Ropiee remote control or touch screen

Audio Gear Talk RoPieee
#1

Hello

In case this post is not appropriate for this forum, feel free to remove it or to refer me to the right forum.

Here is the situation: in my kitchen I currently have a Bang & Olufsen Essence. The Essence is hidden in a cupboard. It is mainly controlled by a B&O remote control device which fixed to the cupboard wall. The Remote is hardwired to the Essence.

I would like to replace this setup with a PI4 with Ropieee and a Raspberry Amp 2, so that I can integrate it seamlessly in my ROON setup throughout the house. I already have other PI’s throughout the house, so I know this works flawlessly. The thing that bothers me is the remote control.

Our main use case for this remote control is simply switch on/switch off; volume up/volume down. It is basic but it highly convenient to be able to do this by simply walking over to the cupboard and pushing a button. As a matter of act, my wife is using this far more than any app or other remote control. So, I need something equivalent. How could I do something similar in my ROON/Ropiee setup?
Here are some thoughts:

  • would it be possible to connect the B&O Remote Eye hardwired to the PI? I have no clue how this could work, but maybe there are some handy folks on the forum that could offer some help?

  • are there similar remote controls that work with Ropiee/PI that I could fix to the cupboard wall? However, this remote would either have to be hardwired, or bluetooth. As the PI will be stored inside the cupboard, I don’t have a direct line of sight which is required for IR

  • Maybe I could replace the Remote Control which a Raspberrry PI touch screen? However, the setups I have seen all have the PI connected to the back of the Touch Screen. In my case, I would probably need some special cables to connect the remote to the PI (which would be approx. 1 - 1.5 m away)

Any other thoughts?
Finding a decent solution for this remote control issue is the thing that currently is stopping me from moving on with this project. So I hope you can provide me some inspiration!

The pictures below show you the B&O Remote Control attached to the cupboard wall, and the B&O Essence inside the cupboard

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89FDCEE1-BA7D-45E3-A40B-0CFE0701D75B3024Ă—4032 2.35 MB
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CE5DDDBB-3EA9-48F6-A7BE-456D512466FD4032Ă—3024 2.01 MB

#2

I have a Pi3 + Hifiberry AMP2 and use the excellent (and cheap!) OSMC remote with this.
Works almost out of the box with Ropieee, but note that this only controls Roon and not volume etc. for Spotify or any other XL features.
It is RF based so will work fine with your Pi located in the cupboard. I actually use mine on a different floor of the house to the Pi :slight_smile:

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#3

Roon control is sufficient for me. What do you mean with “it works almost out of the box with Ropieee”? Did it require specific knowledge to get it up and running?

#4

Nothing complex, just a few steps.

Boot Ropieee with the OSMC remote USB dongle inserted.
Under the Remote Control tab of the Ropieee interface, add the name of your Roon zone requiring control into the Roon Control Zone field, commit changes.
In Roon itself, select Settings, Extensions and then enable the RoPieee Remote Control extension.

That should be it!

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