How do I say thank-you?

[mflint]

I just got AirConnect working beautifully on a Raspberry Pi with very little effort, connecting to Sonos.

Perhaps you're too modest to have a tip-jar in the README, but I'd love a way to say thank-you for all your hard work, @philippe44. A PayPal or Amazon wishlist link would be ideal ;-)

Matthew

[seanchs]

Hi Mflint,

I was trying to install it on Raspberry Pi 3 but don't know what to do after executing the 'wget' to load the file on Raspberry. Would you mind sharing your procedure? My personal email is seanchs@gmail.com

Appreciate your help,

Sean

[philippe44]

Thanks Matthew - Such messages is a all I'm looking for :-)

[othyn]

Massive props! Spectacular bit of kit that just works! 👍

[wlsnchrs]

Thanks for making this bit of code!

[philippe44]

@othyn @wlsnchrs: thanks! share with others

[rtgoodwin]

Just want to chime in and say thanks also :)

[davle]

Made my Sonos a lot more usable since their native Spotify implementation has been skippings songs for quite a while for me, and I don't have to use the Sonos app to use apple music.

[lesanderson]

Also want to say thank you! This seems like superb code. It runs with very little overhead, and has been very stable. Some of the other solutions I have tried chew up major cpu cycles. I am using this to make chromecasts airplay endpoints so they can receive streams from Roon. Thanks again!

[mylesagray]

Absolutely, thank you a bunch @philippe44, awesome work!

[mikehudson2]

Thanks Phillipe, really interesting work. Is there a community forum anywhere for users to share their experiences? If you need any feedback/help with debugging happy to help. I use it for Airplay -> Win 7 -> 6x Sonos devices.

[aiwipro]

Terrific work @philippe44! My multiroom Chromecast Audios (and their respective Groups) work flawlessly! I'm running your binary on MacOS High Sierra 10.13.4 as a service.

In order to make the bridge autostart and keep alive I created the file com.aircast.bridge.plist in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ with

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.aircast.bridge</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/xxx/airconnect/aircast-osx-multi</string>
        <string>-x</string>
        <string>/Users/xxx/airconnect/config.xml</string>
        <string>-f</string>
        <string>/Users/xxx/airconnect/aircast.log</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>LaunchOnlyOnce</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

[Flybel]

I agree that this is a great piece of work (Raspberry Pi and 4 Sonos devices)! One thing though, in the installation description in the readme, the command to download openssl 1.0.0 needs a tiny fix: +deb8u8_armhf.deb, the link you provided returned 404 for me.
When setting everything correctly, there is no latency at all, this is purely amazing!

[philippe44]

Thanks for finding out the link issue. There was a new version made available recently and I did not notice it.

[mbnn]

Thank you so much for this aircast and airupnp, it rocks! :) Using it on Linux.
Can we donate somewhere for you? :)

[philippe44]

Thanks for the happy feedback. I don't accept donation, but I appreciate the intention!

[Jeronimo654]

It‘s really one of my favorite applications for my raspberry. Makes listening to Apple Music super easy.

[mbnn]

The only question I have (@philippe44) is why is aircast and airupnp split up and not both put in one executable? (just wondering).

[philippe44]

UPnP and Chromecast protocol are very different, as well as the device detection. That would make stiching the two pretty difficult and a funny code architecture

[kisamoto]

Just wanted to chime in here and say after about 30 minutes of searching to fix this problem finding your repository has made my week. I see you don't accept donations but should you need any development help or want a happy Scottish/Swiss gift basket to say thank you just say the word.
Thanks again for your effort.

[philippe44]

Thanks ;-)

[thewhit]

Incredibly impressive work here @philippe44. Thank you.

[kolobus]

Thank you for your work!

[bekirserifoglu]

Ohh man. I so wanted to donate, but apparently you don't accept donations. You are a lifesaver for someone who decided to give up using Spotify on Mac OS. Keep up the good work, you good samaritan.

[funxiun]

Thank you so much for this!

I have 2 grouped Denon Heos 1 speakers and in combination with AirConnect Airplay is flawless!
Also good to know that the Heos 1 speakers also need the -l 1000:2000 latency setting just like the Sonos. Otherwise you get unpredictable uPnP dropouts.

[normanmaurer]

Also just wanted to say thank you @philippe44 ! This software is awesome :)

[KamistixX]

Thank you @philippe44
Very nice and useful work indeed

[sheilnaik]

Want to chime in here. This took 10 seconds to test on my Mac, 5 minutes to set up on my Raspberry Pi (and running as a service). Wonderful work!

