Dummies Guide to Pi2AES! Throw away your PC or laptop.

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by purr1n, Jan 29, 2020.

  1. TheloniuSnoop

    TheloniuSnoop Friend

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    I'm not Michael, but I get the intro chime even if I haven't yet booted Volumio, so I would guess that it comes from the Pi itself.
     
  2. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    it is. It is 16-bit @ 44.1Khz.
     
  3. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    Okay, then I stand corrected in my comment earlier. The problem I experienced could be a glitch in Volumio.
     
  4. earnmyturns

    earnmyturns Smartest friend

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    Color me unsurprised. Volumio is the least stable, most bloated of all the Pi-based player software I've used. I started with it, and I ran away as quickly as I could when other options became a good fit for my needs. Between piCorePlayer, moOde, and Ropieee there are several worthy feature sets and much less trouble.
     
  5. gixxerwimp

    gixxerwimp Professional tricycle rider

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    Re "chime", I realized that I may have never heard it, regardless of where it comes from, as I usually have everything upstream running before I power up my amp and put my headphones on.
     
  6. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    when I was using Volumio to do the testing of the boards, I could hear the chime play before Volumio turned on either the local screen or enabled the webpage. That might be why it didn’t seem like that’s where the chime was coming from.
     
  7. TheloniuSnoop

    TheloniuSnoop Friend

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    Last night I tried listening to radio on Volumio, and ever since, that's all it will do. Nothing will play from either Qobuz or Spotify. Anyone else ever have that problem. It seems that those who developed Volumio sit around and try to come with ways to screw it up, then offer no support. Their forum is beyond a joke.

    Update:
    I reinstalled the RPi and Volumio, and so far all is well. The appearance of the page is different, so it could be that I had an older version.
     
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2020
  8. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    Ever since I started using moOde I've wanted to control some basic functions with my harmony remote.

    Today I achieved that goal with the FLIRC usb IR receiver. This thing is sweet. It stores a config and outputs basic keyboard commands to whatever you plug it into.

    It's a complex setup for moOde as it involves some command line stuff on the pi, but I'm going to do a write-up tomorrow to help anyone interested in doing the same. There's no updated guide for this so it took allot of messing around on my part.

    Also this will work with literally any IR remote control you have laying around, not just Harmony.
     
  9. M3NTAL

    M3NTAL Friend

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    I'm super interested in learning how to do it! I am debating on piCoreplayer and moOde. I really want native PEQ + a remote + touchscreen capability + pi2aes support. Thank you helping.
     
    Last edited: Sep 13, 2020
  10. dBel84

    dBel84 Friend

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    That sounds great. I have been using moOde from the start and adding remote control (as opposed to wifi interface). A daunting task I have been delaying is updating all the tags so that genres etc filter correctly.. dB
     
  11. earnmyturns

    earnmyturns Smartest friend

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    Notes on the PiTouch case: I had ordered one in the pre-history of COVID for the Pi 3+Pi2AES I had in the work office. But then I shifted to WFH, where I could use my home headphone setups. I brought the work gear home, but did not use since then. I lent the DAC to a friend, sold the amp, and did not touch the streamer. Well, today I decided to revive the streamer and put it on the new case, because I'm planning to spend some longish periods in a different location where the streamer will be needed.

    @Michael Kelly's step-by-step visual instructions are excellent. When I started with the visual checklist for all the hardware, I noticed that there were more than enough of some parts, but the 4 6-32 Phillips screws were missing. Fortunately, I had the exact same screws from the previous screen mount (well, they were too long but I was able to cut them to size). I also got a bit confused by the side panels: the Pi 3 ones are marked with "3" but the Pi 4 ones are not, and at first I picked the unmarked ones. Both minor issues overcome, assembly was really easy and my streamer is back alive.

    One minor suggestion would be to add some stick-on or screw-on rubber feet, as the screws on the case's bottom could potentially scratch the surface were we put it.

    Overall, a nice project showing that a high-quality streamer doesn't need to break the bank. I'm :)
     
  12. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    There is supposed to be a set of rubber feet with that case as we also do with the regular case. I will make sure those are added in the future.
     
  13. fraggler

    fraggler A Happy & Busy Life

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    An underrated nightmare. When I did the great CD RIP of 2008, I either didn't tag or had a single, fairly broad one. I am just about done adding higher res art to all my files so it is about time to revisit tagging so I'm not always hunting via the folder structure.
     
  14. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    How to: Control Moode Audio with any IR remote control

    What you will need:

    FLIRC USB IR Receiver
    Windows, Mac or Linux PC
    IR remote (apple tv, Harmony, etc.)

