double post removed

TWG wrote:

Count me in, I'm interested, too!

Great, thanks for your interest.

TWG wrote:

It doesn't need a DAC for my taste as there are enough high quality DACs already in this world that could be used.

It's a tricky issue - there are Raspberry Pi DAC HATs available, but the HAT specification doesn't specifically support stacking of multiple boards, so whether you could use both the BeoPi HAT and a DAC HAT too would depend on which of the RPi's GPIO headers each board uses. Also, we are converting the output of the DAC to balanced audio to feed to the Masterlink audio lines, so, for these reasons, and in order to provide a one size fits all solution, we decided to include a DAC on the interface itself. For most it will also be a much cheaper option that a BeoPi HAT plus a seperate DAC.

TWG wrote:

I want independent Beo 4 control. It would be great if that little device could inject Light and Control commands into the ML-Bus, too.
This would allow tiny devices with an external IR receiver that can be hidden anywhere due to the high sensitivity and then forward those commands to a MLGW or BLGW! This would be VERY handy if you have no compatible (older) Beovision, Beosound, Beocenter etc. that are not able to send those commands (Light and Control) over the ML-Bus.

The BeoPi interface design will be concentrating on Masterlink connectivity, namely providing the ability to send and receive ML telegrams, and the ability to inject audio into the ML network, so there are no plans to include IR on the interface itself.

I am however planning in due course to design an add-on board that will piggyback onto the BeoPi interface and provide full audiomaster functionality. This would add an IR receiver input (to connect a B&O IR eye), a powerlink socket (to connect a pair of active speakers or a beolink passive), an aux in socket with datalink (I and several others here are interested in the ability to connect our datalink capable beograms and gain the ability to control them from the masterlink network or locally by IR remote, or even via an app!) and an audio switch matrix to route the audio between the various inputs and outputs (so that, for example, you could listen to your beogram on the locally connected speakers, whilst simultaneously routing audio from the RPi to the ML network, or visa-versa, or indeed any other combination of audio inputs and outputs). Obviously this would also provide the ability to route light and control signals to the ML network.

Having said that, my current focus is on continuing to decode / decypher the masterlink data protocol as that must take priority for the moment, but if you wanted to add an IR eye in the meantime, it would only require a simple circuit with only a few components to be added to one of the unused GPIO inputs to do so.

Kind Regards,

Martin.

Connecting a Gramofon to the Raspberyy would be nice. That would make it possible to use Spotify Connect.

MJBeo wrote:

I have a MCL system throughout the house. i have tried to make the Pi react to commands from the link room, to change tracks when I am on airplay, or playing music from my NAS. It wouldnt work, because i can run the MCl cable to the jack input if the -238, but I would not be able to control it directly anymore, as the direct IR is switched off. So if this unit is capable of adding control over the MCL network (with t1611) I would be interested. Would it be controllable by beo4 without the need for the -238?

The short answer is I don't know. I don't have much experience with mixed MCL / ML setups so I'm not certain what the 1611 will and won't pass between the two systems and I'd probably need more details about how your system is set up in order to try and figure out what would be possible. Without giving it too much though there could be two potential scenarios that may work for you though - if you could in theory connect a B&O ML audio master (eg an Ouverture, BS9000, BS5 etc) to your current setup, then connecting the BeoPi would be the equivalent of this and should also work. Alternatively, the BeoPi interface could be configured to act more like a MLGW, and thus monitor the data being sent over the ML bus and react to this, perhaps by turning on your BV7 and switching it to the source which has the RPi connected to it, it could then silently respond to commands sent over the ML bus destined for this source (even if your BV normally just ignores them).

MJBeo wrote:

one question though, what source would it be? My BM5500 does not support N.music, and N.radio is 'used' for Phono.

Theoretically, we can respond to any source, but again, what will work will likely depend on how your setup is configured (a.opt / v.opt of the various devices and to which devices your speakers are connected).

Kind Regards,

Martin.

Interested! :-)

leosgonewild wrote:

Connecting a Gramofon to the Raspberyy would be nice. That would make it possible to use Spotify Connect.

It depends what you want to achieve, if you specifically want spotify connect support in order to control your spotify streaming from the official spotify app on another device, then currently, connecting a spotify connect capable device is the only solution as spotify have only released the connect API to spotify partners (although there is work underway to reverse engineer this API and/or spotify may in the future decide to release it publicly).

If however you just want the ability to control the spotify streaming on the RPi from other devices (computers, iphones, android etc) then there are already apps that enable you to do this. You can run a music player daemon (mpd) on the RPi, which will allow streaming from spotify, sound cloud, google music and your own local files amongst others) and then install an mpd client on your phone / laptop etc to control all this. This then gives you a very similar setup to how 'connect' works, whilst also providing for a wider range of music sources, and without having to add any additional hardware.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mpod/id285063020 for example.

Martin.

joostdeclercq wrote:

Interested! :-)

Ok, thanks (and a warm welcome to beoworld)

Martin.

I've been meaning to do this myself sometime in the future, but if you're doing it and I can buy it, then sign me up! :-)

Like Mika I want 2 if the price isn't too high. And I'd prefer soldering connectors myself if that keeps the price down.

Very cool, keep it up!

Cheers

/  Johan

Thanks a lot for all of your interest! And thanks riverstyx for your answers.
There is now a demand for somewhere around 20 boards. 

I was very busy during the last couple of days but I think that I can finish the schematic part this week and start routing the PCB. 
As soon as the schematic / PCB layout is ready I will put it on github an link it in both threads.

BR,
BeoMotion.