Raspberry Pi - $35 Linux computer
- Thread starter daz
- Start date
I have an old Denon DM-31 micro system sitting at the parent's at the moment which has a dodgy volume pot (I believe). I was just going to clean it up/fix it then keep it as a spare but I might grab a pi and try and make it into a smart-stereo kind of thing - mounted inside of the case (if there's room) to stream FLACs from my NAS and maybe use Spotify on it.
How viable do you think that is? Just fancy tinkering with something and leaning a bit more about electronics.
Main issues I can see would be:
Power - ideally would want it running off of the internal power source, may be a bit tricky.
Audio Quality - USB DACs tend to be quite expensive and as I'm experimenting, maybe not an investment I'm willing to make, although no reason why I couldn't get it up and running on on board sound first.
Interface - I have an android phone and laptop. I did briefly read about a Squeezbox project based on a pi, might be suitable for this but I need to do some reading.
Heat - No fans plus an amp in the same case may be an issue, however I don't remember it ever getting warm.
How viable do you think that is? Just fancy tinkering with something and leaning a bit more about electronics.
Main issues I can see would be:
Power - ideally would want it running off of the internal power source, may be a bit tricky.
Audio Quality - USB DACs tend to be quite expensive and as I'm experimenting, maybe not an investment I'm willing to make, although no reason why I couldn't get it up and running on on board sound first.
Interface - I have an android phone and laptop. I did briefly read about a Squeezbox project based on a pi, might be suitable for this but I need to do some reading.
Heat - No fans plus an amp in the same case may be an issue, however I don't remember it ever getting warm.
Just set up pseudotv on the raspberry pi (to run on raspbmc), it's what I've been missing. Creates your "own" tv channels made up of your content. If you are like me and half the time you can't decide what to watch this is great, flick to animation and get a random south park or simpsons, etc. Well worth checking it out.
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I used this to build my first one. It works pretty well although you will need to do some customisation afterwards
Had a Pi since they first came out and mines been mostly running Raspbmc, but I decided to get a second one for a project.
Inspired by seeing someone else's project of using it as a pair of AirPlay speakers, I've decided to do the same but make it more portable. Currently how it is setup is that the Pi will boot into Debian and then act as a wireless hotspot so you can connect to it and then stream music from your device to it.
It draws power from a 12000mAh battery pack, which in turn can either be charged via a standard wall socket or also by a solar panel which I've purchased. The solar panel is external to the rest of the setup so I'm using some 2mm plugs to make it easier to attach when outside. The battery pack also has a secondary output socket, which will be connected to a USB-A female port which you can then plug your phone into to also charge it up. The speakers are USB powered so they just draw power from the battery pack.
I tested the battery pack to see how long it would play for without any external charge and it went for 7 hours continuously playing music before cutting out, which doesn't seem to bad. The solar panel charge rate was also tested in a basic fashion and put around 75% of charge into the battery in 5 hours-ish.
Started the soldering tonight but mostly having an issue with cutting a hole in the chosen temporary container (a plastic lunch box).
I'll post some pictures of the monstrosity once I've got it in a more complete state than it currently is!
Inspired by seeing someone else's project of using it as a pair of AirPlay speakers, I've decided to do the same but make it more portable. Currently how it is setup is that the Pi will boot into Debian and then act as a wireless hotspot so you can connect to it and then stream music from your device to it.
It draws power from a 12000mAh battery pack, which in turn can either be charged via a standard wall socket or also by a solar panel which I've purchased. The solar panel is external to the rest of the setup so I'm using some 2mm plugs to make it easier to attach when outside. The battery pack also has a secondary output socket, which will be connected to a USB-A female port which you can then plug your phone into to also charge it up. The speakers are USB powered so they just draw power from the battery pack.
I tested the battery pack to see how long it would play for without any external charge and it went for 7 hours continuously playing music before cutting out, which doesn't seem to bad. The solar panel charge rate was also tested in a basic fashion and put around 75% of charge into the battery in 5 hours-ish.
Started the soldering tonight but mostly having an issue with cutting a hole in the chosen temporary container (a plastic lunch box).
I'll post some pictures of the monstrosity once I've got it in a more complete state than it currently is!
