I love the idea of the Raspberry Pi, but there are some cheaper alternative single board computers that offer a similar experience for a fraction of the cost. While the community support isn't quite what it is for the Pi, there are a ton of projects you can accomplish on the cheap with these little hidden gems. Keep an eye on AliExpress and Amazon and you can find SBC's sporting quad core ARM process with 2-4 GB of RAM for under $30, including a power supply and IR remote control.
The box used in this video is a Sunvell T95x I picked up refurbishesd on Amazon for $21 shipped. It sports a Quad Core Amlogic S905x @ 2GHz and 1 GB of DDR3 RAM.
Things You Will Need
- A microSD card at least 4 GB https://amzn.to/36CpShC | https://amzn.to/3CXJngt | https://amzn.to/3JqyxSP
Downloads and Flashing to MicroSD
- Download Volumio Download | Alternate
- Download Balena Etcher Download
- Run Balena Etcher
- Burn the Volumio image to microSD card
- Safely remove microSD and re-insert
- Ignore/close the Windows dialogs to format the inserted microSD card
Configure MicroSD Card for Volumio
- Open the readable BOOT partition of the microSD card in Explorer
- Navigate to the /dtb directory and locate the dtb file for your Android TV box
For the Sunvell T95x use the gxl_p212_1g.dtb file - Copy the .dtb file to the root of the BOOT microSD device
- Rename the copied .dtb file DTB.IMG
- Safely remove microSD
- Insert microSD card to Android TV box
Booting to Volumio for the First Time
- Plug the power adapter and network cable into the Android TV box
- If the device has never booted from external storage before the stock Android OS will load
- In Android, navigate to the application drawer > Run Update & Backup
- Select Local > Navigate to the microSD card > aml_autoscript.zip
- Select Update
- The system will reboot and should then begin booting Volumio from the microSD card
- You should see the Volumio terminal running startup scripts, this process can take up to 10 minutes according to the forums
- After several minutes, the scrolling text will stop, press Enter
- Login with username root and password volumio
- Type ifconfig and press Enter to display the IP address
- On a separate device, open a web browser and navigate to http://IPfromAbove to access the Volumio web interface. Depending on your network setup, you may be able to reach the device by opening http://volumio.local as well
- Follow the setup wizard to complete the Volumio configuration
Source: https://community.volumio.org/t/volumio-2-on-tv-box-amlogic-s9xxx-s8xxx/7202/151