Nuts and Volts - August 2015

head brass wood screws which would hold it on. I countersunk the screws so the heads would be flush with the surface of the plastic.

The bottom is just a little more complex because in addition to the mounting screws (which were done identically to the top), I had to drill holes to mount the RPi. Four 4-40 by 1” machine screws, 1/8” spacers, and nuts were used to mount the RPi.

With all of the machining and staining completed, I mounted the RPi onto the bottom plastic piece, glued a color changing RGB LED power indicator into place, mounted the power switch, inserted the 2 GB microSD card I had prepared previously, and then screwed the bottom assembly onto the enclosure. I attached four cork adhesive pads to the bottom as feet to protect whatever surface the music player was set upon.

Wiring was performed according to the simple schematic shown in Figure 2. I super-glued the electrolytic capacitor to the bottom plastic (noting polarity) and wired up the power connections, including the modified USB cable used for power.

With the wiring completed, I plugged an audio cable into the USB sound module, connected up my USB power module, and then put the top into place and screwed it down. Assembly was now complete and the player was looking good.

Flipping on the power switch caused the rainbow power indicator to light, and I could see the RPi's power and activity indicators flashing through the translucent plastic, indicating the RPi was booting.

Using the Music Player

Booting the music player takes a couple of minutes. During that time, there will be numerous clicks and pops sent out the audio connection, so it is best to allow the player to boot completely before turning on or turning up your connected stereo system. I always wait until I can access the player with a web browser before turning on my stereo.

Once the player is up, you can access it by typing “musicbox.local” or by typing the IP address your home router assigned into your browser’s address bar. Once connected, you should see a screen like Figure 3. By clicking the Browse tab (Figure 4), you can navigate to either your local music collection, your networked music collection, select one of the many streaming sources, or TuneIn, for example.

From the web user interface, you can control volume and selection of what music you want to hear. You can also control if the music should be played in a loop, and whether songs should be played sequentially or in random order.

Music in the Back Country

My wife and I have a little retreat we often visit that has no cell phone service or Internet. It does, however, have electricity. We have a small stereo system that we hook an iPod to that provides music for us while we are visiting.

This has worked fine, but it is somewhat inconvenient in that we cannot control the music selection or volume from a different room. We have since replaced the iPod with this music player and it works great.