[archer-jr]

Worked brilliantly first time, my Sonos will finally get some proper use! Thanks @philippe44. Excellent!

[mfbx9da4]

Thank you @philippe44 fantastic work! 👏❤️🍾

[Spoonylein]

Got it working on a VM with Debian running on my Synology 218+. Everything working fine with 3 Play:1, one standalone and the other two grouped as a pair of stereos.
@philippe44: Great work, thank you so much !

[bnitkin]

My house has a mix of iphone/Android and Windows/Mac in my house. Music lives on a Linux NAS, and I've been looking for some client/server software that could support the NAS, all the clients, and Chromecasts for ages. Nada.

This entirely sidesteps the problem. The Apple clients can use Airplay, and Android can use built-in casting.

I'm thrilled! It's so nice to have different ecosystems actually work together. And install couldn't be easier - download and run a single executable.

Thanks!

[philippe44]

My house has a mix of iphone/Android and Windows/Mac in my house. Music lives on a Linux NAS, and I've been looking for some client/server software that could support the NAS, all the clients, and Chromecasts for ages. Nada.

This entirely sidesteps the problem. The Apple clients can use Airplay, and Android can use built-in casting.

I'm thrilled! It's so nice to have different ecosystems actually work together. And install couldn't be easier - download and run a single executable.

Thanks!

Thanks!

[willh20]

I want to add my thanks to this project and the amazing work by @philippe44. This project provided a bridge from my aging AppleTV 3rd generation to Sonos groups.
Well done!

[cromulus]

Thank you @philippe44! Love this project.

[AndrewTerry]

I'd like to echo the original commenter... I do hope you'll consider adding a tipjar/PayPal link.

I got AirConnect up & running on my RPi and supposedly "non AirPlay compatible" Sonos gear after just 10 minutes reading and 5 minutes "doing". Thank you @philippe44

[philippe44]

Thanks!

[Racing-Snake]

Thank you @philippe44 this is great. If you had a tip jar you'd have a beer coming your way.

[bluefurrymonster]

Thanks, @philippe44 Neat piece of work. This is definitely something useful. Kudos! Can I send you a Starbucks via email?

[Qave55]

Have a dedicated RP4 running the software for various Sonos devises. Many thanks

[Picazsoo]

Thanks @philippe44 for the amazing piece of software. I have it up and running on RPi4 for 3 chromecast audios & 3 chromecast audio groups. Really appreciate the binaries for various systems & architectures. It made it possible to quickly test on my windows machine and thus dedicate the required time to go and mess with the RPi when I saw how well it works.

[Darveesh]

I utilized the Windows version and installed as a service. Other than ensuring Windows firewall had an exception for the executable, it was smooth installation and execution. And this has now enabled my Sonos Player:1 - which had direct Airplay support when purchased, but later (perhaps illegally) removed via a firmware update - to be used via AirPlay again. Thank you!

[pwt]

Sonos Player:1 - which had direct Airplay support when purchased, but later (perhaps illegally) removed via a firmware update

Just to note that the Sonos Play:1 has never had native AirPlay support.

AirConnect, of course, addresses that limitation perfectly :)

[Darveesh]

@pwt Noted. I should have said direct playback. All I know is that when I hit what is now the cast/share button in iOS my Sonos Play:1 would should up and then 3 months after purchase (and a device firmware update) it was gone/poof. Your product has resurrected an expensive paper weight. Thanks again.

Ps: here is the link to the uproar over it - https://en.community.sonos.com/announcements-228985/on-this-iphone-or-ipad-no-longer-available-6829000.

[pwt]

@pwt Noted. I should have said direct playback...

Ah, you mean the removal of being able to play content hosted on iOS/iPadOS ("play from this iPhone", etc.) That didn't use AirPlay.

In fairness to Sonos, the removal of this feature was due to changes made by Apple.

[Darveesh]

Got it. Curious, I don't know the technical protocol that enabled that "play from this iPhone" feature. What did Apple do specifically that took that capability away? And even so, couldn't Sonos support AirPlay via a firmware update? Did they not want to pay Apple a fee? Or perhaps the hardware is underpowered for AirPlay (even though works through the AirConnect bridge)? Would be interested in your thoughts/insight.

[pwt]

What did Apple do specifically that took that capability away?

Roughly speaking, the "play from this iPhone" feature depended on running a background server process on the iOS device that stayed running for the duration required for Sonos to stream from it. Apple made changes that prevented this use case.

And even so, couldn't Sonos support AirPlay via a firmware update? Did they not want to pay Apple a fee?