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I had just been crashing it, but I've actually corrupted an SD card doing that so its not a good long term solution. After doing some research, I found someone who is making power switches for the Raspberry Pi, which link into some of the GPIO pins to launch a shutdown script so it is halted cleanly. When the system has halted, the switch then cuts power. Haven't soldered mine into my system yet, but its going in as part of this first fit of all the components.
The website he's selling them from is http://mausberrycircuits.com/ if anyone is interested
The website he's selling them from is http://mausberrycircuits.com/ if anyone is interested
Bookmarked, cheers
Very handy for DIY projects that are running blind without a display
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Just a quick note to say anybody running raspbmc I just updated mine to the latest version and they've really made some huge performance improvements (seems they've created a custom "raspbmc" modified version of confluence which is optimised for the pi)... seems to be running smoother and faster so far!
Has anyone else had issues with the rev 2 model B? Mine seems to be much more power sensitive than the rev 1 board I have and will restart just when plugging in a mouse to it. It also doesn't seem to want to boot with a USB wifi dongle which works perfectly in the rev 1
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Not had any issues like that with mine.
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Mines a rev b and I little sensitive.
I got a usb wifi dongle to use it in another part of the house that has no Ethernet connection earlier.
Plugged it in and it rebooted, did all sorts with raspbmc and openelec for an hour or so and it was fine.
I got a usb wifi dongle to use it in another part of the house that has no Ethernet connection earlier.
Plugged it in and it rebooted, did all sorts with raspbmc and openelec for an hour or so and it was fine.
I'm thinking the problem now is either with the USB sound card or just a general overall problem.
It boots ok and I can connect to it over AirTunes, but occasionally the wireless just drops out. You seem to be able to force the behavior by jumping the volume up from the remote source in a large increment, but it also can happen at random. I've tried this with a rev 1 & 2 model B pi and the same behavior occurs. I've also tried with and without power switch, with and without powered USB hub and with 2 different model USB wireless dongles, both of which will stream movies no problem.
Think the next step is to remove the USB audio dongle and try and again with the on board audio.
It boots ok and I can connect to it over AirTunes, but occasionally the wireless just drops out. You seem to be able to force the behavior by jumping the volume up from the remote source in a large increment, but it also can happen at random. I've tried this with a rev 1 & 2 model B pi and the same behavior occurs. I've also tried with and without power switch, with and without powered USB hub and with 2 different model USB wireless dongles, both of which will stream movies no problem.
Think the next step is to remove the USB audio dongle and try and again with the on board audio.
This is almost exactly what I'm trying to do, minus the portability aspect. How are you doing the streaming, and how are you controlling what is playing?
I'm trying to find a way to run the Pi headlessly, and use it to play Spotify through my speakers, and to be able to control it remotely (through my phone or something). What are you using to control with, if you're not plugging into a TV?
I'm using AirPlay to stream Google Music from either my computer (using Airfoil) or from my phone (using AirAudio). The main reason for me setting it up like this is that I plan to have 2 SD cards, one for home and one for out and about where it acts like a wireless hotspot. By using AirPlay I can have others connect to it and play music from their phones.
On other notes, here are some pictures of the device at the moment. This is a temporary case and I still need to cut out a hole in the back for mains in, but it works well right now and it portable.
Front
Back
And one with the solar panel attached
At this point, it will still disconnect from my home wireless randomly but not frequently. I'm convinced at this point its something to do with power spikes which are either caused by increasing the volume rapidly or where a song has a sudden increase in volume. I'm still trying to work on a fix for this, but for now its working well enough to use.
The wires and placement of the components inside is a complete mess right now, but I plan on constructing a proper housing for it and also removing the plastic housing that covers the battery and solar regulator at the moment, which should save a lot of space.
Most importantly it has the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) and she has already walked around the house with it on her shoulder like an 80s boombox
Front
Back
And one with the solar panel attached
At this point, it will still disconnect from my home wireless randomly but not frequently. I'm convinced at this point its something to do with power spikes which are either caused by increasing the volume rapidly or where a song has a sudden increase in volume. I'm still trying to work on a fix for this, but for now its working well enough to use.
The wires and placement of the components inside is a complete mess right now, but I plan on constructing a proper housing for it and also removing the plastic housing that covers the battery and solar regulator at the moment, which should save a lot of space.
Most importantly it has the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) and she has already walked around the house with it on her shoulder like an 80s boombox
Not updated my raspbmc since I got it about 6 months ago, might be time for a fresh install.