Sounder

The sounder agent needs to run on a Raspberry Pi, or any computer with a sound card.

Software

Install (Docker)

The Docker Agent is the preferred way to run the sounder agent.

Assuming a fresh install of Rasbian Lite on a Raspberry Pi:

  1. Create a sounder in the controller, not down the controller address and sounder key
  2. Run the installer from the repo. curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Open-School-Bell/sounder/refs/heads/main/install-docker.sh | sh and enter the controller address and sounder key.

Known Issues

If you have to set your soundcard with raspi-config you need to mount the asound config into the container by adding this volume:

- /home/sounder/.asoundrc:/etc/asound.conf:ro

Install (Direct Agent)

The direct agent is the same agent as the docker agent just running “bare metal”, it is possibly less reliable than the Docker agent.

Assuming a fresh install of Rasbian Lite on a Raspberry Pi:

  1. Run install.sh from the repo. curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Open-School-Bell/sounder/refs/heads/main/install.sh | sh
  2. Create a sounder in the controller.
  3. Run the sounders enroll command on the sounder.
  4. Reboot the Pi.

Convert a direct agent sounder to docker.

  1. Stop the sounder service sudo sounder stop
  2. Disable the service sudo update-rc.d sounder disable.
  3. Reset the Sounder Key iin the controller.
  4. Follow the Install (Docker) instructions.

Hardware

Suggested Hardware:

Part About Link
Raspberry Pi 5 Lowest spec is appropriate for the agent. https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-5
Raspberry Pi DAC+ The Pi 5 doesn’t have a headphone out, but even with a Pi4 it would be ideal to use a DAC Hat to get better audio quality. https://thepihut.com/products/iqaudio-dac
Raspberry Pi PSU Always use a proper USB power supply for your Pi. https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-27w-usb-c-power-supply
32GB SD Card The agent stores nothing on the SD card, so 32GB is plenty. https://thepihut.com/products/noobs-preinstalled-sd-card