The following tutorial is based on Cycling'74's RNBO Raspberry Pi Target documentation. I have simplified the information and added images to streamline the process.
- Raspberry Pi (version 3 or 4) + power + MicroSD card
- Class-compliant audio interface
- Raspberry Pi Imager
- RNBO Image File - get the latest version, this is a RNBO-ready version of Debian 11 that will run on the Raspberry Pi
- Max/RNBO - make sure you have the latest version
Insert your MicroSD card into your computer and open the Raspberry Pi Imager.
Under "Raspberry Pi Device" select your Raspberry Pi version.
Click "Choose OS," scroll to the bottom and click "Use custom," and then select the RNBO Image File.
Click "Choose Storage" and select your MicroSD card.
Click "Next."
Choose "Edit Settings." (If MacOS asks to pre-fill your Wifi password, you can either choose to do that or manually enter the WiFi information yourself.)
Under the General tab, use these settings:
It is important to not change the hostname. It is also important to set the username to "pi." Choose a password that you'll remember. If you opted to not have MacOS pre-fill your WiFi name/password, manually enter that here. Finally, set your locale to optimize the WiFi communication.
Go to the "Services" tab. Enable SSH with password authentication. Click "Save."
Back at the "Use OS Customisation" menu, choose "Yes."
You'll get a warning that the MicroSD card will be completely erased when the new image is flashed. Click "Yes" to continue.
The flashing process will begin and take 5-10 minutes to write and verify. When it is complete, you'll get a pop-up notice that the drive is flashed and ready to use.
Eject the MicroSD from the computer and insert it into the Raspberry Pi.
Before connecting power to the Raspberry Pi, connect your class-compliant audio interface via USB. Alternatively, you can use a Raspberry Pi audio hat.
Connect power to the Raspberry Pi. The red LED indicates power. The flash green LED indicates that the computer is reading from the MicroSD.
It might take 2-3 minutes for the first booting sequence to complete.
Make sure your computer is connected to the same WiFi as the one you setup in the Raspberry Pi Imager.
Open up a RNBO project and open the Export Sidebar. If everything worked, you should see your Raspberry Pi as an option under "Devices."
(If you don't see your Raspberry Pi, there's a couple reasons what might be happening. In order to solve, see the SSH section below.)
Click on your device to open the target export settings menu. You may see a prompt at the top of the screen to update your RNBO version; if so, do that.
The most crucial items in the settings are:
- Audio interface: set this to your connected audio interface, either over USB or attached as a hat
- Audio interface settings (ie. Sample Rate, Frames, Periods): adjust these settings to optimize performance as needed
- Patch name: give your code a unique name that you can refer to later
When set, click the bottom-right icon to export and compile on the Raspberry Pi.
When the process is complete, you'll be given a QR code you can scan to open a web interface to control your parameters. Alternatively, you can find the URL for the web interface in the target export menu.
Make audio connections with your audio interface and audition your RNBO patch on the Raspberry Pi. If you don't hear audio, here some some potential problems:
- Did you select the correct audio interface in the target export menu?
- Is your audio interface's audio output turned up?
- How is sound initiated on your patch? Does it need a MIDI input? Audio input?
- Is your audio interface class-compliant? Does it need special drivers to work on your computer? If so, then it may not work on the Raspberry Pi. Do a web search with your audio interface name and "class-compliant."
- Is the web interface showing up and does it say "Connected" in the top-right corner?
See Cycling'74's FAQ for more potential solutions.
SSH (Secure Shell) is a protocol to use the terminal of one computer to access and control another computer. In this case, we will use our computer to access the Raspberry Pi. On MacOS, open the Terminal app. On Windows, use an SSH client like PuTTY or OpenSSH.
In your terminal, type the follow:
Enter the password you set for the Raspberry Pi. If everything goes well, it will connect and look similar to this:
If you're using multiple Raspberry Pi's running RNBO on the same network, you'll want to give them different names so there's no conflicts.
After successfully connecting via SSH, run the following command:
sudo raspi-configThis should launch a configuration menu. Choose "System Options" and then "Hostname."
Change the hostname, for instance, to c74rpi-yourinitials.
After confirming the change, the Raspberry Pi will need to restart.
In order to SSH into the Pi now, you will need to address it by its new hostname, for example:
If you're struggling to get the Raspberry Pi to show up in the Export Sidebar in RNBO, you can also manually enter the IP address to find it.
First, you must know the IP address of the Raspberry Pi, and to do that we need to access the Pi via SSH. Once you're in, enter the following command:
ifconfigThis will return information about the Wifi and Ethernet adapters including the IP address. Look for the keyword "inet" to find the IP address. In this example, the IP address is 192.168.0.15:
In RNBO's Export Sidebar, click "Add" and type in the IP address of the Raspberry Pi. Then, proceed to export your code as described above.