Sonos stated that older devices didn't have the resources required to support AirPlay v2, which is quite a complex service. They've never implemented AirPlay v1 (which is what AirConnect provides), because they didn't consider it robust enough (although that's arguable).

(even though works through the AirConnect bridge)?

That's because the AirConnect software running on your Windows machine is doing all the AirPlay heavy lifting. Sonos is just pulling an HTTP stream from your Windows box.

[Darveesh]

Very helpful explanation. Much obliged. Thanks again.

[philippe44]

Just to add to what @pwt said: for having implemented AirPlay 1 on different devices, I can say that this is not a cpu or memory demanding protocol.

It's is low-speed RTSP server and a RealTimeProtocol receiver. Maybe getting the sync to work can be a bit difficult, but even that I don't believe a second. At the end, this is decoding alac@44.1kHz, fully within the capabilities of Sonos 1st Gen.

Now, it's perfectly understandable that Sonos does not want to do that because they would have needed a license from Apple at the time and later you can't maintain/upgrade old software forever, it is costly, companies have to move on and put their developers to work on what ensures their best future.

But saying it's "technically impossible" is the usually rubbish that you are being served which means "I don't want to do it (maybe for a good reason".

[pwt]

Just to add to what @pwt said: for having implemented AirPlay 1 on different devices, I can say that this is not a cpu or memory demanding protocol.

It's is low-speed RTSP server and a RealTimeProtocol receiver. Maybe getting the sync to work can be a bit difficult, but even that I don't believe a second. At the end, this is decoding alac@44.1kHz, fully within the capabilities of Sonos 1st Gen.

Now, it's perfectly understandable that Sonos does not want to do that because they would have needed a license from Apple at the time and later you can't maintain/upgrade old software forever, it is costly, companies have to move on and put their developers to work on what ensures their best future.

But saying it's "technically impossible" is the usually rubbish that you are being served which means "I don't want to do it (maybe for a good reason".

Just to be clear, Sonos has never directly supported AirPlay 1 on any device, nor have they claimed it couldn't be implemented due to resource constraints. The resource limitation claim applies to AirPlay v2 only, which is only supported on more recent devices.

[philippe44]

Just to be clear, Sonos has never directly supported AirPlay 1 on any device, nor have they claimed it couldn't be implemented due to resource constraints. The resource limitation claim applies to AirPlay v2 only, which is only supported on more recent devices.

Maybe my bad, but I thought I read a while ago that they claim AirPlay1 was not embedded because of "technical limitations". Anyway, it does not matter much as again, this is rightfully their choice a a company. We might like or not, but we are also free to buy or not their products 😄

[Darveesh]

Since we are on the topic (perhaps off topic? :P)... I was one of those customers who went into the store asking if Play:1 could play my music off my iPhone. The answer was yes. I was happy to purchase the product and use it in that manner. A few months later that specific feature was removed for me (and any other iPhone based users). Needless to say, for me the device became a paper weight overnight and Sonos' stance was that it was an Apple restriction, i.e. "too bad too sad". That as you might say was their choice in handling the matter. But that meant a lot of sour taste in my mouth and they lost a customer (and anyone else in future who listens to me). I wish they had offered some alternatives. Knowing a bit more context given your inputs, it would have been great if they did implement AirPlay1 on the device. And if that was too legacy of a code branch to manage maybe open sourced the firmware for the community so they can take the mantle. And that's not to say about financial tokens (maybe an at-cost upgrade to an Airplay supported unit or some such gesture). We are where we are in the end and AirConnect has resurrected a dead device for me (and perhaps some old feelings). I am happy and grateful for the option thanks to you.

[dickinson-lab]

Thanks Philippe, this worked flawlessly and was super easy to set up. I saw above that you do not accept donations, so please accept my gratitude instead 👏🏻👏🏻

[Limezy]

Working perfectly. Just wanted to say thanks @philippe44 👍. Your code is now part of my everyday life !

[MacsInSpace]

Also +2 thank you! @philippe44

[bruder-grimm]

This absolutely blew me away. Not only does it work absolutely flawlessly, but all it took me was ./aircast-arm to essentially convert my entire flat to airplay 🥲

Incredible work, thank you so so much 👏 👏

[shakfu]

This is one the best software experiences I've ever had. It just worked on my mac, working on my raspberry pi zero. This demonstrates what's best about open source software. Well done. 👍

[philippe44]

Thanks 😄

[seyb]

Works like a charm on my Raspberry 4 with Ubuntu 64-bit server. Thanks a lot !!

[ItsPops]

Same here: AirUPNP is working great even on my exotic not-that-well-managed LXC setup. Great work and thanks a lot !

[philippe44]

Thanks again!