Turn a Raspberry Pi into a browser-controlled audio recorder and streaming device. Watch live audio levels and a spectrogram, record lossless FLAC, manage your recordings, and send audio to a compatible SRT receiver—all from one dashboard. The Pi can run without its own screen; open the web GUI from another computer.
Development prerelease · 0.5.17-dev · MIT licensed. For controlled evaluation, not yet an unattended recording appliance. Current limitations · Quick install · First recording · Releases
Actual TinyPiRelay web UI with simulated sample data; no Pi connection. The readings and “SIMULATED Pi Zero W” label are illustrative, not hardware performance evidence. Screenshot details.
- Monitor audio: a linear 30-second spectrogram, per-channel meters, adjustable frequency bounds, axis zoom/pan, and spectrum/meter color choices.
- Record locally: native FLAC, timed file rotation, and a recording cutoff at 90% filesystem usage.
- Manage recordings: paginated files, browser playback and seeking where FLAC is supported, original downloads, checks, and confirmed deletion. Recovery attempts a separate copy; it preserves the original but cannot recreate missing audio.
- Stream audio: send to a compatible receiver using SRT while monitoring and recording. Streaming and recording have separate start/stop controls.
- Manage the appliance: inspect CPU, temperature, memory, disk and network telemetry; view recent events; change your web password; and confirm service restarts, reboot or shutdown from the GUI.
Useful for audio-monitoring and field-recording experiments, or as the capture end of a remote listening/analysis setup. TinyPiRelay does not itself identify birds or include a receiving server.
| Component | Start here |
|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi | Pi 4 B is the current evaluation target; other boards are not blanket-supported. |
| Operating system | Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm or Trixie; Trixie 64-bit for the current Pi 4 setup. |
| Audio input | A device and capture mode listed as validated in the GUI. You can install before connecting one. |
| Power and storage | Suitable Pi power supply, reliable storage, and free space for recordings. |
| Network | Internet access for installation; a trusted LAN for normal web access. |
| Browser | Desktop or large tablet, at least 1160 × 720. Phone layouts are not supported. |
Audio discovery is not universal USB-microphone compatibility: only validated device/mode combinations are admitted. See the first-use guide and hardware evidence and planning matrix.
For a fresh device. Already installed? Follow the upgrade guide.
-
Flash Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm or Trixie. In Imager, configure a unique hostname, networking, an OS administrator and SSH. No microphone or TinyPiRelay configuration file is required.
-
Connect using
ssh <admin-user>@<hostname>.localor the Pi's IP address. -
Paste this into the Pi's SSH terminal, not Windows PowerShell. It installs Git and HTTPS certificates if missing, clones the selected release, then runs the installer to install prerequisites and start services:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y --no-remove --no-upgrade git ca-certificates && git clone --depth 1 --branch v0.5.17-dev https://github.com/gall-levi-code/TinyPiRelay.git && sudo /bin/sh TinyPiRelay/install.sh install --apply
-
Open
http://<hostname>.local/orhttp://<device-ip>/—no special port. Create your web username and password (at least 12 characters), then sign in. This account is separate from your SSH account.
Run the command from a writable directory without an existing TinyPiRelay
folder. A failed package command or clone stops the chain; an existing nonempty
checkout is not overwritten. If the installer fails after cloning, follow
installation troubleshooting rather
than deleting the folder or blindly rerunning the clone.
Review and trust the release before granting root access. This method trusts GitHub and the selected tag over HTTPS; it does not verify an independent release signature. Manual/checksum-verified installation is also available.
Trusted LAN only: HTTP passwords and sessions are unencrypted. The first visitor to an unconfigured device can create its administrator account. Complete setup promptly on a trusted network, or choose SSH-only access. Do not expose the web GUI directly to the Internet.
Start in Audio: refresh inputs, choose a validated capture mode, save, and apply the required media restart. Check the Dashboard meters, make a short recording, stop it normally, then open Storage to play or download the file. The step-by-step first-use guide explains the controls and what to check when something is unavailable.
Select capture settings and adjust the spectrogram's frequency view and colors. View zoom changes what you see, not the microphone's recorded resolution.
Play, download and check finished recordings from Storage. Active files are protected; recovery creates a separate copy instead of editing the original.
Both screenshots use the actual interface with simulated telemetry and sample recordings. They are not recordings from a microphone or proof of hardware operation.
TinyPiRelay is the sender. You need a separately configured receiver that accepts streamable Matroska over SRT, using TinyPiRelay in caller mode. The admitted stream formats are 48 kHz stereo PCM S16LE, FLAC, and Opus. Local capture/recording can use a different format; the current FLAC stream path is 16-bit, including when native local recording is 24-bit.
MPEG-TS is not currently produced. An SRT input on another product does not automatically mean it accepts this framing and codec combination. A finite BirdNET integration test used an additional receiving bridge; that bridge is not bundled. See first stream setup.
- Fresh installation still needs physical validation:
0.5.17-devadds browser account creation, no-microphone deployment and LAN port 80. Its new onboarding flow, port-80 service operation and hostname discovery have not yet passed a fresh physical-Pi installation check. - Pi 4 evidence is finite: a 30-minute combined recording, monitoring, streaming and BirdNET run passed on an earlier release. That is not endurance, kiosk or power-loss acceptance.
- Original Zero W is constrained: the later dashboard workload saturated the board. Do not treat earlier narrow tests or the screenshot's simulated readings as approval for the full workload.
- Not all controls imply available hardware: battery readout and GUI Wi-Fi setup are unavailable. Other receiver combinations, encrypted SRT, hotplug recovery and broad board support need further validation.
- Keep backups: normal stop finalizes recordings; recovery cannot guarantee complete audio after a power cut. Unattended archival reliability is not claimed.
The release-readiness report records open gates. Project history and evidence retain earlier versions and test scopes; those historical results do not certify the current prerelease.
- First use and troubleshooting
- Installation, upgrades, password reset and removal
- FLAC recovery and its limits
- Developer checks and architecture
- Report a bug or request a feature
For a useful bug report, include the TinyPiRelay version, board, OS/32- or 64-bit architecture, audio device/mode, browser, reproduction steps, and expected versus actual behavior. Review logs before sharing; remove passwords, tokens, private addresses and personal recording details. No hardware or fix-time guarantee is implied by a community report.
MIT. TinyPiRelay is an independent project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Raspberry Pi. Its geometric logo is original artwork.