sendspin-armv6

Headless Sendspin audio client for ARMv6 devices like the Raspberry Pi Zero W.

Plays music through available ALSA devices. No display, no controls, just audio output as a systemd daemon.

How it works

• Uses sendspin-cpp for the Sendspin protocol, audio decoding, and time synchronization
• Pipes decoded PCM to aplay (ALSA), no PortAudio dependency
• Cross-compiled for ARMv6 in GitHub Actions, no local toolchain needed

Installation

You can just run the scripts/install.sh script to do all of this automatically, but the manual steps are documented below if you want to understand what's going on or do it yourself.

 curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LeoLTM/sendspin-armv6/main/scripts/install.sh \
 | sudo bash

1. Download the binary

Grab the latest release from the Releases page:

wget https://github.com/LeoLTM/sendspin-armv6/releases/latest/download/sendspin-armv6-linux-armv6-release.tar.gz
mkdir sendspin-armv6 && tar -xzf sendspin-armv6-linux-armv6-release.tar.gz -C sendspin-armv6

2. Install the binary

sudo cp sendspin-armv6/sendspin-armv6 /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/sendspin-armv6

3. Configure

sudo cp sendspin-armv6/sendspin-armv6.conf /etc/sendspin-armv6.conf
sudo nano /etc/sendspin-armv6.conf

Set server_url to your Sendspin server's WebSocket URL:

server_url = ws://192.168.1.10:8928/sendspin
name = Living Room Pi
log_level = info
# Optional: set the ALSA device for audio output (see next section)
device = plughw:1,0
# Optional: set initial volume (0-100)
initial_volume = 80

4. Set up the systemd daemon

sudo cp sendspin-armv6/sendspin-armv6.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now sendspin-armv6

5. Verify

sudo systemctl status sendspin-armv6
journalctl -u sendspin-armv6 -f

Audio output

The Pi Zero W has no built-in 3.5mm audio jack. You need an external USB soundcard (or a DAC HAT). Any cheap USB audio adapter works.

Find your device

Plug in the USB soundcard, then list available devices:

aplay -l

Example output:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: b1 [bcm2835 HDMI 1], device 0: ...
card 1: Device [USB Audio Device], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]

The USB soundcard in this example is card 1, device 0 → device string is plughw:1,0.

Configure the device

Set the device key in /etc/sendspin-armv6.conf:

device = plughw:1,0

Then restart the service:

sudo systemctl restart sendspin-armv6

Set the USB soundcard as default (optional)

If you want all system audio to use the USB soundcard, add to /etc/asound.conf:

defaults.pcm.card 1
defaults.ctl.card 1

With this in place the device config key can be left unset.

Configuration reference

Key	Required	Default	Description
server_url	yes	—	WebSocket URL of the Sendspin server
name	no	sendspin-armv6	Friendly name shown in the Sendspin UI
log_level	no	info	none, error, warn, info, debug, verbose
device	no	Default system audio device (aplay -L)	ALSA device string for audio output (e.g. plughw:1,0)
initial_volume	no	Server-controlled	Initial hardware volume at startup (0–100)

Upgrading

Your config at /etc/sendspin-armv6.conf is never touched during an upgrade.

Upgrade script

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LeoLTM/sendspin-armv6/main/scripts/upgrade.sh \
  | sudo bash

Manual upgrade

# 1. Download the new release (same as installation step 1)
wget https://github.com/LeoLTM/sendspin-armv6/releases/latest/download/sendspin-armv6-linux-armv6-release.tar.gz
mkdir sendspin-tmp && tar -xzf sendspin-armv6-linux-armv6-release.tar.gz -C sendspin-tmp

# 2. Stop, replace binary, reload service file, start
sudo systemctl stop sendspin-armv6
sudo cp sendspin-tmp/sendspin-armv6 /usr/local/bin/
sudo cp sendspin-tmp/sendspin-armv6.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start sendspin-armv6

Uninstall

Uninstall script

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LeoLTM/sendspin-armv6/main/scripts/uninstall.sh \
  | sudo bash

Manual uninstall

sudo systemctl stop sendspin-armv6
sudo systemctl disable sendspin-armv6
sudo rm /usr/local/bin/sendspin-armv6
sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/sendspin-armv6.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

# Optional: remove config file if you don't plan to reinstall or want to start fresh
sudo rm /etc/sendspin-armv6.conf

Troubleshooting

Crash-loop / SEGV at startup — the service stops restarting after 5 rapid failures. To re-enable after fixing the issue:

sudo systemctl reset-failed sendspin-armv6
sudo systemctl start sendspin-armv6

Common causes:

• Wrong architecture binary (e.g. ARMv6 on ARMv7) - make sure your device is ARMv6
• USB soundcard not connected or aplay not available — plug in the soundcard and check aplay -l
• Network not ready — check that the Pi can reach the server IP before the service starts
• Wrong server_url in the config — verify with curl http://<ip>:8928/

No audio / aplay errors — run aplay -l to find the correct device name and set it with device = plughw:X,Y in the config.

Building from source

I never tested this locally because I didn't want to mess with the local toolchain. Feel free to open a PR if you have a better local build setup.

Building happens in GitHub Actions (cross-compilation for ARMv6). Push to main or create a tag to trigger a build.

To build locally (requires the ARM cross-compiler):

sudo apt install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf g++-arm-linux-gnueabihf cmake ninja-build

cmake -B build \
  -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/toolchain-armv6.cmake \
  -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
  -G Ninja

cmake --build build

The binary will be at build/sendspin-armv6.

License

Apache-2.0