Update: PicorePlayerV10 = Squeezelite on piCore with SSH, WiFi and set-up script

[Paul_123]

I found what I was referring to.

http://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/showthread.php?t=165465

Take look down on the thread, Greg posted a script that should do what you want.

[cnpdk]

So one suggestion for a future change that would make it perfect for my use:

Could you make it part of the release to toggle one of the GPIO's according to the on/off status of the player as controlled from the LMS.

I thought they had a polling script that would monitor the status through the LMS cli interface and toggle the GPIO through the use of shell scripts.   

If not, I have this functionality compiled into the squeezelite application.  GPIO pin is selectabe via a command line switch.

A polling script that looks for activity on the I2C bus. This cannot be the best solution.

When I turn the player on/off a low but audible blob is heard from the player. This indicates that something happens on the player.I have no idea where to find this on/off signal but it must be there.

Since this signal might even be somewhere in Squeezelite I find it best for this to be part of the distribution.

Whether this should be enabled and to what GPIO-port could be a parameter in the settings on the piCorePlayer.

Best regards
Claus

[Paul_123]

A polling script that looks for activity on the I2C bus. This cannot be the best solution.

When I turn the player on/off a low but audible blob is heard from the player. This indicates that something happens on the player.I have no idea where to find this on/off signal but it must be there.

Since this signal might even be somewhere in Squeezelite I find it best for this to be part of the distribution.

Whether this should be enabled and to what GPIO-port could be a parameter in the settings on the piCorePlayer.

Best regards
Claus

It is not polling I2C, it polls the LMS server via network, you can argue if it is the best method, but it is an easy method.

When you turn off the player squeezelite closes the audio stream and closes the hardware.  The sound you hear is probably your hardware sound port becoming inactive, or active when you turn it on.  It will be related to the specific sound hardware That you use. 

It's up to Steen if he wants to add the gpio function to the distribution. I was just giving you an alternative......

[Greg Erskine]

What RASPI board do I need? Vers B, B+, B2, A ??

Any.

What hardware add on board (sound card) do I need? What is the name of the brand and where can I buy it

There are some many it best to do a google. You can start by just using Analog or HDMI, no add-on.

Which OS needs to be copied to the sd card?  MicroCore plus something else?

None. piCorePlayer is a complete image.

What is Sqeezlite?

Squeezebox emulator.

What do I need from Logitech?

LMS

More information here:
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?97803-piCoPlayer-Squeezelite-on-Microcore-linux-An-embedded-OS-in-RAM-with-Squeezelite&highlight=picoreplayer

regards
Greg

[Greg Erskine]

A polling script that looks for activity on the I2C bus. This cannot be the best solution.

When I turn the player on/off a low but audible blob is heard from the player. This indicates that something happens on the player.I have no idea where to find this on/off signal but it must be there.

Since this signal might even be somewhere in Squeezelite I find it best for this to be part of the distribution.

Whether this should be enabled and to what GPIO-port could be a parameter in the settings on the piCorePlayer.

Best regards
Claus

It is not polling I2C, it polls the LMS server via network, you can argue if it is the best method, but it is an easy method.

When you turn off the player squeezelite closes the audio stream and closes the hardware.  The sound you hear is probably your hardware sound port becoming inactive, or active when you turn it on.  It will be related to the specific sound hardware That you use. 

It's up to Steen if he wants to add the gpio function to the distribution. I was just giving you an alternative......

@cnpdk,

It is unlikely that this feature will make it into the version of squeezelite that we use with piCorePlayer. Paul_123's kind offer sounds like a good solution if you don't like a script that polls LMS.

@Paul_123

Thanks for helping out.

regards
Greg

[beerstein]

Hi Greg: Thank you for your detailed response to my questions. I now have a clou but still do not understand the concept
completely.  Is the following correct?

1. PiCore player is just the player which outputs sound to a speaker/audio system

2. The sound files to be played are sitting on a seperate server box running LMS

3. LMS can be downloaded from http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly. At this URL there  is just a downlaoder named "logitechmediaserver_7.9.0~1452060863_all.deb"
and not the actual .deb file. I have (Debian 8 running on another box) I was not able to install LMS.
Is there another server to replace LMS?
F.i. VLC or similar?

4. Is there a streaming server availabe for piCore (piCorePlayer OS) ?

BTW: There is a good article in Linux Voice Magazine #013 on page 76 about LMS althoug it did not help me to install the server.

[Gerrelt]

I don't want to hijack this from Greg, but I want to chime in too. 

1. PiCore player is just the player which outputs sound to a speaker/audio system

Yes.

2. The sound files to be played are sitting on a seperate server box running LMS

Yes.
And the LMS server is also able to stream internet radio stations. Something I use it for the most.
The biggest advantage of LMS compared to other music (or multi-media)  servers is that is able to synchronize the audio on two or more players.
That makes it the only low-budget alternative to a Sonos system, as far as I know.

3. LMS can be downloaded from http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly. At this URL there  is just a downlaoder named "logitechmediaserver_7.9.0~1452060863_all.deb"
and not the actual .deb file. I have (Debian 8 running on another box) I was not able to install LMS.

Have look at my tutorial, it describes how to install squeezelite and an LMS server on a Raspberry Pi:
http://www.gerrelt.nl/RaspberryPi/wordpress/tutorial-stand-alone-squeezebox-server-and-player-for-bbq/
BUT PLEASE NOTE: The tutorial is in need of a revision. I've changed my squeezelite installation tutorial to use Raspbian Jessie, but this tutorial still needs Raspbian Wheezy.
So, if you only plan to use the LMS part of the tutorial, you're fine. As long as you use Raspbian Wheezy.

