This video and it's prior companion have earned you my subscription. Excellent work. I seems you have left no stone unturned. I want to build my own diy whole house system and this is just what I needed to see.
Glad you found these videos helpful... there is a third one, but it is really about adding a touch interface and creating a local SiriusXM streaming server. A few others have shared their builds based on these videos and I'm currently in the planning stages of building another one... call it v2.0... where I'm going to make some additional improvements and changes. Not sure when I'll actually get around to building it though. Thanks for watching.... and the sub. Welcome to the channel!
If you found ResinChem Tech’s presentation a bit of work then don’t get too concerned. I feel somewhat responsible for the ideas that lead to some of this work. What I feel needs mentioning is you can use this very same amp pretty much out of the box. Add PS and Speakers and if you have home assistant most NOOBS like me can get it up and running quickly. SO you can use the amp and then add all the cool stuff as shown here. All of our use cases will be different and yes I did use the phone app once but you don’t need it if you connect to Ethernet and discover IP/Mac, make a reservation in router and use the DNLA until you are ready to get down in to it like he has here. Another great production by ResinChem Tech!!!
What he fails to mention, is that not only was he the inspiration for this video, but was also kind enough to supply me with the amp (no Arylic did not sponsor nor supply anything for this video)! So, thanks to @BELSERVICEMAN for making the video possible. And he is correct, that it can be a fine amp "as-is" using the mobile app and/or the built-in web interface.... or just the default DLNA/Home Assistant media player controls. My take was to see "what else" the amp could do... and what could (or maybe could not) be done without the mobile app or any sort of cloud account... and to see if I could "enhance" the properties, including the Home Assistant integration. But he is correct that many of the amp's features, such as all the various input sources, can be used without any of the add-ons I show in this video if you just want a 'plug-and-play' amplifier.
You are welcome! This is one of those projects that I didn't know how much I'd actually use it after the build was done. But I love it and it gets used almost daily... especially after I added SiriusXM streaming to the amp (which I cover in an update video). Thank you for watching and taking the time to leave a comment. I greatly appreciate it!
Thanks for sharing, very well done and useful. I might try this in the near future. I just finished hooking up a small speaker to the RaspiAudio MUSE Proto board running squeezelite. There is also ESPHome firmware available. So many options out there. I have had 2 piCorePlayers running for about 4 years now and all communicate with the LMS (LogitechMediaServer) all which is full open source. Just an amazing project.
Thanks! For me, the amp became really useful when I created my own SiriusXM streaming server which I can use to stream directly to the amp. This really rounded out the features for me. What started out as something I agreed to just "take a look at' on behalf of a subscriber has become a device I use nearly every day. Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave a comment!
As I think I mentioned in a different video, the amp was donated by one of my subscribers and I really didn't know what I was going to do with it. But once I dug into the features, it ended up being one of my all time favorite builds. And it sits right on my main desk and gets used almost daily. For me, adding a local SiriusXM streaming server (covered in a different video) was the cherry on top that really rounded out the amp for me and my use case. A couple of others have taken my version and added additional features such as an NFC tag reader to launch playlists. The amp definitely has a lot of features and option for the money.
Agreed! I use them for nearly all my projects in some form. Custom PCBs would be nice in some cases, but since many of my projects are "one-offs", a custom PCB seems like overkill for a single use. But the ElectroCookie boards (both full size and mini) are great for these single build projects. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!
Love this, I've been wanting to refurb some old bakerlite radios eg "bush dac90" to something smart. this project would be perfect. for something like this. Great work and video.
Great! I figured this wouldn't be one of those projects that someone would try to exactly duplicate, but I hoped that it might inspire some ideas for related projects similar to yours. For me, it allowed me to dust off some old (yet good quality) speakers and provide much improved sound over the old PC/bluetooth speakers I used before. Thanks for watching. Let me know how your project turns out if you decide to pursue it.
I would be interested too! I looked up the Bush DAC90a and if the speaker is good or you can swap it out then you could easily fit an amp in there and have many modern capabilities. If you are going Mono then there might be a less expensive board than the one shown in the video. This board produces enough power I get concerned the neighbors might not like my music. Also I ran my amp for 6 months without any hardware extras at all. This means you can preserve the enclosure of the Bush. Good Luck!
