Hello! First, I’d like to say thank you for supporting a great service like Plexamp on the Raspberry Pi. I am currently having a small problem. I installed Plexamp on my Pi without issue, and once I updated /.config/Plexamp/server.json with my information, I was able to cast to my Pi as a Plexamp device from the desktop site. Every so often, I receive this error while playing music, and I don’t actually get any sound: “error: [POWER] Error opening serial port! Error: Error: No such file or directory, cannot open /dev/ttyUSB0”
This leads me to believe that Plexamp is directing its audio to a device that I don’t actually have. my audio devices are
0 [Headphones ]: bcm2835_headphonbcm2835 Headphones - bcm2835 Headphones
bcm2835 Headphones
1 [sndrpihifiberry]: RPi-simple - snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac
snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac
2 [Device ]: USB-Audio - USB Sound Device
USB Sound Device at usb-3f980000.usb-1.3, full speed
I could easily see Plexamp choosing ‘Headphones’ as a device as well. Is there a configuration file somewhere where I could select these output devices?
As a general question, is there a way to cast to this Pi from a mobile device? This is for a home audio system, and it would be nice to be able to walk around and adjust volumes/switch tracks from different rooms. As of right now, only the desktop site notices the Pi on the network - both Android apps (plex and plexamp) don’t seem to find it.
If the mobile device running plexamp is on the same network as the headless pi-plexamp, you click the cast-icon on the mobile plexamp and pick it from the list. If not in the list, click the refresh-symbol, and it should show up!
Hey odinb1, thanks for the response! Unfortunately, this is already what I’ve been doing. No matter how many resets I try, including a full uninstall/reinstall of the package, I can’t seem to find the device on the plexamp mobile app. This is strange to me because I can reliably find the device from app.plex.tv on a web browser.
Just a regular Android phone on the network - no adblocker, VPN, or other interesting things (though you reminded me that I should try to figure out an adblocking solution). I’m honestly not sure why it isn’t popping up. Any issues I see people online having come from the install process, but that seemed to work fine for me.
As for the other part of my question, are you aware of a way to select which audio sink/device plexamp will use on the Pi? Thanks for all of your help so far!
Sorry, but you will have to use ALSAmixer to have more than one device sending audio on the Pi. You do not want to use PulseAudio, it re-samples everything.
We specifically chose an earlier version of Raspberry Pi OS Lite in order to use ALSA, so no problem (we took the latest version before PulseAudio was introduced). With ALSAmixer installed, how do I tell plexamp to use specific devices?
Sorry, looking back at my previous responses (and doing some more digging on the Pi side of things) made me realize that I really wasn’t being very clear.
First off, I was wrong. Plexamp is playing music out of all channels connected to the USB Sound Device mentioned in my original post, not Headphones. We already have this USB device set up to play multiple different audio streams simultaneously - I am just wondering if there’s a config file somewhere for Plexamp on the Pi that will allow me to choose a specific channel.
I attached a copy of the asound.conf file that is being used; hopefully this helps clear up some things. Looking at the ### Controller v1 section, my goal is to be able to specifically use ch1, ch2, or ch3. Plexamp is currently playing on all three as long as something else doesn’t try to use a channel
@odinb1 Just wanted to follow up with you and say thanks
I used your guide here, and one of my problems is now solved! I wasn’t able to get an accurate server.json since I had the newest version of plexamp on desktop - great find with using version 1.1. I am now able to at least cast to the Pi using my cellphone. Thanks again for all of your help and hard work!
(we took the latest version before PulseAudio was introduced). With ALSAmixer installed, how do I tell plexamp to use specific devices?