SlimPi

ePaper based Logitech Media Player Display

For complete build instructions and links to a spiffy case, head over to the Project Log at Hackaday.io.

SlimPi provides a Logitech Media Player display using a WaveShare e-Paper display and a Raspberry Pi.

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Features

SlimPi provides a now playing display for a selected Logitech Media Player. When the player is paused, an alternative screen is displayed.

Display includes:

Track Title
Artist Name
Album Name
Album Artwork (if available)
Now Playing Mode: e.g. play, stop, pause

When the music is paused, the display shows an alternative screen.

Word Clock (default)

Clock

Binary Clock

The refresh rate of HAT compatable waveshare displays is relatively slow (5-20 seconds) and does not support partial refreshes. This results in the display pulsing between an all-white and all-black state several times during each refresh.

To limit the visual disturbance of a pulsing screen, the default clock is the Word Clock with a refresh rate of around 5 minutes.

Software Quick Install

If you have a working EPD installed, the following instructions will get you up and runing quickly. If you do not yet have a working screen installed, check the Hardware Setup instructions below.

Download the installable package from git hub
Decompress the tarball: tar xvzf slimpi_latest.tgz\
Make sure SPI is enabled on the Raspberry Pi
Run the installer:
- install.sh for a daemon that starts automatically at boot, or see below for running in user space
- user_install.sh to setup the user space configuration files
Edit the appropriate configuation file: /etc/slimpi.cfg for daemon or ~/.config/com.txoof.slimpi/slimpi.cfg for user space
- Required settings that must be configured:
  - display = waveShareEPDType
  - example: display = epd5in83
    - The display type should match the model number of your HAT compatable e-Paper display
  - player_name = "Name Of LMS Player on Local Network"
  - example: player_name = slimpi
    - The player name can be found by running slimpi --list-servers:
```
slimpi --list-servers

Scanning for available LMS Server and players
servers found:
[{'host': '192.168.178.9', 'port': 9000}]

players found:
name: Chilab'le <---player_name
playerid: 00:04:20:07:e6:44
modelname: Squeezebox Classic


players found:
name: slimpi <---player_name
playerid: dc:a6:32:29:99:f0
modelname: SqueezeLite   
```

Requirements

Required Hardware

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B
- RPI 3 Model A should work as well, but is untested
WaveShare e-Paper display with e-Paper HAT
- Any waveshare display should work
- Supported WaveShare ePaper Displays

Optional Hardware

HiFiBerry hat (optional)
- The HiFiBerry DAC+ PRO and similar boards add high-quality audio output to the Pi so it can act as a display and also work as a LMS client player using squeezelite
- GPIO 2x20 headers must be added to the board to support WaveShare HAT
- HiFiBerry's DAC+ Bundle with the following configuraiton is a good choice:
  - DAC+ Pro
  - Acrylic Case for (RCA) AND DIGI+
  - Raspberry Pi 4B 2GB (1GB should be sufficient as well)
  - 16GB SD Card
  - PowerSupply (USB C 5.1V/3A)
  - 2x20 Pin Male Header (required for WaveShare HAT)

Required Raspberry Pi Configuration:

Enable SPI

$ sudo raspi-config

Select Interfacing Options > SPI and set to Yes

Required Software

Logitech Media Server running on local network
- An LMS instance can be run on the Raspberry Pi - Home Hack - Creating a Raspberry Pi Squeezebox server

Optional Software

squeezelite (optional)
- Squeezelite, in combination with a HiFiBerry, allows the Pi to be usded as LMS display and client player
Note: to make squeezelite play nice with other applications such as raspotify (librespot), add the following line to /etc/default/squeezelite:

SB_EXTRA_ARGS="-C 10"

This will allow squeezelite to close the output device after 10 seconds allowing other audio software to access it.

%alias mdconvert mdconvert README.ipynb
%mdconvert

[NbConvertApp] Converting notebook README.ipynb to markdown

tmmorin/slimpi_epd