ANNOUNCE: Squeezelite-ESP32 (dedicated thread)

[philippe_44]

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In my opinion this would be a useful addition to LMS. There have been questions before about the possibility to connect a single speaker to SqueezeAMP that is fed with a mono ( (L+R)/2 ) signal. If possible, it would be even better if this mono signal could be made by squeezelite, such that mono mode would also work when SqueezeAMP is used for playback of Bluetooth and/or Airplay audio streams.

It's a fairly easy modification to do in LMS and squeezelite/squeezelite-esp32 (I'll exclude BT and AirPlay at this point). Why don't you ask on the general thread if people are interested (or don't oppose) and if response is positive I'll do that this weekend

No interest for that finally?

[edit]: well, I've decided to do a couple of PR on LMS and squeezelite. We'll see

[CJS]

No interest for that finally?
[edit]: well, I've decided to do a couple of PR on LMS and squeezelite. We'll see

Hi Philippe,
Forum member Paul Webster has shown interest in a mono mode for SqueezeAmp in the past, see this post. Let me know if it is still useful that I create a separate thread with the question if people are interested in a mono mode, considering that you already have implemented a modification in squeezelite-esp32 and issued a pull request for LMS.

By the way, thank you for your quick actions! I see that there is already a new release v571 of Squeezelite-ESP32 that implements a mono flag. If I understand correctly, we now need to wait for a new release of LMS that allows to select Mono Output Channel Mode, before we can use SqueezeAMP / Squeezelite-ESP32 in mono mode. Correct?

[bobchadwick]

No interest for that finally?

[edit]: well, I've decided to do a couple of PR on LMS and squeezelite. We'll see

Not sure if your question was directed towards me (op), but if so, sorry for the lack of reply; I have brain fog from being kept awake by my four-month-old kid. Either way, that's amazing to hear about your PRs! Looking forward to trying it out.

[CJS]

By the way, thank you for your quick actions! I see that there is already a new release v571 of Squeezelite-ESP32 that implements a mono flag. If I understand correctly, we now need to wait for a new release of LMS that allows to select Mono Output Channel Mode, before we can use SqueezeAMP / Squeezelite-ESP32 in mono mode. Correct?

Hi Philippe,
I noticed that the latest LMS 8.2.0 nightly has the mono output channel mode implemented. So I tested this mono mode with my SqueezeAMP.
Configuration:

• SqueezeAMP with firmware SqueezeAmp.571.master-cmake
• Logitech Media Server Version: 8.2.0 - 1613972346 @ Mon Feb 22 07:03:08 WEST 2021
• In LMS Output Channel Mode "Both channels (Mono)" is selected for player SqueezeAMP

For testing I used 'Channel Check' and 'Balance and Phase Check' test tracks that were extracted from a DENON Test CD.
=> I can confirm that Mono Mode is working correctly with this configuration. Thanks!

Out of curiosity I also tested what happens when I select this Mono output channel mode in LMS for two other players (piCorePlayer and SqueezePlay for Windows). Here I got mixed results:
- When selecting Mono output channel mode for piCorePlayer (using squeezelite v1.9.8-1344-pCP), the player keeps playing in Stereo mode.
- When selecting Mono output channel mode for SqueezePlay (using latest SqueezePlay v8.0.1-r1343 for Windows), it appears that SqueezePlay plays the left channel audio on both speaker outputs. When playing a test track with only audio on the right channel, there is no sound coming from the speakers.

I suppose that the behavior of piCorePlayer is expected (since squeezelite for pCP has no mono mode implemented), but I was surprised by the different behavior of SqueezePlay.

[ralphy]

Out of curiosity I also tested what happens when I select this Mono output channel mode in LMS for two other players (piCorePlayer and SqueezePlay for Windows). Here I got mixed results:
- When selecting Mono output channel mode for piCorePlayer (using squeezelite v1.9.8-1344-pCP), the player keeps playing in Stereo mode.
- When selecting Mono output channel mode for SqueezePlay (using latest SqueezePlay v8.0.1-r1343 for Windows), it appears that SqueezePlay plays the left channel audio on both speaker outputs. When playing a test track with only audio on the right channel, there is no sound coming from the speakers.

I suppose that the behavior of piCorePlayer is expected (since squeezelite for pCP has no mono mode implemented), but I was surprised by the different behavior of SqueezePlay.

I'll eventually add support for this mode to squeezeplay and the community firmware.

An updated squeezelite for picoreplayer should be available later today. I'll post in the pcp7 thread when it's ready.

[CJS]

I'll eventually add support for this mode to squeezeplay and the community firmware.
An updated squeezelite for picoreplayer should be available later today. I'll post in the pcp7 thread when it's ready.

I can already confirm that Mono output channel mode is working OK with Squeezelite v1.9.9-1356-pCP. Thanks Ralphy!

