Pisco

Pisco is a keyboard-only controller for Sonos speakers. While Pisco's graphical interface displays the album art of the track currently playing, you can control playback using your keyboard.

Pisco has been tested on Linux and macOS. It is especially well suited for use with small displays (e.g. Pimoroni HyperPixel 4.0 Square) and media remote controls (e.g. Satechi Bluetooth Multi-Media Remote).

Setup

To set up Pisco on a regular Linux or macOS machine, follow these steps:

1. Make sure you are using Python 3.9 or higher.
2. Create a virtual environment if you do not want to clutter up your default environment.
3. Install Pisco:

   pip3 install pisco
   

For a clean and minimalist deployment on a Raspberry Pi Zero, please see the directory deployment.

Usage

When starting Pisco, you need to specify the name of the Sonos device (i.e. Sonos room) you want to control:

pisco Leseecke  # Replace 'Leseecke' with the name of your Sonos device.

You can use the option --help to find additional options:

$ pisco --help
Usage: pisco [OPTIONS] SONOS_DEVICE_NAME

  Control your Sonos device with your keyboard

Options:
  -b, --backlight DIRECTORY    sysfs directory of the backlight that should be
                               deactivated when the device is not playing
  -w, --width INTEGER RANGE    width of the Pisco window  [default: 320; x>=0]
  -h, --height INTEGER RANGE   height of the Pisco window  [default: 320;
                               x>=0]
  -r, --refresh INTEGER RANGE  time in milliseconds after which playback
                               information is updated  [default: 40; x>=1]
  --help                       Show this message and exit.

Once Pisco is running, you can use the following keys to control playback:

• ⏯ (or return) to pause or resume playback
• ⏹ to stop playback
• ⏮ and ⏭ (or left and right arrow) to play the previous or next track
• 0️⃣ to 9️⃣ to play the top 10 tracks (or radio stations) of your Sonos favorites
• ➕ and ➖ (or up and down arrow) to increase or decrease volume
• 🔇 to mute or unmute