Loading USB CD drives in Volumio

[Kannan]

I have been using the USBridge as the primary transport in my audio setup.
I have also been inching to get USB CD or DVD drives to work in Volumio so that I can also play my Audio CD collection.

Some work in this regard is being done by some geeks and they have also achieved success to some extent.
CD plugin thread: Volumio Forum

Though it is not natively available in Volumio, it can be separately installed as a plugin.
Since USBridge, which uses the Sparky board, has a special Volumio version, I was not sure if the 3rd party update will work with the Sparky version of Volumio.
So I did not want to risk bricking the Volumio on USBridge, so instead experimented it with my old laptop.

With the following steps I was able to play Audio CD off my Transcend USB DVD drive connected to the laptop running Volumio:
The plugin also deducted the laptop internal CD drive and successfully played the audio tracks from it also.



Download Volumio for PC(X86/X64 version) and write the image file into a pen drive using image writer like "win32diskimager".
Volumio image download
Win32diskimager download

Boot Volumio on the laptop from the pen drive. (You need to set your pen drive as the 1st boot device in BIOS).

After Volumio boots successfully, connect it to your network through wifi or ethernet port. (I suggest via ethernet port).



Now you need another PC (or you mobile) on the same network to SSH into the Volumio.
Use 'Putty' or any other tool to SSH into Volumio

I followed the following procedure. available on the above linked Volumio forum.
All the commands that I have marked in bold, you can just copy and paste into the SSH terminal.

Step 1 : As SSH is disabled by default in Volumio, you first need to enable it.
In the PC browser, login to the DEV page of Volumio:
http://volumio.local/DEV or (http://the ip address of volumio/DEV
Under SSH, click on 'Enable'
You can now close this page on the browser.



Step 2:
Open Putty or whichever SSH tool you are using in your PC.
Enter the ipaddress of Volumio in Putty and click connect and follow the screen commands.


It will open the terminal window of Volumio (it will look like the command prompt window)
user name: volumio
password: volumio or to whatever you have changed it to.



Step 2:
Copy and paste or type in the following command one after the other into terminal, and press enter after each command. Wait for the procedure to complete before entering the next command.

apt-get update
Press enter. wait for the procedure to complete (this will take sometime and download and install stuff from the internet.

apt-get upgrade
Press enter. wait for the procedure to complete

apt-get install make g++ libudev-dev
Press enter. wait for the procedure to complete (this may take sometime)

sudo npm install npm@latest -g
Press enter, you will be asked for the password as you have used sudo command.
key in the password (same as you entered before) and press enter and wait for the procedure to complete.

git clone --single-branch -b f/cdplayer https://github.com/geeks-r-us/volumio-plugins.git
then press enter. wait for the procedure to complete (this may take sometime)
Just copy the entire line from 'git clone'.....to 'plugins.git'....don't click on the blue line..it is part of the full command.

cd volumio-plugins/plugins/music_service/cdplayer/
then press enter. wait for the procedure to complete

npm install
then press enter. wait for the procedure to complete
Just ignore warnings and error codes if any.

sudo npm install typescript -g
then press enter. wait for the procedure to complete

tsc index.ts
press enter and wait for procedure to complete
You will get some errors, but ignore again

volumio plugin install
press enter. This will install the plugin under Volumio GUI.

Once the plugin install completes, you should see it in the plug-in manager section in Volumio under Installed Plugins.
Just set the slider to "On" and you should see the Active/Inactive indicator go green.

Now you can connect a USB CD or DVD drive, and play your CDs.
If there are skipping issues, just play around with the buffer under 'Playback' settings.

Here are some pics of the CD plugin in the Volumio running on my laptop

The CD plugin


Home Page with the Audio CD option


CD Track List after loading a Audio CD in the drive.


Track in CD playing

 

[Kannan]

This will work in Raspberry Pi, so those using pi based transport, Allo digione or digione signature can try.

 

[Kannan]

@yogibear I too have very very limited knowledge in Linux (almost nil)
The steps above are quite straight forward and you can give it a try. With RPI you will have to write the image to SD Card instead of pen drive.

 

[Kannan]

The Rpi and TDA1541

You have the TDA1541 as an outboard DAC or as part of a CD player

 

[Kannan]

Since you have it as an external DAC with a coaxial input, you will not have to do any of the above procedures.
You just need to add a IS2 card like hifiberry, digione or any of the other numerous digital transport cards and connect it to the 1541.
Just a raw install of Volumio is enough

 

[Kannan]

The RCA are audio outputs and NOT inputs

Ah. Ok... Guess then it is for others with indepth knowledge in electronics to offer their ideas

 

[soundnovice]

Kannan, this is excellent. i am already having Rpi->kali->piano 2.1 DAC setup.
i think i can add cd support also to have one setup to play them all
Thanks a lot

 

[soundnovice]

any idea how much power is required for usb cd drive when connected to RPi?
currently i have 3A capable power supply connected to Rpi+kali+piano DAC

 

[Kannan]

any idea how much power is required for usb cd drive when connected to RPi?
currently i have 3A capable power supply connected to Rpi+kali+piano DAC

The slim line USB drives like Transcend should draw 0.5 amps, the heavier ones should max out at 1 amp.
Just checked the Transcend site, it states 1 amp, which i guess should be at the time of write process, possibly lesser when reading.

