AmpliPi POE Touchscreen Controller

A POE-powered touchscreen controller designed to control AmpliPi, using the Olimex ESP32-PoE board.

Currently a work in progress, nearing initial release.

Built using VS Code with Platform.IO.

Preview of device and UI

Primary screen with currently playing metadata:

• Top left button turns off screen. Touching the screen while off will turn it back on.
• Top right button shows source selection screen.
• Bottom area is volume level and mute control.

FM radio source with multiple zones

Ability to control up to two zone volumes from the main screen.

Local (RCA) source

The primary screen when the local source is selected.

Source selection screen

Clicking the button on the top right lets you select any available source.

Settings screen

A few settings to adjust which zones and source ID to control.

Currently supported hardware

• Olimex ESP32-PoE board
• ILI9341 or ILI9488 compatible TFT touchscreen with resolutions of 240x320 or 320x480

Basic setup instructions

1. Wire the TFT touchscreen to the ESP32-PoE using the UEXT connector (PCB details coming soon). Edit platform.ini as needed.

Pin selection for the Olimex ESP32-PoE board's UEXT connector

• TFT_CS=15
• TFT_RST=5
• TFT_DC=2
• TFT_MOSI=13
• TFT_SCLK=14
• TFT_MISO=16
• TFT_BL=16
• DTOUCH_CS=4

2. Clone this Github project
3. Upload Filesystem Image to ESP32-PoE (this uploads the files in the data folder to the ESP32's file system)
4. Compile and upload to ESP32-PoE
5. Power on controller. It will look for an AmpliPi to http://amplipi.local

A 3D printable faceplate design will be available after the first controller release.

Note: WiFi functionality on the ESP32-PoE is not available in this repo. If WiFi is needed, use the WiFi repo: https://github.com/kjk2010/AmpliPi-Touchscreen-Keypad

To do items for first release

• Publish compiled binary
• Increase image sizes on screen to improve UX

Finished items

• Add controller update support from local AmpliPi source (will require a minor AmpliPi web server modification)
• Fix touch locations for buttons on settings page on larger screens
• Add rotation setting to settings screen
• Fix bug where top source bar is blank on startup if source is "None"
• Update GUI design, including source selection buttons
• Fix bug on stream selection screen showing 'next' button incorrectly when more than 8 streams exist
• Add local inputs on stream selection screen
• Add support for stream commands: Play/Pause, Next, Stop, Like
• Show album art for all available stream sources
• Backlight control (button to turn screen on and off)
• Switch to JPEG images instead of BMP in order to speed up downloading and display of album art
• Add support full multiple screen sizes
• Add POE and Ethernet capabilities, utilizing the Olimex ESP32-POE board
• Add stream selection screen
• Add local source to stream selection screen
• Add settings screen: Change Zone, Change Source, Reset WiFi & AmpliPi Host, Reset Touchscreen
• Move zone selection to settings screen and save to config file
• Show album art for local inputs
• Support controlling one or two zones
• Add mDNS resolution support so touchscreen can find amplipi.local

Future features

• Infrared receiver support to control volume level and mute on configured channel
• Quick access buttons for controllable features, such as turning lights on and off
• Touching album art should go to a full screen mode with only album art and metadata. When clicking anywhere on the screen in this mode, switch back to regular metadata mode.
• Put metadata into sprites to scroll long values
• Add AmpliPi preset functionality
• Screen time out options (PIR, touch, screensaver showing full screen only metadata?)
• Switch to using SSE or WebSockets, whichever AmpliPi server offers, instead of spamming API
• Simple web server to allow changing of AmpliPi name/IP, display settings, color scheme
• Add support for expansion units (more than 6 output zones)
• Allow firmware updates to come from AmpliPi server
• Integrate Home Assistant control options on a second screen