In ceiling set up with Pis

[didjean]

Hi guys, I am planing to do some renovation at home (bathroom) and would like to have your opinion on the following set up with in-ceiling speakers
the current idea would be the following:

- in a closet
Player - Raspberry Pi 3 with Hifiberry AMP2
Wires to speakers


- in the bathroom
Another Pi3 with Touchscreen to control the Player (music and volume)

I have 2 questions:
- Is AMP2 safe - not getting too warm?
- Can it go on standby when not using the player?

or better to go with a small Amp with just a Pi player

Thx for your ideas/feedback.

[truscellino]

Hi,

I wouldn't be worried about having class D amplifiers (like the AMP2) in an enclosure, providing that the amp has a bit of air around, is not in direct contact with very sensitive/flammable materials and the enclosure is not super tightly insulated...

Getting your hidden Pi to go to sleep and wake up is a bit more tricky without physical access. Easiest way would be to have access to a mains switch or a on/off button for that Pi.

Any way you can use one Pi instead of two?

[garym999]

I have just installed exactly this in our bathroom this weekend. All fits in a double UK back box. When not in use I have a dimmed screen and clock screen saver.

Actually I lie a little the PSU lives in the loft above as it is bigger than the rest of it put together. If you want a full power down when not in use why not wire it to the light switch. I use this trick for my en-suite

I’ll try and post something some installed pics tomorrow but there a few shots of it here during build up and testing

[garym999]

Pictures as promised. Yet to decorate around the wall. One pic shows the dimmed standby screen the other it playing. The bezel was 3D printed and sprayed. The make up is a Waveshare DSI compatible screen, RPi 3+ & Amp all stacked behind and the 18V PSU is located in the loft. As I say in the other post pretty much plug and play using these components and PiCorePlayer. The consuming part other than the 3D design and print was getting the screen to dim and that is detailed in the other post.

[didjean]

Hi both,

Thanks very much for your answers.

@garym999. - you project looks really really cool!

Bare with me... I am now going to ask you lots of questions as I understand your approach is not 100% out of the box:

- As far as I get it, because you use a Pi + Hifiberry AMP2+screen - soldering is need between screen and pi, correct? Having read some forum, it seemed that using the IQAudio Amp doesn't require soldering. But not clear... Would like to avoid soldering (never done this)
- Why haven't you chosen the official pi screen ? It size too big? Is the waveshare working out of the box with Picoreplayer or Max2Play?
- what about the 3D stand - how did you manage that? Did you create plans?
- power supply. so you have 1 supply for all components, right?
- linking to the main switch: so entering your room, 60 sec at least would be needed to be able to listen to music, that not as straight as a SB Radio ;-).

Cheers,

[garym999]

Strictly speaking soldering is not required. The RPi bolts on to the Waveshare screen and uses a ribbon cable to connect to the DSI connector. The amp is a Hat so stacks on top of the lot it also includes a PSU for the RPi so all that’s needed is a single 18V PSU. So far plug and play.

I wanted the screen to dim when not in use. If you want this feature then a small amount of soldering is required. If you are powering it On/Off you probably don’t need the dimming.

I chose the Waveshare screen because it does not use any IO pins, is the right size for a UK faceplate and has a nice responsive screen and touchscreen.

The parts were sourced from Amazon.

The 3D print was designed and printed by me using DesignSpark and then spray painted. It goes together by clamping around the screen.

As for switching it boots pretty quick and as PCP is all in RAM you don’t suffer any file corruption etc. Assuming you are not using it as a LMS server. I guess you could use a PSU switching HAT if you want a physical ON/OFF switch

[gregklanderman]

Looks beautiful garym999!

I'd really like to do something like that for my kitchen and deck.. it looks like they have a similar size HDMI touch screen..

https://www.waveshare.com/4.3inch-hdmi-lcd-b.htm

Could I connect that to the RPi via ~20' cable? I was planning to have the RPi's and amps for these systems live in my networking closet in the basement which is somewhat under the area where the displays would go in the kitchen. I have speaker wire run from that area, and a conduit up into the wall where I want the displays, but there is not room for all the equipment in that wall (very narrow bay next to sliding door).

It looks like it needs both HDMI for video and USB for touch control. Ideally the connectors would be in the back rather than on the edges, but maybe 90 degree connectors would be low enough profile for mounting in a wall plate like you did.

The display you used looks perfect for a couple systems at my stereos.. if I can make a case to hold it upright / slanted back slightly. I like the smaller size over the standard RPi display.

For connecting to a Denon amp (AVR-X2500H) am I better off using a Hifiberry DAC or Digi?

[garym999]

Hi Greg I have used the Waveshare HDMI version on my hi-fi build and that uses a Allo DAC. The problem with these as you have already figured are different connector placements and angles. 6meters/20ft should but just OK with quality cables. Remember the USB cable is carrying the touchscreen data and the screen power. On the HDMI side it is often not the high speed picture data that does not make it through but the low speed handshaking

Are you sure you can’t locate all the kit locally? You could lay it out on the flat using ribbon cables.

As for any audio kit it’s all subjective but PSU arrangements can make a big difference to separate the rather noisy rpi from your DAC. For my hifi setup I have 2 supplies a basic one for the Pi and a better one for the Allo.

[gregklanderman]

Thank you Gary! Especially good to have feedback on the HDMI version.

I do not think it would be realistic to locate the equipment in the wall there. I might be able to find a different wall location. I still much prefer having the amps in the basement as it is a fairly large kitchen and a very large space outdoors on the deck so I want good sized amps. There is crawl space just under the desired location in the kitchen and above the basement ceiling but it's very hard to access that area if debugging were needed. The bay between the studs in the wall there is barely over one US gang wide, and is an exterior wall so there is also insulation to deal with.

I'll probably get the long cables first and see how it works, and go from there.

[garym999]

Forgot to mention with the HDMI version there is also a little SW setup to get the HDMI resolutions configured and the touch screen but this is well documented on the forums and as a recall some links on the Waveshare site.