PicoMusicController

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PicoMusicController

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A desktop app and RPi Pico Project to control Spotify using the Spotify Web Api

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# Pico Music Controller
![Pico Music Controller_bb](https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/9473e9f8-b7a4-4278-88f7-908a6b42bd45)

# Description
The Pico Music Controller is a project that turns a Raspberry Pi Pico (not W!) into a USB device for controlling Spotify. The Pico communicates with a desktop app to make calls to the Spotify Web API.

I created this project to address some annoyances I had while using Spotify. I always use Spotify while programming, and sometimes I want to pause/play, change the song, or adjust the volume. Usually, this requires opening the Spotify app. Although my keyboard has media buttons that reduce the need to open the app, the volume button affects the entire system sound rather than just Spotify. Additionally, if I have a video playing in the background, the media buttons can control that instead of Spotify. This project solves those issues and helps boost productivity.

There are serveral branches in this project, I have explanation further down of each branch, but I have kept older versions of this project to help people to understand, what everything is doing.

### Intructions
1. Create a folder wherever you like.
    - I have named this pico

2. Create a text file called SpotifyDevCredentials.txt
    - The first line must be your Client ID and the second line must be your Client Secret. See the [Spotify Web Api](#Spotify-Web-Api) section below to get them

3. You can either build the binaries from source or get them from the Releases.
    - If you want to make changes to the app you can follow the build binary steps to get the source code
    - To build the binary for the app check out the [build windows app section](#Build-Windows-App-binary)
    - To build the binary for the pico check out the [build pico binary section](#Build-Pico-binary)

4. Build the circuit, follow the instructions in the [Build pico circuit section](#Build Pico circuit)

5. Load the .uf2 file on to the pico

6. Open spotify desktop app
    - I recommend going into the settings and setting the "Close button should minmise the spotify window"

7. Run the Pico Music Controller App.exe 
    - On first time it will prompt you to login to spotify
    - You can minmise the window to run in the background (sends app to system tray)
    - To close the app go to the system tray, double click the icon and close the window normally
    - If your Pico COM port doesn't match with mine (COM10), then you can either change the port in the code in App.cpp or run the exe from command line with you port. you can see how this is done in the release section

# Spotify Web Api
During this project, I created a simple C++ wrapper for the Spotify Web API, which I decided to call [CPPify](https://github.com/KielanT/CPPify). I've extracted the code and placed it into a separate repository for anyone who wants to use it without needing this project.

This project requires a text file named SpotifyDevCredentials.txt, which will store your Client ID and Client Secret. To obtain your Client ID and Secret, follow the instructions here: https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/web-api/concepts/apps

Make sure that the first line of the file contains the Client ID, and the second line contains the Client Secret. For security reasons, you must create this text file outside of the project folder to keep the Client Secret private and prevent it from being publicly accessible on GitHub.

On the first time of using this app you will directed to login to spotify, this will allow you to control the music playing on the Spotify Desktop app. This project uses Spotify Authorization Code flow, it is worth noting if you would like to expand on this product, you may need to change the Authorization type, which maybe more approiate for you project. More details can be found here: https://developer.spotify.com/documentation/web-api/concepts/authorization

If you would like to expand and make more calls to the Spotify Web API, you can find the calls in the same links above on the left side of the documentation under reference.

# Project Ideas 
Since the majority of people viewing this project are likely hobbyists, I’ve created a list of potential projects that can be built based on my work. I would love to see what people create!

- PCB and Enclosure instead of a breadboard
- Use a Pico W instead, (remove the need for the desktop app)
- Create a UI in the window 
- Change the potentiometer to two buttons for the volume instead
- A bigger screen or scroll the text on the display

# Branches

### Console branch
The console branch doesn't use the Pico at all; it served as a testing ground for me to learn how to make calls to the Spotify Web API. I recommend checking it out to learn the basics of how these API calls are made.

### Simple branch
This branch is from before I implemented a window, so the project runs in a console. The advantage of this is that it's slightly easier to understand what's happening, especially if you're not familiar with multi-threading.

### Main branch
This is the most up-to-date version of the project and the one I recommend everyone use. It's also the version that the release package is based on.

# Problems
In this section you will find some problems and bugs, feel free to fix them. I plan on fixing some but at this point it works fine for my needs

- There is a bug that sometimes occurs, when the Spotify desktop app becomes inactive (not being used) and then you press a button connected to the pico, it will sometimes start and pause.
- When the potentiometer (volume dial) is on some values, the value can start to fluctuate, I have prevented this by smoothing the values and adding a threshold value on the Pico side however, this still sometimes occurs, on some values, this can be fixed by putting the volume on a different value or by changing the threshold. The problem that happens is that it starts constantly updating the volume if its on a value that fluctuates
- When running the app when the USB pico is not plugged in it will crash, this was an oversight by me. I will get to this problem

# Build Windows App binary

### Dependencies 
I have added the Dependencies and required dll's to the repo, to simplify this step for the hobbyists. 
If you wish to remove the dependencies from your repo, go into the .gitignore file and remove everything under the whitelist comment and add external/ to remove the cpp files

1. In the same folder you have created open cmd and run 'git clone https://github.com/KielanT/PicoMusicController'

2. Run the GenProject.bat
    - Requires visual studio to be installed

3. Open the solution file (.sln)

4. Build Debug or Release

5. You will find the .exe inside the bin folder

# Pico

### Build Pico binary

1. Open vs code

2. Install Raspberry Pi Pico extension

3. Select on the Raspberry Pi Pico extension on the left side bar

4. Create a new project
    - Set project name to 'PicoMusicControllerUSB'
    - Set the board type to your board, I used the normal pico
    - Set the location to wherever you want, I have it set to the same folder as SpotifyDevCredentials.txt
    - Set the pico-SDK to v2.0.0
    - Move to the code generation options and select generate C++ code (do not worry about the other options)
    - Then select create

5. Inside the newly created PicoMusicControllerUSB folder, create a folder called external
    - Inside external run 'git clone https://github.com/Harbys/pico-ssd1306'

6. You now need to navigate to the where you cloned this repo, and copy the files inside PicoMusicControllerUSB to the same folder where you created the Pico project
    - You will be prompted to replace the files, you need to replace the files

7. Compile the project
    - You will find the compile button at the bottom right of visual studio
    - Compile will fail the first time, this is okay just compile again
    - If it fails again, close vs code, open again and compile, it should work

8. You will find the uf2 file in the build folder

### Build Pico circuit

Please note I am a programmer, electronics and microcontrollers is a new hobby, there is likely better ways to build this circuit!

1. You can follow the circuit in the image at the top of the page.

2. I am using a 128x32 screen not a 128x64 (pictured), you may want to change this in the code, you will change this in the Display.h file

3. The Pins are:
    - Previous button: GP3 (physical pin 5)
    - Pause/Play button: GP7 (physical pin 10)
    - Next button: GP13 (physical pin 17)
    - Shuffle button: GP15 (physical pin 20)
    - Volume dial: GP27 (physical pin 37, GP27_A1)
    - Display SCL: GP1 (physical pin 2, SCL0)
    - Display SDA: GP0 (physical pin 1, SDA0)

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