Play Mobile Device Music Through fitlet2 via Bluetooth

[hassellbear]

Overview

Music2.gif (1.74 MiB) Viewed 42063 times

Like many others, my personal music collection that was once stored on a variety of media types is now mostly contained in my mobile devices. The modern music media paradigm provides near boundless access and portability. Our music follows us everywhere we go, and on demand we are able to listen to it through a staggering array of devices ranging from portable battery powered speakers to the automobiles we drive.

Often as I work at my fitlet2 workstation, I listen to the music contained in my mobile phone through a portable battery powered speaker. Since my fitlet2 station includes a high performance audio system, I have often thought it would be quite nice and convenient to use fitlet2 as a bluetooth speaker system in addition to whatever other task it is performing at the time.

Finally, I have realized this goal, and as I write this post my iphone is streaming music to my fitlet2 sound system via bluetooth.



Hardware

fitlet2 blue music.png (162.32 KiB) Viewed 42063 times

The hardware used in this project includes:

1. iPhone
2. fitlet2 computer equipped with bluetooth adapter and running Linux Mint 19
3. 240W audio amplifier and speakers



Software

Verify the following Linux packages are installed and add those that are missing:

1. bluetooth
2. blueman
3. bluez
4. pulseaudio
5. pulseaudio-module-bluetooth



Setup

My first attempts at streaming music from my iPhone to fitlet were frustrating at best. The how-to guides I found online mostly described low-level command line system modifications, which in my case did not work. Finally, I found the answer in a simple comment concerning using blueman at the bottom of the following link. What follows is based on that blueman tip.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/2573/ca ... th-speaker


Step 1. Open System Settings

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Step 2. Select Bluetooth for a List of Devices

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Step 3. Select the Target Device (iPhone) and Pair with fitlet2

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Step 4. Confirm Pairing was Successful

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Step 5. Open Blueman Bluetooth Manager and Select Mobile Device (iPhone)

Blueman 1.png (42.29 KiB) Viewed 42063 times

Step 6. Configure Mobile Device (iPhone) as an Audio Source

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Step 7. Set PulseAudio Profile to High Fidelity Capture (A2DP Source)

rsz_img-9452.jpg (175.33 KiB) Viewed 42063 times

Step 8. Play Your Mobile Device Audio Content Through fitlet2

Smiley Music.jpeg (6.67 KiB) Viewed 42063 times

Results

For my case, the results are great!!!

I no longer need a separate bluetooth speaker at my fitlet2 station, and I get excellent sound fidelity without the need for additional cables or bluetooth adapters.



Conclusions

As I have known for some time, fitlet2 can do much much more than the mundane tasks we often assign to such systems. Give it a whirl and unleash its hidden and pent-up potential!!