Why am i struggling to find any guide or assistance to push audio wether music or tts to a pi's 3.5mm audio port.. is there something i am missing ..
#audio 3.5mm port
plain igloo
worldly flume
Why am i struggling to find any guide or assistance to push audio wether music o...
what is your setup? what install type are you using?
plain igloo
i have a pi3b and used the rpi installer app to setup an sd card so is it green ,, apologies for now knowing fullly im learning
worldly flume
i have a pi3b and used the rpi installer app to setup an sd card so is it green...
a green is a specific device so no. but dont worry you answered my question all the same
some notes: a RPI3B is an older device and you have some issues with it being limited
also you should not use an SD card long term. its fine for initial leaning and testing but its no good long term as it will be slow and it will die (and it will die at the worst possible time...)
what you can do is: you can install the VLC addon which will then get auto detected by its integration so you can play stuff to the local audio output through it
plain igloo
yeah i am begining to understand that ,, but i had one lying around and figured i would try this..
worldly flume
yeah i am begining to understand that ,, but i had one lying around and figured ...
thats fine, everyone starts somewhere
plain igloo
i did add the media player line to config yaml .. and the guide said it would appear in devices after a reboot .. but it didnt
vlc that is
worldly flume
you do not have to do anything with your config file
plain igloo
well yeah but thats what the guide says
worldly flume
can you link me to what you are following?
plain igloo
ok
if you go to add integration and choose vlc media player it says cannot but installed like this you must edit config and links you here : https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/vlc
where by then it suggests # Example configuration.yaml entry
- platform: vlc```essentially this lot :
To add a VLC media player to your installation, add the following to your configuration.yaml file. After changing the configuration.yaml file, restart Home Assistant to apply the changes. The integration is now shown on the integrations page under Settings > Devices & services. Its entities are listed on the integration card itself and on the Entities tab.
worldly flume
that will not work with a HAOS install
which is what you have if you installed using the rpi imager
plain igloo
oh , doesnt say eith way tbh but ok
worldly flume
at the top in the important bubble 😛
"currently only available for installations that are based on the Home Assistant Core in a Python virtual environment."
plain igloo
well thats assuming i know i have that environment isuppose
lol i did think i did lol
worldly flume
yeah its a bit of a ongoing issue that to be fair. it confuses alot
in any case. you should remove whatever you added to your config file and we cant start fresh
plain igloo
a sec let me do that
removed and rebooting
just as an aside with you suggesting my pi inst going to good long term what would you suggest as a good long term solution ?
worldly flume
I have a post on my opinion on hardware selection here - https://gist.github.com/MichaelMKKelly/7a7bfed8610491a2c93acb44a2400866
worldly flume
yes
plain igloo
i am struggling with audio in any sense tbh i cannot seem to get it pushing to my tablet companion app or the pi directly .. or anywhere tbh
worldly flume
so you want to go
settings --> addons --> addon store
then you you should be able to see the VLC addon
plain igloo
yeah installing
worldly flume
once installed you can start it. note that there will also be a configation tab here that you can adjsut audio output devices. but i imagine it will default correctly here but i am not sure
once its running
your system should detect a new "device" on the device page using the "VLC via telnet" integration and allow you to add it.
once added you will now have a media player entity that you can push audio too
plain igloo
i dont see the config tab
worldly flume
plain igloo
yeah
plain igloo
yeah i added
worldly flume
ok so now you should have a media player entity which you can push audio too
plain igloo
worldly flume
if you go to media section on the left in sidebar
then in the bottom right theres a media player selection
is there any options there?
plain igloo
a sec i just rebooted it
worldly flume
i havent actually got a setup that i can use to actually test this config, but this should work afaik
worldly flume
can you go back to the vlc addon screen and check that its running and then also check the log tab to see if any errors?
plain igloo
ok
plain igloo
worldly flume
dont need thee other checks, can just leave it on start on boot
but that shouldnt break anything either
is there anything in the log tab?
next to configuration
worldly flume
can you check the supervisor logs too?
settings system logs then top right change from core to supervisor
it may just be the 3b struggling to run the vlc addon
plain igloo
worldly flume
thats odd, it does seem like it runs it but for some reason the integration is not connecting to the addon correctly
plain igloo
dumb q but do i need the speaker plugged in lol.. its currently in the garden haha
i figured it would be a port detection and not speaker
worldly flume
i honestly have no idea if it detects if something is plugged in or not. you could try plugging something in then restarting the vlc addon
most people don't plug speakers directly into their server you see 😛
plain igloo
no i figured as much ,, i am struggling to get any form of tts working ,, and figured i would try this method ,,, i have a conpanion app running on a samsung tablet and cannot get that to tts either,, im clutching at straws tbh
this doesnt have to be my solution just seems audio has no simple guides anywhere all google / AI results are really old and im strugglinh
worldly flume
what tts setup are you trying to use? again piper might struggle on the old hardware
plain igloo
i just want alerts no rocket science just simple alerts
worldly flume
this doesnt have to be my solution just seems audio has no simple guides anywher...
