Inovato Quadra - $29 Squeezelite player

[castalla]

Spdif works out of the box, and Squeezeplayer works too. Just a clunky (IMO) UI, which requires navigation to the app every power cycle, and defaults back to hdmi audio as well. With Armbian, you can fully automate everything, including screen turnoff when playing is done / turn on when playing starts.

SB Player has a run on startup setting.

[chicks]

The Android box from Amazon comes with an IR remote, which works well, once mapped, under Armbian.

Stumbled upon this great Asynchronous Python lib which makes pulling data from LMS super simple. Mucking about with a Python app to drive an HDMI display of any size, with automatic resizing. Looking good so far...

[chicks]

My experimental Python script attached. Tested on the $29 Android TV box from Amazon, with 7", 24" and 65" HDMI displays, but should scale to any size 16:9 display.

Remote control functions to select which Squeezebox to monitor, pause/play/stop, next/prev, direct select playlist item 1-10 with number keys.

HDMI standby when nothing is playing.

Volume buttons are not grabbed by the python script currently, but work with alsa on the local box. If you're running squeezelite on this box, its volume will be controlled unless you're using the hw: alsa output. Should be simple enough to add to the script.

to prep, from a cmd shell on the box, running the Inovato Armbian distro on an SD card:
sudo apt install python3-evdev
sudo apt install python3-tk
sudo apt install python3-pip

unzip the attached file in the /home/quadra directory
cd sb
sudo pip3 -r requirements.txt

edit the sb.sh file with the ip address of your LMS server
./sb.sh to launch

to set up for auto launch:
sudo armbian-config
under system, select desktop
change to desktop with auto login

In the Armbian menus, set up auto start for /home/quadra/sb/sb.sh, so that it starts at bootup

Have fun!

Running on 24" and 7" displays, currently monitoring my WiiM Mini (LMS->WiiM via UPnP plugin):

[chicks]

Measurements of the T95's Toslink output. It truncates everything to 16 bits, but so long as you're happy with CD quality (as I am), it's very clean. The RME test files show it's big-perfect at 16 bits.

filename = in/inovato.wav
freq = 1000, t1 = 1, t2 = 5
frame rate = 44100, channel = 2
shape = (2, 253952), dim = 253952, sample_rate = 44100 channels = 2
track length = 5.76 seconds
low_freq = 10.0, max_freq = 1000.0
low_freq = 10.0, max_freq = 1000.0
channel 1: thd = 0.00007 %
channel 2: thd = 0.00007 %

[threshold350]

Nice work! Maybe on my Christmas break I’ll try one of these out. Fun project for $29


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[wtnh]

Nice to see RPi alternatives.

I've been mucking about with this box from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B46D9VCP

It's also $29 (shipping included), but adds a remote control and TOSLink optical output.

I downloaded the Inovato build of Armbian to an SD card, and it boots up just fine on this box (haven't yet tried to burn it to the device's flash).

......

Good stuff - I got a Quadra box and managed to get LMS and Squeezelite running on it together for a friend without too much fuss. This T95 box looks pretty much identical but adds the remote and TOSlink as a bonus. Plus, Amazon is currently knocking another $2 off (coupon). I may get one to play with.

Have you seen any gotchas with this T95 box and the Inovato build? Flashing it would be a more permanent solution, I would think. Thanks for documenting your findings so far.

[wtnh]

I assume you can SSH in and do it from there.


Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

Yes - SSH is enabled by default. I installed LMS and Squeezelite without a monitor connected - just using SSH, so the box runs fine headless.