In case any current or future users of AxiomAir should want to add new software features to the system, is there any chance that any form of Developer Guide, published APIs, extension specifications, software architecture definition, or any other helpful documentation on the Air's operating system will be made available? Given that the Air runs on open source Raspberry Pi and Linux, I'm assuming that adding features and/or extending the basic functionality would be possible without having to get into any Axiom proprietary IP, correct?

Hmm Kodi + AxiomAir....wonder what that would be like

Given that there's no video display in the Air, it seems unlikely that any of Kodi's video capabilities could be made to work but it may be possible to get the Kodi sound playback features working. This would however require running the Kodi GUI on some connected device with a screen and I'm not sure how easy it would be to accomplish!

AA is based on https://volumio.org/.
At its core is MPD and there are many MPD clients out there for an alternative UI. I personally use MPD CLI interface to integrate the AA into my own audio control software (especially volume control).

you can install kodi onto rasberri pi using ssh, no video needed. Apparantly kodi as well.

http://www.circuitbasics.com/raspberry-pi-basics-setup-without-monitor-keyboard-headless-mode/

can't say I've ever done it. Obviously there is no video on the axiom air, and honestly I've only ever used kodi for video on my HT. But if its audio plugins are as good as it's video. If I get some time I'll try it out on a RPI unit from work. Probably a futile idea but Kodi has such good support it just popped into my crazy head for a sec.

Interesting idea! The Raspberry Pi itself, on which the AA is based, does have video and 3D graphics support, including an HDMI output. As I understand it that HDMI output has not been made available on the Air. That could most likely be added on a future version, and we will likely be able to implement a temporary workaround.

What makes this even more interesting is that Kodi itself has a 'remote control' app that can be installed on an Android or iOS device. This would allow for the operation of Kodi on the Air even without a locally-connected display.

We will need to find out what external device(s) are added to the Pi in the Air. Obviously there is an amplifier but is there also an external DAC? If so how could we make it available to Kodi?

Can you imagine, worlds best Kodi device. 150 watts of great sound. sub out, just add a tv. Lets see those little android boxes do that!

lol

I doubt the pi unit they are using is capable of proper video though. Nice dream.

Hi Newf!

Actually, as far as I know, the Pi unit in the AA is the latest version which is the same one that is already in wide use as a Kobi player. The standard Pi 3 has full support for HDMI up to v1.3 which covers Full HD. My understanding is that the Pi does work well for this although higher resolutions than Full HD such as 4K generally don't work at all or only poorly and/or at very low refresh rates.

So all we need is a dremel and find the hdmi port

Before anyone thinks I'm serious....I'm not. 5yr warranty...gone, $1000 system...done.

Haha! When I floated the idea of connecting to some existing port on the Pi that hadn't been made available on the AA itself, Ian seemed more in favour of the use of an ordinary drill, but this was being discussed within the context of some theoretical prototyping work so I'm sure that any power tools would be applied to an AA chassis before final assembly rather than a finished product.

Getting to the various ports on the Pi3 is pretty easy. There is a removable panel on the bottom of the AA to get access. From there you could put a U shaped opening in this panel for wires to come out when you reinstall it.

I took a PI3 unit home the weekend, got kodi on it, once my air ships I'll plug it into the aux in and compare both interfaces. I'' assuming the Air's Pi unit is hardwired in...you know so when version 4 comes out we can't simply unplug the old one and in with the new.

It is actually not that hard to change the Pi. It is four mounting screws with all the connections on the I2S bus.

Not that hard to change the Pi board for you engineers I would say! For us computer scientists, we try to turn each screw a few times, but after approximately three turns we get all confused and go into some kind of infinite loop for some reason...

lol. I was an electronic eng before the IT side of me came out. So I'm good at taking screws out, I just lose a few.

Regardless, I think the safest way is to just plug a new pi into the analog aux jack on the back of the air if I just want to try kodi on it. Leave the original in tact. I'm not sure how good kodi is at things like streaming radio and stuff. Haven't the time to try. This Axiom Air certainly has potential though, shame more do not know about it. Excited to get my hands on it. Funny, because it is more of a gift for the woman than me.

FYI - I have already co-loaded JRiver Media Center on the AA and it works find - Thread here: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,104473.0.html

While I'm running both Volumio and Media Center at the same time on the original setup, if you wanted seperate configs, you could have two different SD cards to swap instead of the entire Pi

That's a good point. different SD cards, much cheaper.

jmone, I read up on your thread on the the other forum. You did some impressive work. That was along the lines of what I was thinking. Of course if the air does what I want it to do out of the box - I'm done. But it's nice to know there are other alternatives with Pi. I'm very new to Pi. I got Kodi installed on one in about 10 mins - thanks google, but have a lot of reading to do before I get you your level. I'm going to enjoy a Stock Air for a while as is, and like I said, I can plug the pi3 I have into the analog in for messing around with kodi if I like. I'm hoping I don't need to. This was a gift for the woman for xmas, so I'm hoping it's not hard to use - considering that is the point of it. Making it more complicated is the opposite of what I want.

Does the air use an unmodified version of Volumio?

Back in 2016, it was a customized version of Volumio. But who knows? Maybe all the features in the customized version have made it into baseline.

I think the Air's software is open source and modifiable and it seems that others have done that ...

Really just want to know where the repository is and what plug-ins/drivers are needed.

You could try Github.

Yeah ... looked At github before posting my original question. I was hoping to find an Axiom branch off of Volumio main ... also tried a search ... nothing.

There is actually some proprietary stuff, especially code necessary to support Apple Airplay. I suggest that you DM Ian and ask if you could get access to the rest. Even still it may not be easy to get started so I'd recommend including a brief summary of what you aim to accomplish.

That’s ok. I found a thread which described enough that I think that I can experiment a bit using the standard volumio.