Sound System

From CoMakingSpace Wiki

If you feel like listening to some music, feel free to use the sound system in the common room!

Always make sure to ask the others hanging out there first, they might have a different taste for music and noise levels ;-)

Hardware

Here's what we have so far - maybe someone has additional parts to spare?

  • "Dual CR 5950 RC" amplifier
  • "Dual CD 5150 RC" CD player
  • 2 "Canton" speakers
  • 3.5 mm jack ("AUX in") to hook up phones etc.
  • radio antenna on the roof


Pi-Based Music Playback

ProjectInfoBox

Music Station

MusicStation.JPG
Status: Ready for usage
Release Date: June 8th 2018
Initiator: Mitja
Team: Martin, Olaf
Tools Used: Raspberry Pi
Software Used: MusicController


We have a wifi-enabled music station to play songs in the common room via an amplifier.

Software

The Music playback is controlled by Mopidy. Any code for setting up mopidy for the needs of the CoMakingSpace can be found on Github.

Hardware

This project runs on a Raspberry Pi located in the common room, next to the sound system and the laser printer.

Usage

Mopidy

As documented on the network page, the Raspberry Pi provides a MPD Daemon on Port 6600 and a webinterface on port 8888. Therefore, if you just want to use your browser to control the music, please navigate to http://comakingcontroller:8888.

It is able to playback YouTube videos (add it to the queue by using yt:videoID), but this is very slow and not recommended. Webradio stations can also be played.

In case you want to add your own music, please insert a USB drive. You can then play it using the webinterface (Please navigate to Browse --> Files --> usbdrives)

Bluetooth

You can also connect to the Pi via Bluetooth (ID "CoMakingController"), but with some devices (phones and PCs), the quality is sometimes not great which is probably due to a combination of the bad Bluetooth chip on the Raspberry Pi, cheap Bluetooth chips in the devices as well as other devices nearby.

Please note that somethimes the bluetooth service crashes. In this case, you can either reboot the pi (using the attached shutdown button) or just restart the service:
SSH in and use: sudo systemctl restart bt_speaker

Further Improvements / Things to Donate

  • Add a dedicated Soundcard (USB or a HAT)
  • In case you want to change settings, add mopidy plugins or anything similar, please contact Martin, Olaf or the Management