@@ResinChemTech i will do! sure like most of us we all have a back log of projects to do, I still need to implement the TOF sensors on my stairs like yours!
@@BELSERVICEMAN thanks yea such a beautiful design, I want to try and keep the enclosure as original as possible. I was looking at dual voice coil celling speakers to use but its finding one small enough. Its a project i will defiantly do at some point.
@@paulhyland3528 Well so then you will be interested in how the status light or Mode LED could indicate perhaps through the AM/FM back light if there was one. Good luck with the stairs, love that project too but don’t have the correct stairs for it.
Yeah... I agree. But as I mentioned in the first video, you can't use any "real" music without the fear of a copyright strike. And to be honest, I'm not sure my mic/recording equipment could have done it justice. I'm not a true audiophile with all the measuring equipment, but the sound quality seems exceptionally good to my untrained ear. But thanks for watching! It is much appreciated.
Great stuff :-) I've just used the weekend to test a Arylic Up2Stream Pro V4 (without amp) with a Wemos ESP32-S2 mini (clone) with your set-up guide and code. Everything so far seems to work flawless - I just had to change the pins in the Settings and replace all "Serial2" with "Serial1" in the main code. So far OTA, mqtt, display, LED, rotary encoder and a little Home Assistant test works perfect :-) I'm no expert in this - I normally use ESPHome - but thanks for your great videos and easy to follow blogpost it went pretty smooth. My plan is to add 3-4 buttons for quick access to my favorite radio stations, and maybe replace the OLED display with a TFT display.. I have a few other Arylic products , this is going to replace my Up2Stream V3 (which don't have LAN or RX/TX pins exposed) on my desk. Thanks from Denmark :-)
You are welcome! As I mentioned, the amp was donated by a viewer and I honestly didn't think I'd have a use for it... but after building this, it gets used almost everyday and I love having it at my main work desk. Next, I'll be attempting to create a local HTTP streaming box for Sirius XM (they provide an API written for Python), then either repurposing on one of the buttons or maybe adding an NFC tag reader or maybe an TFT touch screen to allow me to select from my favorite Sirius channels and stream via my own local server instead of using bluetooth from my phone (or the browser on the PC). Glad you found the video and code helpful. I also use ESPHome a fair amount, but there are times when you just have to write your own code for some more advanced features... and the more I work with Arduino/C++ code, the more I'm starting to like it. Thanks for watching and taking time to share your project!
@@ResinChemTech Sounds great :-) I hope you will do a implementation of an RFID reader . I've over 100 RFID cards with album covers of some of my music. I've made my own 3D printed case with an OLED (Showing artist, album, track / radio station - Or a clock when player is idle), 2 buttons (next/prev - pause/play on long press), a D1 mini and a PN532 RFID module (ESPhome / Home Assistant).
Just a quick update... just as of today, I got the Sirius XM streaming box running.. and now I can stream directly to the amp. I've already added service calls in Home Assistant to play a given station. No phone, app or web browser needed! But now that I can make service calls in Home Assistant, adding an RFID reader would be very easy. Haven't decided on RFID or a touch interface with icons for my favorite Sirius stations.. kinda' like I have in the car. But either option would work independent of the amp... it doesn't need to interface directly... which is kind of nice.
I don't know if you are aware or not, but I am 99% sure you can use the Linkplay-based speakers and devices HACS integration to have multiroom sync and some more advanced tts.
Thanks. For this particular video, the amp used was donated by one of my subscribers and my goal was to see how far I could get... and what all I could accomplish locally, without using the vendor's cloud service or setting up an account. So it wasn't necessarily meant to be the best possible system, but the best I could make out of the donated Arylic amp. The Arylic amps have multi-room sync capabilities as well, but since I just had the one, that wasn't something that I really investigated. But I appreciate the recommendation and that you took the time to post it. And it could be helpful to someone looking for multiroom sync.
@@ResinChemTech I am not sure I articulated exactly what I was trying to say with my last post. The arylic boards are using the linkplay chips so you can use the arylic boards with the "Linkplay-based speakers and devices HACS integration" in Home assistant along with all of the cool things you did locally integrating it with MQTT and home assistant. You don't need the app to make the HACS integration work either. I absolutely love watching all of the projects that you do and the give me great ideas of things that I can do around my house.
