“What can I say, the kit turned up in a few days and while I was new to the whole Pi situation I found it really easy to set up and run. Any problems I had were sorted out by the community and learnt a lot. Now working out my next project now after such a positive experience with the kit. Thanks everyone at Pimoroni”
“This kit was ordered as a replacement "lullaby" radio for my son after I lost his on vacation.
I've had this for a few months now and he won't go to sleep without it on.
The case is built using thick acrylic layers and it's very sturdy. Overtime you may need to readjust the nylon bolts since they get loosened easily (especially when my son grabs the radio and dances around).
The initial setup was a bit cumbersome when I first bought it, but after the release of the new one line installer it got much easier. You may want to reference the forums if you run into any issues. Specifically if you plan to use this outside of the typical radio setup that is being provided.
Overall I highly recommend this project for those who would like a simple effective radio/speaker setup. Pimoroni has supplied a great kit for beginners and there's endless possibility for incorporating it with other projects as you become more experienced with Raspberry Pi's!”
“I received yesterday my kit. That as very easy to assemble and really fun! Pimoroni has really fun hardware ;)
But, instead of having a Pi Zero W as announced, I received a Pi Zero v. 1.3 (without wifi)
I'm a little bit disappointed ...”
“Was really enjoyable build. You just soldered the headers to the Pi Zero and the pHAT BEAT as start.
After that you just need to figure out how to build together the acrylic parts, it seems like the guide has changed between revisions and I almost forgot to add the transparent front. Not the guides fault though. Most say I enjoyed this part the most, seeing the radio come together and it was a little fun to peal of the protective film.
The last step of the build is to add the pHAT BEAT and hookup the speaker to it. Then you only need to add the Pi Zero and after that comes the programming part.
I choose to make into a internet radio, so I used the one-line-installer to install VLC Radio. So get it working besides giving it power and a SD-card. You just entered a one-line command in the terminal, then you could start enjoying the beats from the radio.
All the cables to hookup a keyboard, screen and USB for power was included in the kit. It was a nice surprise, did not expect to get a such complete kit.
Well that is it, need to get back to listen to the nice beats and figure out where to put those nice stickers I got.”
“Now normally everything on pimoroni gets five stars but have been left a slight bit disapointed the speaker in mine sounds damaged but am hoping its a one off. Had trouble getting buttons to work have to ssh into it and run service phatbeatd stop service phatbeatd start each time i fire it up so i can use it. But apart from that :)”
“Excellent kit. I’m sat typing this whilst listening to Radio Caroline. The hardware is really good quality and goes together easily. The software install for use as an internet radio was a bit confusing for me as a newcomer to Pi. To prepare the SD card I downloaded Jessie Lite and the Etcher tool linked to in the Spotify tutorial. Put the card in the Pi, applied power and eventually when all the writing had scrolled up the screen, got a prompt for logging on. Log on is pi and password is raspberry. Next enabled wi-fi internet connectivity as per the Spotify tutorial by editing wpa_supplicant.conf. Keep the ssid name and psk password in double quotes.
Then reboot and swap to the internet radio tutorial. Install the VLC internet radio software components as per the internet radio tutorial. This takes some time and the Pi has a built in screen time out, turning the screen black after a while – this threw me at first. Once the software is installed, reboot and after the VU meters on the Pirate Radio light briefly pressing the >> or”
“This kit is pretty straightforward to make.
Its the usual case of solder the phat and pi headers.
Attaching the speaker is easy and does not require any soldering.
As this has just been released there is not much documentation at the moment regarding how to use it once its made but there are plenty of different software solutions to try on the forums.
I had mine up and running playing music just a short while after building it. As soon as it started playing music and the lights come on I was really impressed. It not only looks cool but the speaker sounds really decent as well.
This is certainly something I am going to have on most evenings.
The Pimoroni stickers are a nice addition and some will be going on my Picade.”
