# Keybow and Pirate Audio **URL:** \ **Category:** Raspberry Pi\ **Created:** [April 5, 2020, 8:44am UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/keybow-and-pirate-audio/13500 "2020-04-05T08:44:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nicolas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/67e7ee/32.png) [@Nicolas](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/Nicolas)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 8:44am UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/keybow-and-pirate-audio/13500/1 "2020-04-05T08:44:06Z")
Hi, I was thinking to a mean for my son to use spotify without the need of a screen. I was wondering whether pirate audio 3W Amp and keybow can be both mounted and working together on a raspberry Pi? From what I read they are both mounted directly of the 40 pins, so I am not that optimistics :D Thanks, Take care ---
**Author:** ![alphanumeric](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/alphanumeric/32/2729_2.png) [@alphanumeric](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/alphanumeric)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 11:30am UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/keybow-and-pirate-audio/13500/2 "2020-04-05T11:30:46Z")
It’s my understanding that you would want to use the keybow on its own Pi. It emulates a USB keyboard. It’s Pi runs the keybow OS in gadget mode. If you were to try to do it with the one Pi I would go with the phat Stack > **[pHAT Stack – Pimoroni Store](https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/phat-stack?variant=658973392906)** > > A preposterous pile of peripherals on your Pi! Mix and match 3 HATs or 5 pHATs into a platter of functionality. Use pHAT Stack for specific setups and projects, or just as a handy way to use several HATs or pHATs at once. That’s assuming there are no pin conflicts between the keybow and Pirate Audio pHat. I see the Pirate Audio here, but no Keybow. Getting the software setup may be a PITA too. > **[Raspberry Pi GPIO Pinout](https://pinout.xyz/boards#manufacturer=Pimoroni)** > > The comprehensive Add-on boards & GPIO Pinout guide for the Raspberry Pi What functionality are you looking for over the built in buttons? ---
**Author:** ![Nicolas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/67e7ee/32.png) [@Nicolas](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/Nicolas)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 11:58am UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/keybow-and-pirate-audio/13500/3 "2020-04-05T11:58:23Z")
Thanks @alphanumeric, this pHAT stack will do the trick, providing there is no pin conflict indeed. I’ll look about it, thank you also for the pinout link My idea would be a box providing a raspberry Pi + pirate audio and speaker + the keybow as a numeric keypad to selected the number of the track to be played. ~~Maybe a usb keypad…~~ Re reading your comment, I’m starting to understand it better. Yes I’l like to have a unique raspberry, running Node and a web server. ---
**Author:** ![alphanumeric](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/alphanumeric/32/2729_2.png) [@alphanumeric](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/alphanumeric)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 12:19pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/keybow-and-pirate-audio/13500/4 "2020-04-05T12:19:45Z")
If you solder a female header on to the bottom side of a Pi Zero, same way you solder a header on a pHat, you can plug it in to the pHat Stack and not have to use the ribbon cable. Everything will work just like it was plugged in via the ribbon cable. You can’t ever plug a Hat in on top of the Pi the standard way. It’s basically dedicated to the pHat Stack. I’ve done it on my mini black hacker boards, which are a smaller version of the pHat Stack. I used a 90 degree header so my Pi points up, It makes it easier to pug in the cables, but a normal female will work too. Just plug the Pi in at the end. ---
**Author:** ![alphanumeric](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/alphanumeric/32/2729_2.png) [@alphanumeric](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/alphanumeric)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 12:25pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/keybow-and-pirate-audio/13500/5 "2020-04-05T12:25:16Z")
The Keybow, normally runs a custom Kebow OS. It could be very tricky trying to run the Keybow software and Pirate Audio software from the same Pi? Not something I would try with my skill level. ---
**Author:** ![Nicolas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/67e7ee/32.png) [@Nicolas](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/Nicolas)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 12:28pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/keybow-and-pirate-audio/13500/6 "2020-04-05T12:28:29Z")
Yes, looking a bit further, it will be beyond my skill level. I have to do some more research I guess. Thanks for your reactivity. ---
**Author:** ![alphanumeric](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/alphanumeric/32/2729_2.png) [@alphanumeric](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/alphanumeric)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 12:31pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/keybow-and-pirate-audio/13500/7 "2020-04-05T12:31:53Z")
You could set the Keybow us as its intended, as a custom USB keybord coded the way you want. And plug it into the Pirate Audio PI. It will show up to Raspbian as a USB connected keyboard. The tricky part would be getting Aplay or Alsa to recognize / respond to the keyboard inputs. ---
**Author:** ![Nicolas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/67e7ee/32.png) [@Nicolas](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/Nicolas)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 12:45pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/keybow-and-pirate-audio/13500/8 "2020-04-05T12:45:25Z")
Yes, this is the best way to go if I want to use a keybow, though I find it a bit of a waste to use two raspberry Pis when I’m sure one would be enough. I was thinking of a node app to : - setup the “tracks library” of the “playlist” (but not in a spotify way) by choosing the tracks through spotify’s API and link them to a number - capture key pressed, convert to number and send the corresponding tracks to mopidy (though I for now have no idea to perform this, but I saw that mopidy as a javascript wrapper) This is actually my first steps : setup up at least a prototype of the software part ---
**Author:** ![alphanumeric](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/alphanumeric/32/2729_2.png) [@alphanumeric](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/alphanumeric)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2020, 1:01pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/keybow-and-pirate-audio/13500/9 "2020-04-05T13:01:05Z")
I couldn’t find any info on whats on the keybow circuit board? Other than the LED’s are APA102. There is this though [https://learn.pimoroni.com/keybow](https://learn.pimoroni.com/keybow) ---
**Author:** ![wildestpixel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/35a633/32.png) [@wildestpixel](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/wildestpixel)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2020, 5:29am UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/keybow-and-pirate-audio/13500/10 "2020-07-23T05:29:19Z")
Just looking at mounting these (mini Keybow of course) on HAT hacker together and looks like CS on GPIO 24 would conflict when trying to access SPI.