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Pirate Audio Speaker for Raspberry Pi

by Pimoroni
An image of Pirate Audio Speaker for Raspberry Pi An image of Pirate Audio Speaker for Raspberry Pi An image of Pirate Audio Speaker for Raspberry Pi

Pump out some mini beats with Pirate Audio Speaker! This diminutive sound system has an I2S DAC, amp, mini mono speaker, high-res display, and playback control buttons.

Pirate Audio Speaker is perfect for making a Lilliputian radio, sound effect player, or even as a teeny-weeny games console! The built-in 1W speaker isn't the loudest but it's great fun for lots of projects. The display and playback buttons let you control your audio or sound effects in a jiffy. Use our Pirate Audio software (more info below) to play local audio files (MP3, FLAC, etc) or stream from services like Spotify.

Pirate Audio is a range of all-in-one audio boards for Raspberry Pi, with high-quality digital audio, beautifully-crisp IPS displays for album art, tactile buttons for playback control, and our custom Pirate Audio software and installer to make setting it all up a breeze.

Features

  • MAX98357A DAC / amplifier chip (datasheet)
  • Mono audio
  • Mini speaker (1W / 8Ω, attached)
  • Push-fit speaker terminals
  • 1.3" IPS colour LCD (240x240px) (ST7789 driver)
  • Four tactile buttons
  • Mini HAT-format board
  • Fully-assembled
  • Compatible with all 40-pin header Raspberry Pi models
  • Pirate Audio software
  • Dimensions: 65x30.5x9.5mm

Software

Our Pirate Audio software and installer installs the Python library for the LCD, configures the I2S audio and SPI, and then installs Mopidy and our custom Pirate Audio plugins to display album art and track info, and to use the buttons for playback control.

Here's how to get started:

  1. Set an SD card up with the latest version of Raspbian.
  2. Connect to Wi-Fi or a wired network.
  3. Open a terminal and type the following:

    git clone https://github.com/pimoroni/pirate-audio
    cd pirate-audio/mopidy
    sudo ./install.sh

  4. Reboot your Pi

You can find more detailed instructions here: https://github.com/pimoroni/pirate-audio/tree/master/mopidy

Notes

Note that our installer, linked above, does all of the below for you, but if you're an intrepid hacker then you might need to know this stuff!

  • The DAC can be configured by adding dtoverlay=hifiberry-dac to the /boot/config.txt file.
  • There is a DAC enable pin—BCM 25— that must be driven high to enable the DAC. You can do this by adding gpio=25=op,dh to the /boot/config.txt file.
  • The buttons are active low, and connected to pins BCM 5, 6, 16, and 20
  • The display uses SPI, and you'll need to enable SPI through the Raspberry Pi configuration menu.
  • If you want to use these boards with a Pibow Coupé case (either for the Zero / Zero W or Pi 4), then you'll need to use a booster header to raise it up a little.

12 customer reviews

6 months ago

Good kit, speaker is nothing special, but not expecting anything special from 1watt. The pirate-audio git is outdated and not maintained well, so prepare to do most of the work yourself, but that is part of making.

by j about Pirate Audio: Speaker for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
a year ago

Awesome product, but i bought 2 pieces, 1 piece not work, i guess display broken. so i bought new one.

by SEUNGJIN about Pirate Audio: Speaker for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago

I just love this brilliant little speaker and display. While getting frustrated with YouTube and GitHub, etc, conflicting instructions I decided to lift the lid off the hardware and code my own multichannel Internet radio with station logo display, on a pi zero. It's working flawlessly around the house The only downside is that it's tethered to my home WiFi. I might get round to making it roaming WiFi enabled and also add Bluetooth headset capability to it but for now, three days of coding and three fresh installs is enough

by Reza about Pirate Audio: Speaker for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago

Arrived quickly and well packaged, 5 star rating

by GLEN about Pirate Audio: Speaker for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago

Very easy to set up. Great instructions. Wonderful support. First one came broken but they sent a new one ASAP. Would definitely buy from this company again.

by Michelle about Pirate Audio: Speaker for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago

Works great!

by Kristoffer about Pirate Audio: Speaker for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago

Zusammen mit dem pi Zero WH und piCorePlayer! Echt super! Die Lieferung hat a bisserl gedauert. Nach Ungarn = 13 Tage. Da kann Pimoroni vermutlich nicht dafür. Bin schon zufrieden.

by John about Pirate Audio: Speaker for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago

Too much fun for the money :-) It is so nice to have and listen to that nobody shouldn’t waste any more seconds before wasting this nano amount of money to buy it.

by Anoniem about Pirate Audio: Speaker for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago

Really good product, it was really easy to make it work using a custom python script on RPI WH. The order took a long time to travel between UK and France (almost 1 week), probably due to covid19 safety measures. But the product has been shipped really fast (maybe 12h after ordered).

by Anonymous about Pirate Audio: Speaker for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago

Very good device and associated software / library. Plan to code a "smart" alarm clock...

by Jean-Marie about Pirate Audio: Speaker for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago

I'm in the beginning stages of using the Pirate Audio Speaker for a new project. The speaker quality is perfect for me. I would purchase this again.

by Robert about Pirate Audio: Speaker for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago

Straightforward to set up, fun audio / display particularly on a pi zero W. Mopidy good do with better instructions on how to make it play something - I didn't realise I would need to connect an external browser, and setting up radio sources always seems to be rubbish on mpd like systems. Now got it connected to BBC streams, local files and spotify.

by Paul about Pirate Audio: Speaker for Raspberry Pi via REVIEWS.io

User photos

Pump out some mini beats with Pirate Audio Speaker! This diminutive sound system has an I2S DAC, amp, mini mono speaker, high-res display, and playback control buttons.

PIM485 12

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SKU
PIM485
EAN
0606034880719
Brand
Pimoroni
Stock available
19 units
You may backorder this product
Weight
18g
Country of origin
GB
Tariff code
8519810090

Video introduction

Guides & tutorials

Getting Started with Pirate Audio

Learn how to use Pirate Audio boards and install their software

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