[martymcbro]

Hello,

Mumpf and i bought us a ILI9341 TFT without touch.

2.8 inch 240x320 LCD Screen TFT LCD SPI ili9341
It needs only 3.3V for light and GPIOs. I'm using it direct wired to ESP32.
And it is cheap... 10€ on german amazon...

Testet with ESP32 Audio Kit V2.2:
spi_config data=13,clk=15,dc=23,host=1
display_config SPI:width=320,height=240,reset=22,speed=40000000,d river=ILI9341

Backlight BKL = 19

Attention: Works actually (v552) only with self-build Firmware. See posts from Mumpf here.

https://www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/B07QF...1822012&sr=8-2
https://www.banggood.com/3_2-Inch-8P...N&rmmds=search
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32859744548.html

I also bought such a display and wired it up. It is working quite nicely and I'm very happy with it. Good work with the driver!

Some small thing I observed:
After installation I had a white screen at first until I noticed, that the SPI config you've posted doesn't match the labeling of the outputs on the board.
In the picture included in your post you can see the labeling next to the DIP switches: IO13 MTCK and IO15 MTDO.
However you wrote in the spi_config

data=13,clk=15

I connected MTCK to CLK and MTDO to MOSI, so this caused a white screen for me. The solution was either to swap the two wires or to swap the two GPIOs in the spi_config.

One thing I don't understand after playing a little bit with the display settings in LMS:
There seems no possibility to have the display always switched on when playing and always switched off when not playing (but with the player switched on).
I have to set the "brigthness in standby mode" to 4, otherwise the screen dims when no button is pressed during playback.
Additionally there is no such screensaver like "screen off" or "blank screen" available as "screensaver (stopped)". Is there any solution to this?
I wanted to set it up like this to avoid images burning into the TFT screen. Or are my concerns unjustified?

There also seems to be no option to clear the album art, when the playback is stopped and the display switches to e.g. the date/time screensaver?

[MumPf]

I also bought such a display and wired it up. It is working quite nicely and I'm very happy with it. Good work with the driver!

Some small thing I observed:
After installation I had a white screen at first until I noticed, that the SPI config you've posted doesn't match the labeling of the outputs on the board.
In the picture included in your post you can see the labeling next to the DIP switches: IO13 MTCK and IO15 MTDO.
However you wrote in the spi_config

I connected MTCK to CLK and MTDO to MOSI, so this caused a white screen for me. The solution was either to swap the two wires or to swap the two GPIOs in the spi_config.

One thing I don't understand after playing a little bit with the display settings in LMS:
There seems no possibility to have the display always switched on when playing and always switched off when not playing (but with the player switched on).
I have to set the "brigthness in standby mode" to 4, otherwise the screen dims when no button is pressed during playback.
Additionally there is no such screensaver like "screen off" or "blank screen" available as "screensaver (stopped)". Is there any solution to this?
I wanted to set it up like this to avoid images burning into the TFT screen. Or are my concerns unjustified?

There also seems to be no option to clear the album art, when the playback is stopped and the display switches to e.g. the date/time screensaver?

yes, if you swap the cable connections, you also have to swap the IOs too.

You can see our wiring here -> Post #568
It works too.

If you are afraid of burning into the TFT: Since version 569, the new button action can be used to switch off the display. Today it's not in the Readme, but in Pull request #64 you see the button action ACTRLS_POWER for the power button.

I use it with longpress on the Rotary Encoder (via button in NVS, and wire Rotary-SW on GPIO23).

NVS-Button -> [{"gpio":23,"type":"BUTTON_LOW","pull":true,"long_press":1000,"normal":{"pressed":"ACTRLS_TOGGLE"},"longpress":{"pressed":"ACTRLS_POWER"}}]

Alternatively, you can also use the on/off switch via the LMS webpage or the material skin webpage. See pictures:

<- LMS

<- LMS with material skin

The brightness must then be set in the player's plug-in "Display". See picture:



I use brightness=3 because I will see a clock...

More infos to ILI9431 see -> Post #537

Greetings
M.P.

[cosmok82]

Hi at all,

I thank you so much for all the detailed posts, I'm a newbie with this project and the beginning effort was so much, but right now I'm with the squeezelite-esp32 connected with the LMS pretty well. I installed the repository of squeezelite-esp32, so right now I see all the configurations, but I have the same problem of @martymcbro (I followed the last post suggestions) as you can see in the picture attached below.



This is my SPI/Display configuration:

display_config: SPI,width=160,height=128,cs=21,reset=22,back=12,speed=10000000,driver=ST7735

spi_config: data=13,clk=15,dc=19,host=1

As you can see it's a TFT i.8 inch 128X160 based on the ST7735. I tried several solutions, but the display stays white every time. Could you help me?

[MumPf]

Don‘t use GPIO 21.
21 is the buildin amp on this board.