Steve Builds a RoPieee Update - Noob Quotient: Easy as Pi

Disclaimer: Blame @Jim_F It is all his fault! (tongue planted firmly in cheek) :crazy_face:

A bit of background first. I’ve been using the Roon demo and then subscribed for a few weeks now, and using it with my own library of assorted quality of music files and a new subscription to Qobuz. Prior to Roon, I tolerated but used iTunes for local files and Spotify for streaming.

I’ve been vaguely aware of Raspberry Pi computers, but have never looked into them to see what they can do or how they work. I took “electronics” class in high school nearly 50 years ago, which has zero relevance to electronic devices today. I use a Mac because I’m not interested in fiddling with computers beyond using the applications. And my audio equipment is old, not very expensive, and I’m starting to lose hearing in upper frequencies.

So, probably the least likely to dive into this corner of the Roon Community, hence my thread title.

My Roon Core in on my iMac, where I listen in my office on the inbuilt speakers (yea, I know…) I also stream to a pair of Sonos One speakers in the kitchen/dining/living room area. My main listening area in our family room, where I have Roon installed on my MacBook Pro, using the optical output to a 16 year old Yamaha AV receiver. These all are controlled using the Macs and our iPads and iPhones.

In order to improve the quality of my listening experience, and to get the MacBook Pro out of the stream, I’ve ordered a Topping E30 DAC and intended to buy one of the spare RoPieee boxes that @Jim_F built and had on eBay. It’s no longer available, so I contacted Jim to see if he had any others. In an ongoing conversation, he convinced me that I could build and implement one myself, so here I am, and the reason for the tongue-in-cheek disclaimer. In actuality, Jim has been very helpful. Thank you, sir!!

I verified that Etcher will run on Mac OS, and downloaded it and the latest RoPieeeXL file. I ordered the following hardware from Amazon, which will supposedly arrive Thursday:

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B
SanDisk 16GB Ultra MicroSCHC Card
Flirc Raspberry Pi 4 Case
CanaKit Raspberry Pi 4 Power Supply

I have downloaded and started trying to grasp @Nathan_Wilkes excellent Beginners Guide Thank you Nathan for this resource. It seems very helpful from the viewpoint of a clueless beginner, and hopefully will help avoid the calamity I anticipate in my thread title.

I have a lot of reading to do until parts arrive. I’m sure that I will have questions and failures along the way. I plan to implement Airplay and Spotify Connect as well. I don’t know if I’ll turn on WiFi since the box will be wired directly to the switch hanging from my Eero mesh network’s gateway node.

I look forward to giving this a go, and to improved music quality in my family room. Thank you all in advanced for your patience in my getting to that point.

Steve

TL/DR: I’m gonna ask a lot of questions. And I’m gonna RTFM. Bear with me, please. :wink:

5 Likes

@Steve_Morris, the RoPieee community is fabulous, so I am sure that you will get as much support as you need.

3 Likes

You will have a fun time with this project! The learning curve is short if a tiny bit steep. When you get it working, and you will, it’s a very satisfying feeling.

One small piece of advice: If you are direct wiring the unit to a switch, don’t enable wifi. I’ve had units with dual connections active and I suspect that being the cause of some strange behavior when wifi goes nutty as it sometimes does in our house. Have fun!

2 Likes

Thanks guys,

The Router (Eero Mesh Gateway) and Switch are near my A/V Receiver, so direct wired will be easy. If I can drive the Roon Bridge on the RoPieee with the iPhone and iPad without implementing WiFi, I see no reason to turn it on.

Here’s my current hardware stack. There’s a lot of electrical stuff close together, which is probably not helpful, but really not avoidable, either. The RoPieee and DAC will go on top where the unused DVD player and MacBook Pro are currently located. I’ll remove the unused Roku, too, and move the Apple Time Machine upstairs to my office.

1 Like

It’ll work great! So long as your iPad or phone is on the same network as the core remote operations will be easy.

2 Likes

Yep, everything in the house is on one network (WiFi and wired) using three Eero Pro Nodes.

Thanks

2 Likes

Ropieee is a breeze. Hardest thing is simply ‘etching’ the sd card and that is really quite easy. Just be patient when you first boot up the pi - lots of flashing red lights on the pi…eventually (could be several minutes) you will see the pi in Roon.
Stick with ethernet.

