A Chromecast is an extremely useful device that allows you to easily send content from your mobile to the TV. It really is not very expensive (the Chromecast Ultra is worth 79 euros), but it only serves one function, so for many people, it is not a very convenient investment. And it is that, for a slightly lower price, you can buy a Raspberry Pi and mount your own home Chromecast that, in addition, will serve as a basic computer to perform office tasks and surf the Internet.
If you are interested in this idea, we will immediately show you how you can use a Raspberry Pi as a Chromecast. Keep in mind that this is possible thanks to an Android application called Raspicast, which allows you to send content from your mobile to a Raspberry Pi. So do not expect a performance as good as a real Chromecast, because we will use a third-party tool that may fail. Without further ado, let’s see how to create a homemade Chromecast with a Raspberry Pi.
Steps to turn your Raspberry Pi into a Chromecast
First of all, if you still don’t have a Raspberry Pi, get one from the Raspberry Pi Foundation official website . Whichever one you choose will work for you, but preferably choose one that has WiFi, HDMI cable, housing, microSD card with NOOBS, mouse and mouse. With all that, it will be much easier to turn the Raspberry Pi into a Chromecast. If you already have what is necessary, make all the connections to start up the Raspberry Pi and follow these steps:
raspberry pi to Chromecast
- Once you turn on the Raspberry Pi, if it doesn’t have an operating system, then run NOOBS from a microSD and install Raspbian.
- Make sure Raspbian is up to date by opening Terminal and entering the following commands:
- sudo apt update
- sudo apt upgrade
- Now, open the Raspbian settings with the following command: Sudo raspi-config.
- Go to Interfacing options and then enable SSH access.
- Then go back to Terminal and enter: Sudo apt install omxplayer. We do this to verify that the proper video player is installed on the Raspberry Pi.
- You also need to install OpenMAX in order to receive images. This is done very simply, although you must first install the necessary support for this app to work, with these commands:
- sudo apt-get install git make -y
- sudo apt-get install libjpeg8-dev libpng12-d
- Now yes, install OpenMAX by running the following commands (following the order shown here):
- git clone https://github.com/HaarigerHarald/omxiv
- $ cd omxiv
- $ make ilclient
- $ make -j4
- $ sudo make install
- Finally, enter the command: hostname – I . Copy the IP of your Raspberry Pi and voila.
In this way, your Raspberry Pi will be ready to receive content and work like a Chromecast.
How to use your Raspberry Pi as a Chromecast
Once you have turned your Raspberry Pi into a Chromecast by following the steps shown above, it is time to test it. That is, to send content from your mobile. For this, you will need to install the Raspicast application on your Android, which you can download for free in the Google Play Store.
With the app installed, follow these steps to start sending content to the Raspberry Pi:
- Open the Raspicast app.
- Go to the SSH Settings option and enter the IP of your Raspberry Pi.
- Also, enter the plate’s username and password in the corresponding fields. If you have not changed this data of your Raspberry Pi, put Pi in username and password put raspberry.
- Click on OK. Thus, you will have already configured the app to send content to the Raspberry Pi.
- From the Raspicast app, you can access your videos, music and images and just by touching them, you will send them to your Raspberry Pi.
- You can also send YouTube videos by tapping the share button on the video you want and selecting Raspicast.
That is all! It’s that simple to use your Raspberry Pi as a Chromecast. If you liked this tutorial, then you will love to know that you can also turn your Raspberry Pi into an Android TV.