TBN

This projects aims to provide music entertainment for toddlers.

The idea is that children will get a WiFi connected box and some objects (e.g. PlayMobil figures) that are equipped with NFC stickers. Whenever the child is putting such an object on the box, the box will start to play audio. The NFC to audio URL translation can be configured on a server in the Azure cloud. So a PlayMobil knight might make the box play a story about knights, or a picture with grandpa may play his voice telling a small story.

There are couple of commercial solutions for this, but this project aims to create an open platform.

Components

If you want to build your own jukebox you will need the items from the shopping list.

Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi will be connected to an NFC/RFID-Card reader and a speaker module.

Server

The Server component will be run on Azure and provides a service that resolves NFC tags to download/streaming URLs.

WebClient

The web client will allow users to configure their Raspberry Pi and add NFC tags or upload audio files.

Additional features

Local storage

Users may want to keep audio files in their local network. The web client will allow to configure such links to local NAS.

Business times

Nobody wants their children to stay awake all night to play with this box. The website will allow to configure times where the system is inactive.

Installation

Preparing the SD-Card

Flash operating system on SD-Card

• Download latest Raspbian image with Desktop
• Use Etcher to flash the image onto your SD-Card

Activate WiFi

• Create a file called wpa_supplicant.conf on the SD-Card and put the following content in:

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=<<Your_ISO-3166-1_two-letter_country_code>>

network={
    ssid="<<Your_SSID>>"
    psk="<<Your_PSK>>"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

• Replace <<Your_ISO-3166-1_two-letter_country_code>> with your ISO Country Code (such as DE for Germany), <<Your_SSID>> with your wireless access point name and <<Your_PSK>> with your wifi password.
• ATTENTION: The file must be formatted with Linux style line endings.
• More details can be found on stackexchange.

Activate SSH

• Create a file called ssh (no ending) on the SD-Card. It can be left empty.

Activate SPI master driver

• Modify config.txt and remove the comment before dtparam=spi=on. more info
• Add the following to the end of the file:

dtoverlay=gpio-shutdown
enable_uart=1

Wiring up the RFID module

• The following schema shows the wiring for the RFID-RC522 Mifare reader.
• ATTENTION: Please note that some vendors have a slightly different layout on the module and that the free pin may be at a different position.

Connecting to the Raspberry Pi

• Put the SD-Card into the Raspberry Pi
• Connect the Raspberry Pi with the USB-Charger
• Try to find out the IP of your device
  • If you have multiple Raspberry Pi in the network and want to check if you are SSHing into the right one, you can change the color of the built-in LEDs and see on which Pi it happens: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blogs/jeff-geerling/controlling-pwr-act-leds-raspberry-pi
• Connect to the Raspberry Pi via SSH (you can use putty on Windows)
• Username: "pi", Password: "raspberry"
• Change the default password with the command passwd
• Change the hostname with sudo raspi-config. more info

Installing latest firmware

• sudo apt-get update
• sudo apt-get install curl unzip
• curl -sSL -o firmware.zip https://audio-hub.azurewebsites.net/api/latestfirmware
• unzip firmware.zip -d firmware && rm firmware.zip
• chmod u+x firmware/install.sh
• sudo firmware/install.sh

Checking logs

tail -f PiServer/publish/logs/clientlog.log

Testing self-built Firmware

If you want to run custom firmware on the Raspberry Pi then make changes in the src/PiServer project and do the following:

• Make sure the latest version in RELEASE_NOTES.md is higher than the latest released version.
• Run build.cmd CreateFirmware
• Copy your firmware to the Rasperry Pi - e.g. pscp -r temp/ [email protected]:/home/pi/ (You need to use the IP of your Raspberry Pi)
• SSH into your PI and run sudo service PiServer restart. This process will take a while and put your firmware in place.