No... it was my misunderstanding. I hadn't heard of it before, but went out to HACS and took a look. Wow! I guess I could have saved myself a lot of work, but to be honest, this was one of my most enjoyable projects (in a later video I extended this to add a standalone touch interface and my own local SiriusXM streamer). The project for me was a lot of fun because I got to tinker with the electronics and also write some custom code for the ESP32. But I wasn't aware of the Linkplay A31 chip (which is a bit strange because I did a lot of research and digging on that board at the time). Thanks for passing that along. I've often thought about picking up a second board at some point and I think I'd definitely give the HACS component a shot... if for no other reason just to see how it compares. Thanks again for sharing the info. And again, I'm sorry I misunderstood your original post.
this is exactly where i was looking for. I was thinking to build a bluetooth speaker, but not only with bluetooth, but also with Wi-Fi and DAB+, all controller by 1 display showing what is actually going on, even showing title info from bluetooth, RDS info from DAB+ radio stations. i wonder if i can change that little display to something bigger, like a 3,5 or 5 inch screen ??
i also want to use the rotary knob as a menu scroller, when using DAB+ or Wi-Fi internet Radio, to scroll trhough the stations / streams it has inside. i also want to add a 18650 batterypack for mobile use.
Do note that this particular amp board does have wifi (and Ethernet) and I think it might be possible to add an FM receiver. As far as the display, I did add a larger (albeit external) touch display, along with adding SiriusXM streaming via my own local streaming server in a follow-up video: ua-cam.com/video/VQ3LSnCgpeE/v-deo.html Another subscriber did take my base design and integrated a larger TFT touch screen into the base design. The basic amp board has a lot of flexibility and while I designed mine for my particular use case, there are many other ways to implement it. I'm not sure about battery power and how long a battery might hold up. I haven't tried to measure the watts used by the amp when it is powered up, but I do suspect it is drawing a fair amount. Good luck with your project!
I don't know a lot about the pre-amp board. But it looks like it also has an expansion port. If this port supports UART for commands and data, then it should be possible to adapt what I've done. I'm simply using the ESP32 as a "translator" between the UART on the amp and MQTT. This allows me to send commands via MQTT and the ESP32 will convert those to the proper command and send it over to the amp. Conversely, the amp provides data via UART that the ESP32 can then either take action on.. or publish MQTT commands for use outside the system. I'd say try to find the spec sheet on the preamp and see if any of the ports provide RX/TX UART capability. If so, then my code could probably be adapted... as I would suspect some of the UART commands would need to be changed for the pre-amp vs. my amp version.
Thanks for the wonderful tutorial, i used it to build one for my self. One question though, do you know if it's possible to make the fan go off when the amp is in standby?
Yeah... I kinda' wish the same thing with the fan. But the 5V pins on the amp stay hot as long as the amp is plugged in. You could power the fan via a 3.3v GPIO pin on the ESP32 and have the ability to shut it off via automation when the amp goes into standby... but the fan would run a bit slower. To be honest, I'm not really sure the fan is necessary. Initially I believed the amp was shutting itself down due to overheating, when the fact was that it was receiving rogue IR signals from my Harmony hub that actually included the standby signal so it would just randomly go into standby. Once I disabled the onboard IR receiver, that issue went away. I also had some situations during initial testing where the heat sink on the amp got really hot... almost too hot to touch. That ended up being the result of connecting the USB port to a powered hub from the computer... in effect feeding it voltage from both the normal power supply and from the 5V USB (luckily I didn't damage the amp). Once I switched to a non-powered hub, that issue was resolved as well. So, if you want the fan to shut off, you can power via an ESP32 GPIO pin (the fan is rated for 120mA, so I haven't done any calculations on that in terms of the total draw of the ESP) or you might actually be fine with just a ventilation opening over the heat sink and no fan at all. Congrats on building the amp... I love mine, and with the addition of the local SiriusXM streaming and separate touch screen (which I covered in a separate follow up video), mine gets used nearly every day when I'm working at my desk. Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any other questions.
@@ResinChemTech Hello, i have another question. I've noticed that when i wake the amp from standby, after a day or so, home assistant shows the the DNLA device as unavailable. It becomes available after i restart home assistant. Have you noticed this behavior and if so, do you know how can it be fixed without the restart ?
