So I've built up the Buffalo III and mounted everything on a steel plate waiting for my chassis to come in. I really like the Hifiduino project and planned to integrate that into my build. However, having 10 years experience with embedded systems running Linux, I am thinking I should invest a little more time and design a high res music server in the same chassis. I didn't realize that Rasberry Pi and Beagle Bone were such inexpensive and functional packages until I started reading:)

I'm thinking this will be relatively inexpensive only requiring the board and local music storage (maybe using NAS is a cheaper alternative as I already have a squeezebox server).

Just posting this to get ideas as I'm sure others have thought through this some. The plan would include:
1. Control volume and source on the buffalo via IR
2. Video out to external monitor for music selection(considering)
3. 20x4 LCD onboard control
4. Await USB/I2S from TPA and confirm Linux interoperability

I still need to figure out:
1. What packages already exist for bit perfect playback and control for Linux
2. Which hardware platform will work better for the 20x4 LCD and Buffalo I/O

I'm sure it will be a bit of coding but leveraging the open source community should make it pretty quick development. This should provide a pretty flexible configuration that provides a platform that allows addition of features pretty easily. The purpose of this post is to help generate ideas and determine pitfalls if others have already gone down this road. Full time job, school and a 2 month will probably make the development pretty slow. Thanks in advanced for any feedback:)

Someday TP will offer an I2C controller. Many of us are patiently waiting for the hi-res USB module as well. ;)

You can take a look in this thread at diyaudio for some ideas regarding LCD control.

http://www.diyaudio.com/...9018-i2c-controller.html

Two things that simplified my LCD install were the shield Corpius offered and the electroFun I2C LCDextra IO board he suggested. That attaches to the LCD via direct solder or removable male/female header pins/sockets. It provides I2C control of the LCD and really cuts down on wires needed to the LCD.

http://www.electrofunltd...0/i2c-lcd-extra-io.html#!/2011/10/i2c-lcd-extra-io.html

I am using HiFiDuino/Corpius modified code. An Apple remote allows total control. I also went with hardware debounce of the encoder after this pic was taken.

The shield and I2C LCDextra IO board allowed me to go from this



to this...the Arduino UNO R3 is mostly hidden under the shield.





Oh, forgot to add I use this voltage level converter HiFiDuino shows in his intro to drop the voltage from 5V to 3.3V for wires connecting to the I2C header on the BIII DAC board.

http://hifiduino.wordpre...-and-guide-to-hifiduino/

Edited by user Wednesday, January 9, 2013 9:30:29 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified