboard resistor + indicator LED dropping too much voltage.

Attempt 2 (5V inverted logic):

- Pi 5V → IN1

- Pi GPIO17 → G (input side) — pulling LOW to trigger

- V1 → Barrier ▲ (open)

- G (output side) → Barrier COM

- Result: Still no response.

The module has two PC817 SMD chips, onboard SMD resistors, yellow jumpers on the output side, and indicator LEDs. Labeled "817 Module / 2 Channel Isolation".

My questions:

1. Is this module just not suitable for 3.3V GPIO? Should I use discrete PC817 DIP chips with my own 220Ω resistors instead?

2. For the 5V inverted approach — is (5V - 0V) = 5V across the LED with the onboard resistor still not enough? What value resistor might be on there?

3. Would a relay module (5V coil, JD-VCC type) be a better choice for this application?

4. Any other suggestions for reliable dry-contact switching from a Pi GPIO?

I know I can run GPIO directly to the barrier and it works, but I want proper galvanic isolation since the barrier controller board sits in a 230V cabinet.

Thanks!

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(first code is to revert back to hdmi and second one is the one i used to switch to the rpi display)

Also i dont have a microhdmi cable

chmod -R 755 LCD-show 

cd LCD-show/ 

sudo ./LCD-hdmi

sudo rm -rf LCD-show 

git clone https://github.com/goodtft/LCD-show.git 

chmod -R 755 LCD-show 

cd LCD-show/

sudo ./LCD35-show

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Argon's website says to use SATA, but I've seen others using NVME. The latter would give me more options. Can you guys give me a definitive answer?