Sonos Play:1 reused and better than before thanks to Raspberry Pi

A short circuit, a broken contact. Unfortunately, there are many reasons why the Sonos Play:1 could stop working. But there's no reason to dispose of it straight away. Upcycling is the magic word.

After all, the smart speaker is compact, looks stylish and sounds really good. So it would be a shame if you couldn't continue to use it. Therefore, the DIY instructions from Raspberry Pi come in handy, in which everything is actually removed apart from the speaker and housing. On the other hand, you can then work with the small computer much more flexibly than with the original Sonos speaker.

Of course, you will need tools, a Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ or Pi Zero 2 (Amazon link) and a DAC attachment. This also takes over the complete power supply, as a 20-volt power supply unit is required for operation. The range of such HATs is relatively extensive. It is important to note that direct cable connection is possible and not just RCA.

In addition, no newer Raspberry than the RPi 3A or the Zero 2 should be used, as the space inside the Play:1 is limited. The author of this text can confirm that this is not critical, at least in terms of performance, as he is still using a Raspberry Pi 2 to stream Internet radio programs and AirPlay.

Raspberry Pi OS Lite is recommended as the operating system. The image is quickly written to a microSD card. It is easy to connect to your own WLAN and can be controlled via the network using SSH. The description also includes a brief introduction to the DAC and an initial speaker test.

Now all that remains is to remove the original mainboard and all cables from the Sonos Play:1. Then rewire with the Raspberry. The power supply unit of the DAC takes over the power supply of the entire system. An interesting alternative suggestion would be to supply power via LAN cable. A stable network connection would be a bonus.

However, not everyone has a PoE-capable router at home and the smart speaker also benefits a little from the fact that it works via Wi-Fi and can therefore be set up more freely than with a LAN cable. Experience has shown that the various apps for iOS and Android work quite reliably, allowing convenient control later on. The RPi can also be operated quite easily via the web interface. Not to mention that you can almost always get AirPlay and Chromecast to work reliably on the Raspberry. The possibilities are therefore considerable.

The manual with some helpful pictures and many further explanations can only be found at raspberrypi.com.

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