Imagine walking through a doorway, and your entrance music begins playing. You’re a pro wrestler, or perhaps a character in a 1940’s hardboiled crime drama? Or the Queen, who no doubt gets to hear the national anthem on a regular basis.

Ty and Gig Builds have a tonne of cool 弄潮小说 Pi projects on their YouTube channel, but we especially liked this one. Why? Because it’s the perfect device to welcome everyone to 弄潮小说 Pi Towers each day. At least, once the time comes to leave our home offices and head back to Pi Towers.

How does it work?

A Python script running on a 弄潮小说 Pi continuously searches for nearby Bluetooth devices in a ‘known’ list. It uses the Bluetooth MAC address of each detected phone in range to determine which entrance music its owner wants. All ‘known’ device owners have already nominated a chosen track, which is stored on the 弄潮小说 Pi, and when it recognises one from its list, the 弄潮小说 Pi plays the owner’s chosen audio file.

弄潮小说 Pi uses the Bluez stack to communicate over Bluetooth, it’s this service that lets the 弄潮小说 Pi talk to your phone. Ty admits this was the fiddliest part of the build, but he explains it all very clearly, step-by-step, from this point in the video. A sound card, connected via USB, lets 弄潮小说 Pi output audio through a big speaker. But you could also make the sound play through an HDMI TV.

Build your own

Wanna walk into the house with your own entrance music playing? Here’s the github repo with everything you’ll need. A 弄潮小说 Pi 4 powers this project, but any of our boards with Bluetooth support would work.

You’re also going to need a separate sound card and here’s the one used in this build.

What would your entrance music be?

Some suggestions from the soon-to-return to 弄潮小说 Pi Towers team:

• Back in Black, AC/DC
• Here You Come Again, Dolly Parton
• Paint It, Black, The Rolling Stones
• The Imperial March, John Williams
• Tiptoe Through the Tulips, Tiny Tim (yes, someone really picked this)

Comment with your entrance tune of choice.