Extension to display cover art on a sense hat attached to a Raspberry Pi

Hello all,

I have written an extension in Python to display cover art on a sense hat while a track is playing, it’s all a bit low-fi as the hat is 8x8 pixels but the code can be change to display on another LED board .

As it’s the first time I have written an extension or published anything on github, if you would like to give it a go then please PM me and I will send you a link (or use Google!)

Many thanks

Jason

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Why not publish the link here for the community?

I also think it might be a good idea to contact @Jan_Koudijs. As far as I know he is the maintainer of a list where all available Roon extensions are collected.

In my rooExtend release v2.3.0 (I will publish at beginning of August) you will be able to connect a HDMI-TV to your Pi4 and see the Roon Display on this device. In the display selector within Roon the HDMI output of the Pi4 will show up as “Chrome”.

I will offer this display feature for free without any additional license cost.

Best DrCWO

3 Likes

I did not publish it because I am shy haha

So I have spent a few hours today expanding the functionality, it can now display cover art on either a sense hat or a Waveshare 1.5" OLED screen (SKU 14747). It only displays the art when a track is playing.

The first release is here

I will contact Jan at a later time, that is good advice thank you.

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How about on the official 7" touchscreen display?

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I’m sure it can be done but I do not have one of those displays.

If you can give me ssh access to your Pi attached to the 7" display, I can then try and write the code to get it working.

This might be a better option for you

I don’t under stand what an extension manager has to do with this. I was just curious if your extension worked with the official rpi display. I only use one extension currently with roon and can install it manually just fine on my ubuntu roon server.

I have pulled this for now, I have written a setup script to make installation much, much easier. I need to test it thoroughly before I release the code.

Would like to see this option on the 7” display too. For both RPi 3 and 4 boards

I do not have the 7" display to write the code and test it.

This is now back so feel free to give it a go, a new script is in place to make installation a lot easier.

Here are a couple of images of the end result.

Sense hat

The Waveshare OLED.

As you can see, the OLED absolutely wipes the floor with the sense hat, as expected.

For anyone requesting a display to be supported, I am quite happy for you to give me access to your Raspberry Pi (via Teamviewer if you like, so you can see what I am doing) so that I can make changes to the code for your device. I can then implement those changes into GitHub so everyone that uses your device is happy.

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This really looks quite nice. Is it the 1.5“ Display?
What is needed to connect it to the Pi?
Best DrCWO

1 Like

It’s one of these

It comes with everything (all the cables) you need to connect to the hat on a Pi.

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With your updated extension would it be possible to display volume level or current time via the HDMI output on the display? The clock is not very important to me. But having the ability to see the volume setting would be great! Thanks for all of your good works and poking forward to your release.

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Sorry, I’ve just seen this!

If your are using HDMI, this would be much better for you.

Hello Folks. I am wondering how can I get a Raspberry pi to show Roon cover arts and track information ONLY without showing the artist picture? Currently, chrome-cast extension includes artist picture… I want the only cover art that regular Roon ready streamers show on their display (i.e. NAD M33, HiFi Rose, Eversolo, Cambridge Audio). I am running rooExtend (for volume control and to my RME DAC) but im ok to buy another rPi to only use for this purpose.

I just use the Display option of RoPieee. However, be aware that it only supports the official 7-inch Raspberry Pi Touchscreen.

1 Like