We have been working on this one for a while. CAST-1 is a small board that plugs into powered speakers, an amplifier, a receiver, or desktop monitors and turns them into a network audio player. USB-C for power, 3.5mm for audio, and that is the install.
The parts people here will care about:
- Price. $29.99
- DAC is a TI PCM5122. 32-bit stereo, 112 dB SNR and dynamic range, -93 dB THD+N, 2.1 VRMS line out. Not the cheap converter usually hidden in small streamers.
- ESP32-S3 with 16 MB flash and 8 MB PSRAM, running open source ESPHome.
- Sendspin support for sample-accurate multi-room sync, native in Music Assistant. Also works as a standard ESPHome media player in Home Assistant for TTS, doorbell chimes, and alerts.
- Solder pads for 5 V, GND, and IO1. Audio and GPIO run on the same board under the same ESPHome config, so you can sync an LED strip to playback without a second controller.
- Bluetooth proxy capable.
- Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz, or wired via the optional W5500 Ethernet HAT for CAST-1.
- 45 x 45 x 15 mm, 100% local, no cloud or account, mDNS discovery.
- Sendspin is a technical preview. It works and it is improving quickly, but it is not finished, so we are not going to call multi-room sync rock solid yet.
It is not a speaker. It needs something to plug into. The whole idea is that most people already own speakers worth keeping.
Product page: https://apolloautomation.com/products/cast-1-audio-casting-device
Wiki: https://wiki.apolloautomation.com/products/cast1/introduction/
GitHub: https://github.com/ApolloAutomation/CAST-1
Happy to answer questions about the DAC, the Sendspin implementation, or the GPIO side. Thanks for your support!
https://apolloautomation.com/products/cast-1-audio-casting-device
Source: r/ApolloAutomation · by /u/ApolloAutomation