home assistant is in very active development and specially voice over the last couple of years. so stuff gets outdated quickly
plain igloo
being new i figured this would be a simple thing
i have a tablet with a companion app and several amazon devices.. amazon seems a no go currently
worldly flume
there are ways to send tts to amazon devices but it involves a custom component
plain igloo
i have he alexa app but its shows my echo speakers as inactive or similar
worldly flume
what do you mean when you say "alexa app"?
plain igloo
worldly flume
ah so you got alexa media player installed (thats the custom integration i was refering too)
worldly flume
ah thats odd
plain igloo
seems reading google its a common problem
worldly flume
yeah there is some work happening on a replacement for AMP but its still in early stages
it breaks pretty often
plain igloo
it seems odd to me that the issues i am having are a thing...tbh
considering the development that goes into this
worldly flume
AMP is a custom comonent so is not officially supported.
and the VLC addon is a bit of a hack for local audio but its definetly not a normal use case
plain igloo
yeah thats what i mean ,, seems audio would be a basic entity and not have to rely on such work arounds
especially pi output
worldly flume
as i mentioned before. plugging your server into speakers not very common
plain igloo
yeah so what is the go to solution for audio.. ?
worldly flume
personally i use ESPHome based stuff
plain igloo
i see ppl mention sonos .. but thats reliant on third party purchases
surely standard speakers would be generic
worldly flume
the voice-pe is generally what i would recomend
it has a speaker built in but also has a 3.5mm line out
you are not going to be able to use all its functionality in terms of voice assistant with a 3b but most likely can use it to push tts
plain igloo
its frustrating cuz on the face of it HA is briliant .. but im new and trying to do what i see as trivial things i would have expected to be built in.. and im seeing the opposite.. quite frustrating
worldly flume
everyones mindset of what should be "trivial" is going to be different. and thats fine
plain igloo
of couse .. but in devloping anything .. audio is one of the basics surely..
worldly flume
audio is tricky because of how different companies do stuff
plain igloo
im not a dev noob i run several projects in the homebrew scene not HA but yeah,, and these things in my world are basics ..
difficult but basics to provide
worldly flume
once a device is exposed to HA as a media player you can push audio too it but you have to get it integrated
and the complexity of integrating it depends on the device
plain igloo
so to recap there.. if i have a tablet exposed using the companion app shouldnt that be trivial ?
its a learning curve i know
worldly flume
the companion app doesnt expose as a media player
plain igloo
that equally sounds odd lol.. but can it ?
worldly flume
i think theres a permissions thing
is this a general use tablet or are you dedicating to being a HA frontend?
plain igloo
its just a front end for HA.. simple switches fo lights n stuff for the family to use
worldly flume
and are we talking android?
plain igloo
stuck on the fridge .. android yeah
worldly flume
if you look up "fully kiosk" that integrated with HA. you set HA as its kiosk site and it also exposes tablet as a media player which can be a target
i have one set up in the kitchen
plain igloo
i used a third party app to kinda do that yakk its called
yeah essentially a similar thing
turns out my samsung old tablet was magnetic so sticks on the fridge ... kinda cool lol
plain igloo
ok , is it a setting in the companion or something else ?
worldly flume
i am not sure what the free version limits are but i bought a licence for that tab
you cant expose it as a media player in the compion app
plain igloo
so i need to install something else
worldly flume
the companion app (along with exposing a few sensors its allowed acces too) is mostly a web frontend
plain igloo
so to the fully kiosk thing you seggest .. how do i do this .. tbh i had heard of this and thought ithis is what i had done lol
worldly flume
you dowkload the apk/install it/set HA URL as its page and login
then on devices and services in HA you add integration and you point it at the fully kiosk web interface thats hosted by the app
worldly flume
could have been worse 😛
worldly flume
you want the fully kiosk browser. oh and it looks like they are on the play store now. they never used to be 😛
used to be apk only
its been a while since i set it up
plain igloo
theres like 4 apps
fully video kiosk / fully single app kiosk / fully exam kiosk / fully kiosk for work
singe app ima go for
worldly flume
worldly flume
yeah the google play link there links to "Fully Kiosk Browser & Lockdown"
plain igloo
so i guess im just putting in my HA URL
worldly flume
yeah
i think you have to turn on the webui and set a password in the settings
to access this page
which is also what the home assistant integration uses to access it
plain igloo
checking now.. i put the url in and hit go.. its erroring currentlly
do i need to do shit HA side ?
worldly flume
try to switch out homeassistant.local with your rpis ip address
worldly flume
its been ages since i touched it. its been a set and forget for me
worldly flume
ok in the FK app settings i think you need to enable the webui then you will be able to access from other systems and then ha will be able to talk to it using it
worldly flume
i think its supposed to be awkward so people dont accidently try and get into it when its in "kiosk mode"
plain igloo
im in advanced settings and canno for the life of me exit it . jesus
@worldly flume thanks for your assistance , if you wouldnt mind i would like if we could finish this up another day maybe,,, gonna sleep right now this fully kiosk app has sapped my motivationlol... thanks for your help its been really useful so far
worldly flume
no worries, its getting on isnt it. but realistically once you have the webui for it opened up it should be easy to add the integration to HA then you should be good to point media at it
so hopefully you can get it sorted fairly easily
plain igloo
thanks a lot .. im slowly learning what i expected to be trivial isnt... but with help form guys like you soon it will be lol.. good night and cheers fella