Press a button to play a sound

Setup Instructions

1. Flash SD card with a raspberry-pi compatible OS (main branch works for debian buster, bullseye branch works for debian bullseye)

   • Newest OS's supported by raspberry pi are available here

2. Connect your pi to the internet

3. Run the command: sudo apt-get update and then run the command: sudo apt-get upgrade

4. Connect speaker and ensure it is connected with the command aplay -l

   • Note: you can also see all connected sound cards with the command cat /proc/asound/cards

5. Verify the speaker works with the command: speaker-test -c2 -D plughw:n,0 where n is the sound card number

6. Set your speaker to the desired device by creting a file /etc/asound.conf and adding these lines (n is the desired sound card number again):

   • defaults.pcm.card n
   • defaults.ctl.card n

7. Verify your default audio output is now your speaker by running speaker-test c2

   • Note: if you want to adjust the volume of audio output, use the command alsamixer to view a dashboard that allows you to edit output volume

8. Install Git by running the command: sudo apt-get install git

9. Run this command to download the code: git clone https://github.com/SchwartzCode/sound_button.git

   • This branch works for debian buster. If you are running the debian bullseye OS, you will need to:
     • checkout the bullseye branch of this repo: git checkout -b bullseye origin/bullseye
     • install vlc: sudo apt install vlc

10. Add a folder called "sounds" inside the sound_button folder you downloaded in step 7 that is filled with the audio clips you want to play

11. Connect a button to the GPIO pins by soldering it to the proper pins:

12. Move the desired sound files (mp3s and wavs) into the audio/ folder (they CANNOT be in a folder inside the audio/ folder)

13. Run the script to verify everything works

14. If you want the script to play automatically, add these two lines to the bottom of the .bashrc file in your raspberry pi's home directory (type cd ~ to get to home directory)

    • cd ~/sound_button
    • python sound_button_script.py
    • You will also need to set up auto-login on the pi (instructions here)

Debugging issues

• If you get a weird Input/Output error when trying to play sounds, you may need to turn the volume down on your audio player (can adjust this with by running alsamixer command)
• If you are having trouble installing things, try running the command: sudo apt-get update and then: sudo apt-get upgrade
• If you aren't sure if you are connected to the internet, run the command: ping google.com to verify your connection
• If your keyboard is not typing the proper characters sometimes (happens for me with @, ", ~ and some other symbols), you can either try to switch your keyboard type in the raspi-config (run command sudo raspi-config to edit) or you can just find where characters are mapping to. For me, I have found that @ and " switch places, and ~ can be typed by hitting the | key
• The default login for a raspberry pi is
  • username: pi
  • password raspberry

Useful Resources

• Python GPIO Library for Raspberry Pi

• Raspberry Pi GPIO Pinout

• Changing default output on Rasepberry Pi