I actually haven't seen that... but I rarely use the amp via DLNA as I primarily stream from my local Sirius XM server or occasionally via Bluetooth. I just checked it and mine was still showing as available in Home Assistant and I was able to play music from my DLNA server without problem. But that certainly doesn't mean that it doesn't drop off from time to time. I will keep an eye on it and if I see it happening, try to troubleshoot it. I could see Home Assistant marking it as unavailable when the amp has been in standby mode for a while, but it seems like it should become active and available again once the amp wakes up.
Is there a cheaper and/or simpler way than this ESP32 to get an open-source 50Wx2 stereo amp into home assistant for multi-zone control? Not that $7/each is that bad, but if I did 12 of these for 12 zones in the house instead of a 6-zone soundavo ws66i and another 6-zone soundavo extender, that's getting close to $100 with tax/ship for the ESP32s alone. I'm planning to leave all of them in the basement or another remote area with exclusive control via a home assistant app, no IR or buttons or screen necessary.
That's really going to depend on the amp and what sort of API it provides... and whether Home Assistant can 'speak' to the API. In my case, the amp did offer some basic control via HTTP that I could have used directly in Home Assistant, but that control was limited and only one-way... no feedback from the amp. Primary control and feedback from the amp was via a UART/serial connection... and that's where the ESP32 came into play... as a "translator" to send commands and receive data from the amp, then to send that over to Home Assistant via wifi/MQTT. If all you need is UART/MQTT (and as you mentioned, no buttons, screen, etc.) you could substitute a Wemos D1 Mini (ESP8266) for the ESP32, which would knock the cost down to around $1.80 apiece or less, depending on where and what quantity you buy. Naturally, the code would also have to be modified to work with the ESP8266 instead of the ESP32. Good luck... but your options are really determined by what the amp offers in terms of an API/interface.
A great addition to a previous project, yet again, something else to "catch" my eye, love the gadgets and the DIY! Great work on this project.
Thanks! I appreciate it.
This video and it's prior companion have earned you my subscription. Excellent work. I seems you have left no stone unturned. I want to build my own diy whole house system and this is just what I needed to see.
Glad you found these videos helpful... there is a third one, but it is really about adding a touch interface and creating a local SiriusXM streaming server. A few others have shared their builds based on these videos and I'm currently in the planning stages of building another one... call it v2.0... where I'm going to make some additional improvements and changes. Not sure when I'll actually get around to building it though.
Thanks for watching.... and the sub. Welcome to the channel!
If you found ResinChem Tech’s presentation a bit of work then don’t get too concerned. I feel somewhat responsible for the ideas that lead to some of this work. What I feel needs mentioning is you can use this very same amp pretty much out of the box. Add PS and Speakers and if you have home assistant most NOOBS like me can get it up and running quickly. SO you can use the amp and then add all the cool stuff as shown here. All of our use cases will be different and yes I did use the phone app once but you don’t need it if you connect to Ethernet and discover IP/Mac, make a reservation in router and use the DNLA until you are ready to get down in to it like he has here.
Another great production by ResinChem Tech!!!
What he fails to mention, is that not only was he the inspiration for this video, but was also kind enough to supply me with the amp (no Arylic did not sponsor nor supply anything for this video)! So, thanks to @BELSERVICEMAN for making the video possible. And he is correct, that it can be a fine amp "as-is" using the mobile app and/or the built-in web interface.... or just the default DLNA/Home Assistant media player controls.
My take was to see "what else" the amp could do... and what could (or maybe could not) be done without the mobile app or any sort of cloud account... and to see if I could "enhance" the properties, including the Home Assistant integration. But he is correct that many of the amp's features, such as all the various input sources, can be used without any of the add-ons I show in this video if you just want a 'plug-and-play' amplifier.
Awesome project, thanks for your job sharing this to the whole community 🍻
You are welcome! This is one of those projects that I didn't know how much I'd actually use it after the build was done. But I love it and it gets used almost daily... especially after I added SiriusXM streaming to the amp (which I cover in an update video).
Thank you for watching and taking the time to leave a comment. I greatly appreciate it!
Another great project!!! Nice work!!
Thank you! This one probably has a little narrower audience focus, but maybe it will inspire other ideas for some.
Thanks for watching!
