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I would love a DIY kit to build my own "smart" speaker (in the sense that it runs some kind of RPi on which I can put my own OS). Or maybe just find a way to r

by palata 2y ago

I would love a DIY kit to build my own "smart" speaker (in the sense that it runs some kind of RPi on which I can put my own OS). Or maybe just find a way to reverse-engineer my Marshall Stanmore, because their software sucks.

0xEF 2y ago
Not a 100% sure if this is what you are looking for, but Pimoroni has the Pirate Radio kit. I have one, ended up dropping the guys into a vintage radio housing for extra cool look, but it's pretty easy and customizable since it's powered by an RPi Zero W. https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pirate-radio-pi-zero-w-project-kit?variant=38476372426 https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pirate-radio-pi-zero-w-pr...
lurn_mor 2y ago
Here's my recent blog post on this very subject: http://www.undr.com/understatement/2024/replacing_sonos_due_to_enshittification/index.html http://www.undr.com/understatement/2024/replacing_sonos_due_...
- palata 2y ago
  Sweet! Though I know nothing about sound hardware. Do you just buy "dumb" speakers and connect them all to the RPi "somehow" (with this soundcard hat, I assume)? I wonder how hard it would be for me to just open the Marshall, remove the "electronics", put an RPi there and connect the speaker/buttons... Also I spent a few minutes reading the volumio website and I still don't really get what they bring. How is volumioOS better than just having a Debian on my RPi and playing sound files?
  - lurn_mor 2y ago
    To be clear, it'a probably Debian underneath the VolumioOS: They offer good web and mobile integration, including album art and searches, with a responsive UI. Doing that by hand or CLI might be a challenge, but certainly not impossible. Considering you can install and run VolumioOS for free (avoiding all subscription/upgrades) solves most of the 'network' and 'audio' part of your player, gratis. You can use the default headphone audio output on the Raspi - my solution might be overkill. Yes, I have dumb speakers attached to a dumb amplifier which has one input for the Raspi's RCA outputs. (I do modify the stereo output to mono however)
vunderba 2y ago
You can get pretty far with the ESP32 Box though the built-in speaker is a bit tinny. https://www.adafruit.com/product/5835 https://www.adafruit.com/product/5835 I've got it working with local inference though some people use it with OpenAI.
- hbossy 2y ago
  LyRa-T devkit from espressif is perfect for that. It has a two-core ESP32, i2s decoders, jack connectors and direct speaker output. https://www.espressif.com/en/products/devkits/esp32-lyrat https://www.espressif.com/en/products/devkits/esp32-lyrat

by palata 2y ago

0xEF 2y ago

Not a 100% sure if this is what you are looking for, but Pimoroni has the Pirate Radio kit. I have one, ended up dropping the guys into a vintage radio housing for extra cool look, but it's pretty easy and customizable since it's powered by an RPi Zero W. https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pirate-radio-pi-zero-w-project-kit?variant=38476372426 https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/pirate-radio-pi-zero-w-pr...

lurn_mor 2y ago

Here's my recent blog post on this very subject: http://www.undr.com/understatement/2024/replacing_sonos_due_to_enshittification/index.html http://www.undr.com/understatement/2024/replacing_sonos_due_...

palata 2y ago
Sweet! Though I know nothing about sound hardware. Do you just buy "dumb" speakers and connect them all to the RPi "somehow" (with this soundcard hat, I assume)? I wonder how hard it would be for me to just open the Marshall, remove the "electronics", put an RPi there and connect the speaker/buttons... Also I spent a few minutes reading the volumio website and I still don't really get what they bring. How is volumioOS better than just having a Debian on my RPi and playing sound files?
- lurn_mor 2y ago
  To be clear, it'a probably Debian underneath the VolumioOS: They offer good web and mobile integration, including album art and searches, with a responsive UI. Doing that by hand or CLI might be a challenge, but certainly not impossible. Considering you can install and run VolumioOS for free (avoiding all subscription/upgrades) solves most of the 'network' and 'audio' part of your player, gratis. You can use the default headphone audio output on the Raspi - my solution might be overkill. Yes, I have dumb speakers attached to a dumb amplifier which has one input for the Raspi's RCA outputs. (I do modify the stereo output to mono however)

vunderba 2y ago

You can get pretty far with the ESP32 Box though the built-in speaker is a bit tinny. https://www.adafruit.com/product/5835 https://www.adafruit.com/product/5835 I've got it working with local inference though some people use it with OpenAI.

hbossy 2y ago
LyRa-T devkit from espressif is perfect for that. It has a two-core ESP32, i2s decoders, jack connectors and direct speaker output. https://www.espressif.com/en/products/devkits/esp32-lyrat https://www.espressif.com/en/products/devkits/esp32-lyrat