Pre-order of the Mn Cast!

[Raspiaudio]

Pre-order is now open here :

Manganese Cast

A new one is the ESPmuse family : Mn Cast!

This is intended to plug on your old stereo system to add connectivity such as Bluetooth, Airplay, Local Streaming, Home Assistan support and much more.

Software wise it will come pre-loaded with Squeezelite and pre-configured.

Mn is the Chemical symbol for Manganese, 25th the periodic tables of element, just after Chrome number 24th :)))

Specification :

• High quatily 32 bits 384kHz DAC
• Analog jack output
• Optical digital output (mini-TOSLINK)
• 1.3 inch monochrome Oled display
• ESP32 Wrover based : 2.4GHz WiFi 802.11 b/g/n up to 150 Mbps
• Bluetooth 4.2 LE
• Rotary encoder with push button
• Infrared receiver (to use it a remote control)
• SD card
• USB C
• 1 programmable RGB LED
• A nice case
• ON/OFF button
• Possibility to plug an optional I2S microphone

Start shipping September 2022. Pre-book yours now and get a 10€ off, and be the first to receive yours. [update 29/09/22: currently shipping the white one in Europe]

Shipping in Europe, UK and USA only.

Thanks for supporting us and helping us to make inovative products.

For pinout see here

The default password for Squeezelite is musemuse

[sbarmen]

This so cool! Any chance to ship with eBay or Amazon? They handle VAT importing to Norway. If I buy like this I suspect I need to pay another 15EUR just in paperwork.

[Raspiaudio]

Pre-orders will be shipped thru Amazon multi-channel fulfiment in Europe, Uk or USA, it means that the expediter will be amazon, so if you are not in those countries you might be subject taxes. The next normal batch will go thru normal Amazon (in a couple of month I guess)

[digimate]

What about an integration with Home Assistant? Streaming/casting/text-message (via display)?

[Raspiaudio]

Hi, We plan a full integration, but at this stage it is not done yet. We will post progree here, stay tuned.

[Manu53]

Bonjour,
Je souhaiterais acheter votre produit Mn cast pour l utiliser dans ma voiture comme un lecteur autonome ( branchement de la sortie jack vers l entree auxiliaire de l autoradio ) afin de lire mes mp3 ( disponible sur une carte sd ) …

Est-il possible d’interagir avec le Mn cast depuis mon smartphone pour le choix des chanssons ?
( Avec une appli comme squeezer ou squeeze controler par exemple )

[Raspiaudio]

Hello Manu,

Well the hardware is for sure compatible to do SD card reading of mp3 + some kind of bluetooth protocol to select songs from your phone. But at the moment there is no already made code to do this. We have some code to just read the mp3 when the sd card is inserted but nothong to control it from the smarthone. I don’t know if you can program using Arduino but this doable.

[Raspiaudio]

Update !
We are right now packing the backers Mn Cast, you should receive them end of next week. Everything went as planned and we are shipping on time! The first one to receive their unit will be our Norvegian backers. UK and Europe backers will receive their unit thru Amazon that we use as a logistic center, so don’t be surprise to receive an Amazon parcel.

I have pre-loaded Squeezelite on it an pre-configured the screen, dac, toslink, encoder, IR. I have not configured the RGB led as I think it is not useful as we have a screen.
I have not tried yet to setup Home assistant.
On the PCB there is a connection to plug an I2S microphone for future use as a vocal assistant. But for privacy concern, no microphone on the board out of the box.

The 3d printed case look good but some tiny tolerence issues you will notice that the jack/mini toslink output is not perfectly alined with the case, but totaly usable.

You have the ususal Raspiaudio warranty for pre-order, 30 days to have a full refund if needed (unlikely i hope )

Looking forward to have your feedback.

[Raspiaudio]

Here the config file for Squeezelite, in case you update Squeezelite you could from the web interface upload this file configure everything

note the following GPIOs:
I2S : bck=5,ws=25,do=26,mute=33
Screen 128x64 : sda=18,scl=23
Rotary encoder : A=19,B=32,SW=0
Infra red receiver = 12
SPDIF digital output = 4
RGB led (WS2812) = 22

SD Card (SPI) D0=2 CMD=23 CLK= 14 D3=13 Detect= 34

Jack detect insertion = 27

[ezpl]

Great news!
And the priority to Norwegian backers is a good one I did receive a notification from Fed-Ex which might very well be it - due for delivery on Tuesday. I can’t wait to receive these and will keep you posted once tested

Espen

[Raspiaudio]

Ireland has been shipped

But all England and rest of Europe will need to wait this Monday to be shipped out.

Goods arrived in their local Amazon warehouss but check-in inventory is taking longer than usual. Sorry!

[Raspiaudio]

So Amazon is now blocking all Mn Cast, because they consider as dangerous material HAZMAT

I think this is because there is the word “Manganese” in the description so I’m now spending hours with the support to remove this ban, robots are already ruling this world

Sorry for the delay

[ezpl]

Incredible
At least mine (to Norway) is finally out for delivery today after being stuck for unknown reason in France for almost a week. Perhaps the same reason there?

[bpa]

As yet, no news on Ireland deliveries.

[ezpl]

[Raspiaudio]

Lucky you!

For the other ones please be patient, I’m still fighting with Amazon, I should have some news on monday, keep you posted.

[Raspiaudio]

Good news, IF you live in Europe AND you have ordered the White version, your order is being shipped. Check your emails for tracking. Indeed Amazon removed the ban on the White version.

For the Black/White version UK, Black version Europe, Amzon is stil trying to locate the goods in the warehouse. Keep you posted.

[bpa]

I got message from Amazon.
Package in France. Delivery schedule for Sept 30.

[cOOLio]

I from the EU(DE) and I ordered a white & black one, but didn’t received any email about the shipping of the white incl. tracking #. I checked my spam folder as well, but nothing!

Does this mean that I am unlucky and only get something when the blacks are shipped? If that’s the case, which I hope not, I absolutely lack understanding. Since the delivery costs per device are already included. That is, if I had made two separate orders, instead of both in one order, the price would not change at all.

BTW … I received account data with my order to login here. They never worked though. I have found until today nothing (except for the forum) where you can login at all. And for this I have now created a new account. Where I assume that the forum account has nothing to do with the store!?

But since I trust you Olivier, everything was ok until now. But slowly I get a strange feeling in the stomach area. I hope this is unfounded.

[Raspiaudio]

Hello Coolio,
Yes you are order #2772 and the white one was shipped today, you have received an email 4h ago, if not let me know. You will receive the black unit later once Amzon will find the black parcel in theire logistic center.

THanks for your patience.