Sidenote: Compiling VinylCast2

This article is an addendum to my guide for setting up a Raspberry Pi to cast my turntable to my Google Home speakers. If you somehow ended up here without that post, here’s a link to get you back.

Hello, Android Studio

The build process for the app is relatively simple as long as you know what you’re doing. As someone who downloaded and installed Android Studio for the first time to compile this app, I’ll do my best to walk you through every step to avoid the things that tripped me up.

The Downloads

• Android Studio – Windows/Mac/Linux/Chrome OS
• simple-cast source – Click clone or download -> Download ZIP

Install Android Studio with the default option and unzip the simple-cast source files to a working directory.

Opening Android Studio, select to Open an existing Android Studio project. Select the unzipped simple-cast-master folder.

Give the project a minute to sync up, you’ll see sync progress at the bottom of the Android Studio window.

Add The Android 9.0 SDK

This is the main part I got tripped up on, the app was built on Android 9.0, but given that’s an old version at this point we need to download the SDK for this to build properly.

• Go to Tools -> SDK Manager.
• Select the checkbox for Android 9.0 (Pie) and click OK.
• The component installer will automatically open up and start installing the SDK. Click Finish when it’s done doing it’s thing.

Make the Project

Back at the main window, with app selected on the left side, select Build -> Make Project.

Once it’s done running, your compiled apk will be available at:

.\simple-cast-master\app\build\outputs\apk\debug\app-debug.apk

Get this apk over to your device your preferred way, USB, Google Drive, Portal by Pushbullet.

Conclusion

So yeah, this is actually a pretty simple process. I’m a bit ashamed that the SDK tripped me up so long as it was staring me in the face in the log output from the get-go, but I figured it out only after a rabbit hole of trying to compile via command line.