Thanks for sharing, very well done and useful. I might try this in the near future. I just finished hooking up a small speaker to the RaspiAudio MUSE Proto board running squeezelite. There is also ESPHome firmware available. So many options out there. I have had 2 piCorePlayers running for about 4 years now and all communicate with the LMS (LogitechMediaServer) all which is full open source. Just an amazing project.
Thanks! For me, the amp became really useful when I created my own SiriusXM streaming server which I can use to stream directly to the amp. This really rounded out the features for me. What started out as something I agreed to just "take a look at' on behalf of a subscriber has become a device I use nearly every day.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to leave a comment!
You killed it! thanks, going to have to try this out.
As I think I mentioned in a different video, the amp was donated by one of my subscribers and I really didn't know what I was going to do with it. But once I dug into the features, it ended up being one of my all time favorite builds. And it sits right on my main desk and gets used almost daily. For me, adding a local SiriusXM streaming server (covered in a different video) was the cherry on top that really rounded out the amp for me and my use case.
A couple of others have taken my version and added additional features such as an NFC tag reader to launch playlists. The amp definitely has a lot of features and option for the money.
Great project. Those ElectroCookie boards are great !
Agreed! I use them for nearly all my projects in some form. Custom PCBs would be nice in some cases, but since many of my projects are "one-offs", a custom PCB seems like overkill for a single use. But the ElectroCookie boards (both full size and mini) are great for these single build projects.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!
Love this, I've been wanting to refurb some old bakerlite radios eg "bush dac90" to something smart. this project would be perfect. for something like this. Great work and video.
Great! I figured this wouldn't be one of those projects that someone would try to exactly duplicate, but I hoped that it might inspire some ideas for related projects similar to yours. For me, it allowed me to dust off some old (yet good quality) speakers and provide much improved sound over the old PC/bluetooth speakers I used before.
Thanks for watching. Let me know how your project turns out if you decide to pursue it.
I would be interested too! I looked up the Bush DAC90a and if the speaker is good or you can swap it out then you could easily fit an amp in there and have many modern capabilities. If you are going Mono then there might be a less expensive board than the one shown in the video. This board produces enough power I get concerned the neighbors might not like my music. Also I ran my amp for 6 months without any hardware extras at all. This means you can preserve the enclosure of the Bush. Good Luck!
@@ResinChemTech i will do! sure like most of us we all have a back log of projects to do, I still need to implement the TOF sensors on my stairs like yours!
@@BELSERVICEMAN thanks yea such a beautiful design, I want to try and keep the enclosure as original as possible. I was looking at dual voice coil celling speakers to use but its finding one small enough. Its a project i will defiantly do at some point.
@@paulhyland3528 Well so then you will be interested in how the status light or Mode LED could indicate perhaps through the AM/FM back light if there was one. Good luck with the stairs, love that project too but don’t have the correct stairs for it.
Great build, would have been nice to hear it...🤷♂️
Yeah... I agree. But as I mentioned in the first video, you can't use any "real" music without the fear of a copyright strike. And to be honest, I'm not sure my mic/recording equipment could have done it justice. I'm not a true audiophile with all the measuring equipment, but the sound quality seems exceptionally good to my untrained ear.
But thanks for watching! It is much appreciated.
Great stuff :-)
I've just used the weekend to test a Arylic Up2Stream Pro V4 (without amp) with a Wemos ESP32-S2 mini (clone) with your set-up guide and code. Everything so far seems to work flawless - I just had to change the pins in the Settings and replace all "Serial2" with "Serial1" in the main code.
So far OTA, mqtt, display, LED, rotary encoder and a little Home Assistant test works perfect :-)
I'm no expert in this - I normally use ESPHome - but thanks for your great videos and easy to follow blogpost it went pretty smooth.
My plan is to add 3-4 buttons for quick access to my favorite radio stations, and maybe replace the OLED display with a TFT display..
I have a few other Arylic products , this is going to replace my Up2Stream V3 (which don't have LAN or RX/TX pins exposed) on my desk.
Thanks from Denmark :-)
You are welcome! As I mentioned, the amp was donated by a viewer and I honestly didn't think I'd have a use for it... but after building this, it gets used almost everyday and I love having it at my main work desk.
