«Smart» speaker project

Provisional name: “hobos”

Basic idea: dumb speaker + basic single-board pc (e.g. Pi Zero W) + linux with mpd ⇒ profit

Hardware

Done:

1. Very cheap USB powered speaker in “soundbar” form-factor (about $15)
2. OrangePi Lite
3. Some cheapo 8GB SD card
4. Cheapo USB sound card (OrangePi lite has a line-out but the pads are microscopic)
5. USB hub (to power both OrangePi and speaker)

Todo:

• Heatsinks for the board (it gets really hot unless you throttle the CPU on every boot) *
• Check if my USB power supply is enough to power both board and the speaker :| *
• Put everything inside the speaker case (after some checking, it should all fit fine) ****

Software

So far (2020-10-15), I have only flashed linux on it :|

TODO:

• ansible for updates *
• mopidy with spotify/yamusic plugins (?) **

Further ideas / links

• KaRadio, addons, instructables - similar project, but on ESP8266 and even cheaper (but only does shoutcast streams)
• Use an old vintage radio case, probably its speaker as well, have plenty of those at home