A homemade self-playing xylophone (actually a glockenspiel) built on a Raspberry Pi 0 WH basis, capable of playing any provided input MIDI files, with an LCD color screen and 3 rotary/click buttons, for interactions (e.g. select file).

This repository gathers sources Python scripts to be executed on the Raspberry Pi.

You can see the result at work with this playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDA98d1k4czCp31zG0Rtx2t4uluENyvoJ

How to setup the Raspberry Pi for this project

• From a fresh install, update the whole Pi:

  • sudo apt-get update
  • sudo apt-get upgrade

• Enable SSH, SPI & I2C interfaces:

  • sudo raspi-config
  • -> 3 Interface Options
  • -> P2 SSH -> Yes
  • -> P4 SPI -> Yes
  • -> P5 I2C -> Yes
  • sudo reboot

• Disable Desktop environment:

  • sudo raspi-config
  • -> 1 System Options
  • -> S5 Boot / Auto Login
  • -> B2 Console Autologin
  • sudo reboot

• Install PIGPIO library for Python:

  • sudo pip3 install pigpio

• In case it's not already installed, install smbus2 I2C library for Python:

  • sudo pip3 install smbus2

• Setup I2C bus to its maximum speed:

  • sudo vi /boot/config.txt
  • -> dtparam=i2c_arm=on,i2c_arm_baudrate=400000 (modify the original line, that was 'dtparam=i2c_arm=on')
  • sudo reboot

• Disable bluetooth (not needed):

  • sudo systemctl disable hciuart.service
  • sudo systemctl disable bluetooth.service
  • sudo vi /boot/config.txt (add the following line at the very bottom of the file)
  • -> dtoverlay=disable-bt
  • sudo reboot

• In case it's not already installed, install SPI library for Python:

  • sudo pip3 install spidev

• In case it's not already installed, install Python Imaging Library (PIL-low):

  • sudo pip3 install Pillow

• In case it's not already installed, install Numpy library for Python:

  • sudo pip3 install numpy

• Install mido MIDI library for Python:

  • sudo pip3 install mido

• Manually start PIGPIO daemon (add this to rc.local or .bashrc or other):

  • sudo pigpiod

Note: so, pigpio is used for GPIO access. Though they are available/activable in this project, RPi.GPIO & gpiozero supports were only partially tested.

• Add xylophone's main script to the Raspberry Pi startup sequence:

  • sudo vim /etc/rc.local (add the following lines before final "exit 0" command)
  • -> cd /home/pi/xylo
  • -> sudo ./main.sh 2>&1 > /dev/null &