# Speaker phat problems

**URL:** https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/speaker-phat-problems/19649
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [June 5, 2022, 7:51pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/speaker-phat-problems/19649 "2022-06-05T19:51:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![m3m3nt0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@m3m3nt0](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/m3m3nt0)
#### Post date: [June 5, 2022, 7:51pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/speaker-phat-problems/19649/1 "2022-06-05T19:51:09Z")

</div>

Hi all, I will give a little background and then get straight to my 2 issues.

**Background:**  
Hardware: Raspberry Pi 0W and Pimoroni Speaker Phat  
OS: Raspbian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)  
Notes: i2c enabled  
Installation process: curl -sS [https://get.pimoroni.com/speakerphat](https://get.pimoroni.com/speakerphat) | bash

Sound works fine (tested several .mp3 and playlist files like .xspf and .m3u).  
LED lights also work nicely (tested them with the “test” python file).  
So, at this point I assume my soldering does the job (literally second soldering of my life and the first was a year ago).

**Issue 01:**  
So, I assume a VU meter should be active by default, is that correct? LED lights should do their “Knight Rider” effect while a song is playing, am I right?

Unfortunately, I get only sound (when I run audio files).

In another thread I found this which I already did of course:  
sudo nano /etc/pulse/default.pa  
Right under the line that reads `### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available`  
Add:  
load-module module-alsa-sink device=pivumeter

Any ideas how to enable the VU meter?

**Issue 02:**  
Following this tutorial,

> **[Say Anything with a Speaker pHAT](https://learn.pimoroni.com/article/say-anything-with-a-speaker-phat)**
>
> Make a tiny mixtape to hold aloft! – Pimoroni Learning Portal

I tried to set cron to automatically play an audio file. Tried with cvlc, ffmpeg and basically 3-4 more cli audio players. Even tried with vlc.

Even though commands work from the terminal, crontab never does.

After a lot of googling (seems a lot of people have the same problem), I learnt about the DISPLAY=:0.0 trick which unfortunately did not work.

So, if anyone got an idea how to combine cron and cvlc, I am grateful.

Thanks a lot for your time!