Review
(^194) The Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book raspberrypi.org/magpi
Build
your very
own internet-
connected
radio with
the Pirate
Radio Kit!
Pimoroni
Maker
Says
PI ZERO W PROJECT KIT
he most expensive of a
batch of four Raspberry
Pi Zero W project kits
from Pimoroni, the Pirate Radio
comprises a case full of quality
components – everything you
need to build your own internet
radio. As with the other three
kits, the packaging is top-notch
and the hinged plastic case
can be reused to store other
components after the build.
The key electronic items
featured in the Pirate Radio kit are
a Pi Zero W, with built-in wireless
LAN and Bluetooth, and one of
Pimoroni’s new pHAT BEATs. Also
available separately, the latter is
a neat bit of kit that crams dual
I^2 S DAC/amplifiers onto a Pi Zero-
sized board, and can pump out
3 W per channel.
The body of the radio is fairly
easy to assemble – from acrylic
pieces, legs, retainers, nuts,
and bolts – using the illustrated
step-by-step online guide
(magpi.cc/2o1i7d7). As long as you
follow the guide carefully to get
the orientation right, everything
slots together neatly. The acrylic
pieces are all laser cut, including a
neat speaker grille, so there are no
nasty rough edges.
The supplied 5 W speaker simply
slots onto four bolts holding the
translucent front acrylic layer in
place. Fortunately, the speaker
comes with a length of dual wire
already connected, so there’s
no need to solder it. We’re not
sure why the wire is much longer
than required, though; while you
could always cut it to size, we just
wound it round the bolts at the rear
of the radio.
Unless you opt to buy a couple
of Pimoroni’s ingenious hammer
headers separately, you will need
to break out the soldering iron
to attach the supplied standard
male and female headers to the Pi
Zero W and pHAT BEAT. The latter
then slots onto more bolts at the
rear of the radio, with the Zero W
mounted on top. The speaker
wires are inserted into a couple of
the terminal blocks on the pHAT
BEAT, with the latter’s dip switch
set to mono to combine its stereo
channels. With that, your internet
radio is built!
Streaming software
The Pi Zero W’s built-in wireless
connectivity means there’s
This musical pirate booty is something to treasure
T
AMP ZERO
PHAT
JustBoom’s
Zero-sized
board delivers
up to 20 W
RMS of high-
resolution
audio to a pair
of passive
speakers using
an optional
external
power supply.
magpi.cc/2lNJMKO
Related
£24 / $37
PIRATE RADIO
PIRATE RADIO