Generated stand-in image. Not a photograph of the real build.
Hardware
Digital Record Player
I put a Raspberry Pi inside a 1byone turntable so it streams Spotify while the platter still spins real vinyl, with a round screen in the middle showing the album art turning at 33 1/3.
01
Spec
| Lane | Hardware |
|---|---|
| Status | In progress |
| Timeline | 27 February to 23 April 2026 |
| Commits | 97 across all branches, 93 on main |
| Compute | Raspberry Pi 4 8GB, Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm, Wayland and labwc |
| Display | Waveshare 4 inch 720x720 round IPS HDMI panel |
| Audio | InnoMaker HiFi DAC HAT, PCM5122, 384 kHz 32-bit |
| Power | 12V 5A supply, 5A blade fuse, 12V to 5V buck converter |
| Software | Raspotify and librespot, Python, pygame, Flask, 6 systemd units |
6xfaster boot, 2m 14s to 22s
02
Constraint
What made it hard
The turntable motor and the Pi had to share one 12V supply, and the motor could never depend on the computer to run. On top of that the 720x720 round display had to come up under Wayland in kiosk mode, and the audio had to stay clean through the PCM5122 DAC.
03
Decision
What I chose, and what I rejected
I hardwired the motor to the original OEM switches off the 12V rail instead of putting it under Pi control. I had bought a 400W dual MOSFET trigger switch and deliberately did not use it. If the Pi hangs, the platter still spins and the record player is still a record player.