The Music Server roon can be easily enhanced with so called Extensions, plugging into roon and being operated within the roon gui on a PC or any other device. Roon Extensions can be run on the music server itself or on a separate PC e.g., a Raspberry Pi. They all base on the official roon API released for node.js. The downside of this approach is that for people, uneducated in programming, it is difficult to use the already offered roon Extensions.
My approach is to offer rooExtend, a ready to use Raspberry Pi image where useful roon Extensions will be already preinstalled. The image simply must be copied to a SD-Card with the balenaEtcher Software and plugged into the Raspberry Pi.
The rooExtend image also contains a small web interface to connect the Raspberry Pi to your local WiFi (see quick installation guide). The Raspberry Pi also can be connected via ethernet cable to your network.
rooDial Extension
The first roon Extension distributed with rooExtend is rooDial. For rooDial the image can be run on a “Raspberry Pi zero w” device. All other future extension will need a Raspberry Pi 4.
The rooDial Extension enables the Raspberry to act as a communication bridge between the Bluetooth operated Microsoft Surface Dial and the Music Server roon.
Running the image on the Raspberry Pi creates an extension inside the roon user interface. With this extension you can map spin and press actions of the Surface Dial to different functions of roon. For example, you can Stop/Play roon by pressing the Surface Dial and change volume by spinning the Surface Dial.
The image can be downloaded and setup on the Raspberry Pi for free. Controlling a dedicated roon playback zone inside roon requires a license. Please find more details and the download link to the image on the rooExtend website. Github doesn’t allow that big files 😉