These player were very interesting, based on the first version of the linkplay modules, which were "easily" modded thanks to the processor ar9331 which is the same on TP-Link TL-WR703N. These player include dedicated sound chipset (wolfson) and an digital optical output directly managed by the ar9331. SebastianFM has done drivers for these which are shared in this post.
The objective of this post is to share files and knowledge about it.
These are old note, a little messy but I you look carefully all you need to modify will be here.
This contains some technical details but pre-compiled image for soundmate M2 is given at the end of this post.
Now some modifications :
Activate wifi on boot : https://oldwiki.archive.openwrt.org/doc/howto/build#custom_files ==> newer url
So we include a new subfolder on the root build which will include lib/wifi/mac80211.sh and inside :
You need to remove 'option disabled 1' (from lib/wifi/mac80211.sh)
You could have a problem of firmware file size.
It doesn't work because the firmware of the TLWR703 is normally 4MB while the firmware of the M2 should be 8MB. To correct it :
Open : target/linux/ar71xx/image/Makefile
or target/linux/ar71xx/image/tp-link.mk on imagebuilder from trunk) ,
Then search for define Device/tl-wr703n-v1 and replace this line : $(Device/tplink-4mlzma) by $(Device/tplink-8mlzma)
Once you have successfuly compiled the firmware, you should have something like : "openwrt-15.05.1-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr703n-v1-squashfs-factory.bin"
Copy it on USB key, then with telnet commands :
New version (support wolfson jack ouput) :
Message from SebastianFM :
Some time ago I just found a way how to use i2c over gpio kernel driver which allows kernel drivers to communicate with audio codec connected to GPIO pins. This way I didn't need to write my own codec driver but I could use existing WM8904 codec kernel driver.
After few small changes in codec driver everything works perfectly, including mixer, volume control, equalizer (using alsamixer). I'm using latest OpenWrt snapshop so I compiled modules for kernel 4.4.14. I prepared source code for release and I'll try to upload it to GitHub soon.
Load modules in the following order:
snd-soc-ar9331-audio.ko
wm8904.ko
ar9331-audio-dev.ko
I can understand
You can get my pre-compiled firmware and flash it easily :
(please backup before and be careful) :
cd tmp/
wget http://alecsis.free.fr/sqeezeWRT/openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr703n-v1-squashfs-factory.bin
mtd -r write ./openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr703n-v1-squashfs-factory.bin firmware
This image require a lot of work, it's not perfect but it include :
Squeezebox player (thanks to Squeezelite and the awesome SqueezeWRT) (should be enought to do anything )
MPD player
DLNA player (thanks to UPMPDCLI)
airplay (thanks to shairport)
Other things :
Cantata is really awesome to control MPD player Squeezebox server (LMS) allow to transform your squeezelite player in a synchronized multiroom player compatible with airplay, upnp, spotify connect and many other awesome things
I recently entered into it, to switch wireless off in order to reduce a little bit radio pollution at home (I have it wired) and realized it was OpenWRT. I reviewed posts on it and seems quite interesting. It has several programs violating GPL: audiorender, newshair (shairport), nrender... or that i cant find sources of.
Would it be possible to flash a recent OpenWRT version to it, and get free programs that provide music streaming capabilities (In fact I just need it as a receiver for digital audio and put the stream to SPDIF, dlna renderer, and perhaps digital radio tuner)?
I mean, have you tried to upgrade to the current OpenWRT release? compatibility problems with programs migrated long ago?
Thank you
Cheers,
J
Hi John, I don't try anymore to update it. The main reason is that SebastianFM who has compiled the sound driver is the only one who own the source code. May be there's another drivers since all this time but not sure... So I stuck on this old version, that's enought to play music in my toilets
If you discover some new things about this device, keep me informed here please, I still curious to know if I will do something with the other one that I keep in his box since many years
Hello schmurtz, after install your prebuild openwrt firmware, how to access the device? I cant find it via wireless. My product is Veetop Airmusic with 8MB flash, 32MB ram
Hello schmurts, do you plan to update your prebuilt firmware with new version of shairport-sync as it now supports AirPlay 2 with multiroom audio even from iOS devices.
That would give new life to all NW11. Thanks!
and no AP mode, so unless you setup AP with these parameters, you won't connect to it anymore.
Other than that, the firmware works, LuCi is there, after installing WM drivers the AirPlay works nicely.
@moole6, I'm curious if you were ever successful in upgrading shairport to shairport-sync on these devices? I haven't worked with OpenWRT before, but I have this device and am considering trying to follow the "guide" on this thread to try and achieve a shairport-sync reciever.