Raspberry Pi as musicPlayer (speech device with BigTalker)

@darincraven You’re going to get into some command line and config files when you setup services (such as file and print services). That said, you can install Webmin and then do most of your installation and configuration using the Webmin web-based interface which is where you’re going to get the somewhat point and click functionality.

Check this out to install Webmin: http://www.instructables.com/id/Adding-Webmin-to-manage-a-Raspberry-Pi/?ALLSTEPS

After you have Webmin installed, just search up more instructions for installing a file server using Webmin and then a print server using Webmin. There are tons of documentation, videos and forums on this, as well as setting up those services from command line. You will also likely want to look into instructions regarding securing the device and services.

Good luck with your project(s).

1 Like

Awesome, thanks for the suggestions. My new Pi is on the way now. I will start with the ST stuff and provide the feedback you requested.

Thanks again for putting this all in one spot!

1 Like

Thanks to @rayzurbock I am now the proud owner of a talking home automation system that offers endless other possibilities. I want to thank you again for putting this document together and for your help with my weird hub needing an update issue.

My next project is to buy bluetooth for my Pi and hook it up to my Echo. Then I am going to try to add file/print server capabilities, shove the Pi, printer and backup drive in a closet by my TV and enjoy my talking smart house.

So many possibilities and so little time. (dang job:)

1 Like

I am also trying to use bluetooth to connect my pi to echo. In the latest build of raspian (jessie) bluetooth has changed. I have not been able to successfully pair my pi to the echo and produce audio output.
If you figure this out please share your success.
Thanks,
Scott

I got this working but I get a error when I go and save the defaults with the store command. Rebooting the setting for Pcm output and playback are not set, I have to run the commands to set them and the it works

Thanks for tutorial. Working good now

1 Like

I have this up and running now. Pretty awesome.

1 Like

Any idea why the Raspberry Pi would all of a sudden show up as not present?

EDIT

It’s back

I found this to be kind of a pain when using with a BT speaker. I ended up plugging my BT speaker in via the 3.5mm jack it has to the RP3 and then running raspi-config and forcing output through its headphone jack. Now it works flawless. Its almost amusing to the point that I run around and trigger events just to hear the voice talk.

3 Likes

I followed all the instructions to set up the PI. Everything seemed to go ok. The test worked at the end.

I installed the smartapp and device handler. But I can’t seem to get the PI to show up in the smartapp. Is there something I need to do to install the device?

When you installed BigTalker there was an option to choose musicPlayer mode or speechSynthesis mode. VLCThing will only show up in musicPlayer mode. The option can’t be changed after install so you’ll need to click Remove in BigTalker to remove it then add it back from the Marketplace > MyApps

What I was talking about, in MediaRenderer it is supposed to discover devices. It never sees my RaspBerry PI.

Is there anyway to see in the Raspberry if the media renderer is running? I still can’t see it from MediaRenderer smart app. I have gone thru the instructions again and everything goes just like it should. I just can’t see it from ST.

From the PI command​ line execute “ps -A” that should list all running processes.

I see a bunch of stuff, but nothing labeled media renderer. Should I be looking for a different name?

I looked in the file structure to try and find the file that should be running, can’t quite figure out which one it is.

Any help would be appreciated.

to narrow it down a bit you can execute “ps -A | grep gme*” then look for gmediarender

@rayzurbock This sounds great, and I followed your awesome guide to the letter but am just getting “an unexpected error occurred” after the device discovery > selection of device then pressing done on the mediarenderer(connect) app. Any ideas?

I managed to work this out, it was my fault and in case anybody has the same issue you must install both the code from github (DLNA-PLAYER) for ‘MediaRenderer Connect’ in ‘My SmartApps’ and Device Type code in ‘My Device Handlers’.

It picked up the raspberry pi media renderer no problem, hope this helps.

Just a quick update after much testing on multiple spec’d raspberry pis, basically gstreamer isn’t stable enough even the new gstreamer-resurect package after x amounts of voice alerts crashes and the server disappears from smart things + windows network etc.

I am currently testing VLC thing with VLC media player, it looks to be more stable, a bit frustrating as it’s simple to setup or maybe I’m just being unlucky?

I can’t edit the original post anymore but BigTalker is now at 2.0.2.
See BigTalker 2.x community thread here
See BigTalker 2.x documentation here

1 Like