I thought it might be helpful to create a beginner’s guide for RoPieee. With Harry’s permission (@spockfish), I have created an initial draft for feedback and improvement:
[Edit: the guide is now complete. Thanks.]
http://codexwilkes.com/downloads/ropieee-guide-for-beginners.pdf
Thanks.
Nice write-up, clear and concise and looking good. 
@spockfish: Let me know if you’d like this stickied!
● Using Etcher (https://etcher.io/), copy image to card. Make sure the target destination is the correct!
Remove the before correct or put device after correct! 
Thanks; fixed.
Yeah, please do!
@done
Great effort I must say too…you might mention that Etcher is indeed multi platform, ie available for Windows PC’s, Mac’s and Linux too.
And on waiting for the installs to complete you might mention this can take some time, even 20 mins or more depending on your internet speed.
Maybe enjoy a beverage of your choice…but I’ll take a latte too 
Thanks @wizardofoz for the feedback; v.4 uploaded.
Edit: updated a few more items and corrected some silly typos: v.9.
Looks great. It covers most of the mistakes I have made as I set up and configured various Ropieee endpoints!
Only minor suggestion is perhaps to add a few photos of what the RPi looks like, what a HAT looks like and perhaps an overview of the types of HAT’s - digital boards, DAC boards and amps. Also how these various alternatives connect to an audio system.
Great contribution!
Many thanks.
Hi Andrew,
Do you think adding more information about HATs would be useful to the RoPieee user? I am leery of trying to cover something I may not do well. I also don’t have the right gear to take product shots well.
I am away for a week, but maybe I’ll try something next weekend when I return home.
Nathan
Nathan: I wasn’t trying to say that your document should include makes/models, but rather the types of audio HAT’s supported by RoPieee as a way for potential users to better understand how to fit this endpoint into their systems.
Digi boards - pass a pure digital signal from the Roon core to your DAC where the conversion to analog happens and is passed to your amplifier.
DAC boards - receive the digital signal from the Roon core and the conversion to analog happens on the HAT, and the analog signal is passed to your amplifier.
Amplifier boards - receives the digital signal from the Roon core and the conversion to analog happens on the HAT and is passed to an amplifer on the HAT, which will power your speakers.
Looking at my written description, perhaps a few diagrams would make it easier to understand how the RPi/HAT fits into a system. However, if this is more obvious to most, you can obviously ignore these suggestions.
Andrew,
I appreciate your feedback; let me try a few things and see what people think. I may not have time until the weekend.
Nicely done. Thanks. I’m planning an install in my second home about a year after my initial install in another location. I’ve pretty much forgotten everything I did the first time (age, lol), so this will be a great help.
Wow @Nathan_Wilkes, this looks just awesome!
Nathan: Looks great!
Here’s a NooB stutter. I bought an Allo prebuilt which doesn’t have Ropieee as an option. So I etched an SD card; no prob.
In poor lighting conditions, with poor eyes, I tried to install the SD card I etched, and made two mistakes. First, there was a card already in there that was nigh impossible to extract with human hands. Second, the new card is inserted circuit side up, not as I expected.
So bring a pair of tweezers to the job, and it will take about 5 minutes as advertised. Very happy.
And a question: why brass spacers, why not plastic ones?
Hi John,
I find the brass spacers easier to install (and uninstall if necessary), and create a more rigid connection. I found the plastic threads frustrating, especially with limited space (I have large hands, which doesn’t help).
But, this is a personal preference, and certainly the plastic spacers are fine functionally.
I’ll update the document to make this more clear; thanks for the feedback.
Nathan
