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Waveshare 7" Display For Your WiiM Mini

flaviocc

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Sep 23, 2022
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Hi !!! nice solution :)

It's possible to run on a fire hd from Amazon? Or any other Android tablet?

Tks.
 

flaviocc

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Sorry, no. But the WiiM Home app runs just fine on Android...
Thank you.....

I have the tablet plugged on my AMP and today I'm using bubble upnp to cast to the tablet (where I can see the covers and other infos)....I don't have the mini yet, just thinking in get the pro, but I will loose the covers and other visual infos.
 

wacomme

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I’m not a tech guy at all. So, how do I connect the display to the wiim mini? I presume you use a computer to install the software to the display. Can that be done using a Mac, or is a pc required? And is any special software needed to install the script?
 
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Ralph_Cramden

Ralph_Cramden

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I’m not a tech guy at all. So, how do I connect the display to the wiim mini? I presume you use a computer to install the software to the display. Can that be done using a Mac, or is a pc required? And is any special software needed to install the script?
Sorry, you'll need a good bit of geek skills to do this. The HDMI version on the Inovato Quadra is a bit easier, but still not for noobs.
 

herds

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@Ralph_Cramden

First off thanks for your efforts on thie Ralph.

I've gone down the rabbit hole in the last 2 weeks with streamers, resurected my RPi3b with DAC Hat and fired up volumio, purchased a 7" pi touchscreen and case and i'm loving having the album art. The problem with this setup is reliability, when it works its great however when it doesn't its just frustrating when you just want to play something from Spotify, similiar to issues I had back in 2019 and other people still expierience today so I don't see a fix on the horizon.

If I want cover art my options for a off the shelf product with a good size screen there is the NAD which is around $1500 and a few other ones but I'm really swayed by the Internet opinion on wim thus far. So very happy to see your project! I've a few questions if possible before take the dive in. I'm technical by the way but not all that expierienced with python.

The requirements you have are quite rigid, a wiim mini, the waveshare 7" screen, an rgb lcd hat and pi zero 1 or 2

1. Is there a a technical reason why there is no flexibility on this? For example, I currently have a pi3b, official 7" screen and I'm looking to get a wiim pro........ could that work or would it be a code rewrite or maybe just a matter of you needing to test first.

2. Checked the github but didn't really see how does this setup work in regard to displaying the art and metadata? I figure the pi is running something like apache and then running a web browser full screen pointed to localhost, but how does it interface with the wiim.. api? or is there some 3rd party metadata provider where the song ID is matched and then the meta is pulled and displayed? Generally interested in general and wondered whether one could have multiple screens/clients connecting in.

3. My current pi/volumio and offficial screen setup although buggy the monitor/now playing works as expected, e.g. if idle the screen turns off and when a track is 'detected' it comes back on... same for your project?


4. I know its your project, but how is the reliability?
 
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Ralph_Cramden

Ralph_Cramden

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1. Is there a technical reason why there is no flexibility on this? For example, I currently have a pi3b, official 7" screen and I'm looking to get a wiim pro........ could that work or would it be a code rewrite or maybe just a matter of you needing to test first.

It's written specifically for a higher-rez screen than the official 7", so would require some changes. The HDMI version should work, though, but I haven't tried it on a DSI display.

2. Checked the github but didn't really see how does this setup work in regard to displaying the art and metadata? I figure the pi is running something like apache and then running a web browser full screen pointed to localhost, but how does it interface with the wiim.. api? or is there some 3rd party metadata provider where the song ID is matched and then the meta is pulled and displayed? Generally interested in general and wondered whether one could have multiple screens/clients connecting in.

No, it doesn't use a web server or browser at all. It pulls data from the WiiM via its UPnP interface. The data will include a URL to the album art, usually on the provider's website, which the app pulls into memory then displays. It displays everything by writing directly to the framebuffer, so is very memory efficient, but a bit more rigid in its requirements than the HDMI version. The HDMI uses standard X Windows, so it's much more portable, should work on just about anything, but requires X Windows to run, so is not as memory efficient.

3. My current pi/volumio and official screen setup although buggy the monitor/now playing works as expected, e.g. if idle the screen turns off and when a track is 'detected' it comes back on... same for your project?

Yes. I haven't used this version for a few months, but IIRC it displays date/time when nothing is playing.

4. I know its your project, but how is the reliability?

It worked well for the few months I was using it, but WiiM does make a lot of changes to their firmware, so I don't know how well it works now.
 

herds

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@Ralph_Cramden

Thank yoy for the reply. That sounds reasonable, may have give this a batch. Took delivery of the wiim pro a couple days ago so fingers crossed I can get it going on that :D
 

Music1969

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Still loving my 7" Waveshare with WiiM Mini @Ralph_Cramden

Was there any work to try Bullseye support?

With Buster support ending in 12 months :D

@raif71 you mentioned you might give it a shot ?
 

Music1969

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@Ralph_Cramden I tried to block internet access to this Pi running the 7" Waveshare (blocked at the router).

Just to see if it works without internet access - and it doesn't. Any idea why?

I would have thought just the Wiim Mini and this Pi being on same LAN would be enough for it to work.

If it worked without internet access (blocked at the router), then id be happy to never update the Pi ever again and leave it as it is.

But alas
 

PrimaDus

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(samepost)
Last weekend I got the project of retired-guy (kudos to @Ralph_Cramden) running.
A bit of a steep learning curve for me on image processing + as Python noob.

Got it working with a Wiim Mini + 7-inch Waveshare display ("1024x600"; rgba565 mode) running on a RPi B model (bullseye).

Now it's working I gonna port the setup to a non-touch 7-inch WS display (with RGB LCD HAT hat) on a RPi ZeroW.
Will result in a more compact solution.
The display using now was a HMDI touchscreen actually bought for another project.

Issues I tackled:
- Kiosk mode to prevent console logging + blinking cursor; now boots 'in black' + no cursor
- async_ssdp_search search_target changed to wiim id because there is another Wiim in my network
- RGBA -> RGB565 image conversion; WS display was out of the box in RGB565 format, didn't know how to change that

Todo: Search for a nice case or build one myself

wswiim_s.jpg
 
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