Next, I'll be attempting to create a local HTTP streaming box for Sirius XM (they provide an API written for Python), then either repurposing on one of the buttons or maybe adding an NFC tag reader or maybe an TFT touch screen to allow me to select from my favorite Sirius channels and stream via my own local server instead of using bluetooth from my phone (or the browser on the PC).
Glad you found the video and code helpful. I also use ESPHome a fair amount, but there are times when you just have to write your own code for some more advanced features... and the more I work with Arduino/C++ code, the more I'm starting to like it.
Thanks for watching and taking time to share your project!
@@ResinChemTech Sounds great :-) I hope you will do a implementation of an RFID reader . I've over 100 RFID cards with album covers of some of my music. I've made my own 3D printed case with an OLED (Showing artist, album, track / radio station - Or a clock when player is idle), 2 buttons (next/prev - pause/play on long press), a D1 mini and a PN532 RFID module (ESPhome / Home Assistant).
Just a quick update... just as of today, I got the Sirius XM streaming box running.. and now I can stream directly to the amp. I've already added service calls in Home Assistant to play a given station. No phone, app or web browser needed! But now that I can make service calls in Home Assistant, adding an RFID reader would be very easy. Haven't decided on RFID or a touch interface with icons for my favorite Sirius stations.. kinda' like I have in the car. But either option would work independent of the amp... it doesn't need to interface directly... which is kind of nice.
I don't know if you are aware or not, but I am 99% sure you can use the Linkplay-based speakers and devices HACS integration to have multiroom sync and some more advanced tts.
Thanks. For this particular video, the amp used was donated by one of my subscribers and my goal was to see how far I could get... and what all I could accomplish locally, without using the vendor's cloud service or setting up an account.
So it wasn't necessarily meant to be the best possible system, but the best I could make out of the donated Arylic amp. The Arylic amps have multi-room sync capabilities as well, but since I just had the one, that wasn't something that I really investigated.
But I appreciate the recommendation and that you took the time to post it. And it could be helpful to someone looking for multiroom sync.
@@ResinChemTech I am not sure I articulated exactly what I was trying to say with my last post. The arylic boards are using the linkplay chips so you can use the arylic boards with the "Linkplay-based speakers and devices HACS integration" in Home assistant along with all of the cool things you did locally integrating it with MQTT and home assistant. You don't need the app to make the HACS integration work either. I absolutely love watching all of the projects that you do and the give me great ideas of things that I can do around my house.
No... it was my misunderstanding. I hadn't heard of it before, but went out to HACS and took a look. Wow! I guess I could have saved myself a lot of work, but to be honest, this was one of my most enjoyable projects (in a later video I extended this to add a standalone touch interface and my own local SiriusXM streamer). The project for me was a lot of fun because I got to tinker with the electronics and also write some custom code for the ESP32. But I wasn't aware of the Linkplay A31 chip (which is a bit strange because I did a lot of research and digging on that board at the time). Thanks for passing that along. I've often thought about picking up a second board at some point and I think I'd definitely give the HACS component a shot... if for no other reason just to see how it compares.
Thanks again for sharing the info. And again, I'm sorry I misunderstood your original post.
this is exactly where i was looking for. I was thinking to build a bluetooth speaker, but not only with bluetooth, but also with Wi-Fi and DAB+, all controller by 1 display showing what is actually going on, even showing title info from bluetooth, RDS info from DAB+ radio stations. i wonder if i can change that little display to something bigger, like a 3,5 or 5 inch screen ??
i also want to use the rotary knob as a menu scroller, when using DAB+ or Wi-Fi internet Radio, to scroll trhough the stations / streams it has inside. i also want to add a 18650 batterypack for mobile use.
Do note that this particular amp board does have wifi (and Ethernet) and I think it might be possible to add an FM receiver. As far as the display, I did add a larger (albeit external) touch display, along with adding SiriusXM streaming via my own local streaming server in a follow-up video: ua-cam.com/video/VQ3LSnCgpeE/v-deo.html
Another subscriber did take my base design and integrated a larger TFT touch screen into the base design. The basic amp board has a lot of flexibility and while I designed mine for my particular use case, there are many other ways to implement it. I'm not sure about battery power and how long a battery might hold up. I haven't tried to measure the watts used by the amp when it is powered up, but I do suspect it is drawing a fair amount. Good luck with your project!
Hi I love this project. I already have an excellent amp, my question is can I use this with the arylic peamp only?
