AirPlay with RaspberryPi

I spend a lot of time in my garage tinkering and like to listen to music while I'm out there.  Typically I used my iPhone with Rhapsody, but as you can image the sound is not so good.  I heard about a project of turning a RaspberryPi into an AirPlay device.  I thought this would be a great "add-on" to my RPi already in the garage for motioning and controlling my garagedoor opener. (see here for that project: https://github.com/smanders7/garagedooropener).   I use AirPlay a lot around my house mainly with Rhapsody.  I have been a Rhapsody subscriber for many, many years.  I use it with an Airport Express on my main receiver in my Family Room.  I occasionally use AirPlay to stream music/video to a couple of Apple TVs too.  I also have a squeezebox there in case I don't want my Phone to be used as the source.  

Quick Analysis:

• RPi audio out is PWM which is not very good quality...at all.
• But its in my garage, does it matter?
• I have an extra set of Bookshelf speakers in a closet, could I reuse those?
• Would need an external AMP
• This looks cool http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-383
• 50 Watts by 2 for a total of 100W
• Plenty of power, probably overkill, still an investment at $90.
• I have a nice USB DAC with Burr Brown chips call TotalBit Head that is lightly used.  Could I repurpose it.  Would standard sound drivers on RPi be enough?
• Is it quick to get working?
• I have a set of older computer speakers that are technically amplified

Decision for now:

Get AirPlay working with existing sound on RPi and with Computer Speakers to get proof-of-concept working.  Also see how much I use it before investing time and maybe money.

Status:

Last night I was able to get the AirPlay software all running with the PC speakers connected.  I'm a little surprised I have to really crank up the Speaker Volume high to get any significant sound.  The volume on the iPhone is all the way up.  Anyway, we will see how it goes.  BTW, I used this guide to get it going, but I skipped the 3rd DAC part.

http://lifehacker.com/5978594/turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-an-airplay-receiver-for-streaming-music-in-your-living-room

and here:

http://audioplastic.org/blog/2013/01/10/AP1/

Areas of discussion...

Here's a list of projects I have done in the past, let me know if there are any you would like to see more details on...

• Home network/infrastructure and planning
• Equipment
• Basic Home Automation
• Garagedoor Status and Control via RaspberryPi and iPhone
• Alarm System Basics (ADT Pulse)
• X10 along with iPhone Control
• Fully wiring a home post construction
• Cars
• 2015 Nissan GT-R Premium
• Replaced Tires with Michelin Pilot Super Sport
• Front 285/35ZR-20
• Rear  295/35ZR-20
• Otherwise Stock
• SOLD - 2008 Mitsubishi Evolution MR
• Evo X
• Bolt-ons
• ECU Modifications
• Tuning (Boost, Timing, Fuel Mix)
• 3rd Party ECU Firmware
• SOLD - 2003 Mitsubishi Evolution GSR
• Evo 8
• SOLD - 2000 Honda S2000
• SOLD - 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse GS-T
• Working on Cars in general
• CarComputer with ignition integration
• HPDE (High Performance Driver Education)
• Autocross
• Workbench/Tools/Organization/Garages
• Financial
• Trading Futures
• Automated Trading
• Tradestation
• Probabilities Trading Integrated with Mechanical Trading
• Sports
• Table Tennis
• Equipment
• Technique
• Mountain Biking
• Just getting back into it
• Really enjoying it
• Golf
• Equipment
• Raleigh area courses
• Racquetball
• Equipment
• Tennis
• Tough on the body/back
• Only have so much time so pulling back from tennis at the moment
• Music
• Trombone
• Playing in Raleigh Civic Symphony
• Equipment
• Playing Piano
• Tuning Pianos
• RC
• Cars
• 1/8 Electric Buggies
• SCT 4x4
• Crawlers
• Micros
• Rally
• Bashers
• Transmitters
• Chargers/Batteries
• Racing/Local Tracks
• Planes/Helicopters
• Trainer Plane
• Transmitters
• Micro Helicopters
• Simulators
• Home Audio/Video
• My Setups

Fully wiring a multi-level home post construction

...is not easy but can be done.

Our home was built in 1995.  It was long before structured wiring was the norm.  I pulled the wire in my last house, which was built in 1961 and I really enjoyed the results.  So I thought "How bad could it be".  But I quickly starting having questions that I was not able to answer.  The last house was a ranch with a crawlspace...very easy.  However, this house is 3 stories with the 3rd story partially finished.  I needed to find a channel that I could pass all the cabling from the second story.  I ended up hiring some home theater installers to help me pull (2) Cat5e and (2) Coax to every room in the house to a large hole in the wall in the front hall closet where I finished off everything in a panel.  We also pulled all new wiring for an old intercom system that I upgraded.  We also added 3 new intercom locations in the process.  All-in-all the project went well.  We were able to pull all the wiring in about 12 hours.  I was paying them by the hour.  I was able to get everything up and running now and I recently upgraded the punch down from 12 Ethernet ports to 24 Ethernet ports.

If you have any questions about the process and any decisions we had to make, let me know.

Why not...

Sometime ago I helped my wife setup a blog.  So I decided started my own to capture all my little projects.  I like cars, big and small.  I play racquetball, table tennis, golf, and other sports.  I also play Trombone with the Raleigh Civic Symphony.  I'm also quite an electronics addict.  I usually have several projects all going at once.  I'll first discuss my house setup in my next post.