 

[soundnovice]

found self powered usb cd drives. this should solve the problem

https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B0...a0c-51c7-af3d-195dbe25653a&pf_rd_i=1375397031

 

[Kannan]

found self powered usb cd drives. this should solve the problem

https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B0...a0c-51c7-af3d-195dbe25653a&pf_rd_i=1375397031

Adapter is not included. You will have to feed it 5 volt (go with 2 amp rating).

 

[soundnovice]

most of the good branded usb cd drives do not come with self powered feature. so i found another alternate for my setup.
with a jumper setting on kali, its possible to feed seperate power supply to Rpi, while kali will power itself + piano DAC. this would be cleaner solution than hunting for powered CD drives.

 

[Kannan]

Today I removed the eMMC card that shipped with USBridge and booted off an SDcard in which I had written the latest Volumio image for Sparky board.
Next I installed the CD drive plugin without any issues using the method in the first post.

No glitches in the install.

Now I have CDs playing off my Transcend USB DVD drive connected to the USB port of the Sparky without any issues.
I had to set the rad speed under the CD plugin setting to 16 to avoid any buffer over-runs.

This is a great solution to relive your CD collection along with the digital files through a single transport.

 

[VSTEREO]

This is a great solution to relive your CD collection along with the digital files through a single transport.

Great sir..

 

[rsponline]

This is really fantastic idea.
Planning to add this to my current rpi + allo boss player.

How is audio quality you are getting with your setup kannan ? Compared with dedicated CD player?

 

[Kannan]

This is really fantastic idea.
Planning to add this to my current rpi + allo boss player.

How is audio quality you are getting with your setup kannan ? Compared with dedicated CD player?

don't have one to compare. Feel slightly better fidelity than the same ripped wav from flash media or hard disk. But guess I would prefer a flash drive any day, any improvement under weighs the convenience

 

[rsponline]

I bought Transcend drive as i got it for very less price in amazon deal. I can use it for multiple purpose as I any of my laptop does not have DVD drive.

Not yet tested with RPI though. Will update here my opinions accordingly.

 

[jls001]

Hi @Kannan (and others):
This is a bit OT from the thread's topic, but since you have experience using Volumio, I wanted to ask if you have tried playing songs in Volumio from a shared folder on a Windows PC?

I have been so far quite unsuccessful.

I created a folder called "Music" on the E drive of my Win10 PC and enabled sharing of the folder.

In Volumio configuration, within My Music > Network Drives, I enter the following:

Alias: Music
NAS IP Address: I give the IP address of the Win10 PC
Path: Music
File Share Type: CIFS
Username: <name of the PC>
Password: <password>
Options: I have tried "vers=1.0" as well as 2.0 & 3.0.

When I save it, I see a red cross below Mounted. It shows up the size also incorrectly (much lesser than actual content within Music shared folder). Under Network Drives:

Music <IP address>\Music Mounted <red cross> Size <displays incorrect size>

In Win10 Explorer window, under Network I can see the PC itself and VOLUMIO.

In Volumio Music Library screen, I can see USB and on clicking it I can see a 64 GB USB pen drive and a 1 TB HDD which are connected to the USB ports of Sparky. NAS doesn't show up at all. I can play music normally from both the pen drive and HDD.

Any idea what I had done wrong?

 

[Kannan]

I don't use Win-10 but am on 64bit Windows 7 and the SMB share is straight forward.

In your Windows Machine
Like you have done create a shared folder and under sharing give read/write access to 'Everyone' for that folder.

In Volumio
Do the following configurations
Give any suitable Alias Name
Udner NAS IP Adress - Keyin your "Computer Name" (which is permanent) instead of IP address as it is dynamically assigned by your router unless you have a fixed one.
Under Path just type the name of your "Shared Folder"
Click save and enter your PC "Username" and login "Password" in the pop-up window.
Next the Volumio will automatically mount your windows shared folder and update the library.
Here is the Screen Shot below



You can view your "Alias Name" now under the "NAS" in the Volumio "Music Library".
The music files in your shared folder will be now under the 'Alias Name".

 

[jls001]

Thanks Kannan for the guidance.

My mistake was in not giving sharing permission to the folder I wanted to share. I thought making a folder shared was enough, but clearly it wasn't. Within the Sharing screen it is also critical to enable inheritance. This allows all sub folders within the shared folder to inherit the property of the main folder.

I have successfully mounted two music folders from two 2TB internal HDDs. It's been 13+ hours and Volumio is still building up the library from these two folders.