Hardware Suggestions Needed

[trumpy81]

GDay All,

I stumbled across Rune Audio this evening and thought I would try it as it seems to fill the need I have for an RPi3 based Media Player I would like to set up. I installed it, configured it and made it work ... that's no small feat for me I can tell you ... lol

And that leads me to the following questions, what hardware should I use?

I am thinking of using the following, but I am not sure if this would work or not, so any advice would be appreciated.

1. 7 or 10 inch touch screen (the old peepers are not as good as they used to be)
2. HiFiberry DAC+
3. Computer type 2.1 Speakers

If anyone can see any problems with the above and/or have some suggestions for exact hardware to use and tips on setting it up, that would be most appreciated.

Please keep in mind I'm a novice and I am not a Linux guru in the slightest, although I can usually fumble my through the CLI. Thanks.

[hondagx35]

[trumpy81]

Thanks for the reply Frank!

At least I seem to be on the right track. I went ahead and ordered the following:

1. 7inch Touch Screen with moulded ABS housing (official RPi type, I'm hoping it has enough room for the DAC, if not, Dremel, here I come ... lol)
2. HiFiberry DAC + Pro (I wanted the gold contacts more than anything else)
3. Logitech Z333 2.1 Speakers

I know the speakers are the weak link here, but I plan to put this in the kitchen/dining room area of the house, as my mum likes to listen to the radio in the morning while having breakfast etc. The speakers have a remote volume control and I wanted to make it easier for her to use.

It's a bit overkill for that, but I think the speakers will deliver 'good enough' sound quality for the old chook ... lol

If they don't live up to my expectations, then I can always replace them with something better.

Speaking of radio, I have been having a devil of a time trying to get some radio stations working. I found a list of all Australian radio stations and while some were obviously not going to work, they were using Windows based systems that are simply not compatible, but others that seemed to be able to work, don't.

Would you have any hints or tips on discovering the correct URL's to use, assuming they exist?

Most of the stations that failed have online players that run in a browser, but they refuse to work in Rune Audio.

So far, I am really liking Rune Audio, but I did come across a bit of a trap for young players, and that is, if you are updating from a network share and you decide to shut down/reboot while it is still updating, it can corrupt the SD card. Found that out the hard way of course ... lol

But I am really really liking it so far.

A big Thank You and hats off to the developer/s.

[hondagx35]

[trumpy81]

Thanks for the reply Frank.

I did try finding the stations I wanted using dirble, but I could only find one Brisbane station (ABC) and one Sydney based station (2GB).

So I then Googled and found this site:
http://www.australianliveradio.com/

Which lists most, if not all, commercial radio stations in Australia that stream over the net.

The following station was not found on the above website. It is my local community radio station.

Website - http://www.101fm.com.au/
Player Address - http://airnet.org.au/widget/widget.php? ... com.au%2F#

----------------------------------

Next station - B105 Brisbane

Website - http://www.b105.com.au/
Player address - http://www.hit105.com.au/listen/
Link from Australian Live Radio website - http://sc.b105.com.au/listen.pls

Contents of the downloaded pls file:
[playlist]
NumberOfEntries=1
File1=http://sc.b105.com.au:80/

----------------------------------

Next station 4MMM Brisbane

Website - http://www.triplem.com.au/brisbane/
Player address - http://www.triplem.com.au/brisbane/listen/
Link from Australian Live Radio website - http://sc.bne.triplem.com.au/listen.pls

Contents of the downloaded pls file:
[playlist]
NumberOfEntries=1
File1=http://sc.bne.triplem.com.au:80/

I did try all of the above addresses without any success. Each time I added the station to the queue, it would attempt to start and then immediately stop playing.

Any help you can give to get the above working would be very much appreciated.

[trumpy81]

Just a quick update, I managed to discover the correct address to use for my local community station, 101.1 Logan and I confirmed that it is working in Rune Audio.

I am thoroughly wrapped with that.

I would still like to add the other two stations though.

Thanks again to all of those involved with Rune Audio and for producing such a wonderful piece of software.

[skootx]

How did the HiFi Berry card fit into the case? I'm looking to do the same exact setup but with the Digi+ as I already have an amp/dac combo.

[trumpy81]

The HiFiBerry has not arrived yet, it will be another couple of weeks I imagine before it lands here.

In the meantime I am using the built-in AV out jack.

[trumpy81]

The HiFiBerry DAC+ Pro finally arrived and I found that I would have to cut the case to allow the RCA jacks to locate in the correct location.

You would probably also need to cut a small opening around the RCA jacks in the back panel that clips onto the rear of the case.

You could modify the ABS enclosure quite easily though, it would only take a couple of files or a Dremel and a steady hand and it would work quite well and look the part if done neatly.

I ended up not fitting the HiFiBerry DAC+ Pro to that RPi3, Touchscreen and case. Instead, I purchased a Waveshare 7" IPS Touchscreen and the bicolor case to go with it, and fitted the HiFiBerry DAC+ Pro plus an RPi2 to that, as the bicolor case is not much more than some polycarbonate sheet.

The Waveshare 7" IPS Touchscreen works a lot better with RuneAudio. The touch sensitivity is spot on and the whole shebang is much more responsive than the Raspberry Pi Foundation 7" Touchsceen in general.

The Waveshare solution is no where near as polished as the Raspberry Pi Foundation 7" Touchsceen and ABS enclosure though. It lacks a proper fascia plate and the cabling is quite messy and annoying.

A custom made timber enclosure would be a better way to go with the Waveshare screen IMHO.

I also tried fitting the Waveshare 7" IPS Touchsceen to an Odroid C2, but the touchsceen does not work with the Odroid and Rune Audio.

In the end though, I am quite happy with both of my RPi's and Rune Audio with touchscreens.

[pelliott321]

Can you post a few photos, just curious