How it works

A short tour, so that settings and messages make sense.

The parts on the box

1. The Lauschkiste service plays the music, knows the cards and the library, controls volume and time limits and serves the web page. It runs as a user service with the name lauschkiste, because it has to talk to the sound system of your login session.
2. The sound system (PipeWire) is part of current Raspberry Pi OS. It makes many kinds of sound hardware work the same way and lets Lauschkiste switch between outputs (speaker, Bluetooth).
3. The web page is served by Lauschkiste itself, no extra web server. Open http://<name> (port 80) or http://<name>:5556.
4. The commands lauschkiste (the server) and lauschctl (setup and management).

Core and plugins

The core is everything that makes sense on every machine: the player, the library, cards and the reader handling, volume, timers, time limits and the web page. It is always there. It works on any Linux computer, not only on a Raspberry Pi.

Plugins add what depends on hardware or on other services: the device (Raspberry Pi or PC), buttons, battery, RFID reader drivers, Samba, the Audiobookshelf connection, podcast and radio directories. A plugin only runs when it is switched on (Settings → Plugins). If one fails to start, Lauschkiste keeps running; the web page and lauschctl plugin list say why.

Actions

Everything the box can do is an action with a name like player.toggle or volume.change_volume. Cards, buttons, timers, the web page and the second swipe all trigger actions; the web page shows which exist, and they are listed at http://<name>/api/v1/actions. This is why a button can do what a card does.

Events

The box announces what happens as events (player.status, a card was read, …). The web page listens to them, which is why it updates by itself. For your own tools, lauschctl debug sniff prints them.

Where to read on

Developer documentation (English) explains the code, the plugin interface and the REST interface.