Pimoroni Pirate Audio Speaker for Raspberry Pi

SKU: PIM485 Brand: Pimoroni

Retired Product

This product has been replaced by: Raspberry Pi Speaker
This product is no longer available. This page is only for reference.

Pump out some mini beats with Pirate Audio Speaker! This diminutive sound system has an I2S DAC, amp, mini mono speaker, high-res display, and playback control buttons.

Pirate Audio Speaker is perfect for making a Lilliputian radio, sound effect player, or even as a teeny-weeny games console! The built-in 1W speaker isn't the loudest but it's great fun for lots of projects. The display and playback buttons let you control your audio or sound effects in a jiffy. Use our Pirate Audio software (more info below) to play local audio files (MP3, FLAC, etc) or stream from services like Spotify.

Pirate Audio is a range of all-in-one audio boards for Raspberry Pi, with high-quality digital audio, beautifully-crisp IPS displays for album art, tactile buttons for playback control, and Pimoroni's custom Pirate Audio software and installer to make setting it all up a breeze.

Features

MAX98357A DAC / amplifier chip (datasheet)
Mono audio
Mini speaker (1W / 8Ω, attached)
Push-fit speaker terminals
1.3" IPS colour LCD (240x240px) (ST7789 driver)
Four tactile buttons
Mini HAT-format board
Fully-assembled
Compatible with all 40-pin header Raspberry Pi models
Pirate Audio software
Dimensions: 65x30.5x9.5mm

Software

Pimoroni's Pirate Audio software and installer installs the Python library for the LCD, configures the I2S audio and SPI, and then installs Mopidy and Pimoroni's custom Pirate Audio plugins to display album art and track info, and to use the buttons for playback control.

Here's how to get started:

Set an SD card up with the latest version of Raspbian.
Connect to Wi-Fi or a wired network.
Open a terminal and type the following:

git clone https://github.com/pimoroni/pirate-audio
cd pirate-audio/mopidy
sudo ./install.sh

Reboot your Pi

You can find more detailed instructions here: https://github.com/pimoroni/pirate-audio/tree/master/mopidy

Notes

Note that Pimoroni's installer, linked above, does all of the below for you, but if you're an intrepid hacker then you might need to know this stuff!

The DAC can be configured by adding dtoverlay=hifiberry-dac to the /boot/config.txt file.
There is a DAC enable pin—BCM 25— that must be driven high to enable the DAC. You can do this by adding gpio=25=op,dh to the /boot/config.txt file.
The buttons are active low, and connected to pins BCM 5, 6, 16, and 20
The display uses SPI, and you'll need to enable SPI through the Raspberry Pi configuration menu.
If you want to use these boards with a Pibow Coupé case (either for the Zero / Zero W or Pi 4), then you'll need to use a booster header to raise it up a little.

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Unit 18, 132 Garden Grove Parade
Adamstown
NSW, 2289
Australia

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