2 Likes

Don’t forget Harry’s advice of Latte :heart_eyes:

3 Likes

Thank you, @Tim_Chapman!

@Mike_O_Neill That page of the Beginner’s Guide looks quite helpful, and @spockfish’s advice looks good, (my youngest daughter makes those fancy things for folks.) But I’m a tea drinker, so some Assam will do unless later in the day. Then the advice from @wizardofoz sounds like a much better option! :wink:

2 Likes

You’re gonna be fine. The only slightly tricky bit is the flirc case heatsink pad - I suggest you put it on the case side then drop the board down on it. Be careful taking off the plastic from one side first then mount it and remove the other side…it’s a bit sticky and rather soft and easily torn or damaged, just take it slow.

Here is a YT video but doesn’t show much getting the plastic off the pad but he puts in on the chip - I prefer the way I described it as it’s easier to place and won’t fall off.

3 Likes

Thank you for the assembly tip. That makes sense to install it the way you describe. The YouTube video makes it all look easy, and the heat testing reassures me that the case @Jim_F recommended is a good choice. I’d have preferred the black version, but I’m impatient and wasn’t willing to wait until mid May for it from Amazon.

Thank you!

1 Like

This should be mentioned to all new people who are running their Core on a Mac device, and especialy in your case since you referenced Time Machine in the pic.

Do not use Time Machine to back up your Roon library.
Should you ever need to Restore it probably won’t work.

Instead, use Settings==>Backups.

Apologies if I’m splaining things you already realize.

3 Likes

Thank you for the reminder @xxx . Many years ago, I would have relied on Time Machine as my sole backup. Since then, I have established a much more robust system. Time Machine is the quick and dirty backup for the iMac and both of our laptops. Limited backup is also done on Apple’s iCloud. I have a Drobo and do a daily bootable backup of all devices to it using Carbon Copy Cloner. And my entire iMac is backed up off-site using Backblaze and SugarSync. Overkill, but I’ve lost data in the past and vow never to do so again.

Roon is backed up on my Drobo via the settings menu as you’ve described.

3 Likes

Amazon says my parts are to arrive today instead of tomorrow. The Topping E30 DAC doesn’t arrive until Monday direct from China.

So, I can assemble the box and install the software onto the Micro SD card.

Questions:

  • Can I do the install without a DAC plugged into the RoPieee?
  • Can I do the do the Configuration step without a DAC plugged into the RoPieee?
  • The XL gives me Spotify and Airplay, but the guide doesn’t say how this is configured. Is it all pretty self explanatory once I flip the XL toggle in the Advanced Configuration?

I considered connecting the RoPieee directly to the digital input on my receiver, but it only has optical input (which is what I’m using currently with the MacBook Pro) so I gotta wait for the DAC on Monday. :frowning:

Thank you!

Yes, but Roon will not see it in Settings==>Audio until a DAC is connected.
The only thing you really need to be connected when installing Ropieee is the internet.

Yes. However, I think a Zone name is needed to set up a Remote Control. That would imply that Roon would have to know about the device which implies a DAC has to be connected. Not sure, never used Remote Control.

I think it’s all automagical, but I don’t use those options. So, dunno.

I run Ropieee thru an RPi with a Toslink HAT, but I guess that’s not your point.

You can’t do any harm by trying all this without a DAC. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like

Thank you, sir! And timely, as Amazon arrived minutes ago (assuming everything is there.) I’ll give this a go after lunch.

The OP can also logon with ropieee.local, since there is only have one Ropieee device.

1 Like

Dude, if I could do it (and it worked perfectly) anyone can. Congrats!

3 Likes

Well, that was easy! Less than 1/2 hour from assembling the box to finishing configuration. I didn’t run into any problems, and found @Nathan_Wilkes Beginner’s Guide covered all the questions I might have had. Thank Nathan and all of you who have offered suggestions and support!

I’m up to the point of configuring Roon, which I can’t do until the DAC arrives on Monday. It’s going to be a long five days!

Thanks again,
Steve

5 Likes

What other equipment do you have that makes noises…you might already have something that could be used as a DAC like an AVR, BluRay Player or DAP even.

1 Like