I don't know a lot about the pre-amp board. But it looks like it also has an expansion port. If this port supports UART for commands and data, then it should be possible to adapt what I've done. I'm simply using the ESP32 as a "translator" between the UART on the amp and MQTT. This allows me to send commands via MQTT and the ESP32 will convert those to the proper command and send it over to the amp. Conversely, the amp provides data via UART that the ESP32 can then either take action on.. or publish MQTT commands for use outside the system.
I'd say try to find the spec sheet on the preamp and see if any of the ports provide RX/TX UART capability. If so, then my code could probably be adapted... as I would suspect some of the UART commands would need to be changed for the pre-amp vs. my amp version.
Thanks for the wonderful tutorial, i used it to build one for my self.
One question though, do you know if it's possible to make the fan go off when the amp is in standby?
Yeah... I kinda' wish the same thing with the fan. But the 5V pins on the amp stay hot as long as the amp is plugged in. You could power the fan via a 3.3v GPIO pin on the ESP32 and have the ability to shut it off via automation when the amp goes into standby... but the fan would run a bit slower.
To be honest, I'm not really sure the fan is necessary. Initially I believed the amp was shutting itself down due to overheating, when the fact was that it was receiving rogue IR signals from my Harmony hub that actually included the standby signal so it would just randomly go into standby. Once I disabled the onboard IR receiver, that issue went away. I also had some situations during initial testing where the heat sink on the amp got really hot... almost too hot to touch. That ended up being the result of connecting the USB port to a powered hub from the computer... in effect feeding it voltage from both the normal power supply and from the 5V USB (luckily I didn't damage the amp). Once I switched to a non-powered hub, that issue was resolved as well.
So, if you want the fan to shut off, you can power via an ESP32 GPIO pin (the fan is rated for 120mA, so I haven't done any calculations on that in terms of the total draw of the ESP) or you might actually be fine with just a ventilation opening over the heat sink and no fan at all.
Congrats on building the amp... I love mine, and with the addition of the local SiriusXM streaming and separate touch screen (which I covered in a separate follow up video), mine gets used nearly every day when I'm working at my desk. Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any other questions.
@@ResinChemTech
Hello, i have another question.
I've noticed that when i wake the amp from standby, after a day or so, home assistant shows the the DNLA device as unavailable.
It becomes available after i restart home assistant.
Have you noticed this behavior and if so, do you know how can it be fixed without the restart ?
I actually haven't seen that... but I rarely use the amp via DLNA as I primarily stream from my local Sirius XM server or occasionally via Bluetooth. I just checked it and mine was still showing as available in Home Assistant and I was able to play music from my DLNA server without problem. But that certainly doesn't mean that it doesn't drop off from time to time. I will keep an eye on it and if I see it happening, try to troubleshoot it. I could see Home Assistant marking it as unavailable when the amp has been in standby mode for a while, but it seems like it should become active and available again once the amp wakes up.
Is there a cheaper and/or simpler way than this ESP32 to get an open-source 50Wx2 stereo amp into home assistant for multi-zone control? Not that $7/each is that bad, but if I did 12 of these for 12 zones in the house instead of a 6-zone soundavo ws66i and another 6-zone soundavo extender, that's getting close to $100 with tax/ship for the ESP32s alone. I'm planning to leave all of them in the basement or another remote area with exclusive control via a home assistant app, no IR or buttons or screen necessary.
That's really going to depend on the amp and what sort of API it provides... and whether Home Assistant can 'speak' to the API. In my case, the amp did offer some basic control via HTTP that I could have used directly in Home Assistant, but that control was limited and only one-way... no feedback from the amp. Primary control and feedback from the amp was via a UART/serial connection... and that's where the ESP32 came into play... as a "translator" to send commands and receive data from the amp, then to send that over to Home Assistant via wifi/MQTT.
If all you need is UART/MQTT (and as you mentioned, no buttons, screen, etc.) you could substitute a Wemos D1 Mini (ESP8266) for the ESP32, which would knock the cost down to around $1.80 apiece or less, depending on where and what quantity you buy. Naturally, the code would also have to be modified to work with the ESP8266 instead of the ESP32.
Good luck... but your options are really determined by what the amp offers in terms of an API/interface.
Because you can, doesn't mean you should.