I picked up one of the early model B editions of the Pi some time ago, and have done a small amount of tinkering with it, using it as a XBMC/Kodi/OSMC machine for watching videos, and trying out other similar applications. I always felt I should try a more ambitious project.
I didn't really need another device to play videos on, and have seen a number of really nice looking custom music players, so I started looking into the possibilities of creating my own.
I should start by mentioning that my electronics and soldering skills are fairly basic, so I wanted to start simple, with a view to adding to the project as I became more familiar and more confident with some of the electronics required.
Having read a lot about other peoples projects and how they had built them, I picked up an electronics starter kit for the Raspberry Pi. The kit was aimed mainly at kids, but it had a solder-less breadboard, and a number of basic electronic components, wires, and instructions on building basic circuits, so thought this would be a good start.
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| Basic LED circuit controlled by the Raspberry Pi |
I built some basic circuits with this kit, and as I'm a software developer I was happy enough hacking around with some of the python code to alter the function of the circuits slightly.
The projects are a good introduction to what can be achieved, but I mainly wanted the kit for the breadboard and the starter set of components and wires that should prove helpful when prototyping my music player.
Having gained a good idea of what I wanted to build and what components I'd need, I put a list together using Adafruit as a valuable resource for many of the components and also excellent guides on how to use the components and build projects with them.
I'll go into more detail on the components I'm using to build my music player in my next post.