Feature status

Where Lauschkiste stands (alpha). Plans have their own documents; the history of the architecture is in the roadmap.

Works

Area	What
Playback	built-in player (local_audio, PyAV and PortAudio); shuffle, repeat, sleep timer, playback speed for audiobooks and podcasts, queue
Content	music, audiobooks (position per book), podcasts (feeds, position per episode), radio stations; see Content types
Sources	audiobooks from an Audiobookshelf server (streaming, shared position, offline use), podcast and radio directories (Apple Podcasts, fyyd, Podcast Index, radio-browser.info), OPML and M3U/PLS import and export
Downloads	a cache in the core for audiobooks and podcast episodes: low priority, space limit, removal of old items
Time limits	quiet hours and a daily listening time with extra time for parents (core module, off by default; Time limits)
Library	one folder with music/ and audiobooks/, index with tags and cover art, folder watching, upload and file management in the web app, optional Samba share
Cards	RFID cards with actions (play, volume, timers, shutdown, …), learning mode, second swipe, card database in the web app
Readers	RC522 (SPI), MFRC522 and PN532 (I²C), USB readers, RDM6300, NFC (nfcpy) as plugins
Hardware	the Raspberry Pi as a device plugin, GPIO buttons and rotary encoders, status LED, battery monitor (MAX17048, INA219), power button (OnOff SHIM), Pimoroni pHAT BEAT with LED level meter, I²S sound cards; see Hardware
Volume and timers	volume with soft maximum and outputs, fade-out, named timers (stop, fade, shutdown), startup and shutdown sound
Input	evdev devices (USB buttons, media keys, Bluetooth headset buttons)
Web app	player, library, cards, settings of all modules and plugins, plugin management, hardware and pin overview, help, German and English
Screen on the box	Chromium in kiosk mode; on-screen keyboard; the kiosk (a reduced view for children, kiosk apps as plugins, themes) and switching the screen off; see Kiosk
API	REST and WebSocket, typed operations and events generated from the modules (Core and plugins)
Platforms	Raspberry Pi (Zero W, 3 tested) and any Linux computer; pin hardware only with a device plugin that has pins (Installation)
Installation	install script, lauschctl setup steps (re-runnable), updates, plugins from the command line, port 80, WiFi hotspot, kiosk mode; packages for PyPI (Releasing)

Planned

• Tidy up (in progress): the code is grouped by purpose and the oldest legacy is gone; the documentation grew by adapting and should still be rebuilt from how the system is used, for users and developers alike.
• Device plugins: done, including the setup steps a device plugin brings; open points are in Device plugins.
• Playlists: create, show and change playlists in the web app (a topic of its own).
• Card management, thought through as a whole: more than one behaviour per card (placed, removed, placed again), perhaps a card that changes what the buttons do, and how second swipe fits in. Part of it: the Toniebox way, where the content plays only as long as the card is on the box. Today a place-capable reader can run one action for all cards when a card is taken off (place_not_swipe, e.g. pause); per card, and continuing where it stopped when the card comes back, it does not exist yet.
• Playing from a phone over Bluetooth, for apps that cannot be integrated, such as the Onleihe (plan).
• A handover to other rooms through Music Assistant (needs the same Audiobookshelf user; see the Audiobookshelf), m4b audiobooks with chapters in one file.
• Installing straight from a git branch or tag without a release (the web app would have to be built on the box or taken from a CI build).
• A complete uninstall: the setup would remember the state before it changed anything (installed packages, original file contents, service states), so that lauschctl uninstall can restore it. Today it only removes what Lauschkiste created and lists what stays.
• A switch for Bluetooth on the Raspberry Pi, more device plugins, general LED strip control.
• An MQTT plugin (Home Assistant and other home automation).
• Bluetooth headphones paired by holding them against an NFC tag on the box (and a way to unpair again), next to the phone sink above.
• More kiosk apps (other layouts, other screens), measured on a real screen; a numeric layout for the on-screen keyboard (Kiosk).

Not carried over from Phoniebox 2.x and the first future3 versions

Spotify, the card synchronisation between boxes, the idle shutdown timer, the old GPIO configuration file format, the C command line client and ZeroMQ. Some may come back as plugins.