A piCorePlayer should be able to connect to a LMS server running on Raspbian Wheezy without any problems.

Is there another server to replace LMS?
F.i. VLC or similar?

Not that I know off.

4. Is there a streaming server availabe for piCore (piCorePlayer OS) ?

As piCorePlayer is a Squeezelite based player, it can only connect to a LMS server.
But please correct me if I am wrong piCorePlayer-people! 

Greetings,
   Gerrelt.

[beerstein]

thank you so much. --- I am getting closer now.
I still have to find out how to install the LMS on my Debian 8 box or to install the ARM version on RASPI1 or RASPI2
Is there a package for Raspian available which I can just install via sudo apt-get install ?

The article in Linux Voice Magazine (UK) mentioned that the .deb file works on Ubuntus. I think it also should work on Debian 8
Maybe it is easier to install LMS on a seperate RASPI?
Any ideas?
l

[Greg Erskine]

hi beerstein,

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Debian_Package

Use Raspbian Wheezy. There is a perl version mismatch with Jessie.

https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/

I have installed 7.8.1 and 7.9 on RPiB and RPi2B with older scripts. I assume these newer scripts work. 

regards
Greg

[Greg Erskine]

Thanks bmarkus, Paul_123, Gerrelt and others for chiming in.

It's great to have people with your skills and knowledge helping us out.

regards
Greg

[Robbrad]

December 12 2015

Please try the new release (piCorePlayer 1.22).
Ralphy has been a great support and help during the development - so thank you very much.

https://sites.google.com/site/picoreplayer/home/news

Changes:

• Updated kernel 4.1.12.
• Updated piCore (even faster booting).
• Touchscreen support improved (the official raspberry 7" touchscreen).
• Calibration file included.
• Jivelite can be installed from webpage.
• VU-Meters can be changed from webpage.
• New high quality default VU-Meter made by forum member Kolossos - thank you very much.
• Backlight on/off (Jivelite settings/screen/screensavers/when stopped/Display off ) then the backlight will be off when not playing, and on when you touch the screen.
• Ralphy is providing two versions of squeezelite. The basic version which is shipped with pCP allow playback of pcm, (wav/aiff), flac, mp3, ogg and aac. It is only 1 Mb in size. The ffmpeg version is bigger (12 MB) and allows in addition playback of ALAC and WMA via build in ffmpeg. In the Main page you can choose which version you will use.
• After customizing Jivelite you need to save your changes to the next reboot. This is done on the webpage ("advanced tab" in the bottom and choose "backup").

Download:

https://sites.google.com/site/picoreplayer/home/download

This software has been around for a couple of years now, but has a fairly low profile at diyAudio.

regards
Steen & Greg

Hi Steen and Greg

Thanks for providing this great player.

I have three installed here at home and they are always on so that they only need to be controlled from phone/tablet/LMS-webinterface. Unfortunately this level of comfort demands my power-amps to be always-on.

So one suggestion for a future change that would make it perfect for my use:

Could you make it part of the release to toggle one of the GPIO's according to the on/off status of the player as controlled from the LMS.

This I would use to control power for the amps driving my speakers.

Best regards
Claus

I had achived this previously using HDMI CEC - last post at http://forums.slimdevices.com/archive/index.php/t-76220.html

I have requested HDMI-CEC on TinyCore. http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=18694.0

My old multiroom player was Debian + Squeeze Lite - (I had lag issues)  but could control the power state on my soundbar. I moved to piCorePlayer because of its lightweight footprint and the sound output "Worked every time". Unfortunately TinyCore does not support the RPi CEC yet - fingers crossed for the future. Im mentioning it because you could have HDMI on the amp, much easier than a GPIO.

[jgrulich]

I've tested this piCorePlayer distro and it's fine for simplicity and general use. But I've hit several limitations. One was that wifi was not able to connect to hidden network (wifi.tcz is not designed to do so), than some other points. The CEC, or some another ON/OFF command was one of them. I've used my raspidac3 audio card (the same for Hifiberry) which has the activity LED and it may be simply used for the switching of the power amp. The advantage of this is that it reduced consumption in Stand-By, because the power amp had nearly 25W iddle consumption and now is switched off.
Then I've build my own player from scratch. It has only basic TC.7 core and simple wifi script for connection to the hidden network.
No SSH, nor web interface.

[Greg Erskine]

I've tested this piCorePlayer distro and it's fine for simplicity and general use. But I've hit several limitations. One was that wifi was not able to connect to hidden network (wifi.tcz is not designed to do so), than some other points. The CEC, or some another ON/OFF command was one of them. I've used my raspidac3 audio card (the same for Hifiberry) which has the activity LED and it may be simply used for the switching of the power amp. The advantage of this is that it reduced consumption in Stand-By, because the power amp had nearly 25W iddle consumption and now is switched off.
Then I've build my own player from scratch. It has only basic TC.7 core and simple wifi script for connection to the hidden network.
No SSH, nor web interface.

Hi jgrulich,

Why don't you release your version as a service to those wanting access to hidden SSIDs, CEC and amp on/off relays?

regards
Greg

[Paul_123]

On off relays via gpio is a different mechanism than cec.   Just curious how you are doing cec on/off

[jgrulich]

@Paul_123,

yes, my way is different to CEC on/off command, but it works as needed. It is done inside the audio kernel module accordingly to enable / disable the audio sound card. This may be done even via some GPIO pin, but than it need some additional kernel module to do so.

@Greg Erskine,

I'll share it when finished. In the meantime you may use this link: http://www.gerrelt.nl/RaspberryPi/wordpress/
There is very nice tutorial how to do everything around the Logitech Media Server and Squeezelite Player on Rasbian and TinyCore.