nowplaying-setup-hardware

name: nowplaying-setup-hardware description: Use when the user is wiring up the physical audio chain for Now Playing — connecting their turntable, RIAA preamp, RCA splitter, Sonos line-in, and USB audio capture device, or attaching the kiosk display and touch USB cable. Triggers on phrases like "wire the audio", "connect the turntable", "how do I split the signal", "what cables do I need", "set up the hardware", "connect the display".

Now Playing — hardware wiring

Walk the user through wiring the physical signal chain. This phase is done before any software work — the install steps depend on the USB capture device already being enumerated by the Pi.

The mental model

Now Playing is a parallel ear on the same signal Sonos already plays. Sonos handles the audio for the room. The Pi listens to a duplicate copy of the line-level signal and identifies the track. Nothing about audio routing changes — the kiosk publishes "what's playing" without ever being in the audio path.

                       ┌─── Sonos line-in (room audio)
turntable ─► preamp ──┤
                       └─── UFO202 input ──► Pi USB (recognition ear)
                       │
                       (passive RCA Y-splitter or active splitter)

Step 1: Confirm the listening source

Ask: "What's feeding your Sonos line-in today?" The most common answer is "a turntable through a phono preamp." But the project works for any line-level source — CD player, tape deck, FM tuner. The wiring below assumes turntable; adapt for other sources.

If the turntable has a built-in preamp (some modern decks do), the line-level output goes straight to the splitter — skip the external preamp box. Confirm by checking the turntable's manual or back-panel labeling (look for "PHONO" vs "LINE" output switch).

Step 2: Get the parts in front of you

Item	Purpose	Notes
RCA Y-splitter (1 male → 2 female) ×2	Splits the L + R line-level signal	Passive is fine for short cable runs (<2m total). Active if you hear gain/level changes after splitting.
Behringer UFO202	USB audio capture device	The project's reference device. Any USB stereo input with `max_input_channels >= 2` works; UFO202 is what the default config expects.
RCA cables ×2	Connect splitter outputs	One pair to Sonos, one pair to UFO202.
USB-A cable	UFO202 to Pi	UFO202 ships with one.

Optional but supported:

Item	Purpose
Kiosk display (HDMI or DSI)	The visible "now playing" screen. AMOLED panels make album art pop; the Waveshare 13.3" FHD AMOLED Touch is what this repo is tuned for, but any HDMI display works.
USB-A cable for touch	Waveshare touch display has a separate USB cable for touch input. HDMI carries video only; without the touch USB cable, taps do nothing.

Step 3: Wire it

Turntable → preamp. Standard RCA L/R + ground wire. If the turntable has a built-in preamp set to LINE, skip this and use the deck's main output instead.
Preamp output → splitter input. Use the Y-splitter to fork the L + R signal. You need two splitters total (one per channel), OR a stereo splitter that does both channels in one unit.
Splitter leg 1 → Sonos line-in. Use whatever cable was already feeding Sonos. This is the unchanged half.
Splitter leg 2 → UFO202 inputs. UFO202 has RCA L/R inputs labeled INPUTS. Match L→L, R→R.
UFO202 → Pi USB. Any USB-A port on the Pi. UFO202 is bus-powered; no external supply.
Display (if used) → Pi HDMI. For Waveshare touch panels: also run a USB-A cable from the display's "Touch" port to a free USB-A port on the Pi.

Step 4: Verify each connection

These verifications happen before software install — they confirm the kernel sees the hardware, not that the orchestrator works. Run on the Pi (or SSH in):

USB audio device enumerated:
```
lsusb | grep -i "behringer\|codec\|audio"
```
Expect a "Burr-Brown" or "USB Audio" line for the UFO202.
ALSA sees an input device:
```
arecord -l
```
Expect a card line like card 3: CODEC [USB Audio CODEC], device 0. Note the card number — install verification will reference this.
(If touch display) HID device enumerated:
```
lsusb
sudo libinput list-devices | grep -A5 -i touch
```
Expect a device with Capabilities: touch. If lsusb shows a new HID device but libinput doesn't see touch capability, you're missing the hid_multitouch kernel module — load it: sudo modprobe hid_multitouch && echo hid_multitouch | sudo tee -a /etc/modules.
Sonos line-in produces audible sound when you drop a needle. Trust your ears here — if the room is silent when the record is playing, your splitter wiring or preamp is wrong, not the kiosk.

You're done with this phase when

arecord -l lists a CODEC / USB Audio input device.
Playing a record makes audible sound through the Sonos zone.
(If touch display) libinput list-devices shows a touch-capable device.

If the Pi isn't flashed yet, or you can't SSH into it, ask Claude to "prepare my pi" → nowplaying-setup-pi.

If the Pi is already up and reachable, ask Claude to "configure my sonos zone" → nowplaying-setup-sonos.

When to switch skills

Pi isn't reachable, can't SSH → nowplaying-setup-pi
Audio device shows in lsusb but not arecord -l → nowplaying-troubleshoot
Touch shows in lsusb but Chromium doesn't respond to taps → that's a kiosk-level issue, address after services are running (nowplaying-troubleshoot)