Introducing RopieeeXL

Audio Gear Talk RoPieee
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From the start RoPieee’s goal has bene very clear: A RoonBridge only endpoint which requires a minimal setup.

I think this worked out nicely, but through those years I had to say ‘NO’ quite a few times to people that were requesting other streaming solutions (Airplay, DLNA etc.) to be added to RoPieee. And while I don’t regret saying ‘NO’ in general (saying ‘no’ is one of the most difficult things in product mgt), it made me think if there was another way to provide this functionality without sacrificing RoPieee’s ease of use.

And I think I’ve got a solution for that: RopieeeXL. Right now vaporware (so don’t start asking for a download link :wink: ) , but all the fundamentals are in place: a configuration system, an update system and a packaging system.

So the plan is this: RoPieee will get a big brother that provides more functionality besides ‘just Roon’. But it will be delivered in a different package: so no ‘bloatware’ (I hear you @Geoff_Coupe), but a different image that adds the additional functionality.

With this RoPieee won’t compromise on it’s promise, but I don’t need to say ‘NO’ to everyone asking for the other stuff.

“But how can you promise us that RoPieeeXL won’t get more attention than the little one?”

That’s fairly easy: I myself am a Roon-only guy. I love it and never feel a need to use something else so I guess we’re safe on that front :slight_smile:

That also means I need some people here willing to test things out because I don’t have all platforms available. For example: I can’t test Airplay because I don’t have an Apple infrastructure (and believe me: I never ever will :stuck_out_tongue: ).

So when? I’ve been working on this for some time and I hope to release a first beta soonish. First only with DLNA/UPnP as additional service, but from there on we can extend quite easily.

So we’re not there yet, but considering the recent discussions over here where people where starting to experiment themselves I wanted to inform you guys to prevent a “he dude, couldn’t you tell that before I spend my holiday on this?” kinda discussions.

I really hope that I’ve convinced those that like RoPieee because of it’s simplicity that I’m not going to change that.

Thanks,

21 Likes
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Well this is great as a general direction. Will those of us with existing Ropieee installs need to download and create an entirely new image for our RPis? Disappointing that Airplay won’t be in the first beta since that would likely stop me from investing any more time into a custom Shairport-Sync install/config. So I’ll press ahead and hopefully help others who want this functionality pending seeing what XL brings, eventually. Assuming you plan to package Shairport-Sync into XL and provide some standard updating method. Happy to test early releases to validate Airplay.

But curious as to the DLNA/UPnP prioritization. Seems most here want Airplay and/or Spotify streaming options in addition to Roon. Would have thought that would have made those top of the list.

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Harry, Airplay sounds pretty good to me. We have one Pi+DAC Hat coming with RoPiee for my son to stream from Roon to his powered speakers. But he is also a great Apple user, so Airplay would fit right in. Happy to help testing, (we are pretty much an Apple house here) and I’m also a reasonable programmer and used to building, amps, dacs, power supplies etc.

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Another apple house here but have dlna/upnp too, but my wife as noted is a Spotify user and would love to play via the roon/ropieee devices her stuff.

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I hope Spotify makes it in so I can ditch dietpi. Although would need better WiFi support for external dongles too for my older non wifi pis

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external dongles are supported.

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So if I wanted to use an external wifi antenna what do I do?

Just plug it into the usb?
Do I need to change anything in the ropieee setup?
Do I need to connect up the external antenna and reflash?

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Under the assumption that you have one that is supported (right now the one from Allo is, but it uses a very common Wifi chipset) you don’t have to do anything except configuration. So go to the network tab and just hit ‘commit’ again to set things in motion.

If you’ve got both onboard en external wifi RoPieee will prefer the external one.

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OK, So I plugged in my Asus AC wireless antenna into my Allo DigiOne (currently set to use onboard wifi). Hit Commit Changes…no change. Did a HARD ReBoot. Still no change. There are 4 USB ports on this thing. Are they specific or should any one of them work?

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can you send me feedback? i can then have a look if the Asus is a chipset we support.

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851ab7a454e3ac63

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hmmm. indeed it uses the onboard wifi and not the external one.
It is a realtek however, so I’m curious why it did not use that…

I need to build in some more diagnostics, because right now I can’t see enough on the ‘wifi adapter decision making’ process.

Would be great though if we can get this antenna supported…

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Agreed!! If you need me to test anything for you, just let me know

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OT, but why the need to do that?

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Because, as far as I can see, the author of DietPi can’t be bothered to answer questions, either in forum posts or PMs?

Or in the DietPi forum, for that matter.

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Because it breaks when you update too easily and Harry’s support is second to none.

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@spockfish Hi! I’m more than happy to help out, as I have Linux experience. Especially, for me …adding Spotify would be the icing on the cake. Especially an implementation that allows streaming from different accounts. (ie any Spotify clients on the same network).

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Harry implemented Spotify in the RoPieeeXL beta channel, and it is working well.

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I updated a RoPieee PI3B to RoPieeeXL 352. For Some reason it does not respect the country setting in the wpa_supplicant conf file and lost ability to see WiFi Channels > 11. iw set works and allows for a work-around. It is an unexpected regression though.(?).

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Nothing changed there. Can you send me feedback?