    Add a new media control device named FLIRC with model name Kodi

    Setting up FLIRC
    1. Download and install the software from FLIRC: https://flirc.tv/downloads
      1. Chrome thinks this file is dangerous, so you will have to navigate to Downloads in chrome and select to keep the file. I did a virus scan and it came up clean.
    2. Update the software
    3. Plug in your FLIRC and update the firmware
    4. Make sure it says connected in the bottom right corner of the app.
      1. If it doesn't say connected, just reinsert the FLIRC.
    5. From the "Controllers" drop down menu, select "Full Keyboard"
    6. Click on 1 and press the button on your remote control that you want to be 1
      1. Later we will set up the Pi to take these number keys and interpret them as play, pause, next, previous, etc.
    7. Repeat Step 6 for each button you want to use with your remote. If you run out of numbers you can switch to letters.
    8. The FLIRC is updated in real-time so you don't have to save anything. You could save a backup of your configuration at this point if it is very complicated.
    9. Open a text editor and press the buttons on your remote that you set up in FLIRC software and you should see those numbers being typed into the text editor.
    10. Unplug the FLIRC from your PC and plug it into the Pi.
    Congrats, your FLIRC is setup.

    Setting up moOde

    1. Open a terminal on your PC (command prompt, etc.)
    2. Connect to moOde via SSH
      1. Code:
        ssh [email protected]
      2. change the IP address to the the address of your Pi
      3. pi is the default username and moodeaudio is the default password
    3. Once connected you will want to enable triggerhappy which was included in the latest version of moOde, but is disabled by default.
      1. Code:
        sudo systemctl enable triggerhappy
        
    4. Reboot your Pi and reconnect via SSH
    5. Now that triggerhappy is enabled, we can configure the media.conf file to accept the inputs we set up on the FLIRC.
    6. To open media.conf file we will use the following code
      1. Code:
        sudo nano /etc/triggerhappy/triggers.d/media.conf
    7. You will see by default there is only controls for volume up, down and mute. I left these alone and added the following code below those:
      1. Code:
        KEY_1            0 mpc play
        KEY_2            0 mpc pause
        KEY_3            0 mpc prev
        KEY_4            0 mpc next
        KEY_5            0 mpc stop
      2. The above code will make triggerhappy intercept those keys and output the mpc commands for play, pause, etc.
      3. You can modify the code however you see fit. For example, if you want to use one button on your remote for play and pause, you can use "KEY_* 0 mpc toggle" instead of play or pause.
      4. the following documents are lists of triggerhappy keys and mpc commands
      5. Triggerhappy Keys
      6. MPC commands
    8. Exit the media.conf using CTRL+X, yes to save and enter to overwrite the current file.
    9. Reboot your Pi and reconnect via SSH
    10. Run the following code and start pressing buttons on your remote to see if it is working
      1. Code:
        thd --dump /dev/input/event*
      2. You should see Triggerhappy intercepting your keys and outputting commands
      3. Use CTRL-C to stop the command
    Your remote should be working to control moOde now. I did a ton of troubleshooting to make this work on my Pi, so I'm hopeful it will work on yours. If it doesn't work, I will try to help you but I can't guarantee anything.
     
  15. earnmyturns

    earnmyturns Smartest friend

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    Sounds good. Note though that the "kit contents" photo on page 1 of the assembly instructions does not show the rubber feet.
     
  16. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    They still should be there! Thank you very much for reminding us.
     
  17. NationOfLaws

    NationOfLaws Friend

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    Hello I am a dumb person. I bought a regular-ass coax cable from Amazon - the kind you'd use for your cable modem. I assume I fucked this up and need a cable with two BNC connectors for the Pi2AES and my Bifrost 1. Does that sound right? Sorry, totally new to coax. I normally use USB.
     
  18. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    The Pi2AES has both BNC out, and RCA out, for coax SPDIF. But I believe the Bifrost 1 would only have RCA coax SPDIF input, not BNC. Probably best to just go with with a simple RCA coaxial digital audio cable on both ends, like this one:

    https://www.amazon.com/Coaxial-Digi...Y3ZC5Y&qid=1600551209&s=merchant-items&sr=1-7
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2020
  19. NationOfLaws

    NationOfLaws Friend

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    Got it. Thank you!
     
  20. NationOfLaws

    NationOfLaws Friend

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    Man, I can’t figure out what’s going on here. I have the Pi2AES running MoOde, I have the Spotify and Airplay decoders set up, and I’m connected to the Bifrost via optical and I don’t hear anything despite both Spotify and Airplay seemingly sending to MoOde. I’ll have to try and troubleshoot again later.
     

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