Project with PeppyMeter Screensaver Plugin for VOLUMIO v2.9xx and 3.0xx buster

Hi 2aCD,
Thanks very much for this new plugin. It works perfectly and installation is so easy, and much faster than before! A big thumb up!
However, I encounter a problem which I don’t know whether I should ask it here. Anyway, I just present it here and hope that somebody can give me a hand. Thanks in advance!

The plugin works fine when I use the Boss dac card, but it only works partially when I use the Boss 2 card. The Boss 2 card is a bit different than the Boss card that it has an OLED display which runs on python2.7 and there is a joystick switch which one can use it to control the volume up and down of Volumio. I think the culprit is here.

If I install the Boss2 OLED python first and then the peppy_screen saver, installation will be successful, the OLED and the volume control joystick work correctly, but the needle on the peppy meter won’t move. If I install the peppy_screensaver first and then the OLED python, still the installation will be successful, but the OLED display won’t light up and no control for volume with the joystick at all. So, obviously there is software conflict.
The command lines in the /etc/rc.local are as follows if it can be of some help:

/sbin/modprobe snd-dummy index=7 pcm_substreams=1
boss2flag=1
sudo python /opt/boss2_oled/boss2_oled.py &
exit 0

I am too ignorant on python and linux. So, if somebody is using Boss2 with volumio + this screensaver together successfully or who can give some help on my situation, I will give him my most sincere thank you.

how can i install the peppymeter on my raspberry pi 4 official 7" display? i think it’s 800x400

Hi Pa21,
that sound a little bit difficult. But give me at first a hint which Volumio version do you use.

Hi @usrslashvolumio,
it works also with 800x400 Raspberry display. Please install the Plugin from Post 7

@2aCD first of all thanks for this nice plugin and the work you put into it all looks nice :+1:

only have a problem is that the needle does not move with spotify connect2, the needle does move with local radio stations.
did the installation with a new buster beta image and the latest plugin from your according to post 7.
I used touch_display_1_2_1Busterbeta as touchscreen, and volspotconnect2.

run it on a raspberry pi 4b, khadas tone1 and dsi 4.3 inch 800x400 touchscreen.

Hi michel8166,
for spotify I have create separat entrypoint in alsa.conf from peppymeter. Please search the template from volspotconnect2. I think its placed in:
/data/plugins/music_service/volspotconnect2/volspotify.tmpl
replace in section output

[output]
device = '${outdevice}'

with

[output]
device = 'peppyalsa'

Then change the mixertype or outputdevice to another value and revert it back to create a new config file from templ.

I think that should work
Best regards
2aCD

Hi
This shoud work also with manually installed version?
Thanks

Hello!
IMHO, this is not the good approach for volspotconnect2 in Buster. You’d rather use volspotconnect2-buster :wink:

thanks, this was the trick, it works now :smile:

i’m using 2.907. i installed it yesterday. do i need to change to buster in order for this to work?

@usrslashvolumio,
No it’s also working with 2.907

1 Like

Yes, the alsa configuration is the same in plugin and manually installation.

EDIT: happy to report that after setting up all the plugin settings, i have no more mpd_alsa error yay!
however, my PeppyMeter directory seems to be empty, i only have custom_800 in it. and so i couldn’t run volumio_peppymeter. also crontab command is not found. but important thing is the screensaver comes on.

I installed with the plugin in step 4. Now tidal connect cannot play more than one song. After the song it will move to the next song but will keep loading, or the scubber will move but no sound comes out.

If I try to play directly from the pi (not via Connect) I get the mpd_alsa error. Even changing the playback options mixer options to software and back to hardware doesn’t fix this.

EDIT: oh, i see it now in the -ext files. now i’ve just gotta figure out how to apply this.

@2aCD how did you get the nice borders surrounding your meters? as well as getting the album art and info to show up with the meter in the screen save? I’m using the custom_800 files. should i use something from the other folders even though the resolutions don’t match mine?

EDIT: oh it just fits in there automagically! nice! great work @2aCD !

@Andy_Yong did you have to manually resize the album art etc in CSS to fit in to the background picture? or is there some sort of selection for each background image? if so i couldn’t find it as an option in either apperance or the peppy plugin. can you help?

Hi 2aCD,

My Boss2 setup is using Volumio 2.907.

For my local files, I try to keep my albumart size around 500 x 500 pixels. I put all the song info including albumart with “Tag Editor” program on my Mac. You’re right, it fits automatically.

Thanks 2aCD again for make our life much easier for this great add-on to an already excellent Volumio.

With the new PeppyMeter Plug-In, I have started from a scratch again just to see how easy it is for a beginner. I can tell you that it’s much easier than before. However, you still need to do some manual steps which is not hard (if you have done this manually before).

I probably will do a short video clip (put it on Youtube) from step 1 to finish soon to show exactly how I did and what tools (apps) I used.

What I did yesterday:

  1. Install Volumio 2.907 onto my 32GB SD card to use with my Raspberry PI4/8GB. Install the new PeppyMeter plugin. It went through without any issue. After installed and start playing, the only issue that I found is like usrslashvolumio mentioned earlier regarding play Tidal via Tidal Connect. It plays the first song (albumart doesn’t show and the meter doesn’t move) and then it was trying to load the next song forever. Playing Tidal and Qobuz inside Volumio doesn’t have issue at all.

  2. Install Volumio 2.907 onto my Asus Tinkerboard S internal 16gb EMMC. Install the new PeppyMeter plugin. It went through without any issue. I noticed that in Touch Display Plugin Setting (Installed Plugins) does not have “GPU Memory Settings” option. Everything is set up as the Pi4 but the screensaver never kicks in.

Andy

Hi Andy, Had you the tidal connect issue also with the manually installation before?

No, the manually installation is rock solid now.