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I put a Raspberry Pi into a radio from the 80's to get a portable AirPlay device

jeena.net

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Re: I put a Raspberry Pi into a radio from the 80's to get a portable AirPlay device

#11

Post by jeena »

CPLX wrote: post #8

I love this, it's a great hack. It seems like the real sweet spot for a project like this though would be to capture the AirPlay audio at a line level and patch it into existing speakers and power amplification circuit. That way you could capture the existing audio quality of a device that had good sound reproduction but is otherwise obsolete. Was such an approach considered?

Considered yes, but I'm coming from computer science, not electronics so I just didn't know what all the parts are doing and it will take time before I learn about it. I'm eager to learn it but it is quite complex and a lot of work which would get in the way of finishing the project within a short time frame. The next time I will go one step further, I promise :)

Re: I put a Raspberry Pi into a radio from the 80's to get a portable AirPlay device

#12

Post by jeena »

paul9290 wrote: post #10

Does it play audio perfectly in sync between the two devices and if so can u easily add/create additional speakers? Fill your house with audio on the cheap?

No, it works like the AirPort Express, it buffers a couple of seconds (perhaps 5 or something) and first then plays it. This is build in into the AirPlay protocol to prevent gaps in the audio.

Re: I put a Raspberry Pi into a radio from the 80's to get a portable AirPlay device

#13

Post by herval »

patrickdavey wrote: post #6
herval wrote: post #5

Mine's a Doctor Who's Tardis + Pi running Mopidy (raspbian + some packages for playing music from multiple services, airplay support and remote control with a webapp). Making the thing was totally worth the cost :) Some photos on FB: https://facebook.com/hervalfreire/albums/10152327503600754/?... (planned on doing a blog post but got sidetracked building other things)

If & when you get time, I for one would be very interested to read the blog post! Even just a list of the packages you used (with the airplay support + associated webapps) would be handy! I've just set mine up for timelapses at the moment. Nothing fancy, but it does make for pretty videos every day :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVxBJN5Pd_E (since this one, have worked out how to turn the LED off, and I don't tak…

Hah, that's actually what I'm trying to setup another Pi to do now too! Winter is coming, it'll certainly look interesting

Re: I put a Raspberry Pi into a radio from the 80's to get a portable AirPlay device

#14

Post by kingosticks »

patrickdavey wrote: post #6
herval wrote: post #5

Mine's a Doctor Who's Tardis + Pi running Mopidy (raspbian + some packages for playing music from multiple services, airplay support and remote control with a webapp). Making the thing was totally worth the cost :) Some photos on FB: https://facebook.com/hervalfreire/albums/10152327503600754/?... (planned on doing a blog post but got sidetracked building other things)

If & when you get time, I for one would be very interested to read the blog post! Even just a list of the packages you used (with the airplay support + associated webapps) would be handy! I've just set mine up for timelapses at the moment. Nothing fancy, but it does make for pretty videos every day :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVxBJN5Pd_E (since this one, have worked out how to turn the LED off, and I don't tak…

Pi Musicbox is a pre-configured debian image running mopidy with shareport+dlna/upnp support. Makes things very simple - check it out.

Re: I put a Raspberry Pi into a radio from the 80's to get a portable AirPlay device

#15

Post by Nux »

herval wrote: post #5

Mine's a Doctor Who's Tardis + Pi running Mopidy (raspbian + some packages for playing music from multiple services, airplay support and remote control with a webapp). Making the thing was totally worth the cost :) Some photos on FB: https://facebook.com/hervalfreire/albums/10152327503600754/?... (planned on doing a blog post but got sidetracked building other things)

Can you make that accessible to people without facebook accounts?

Re: I put a Raspberry Pi into a radio from the 80's to get a portable AirPlay device

#16

Post by salgernon »

davidholmesnyc wrote: post #2

I like the concept. Seems like a fun weekend project. I might have to try it someday. Thanks.

I'm doing a similar "fun" project this weekend (for some definition of fun) - wiring up an rPi to a 1982 ADDS Regent TTY @ 9600bps. The Pi is installed internally with wifi and takes power from the terminal; all the other connections are internal to the terminal. So, plop it down in any room, turn it on, and have a fun conversation piece / something to play nethack on.

There is a critical mass issue with things like this in needing to have several of the microcontroller devices available, so you don't feel bad about "burning" on by actually embedding it in a project.

Re: I put a Raspberry Pi into a radio from the 80's to get a portable AirPlay device

#17

Post by paul9290 »

jeena wrote: post #12
paul9290 wrote: post #10

Does it play audio perfectly in sync between the two devices and if so can u easily add/create additional speakers? Fill your house with audio on the cheap?

No, it works like the AirPort Express, it buffers a couple of seconds (perhaps 5 or something) and first then plays it. This is build in into the AirPlay protocol to prevent gaps in the audio.

Would you be interested in creating speakers using this method that play and are controlled in sync?

If so, we (SpeakerBlast.com) might be able to help.

Re: I put a Raspberry Pi into a radio from the 80's to get a portable AirPlay device

#19

Post by [deleted] »

Nux wrote: post #15
herval wrote: post #5

Mine's a Doctor Who's Tardis + Pi running Mopidy (raspbian + some packages for playing music from multiple services, airplay support and remote control with a webapp). Making the thing was totally worth the cost :) Some photos on FB: https://facebook.com/hervalfreire/albums/10152327503600754/?... (planned on doing a blog post but got sidetracked building other things)

Can you make that accessible to people without facebook accounts?

[deleted]

Re: I put a Raspberry Pi into a radio from the 80's to get a portable AirPlay device

#20

Post by nitrogen »

paul9290 wrote: post #17
jeena wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it works like the AirPort Express, it buffers a couple of seconds (perhaps 5 or something) and first then plays it. This is build in into the AirPlay protocol to prevent gaps in the audio.

Would you be interested in creating speakers using this method that play and are controlled in sync? If so, we (SpeakerBlast.com) might be able to help.

http://www.hackerposse.com/~rozzin/journal/whole-home-pulsea... may be interesting for those looking for synchronized multi-device audio (I am not the author).
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