I took on the challenge of programming my Raspberry Pi to be an Airplay device. Although there are many different things you can do with a Raspberry Pi, such as many different media devices and retro video game consoles. I thought an Airplay device was a better option for me. I’m interested in being able to play audio over an internet network. I would like the ability to listen to music thoughout my house without needing to be next to my computer. I began to gather all the equipment and tutorials I would need.
- Raspberry Pi 3
- Micro SD Card
- Power Supply
- Network Connection
- Speakers
- AirPlay enabled device
- https://9to5toys.com/2019/01/03/raspberry-pi-airplay-receiver-setup/
- https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-airplay-receiver/
After gathering everything I felt I would need for this project I began to do a little more research. I wanted to know exactly the capabilities of not only the Raspberry Pi but also of the Airplay process. I don’t currently own a set of Airplay speakers, but I do own a Bluetooth speaker. I began to read and compare the difference between Bluetooth and Airplay. Essentially Bluetooth is a way to send audio directly from a device to a set of speakers, whereas Airplay sends the audio signal over a local network that both the device playing the audio and the speakers are connected to.
As I began to look into the programming for this project, I was initially intimidated. I do not have much experience in programming computers or programs. I was able to get the Raspberry up and running and I began to try to get the programs I need to get my device to work. I’m not used to running programs in a command terminal so it was a bit of a trial by fire learning experience for me. it took a few different tutorials for me to get all the programming to work. I had to work between the 2 tutorials I found and do some troubleshooting to get the commands to run properly and to get everything working. Once I was finished running all the commands I was able to connect my phone to the Raspberry Pi and play music from across my house.
In conclusion, this project was actually a good experience for me. I do want to do some more research on the programming side. I want to understand the commands I was giving the Raspberry Pi rather than just copy and paste or typing command text that I don’t understand. It was easy to get everything programmed and up and running and I really enjoyed getting my feet wet in programming a Raspberry Pi. I see so much more potential and different uses for a Raspberry Pi in my life, I plan to get one or two myself for different uses.
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