Scanner feed using Rasberry Pi ?

frazpo · #1 (**permalink**) 03-06-2012, 5:24 PM

Its sounds like a rather cheap experiment and it just might work. Be neat to see someone give it s shot at feeding with it. You would need a USB soundcard and it would need to run linux. You will see in one of the videos of running the game Quake.

Raspberry Pi | An ARM GNU/Linux box for $25. Take a byte!

Raspberry Pi - Quake 3 demo - YouTube

Hands-on Raspberry Pi alpha board - Geek.com - YouTube

Raspberry Pi video capabilities - YouTube

jaded · #2 (**permalink**) 03-17-2012, 12:43 PM

Ooh! Ooh! Yes, I'm VERY excited for the Raspberry Pi -- on of my first thoughts was to use this to stream my feed. I've got a 12" square solar panel, 7Ah SLA battery, and a charge controller, all ready to go... now I just need the Raspi and I'm all set. The biggest problem right now is that you just can't get your hands on one -- they're quite backordered.

jaded · #3 (**permalink**) 06-14-2012, 4:04 PM

I received the Raspi about a week ago, and finally had a chance today to test it to stream to RR. I decided to try it using the method I'm currently using with an old laptop, outlined in the ezstream wiki I posted a while back. I was able to find all the packages I needed (sox, lame, ezstream) via a combo of the default and deb-multimedia repos.

Though I was able to get it to stream something, it certainly wasn't intelligible. My problem right now is the super-cheap USB soundcard I'm using, coupled with Alsa. For starters, after a reboot, Alsa isn't able to find the card anymore (e.g.: alsamixer says "cannot open mixer: No such file or directory", even though aplay -l does show it as being there). The next problem is getting something other than a distorted, jittery mess out of the card.

I have to put it away for the time being, but after this initial test, I'm quite confident that the Raspi will be EXCELLENT for those who want a standalone device to provide a stream to RR. I just need to find a better made, but not too expensive, USB audio device to handle audio input, and then it'll be all set.

Bellingham_Scanner · #4 (**permalink**) 06-23-2012, 10:25 AM

The Raspberry PI should be more than powerful enough.

I ran Icecast feed to RR and a Shoutcast feed supporting 50 listeners during a local manhunt on a "DECtop".

The DECtop is powered by a 333Mhz AMD Geode and 512Meg RAM.

I would run Linux and Icecast on the Raspberry PI.

I am still waiting to get my hands on one.

montyny · #5 (**permalink**) 02-15-2013, 6:27 AM

I'm curious whether anyone has picked this up again?

I tried a couple of cheap usb soundcards to try with 'Two Tone Detect' to record pager audio, however I had the same issue that the soundcards and the pi created terrible, mostly unintellible audio. The sound card on Windows worked fine.

I was thinking of trying a usb sound card in the $20 range as opposed to $2 but haven't got around to it yet.

Bellingham_Scanner · #6 (**permalink**) 02-15-2013, 6:14 PM

Yes IredellMon has one running in this thread
Standalone Client Computer

But I have my doubt about the R-Pi, it would probably be fine for a single feed to RR but I don't think it would handle both my RR feeds and hosting my website and my feeds

ka8zay · #7 (**permalink**) 02-16-2013, 11:50 PM

So I've been working on the Rasberry Pi for the last week on and off and have it running one of my feeds. I can't get it quite cleaned up on the audio side a slight popping now and then. Soon as I figure it out, it will be PERFECT for this. I had just put one of my feeds ont eh Barix Instreamer and then got the idea to try this for my other feeds and I think in time this will be perfect for all of them. BTW there is a place in NY that has them in stock no waiting I have been ordering them from if anyone wants the info let me know.

73's

Bellingham_Scanner · #8 (**permalink**) 02-17-2013, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ka8zay

So I've been working on the Rasberry Pi for the last week on and off and have it running one of my feeds. I can't get it quite cleaned up on the audio side a slight popping now and then. Soon as I figure it out, it will be PERFECT for this.

Part of the problem is the Ethernet interface is really a USB adapter that is integrated onto the R-Pi.

That means your USB soundcard and the network are sharing the USB port.

dovy6 · #9 (**permalink**) 02-18-2013, 12:11 PM

also remember that the RasPi is not shielded, so it's going to pick up all interference from power supplies, radios, etc.
Perhaps try placing the RPi in a case and wrapping that case in silver foil?

aaknitt · #10 (**permalink**) 04-09-2013, 3:59 PM

Guys,

A couple of us have gotten TwoToneDetect working on the Pi. More info on this thread.

To overcome the audio quality issues we had to run the USB port at 1.1 speeds instead of 2.0 speed.

I have not tried streaming audio yet, but if we could get TTD and streaming working together on a Pi, that would be pretty useful.

Andy

kb8zxe · #11 (**permalink**) 04-11-2013, 2:18 PM

I finally got my Raspberry PI streaming to Broadcastify.com and sounding good. Like aaknitt states I had to change the USB port to a 1.1 speed instead of 2.0 speed.

All the documentation is out there to make Darkice work but it can be challenging if you are not familiar with Linux. What I am offering is access to a copy of my current image with the only difference being the server settings and password will be removed. The PI speaks it's IP address on boot and has a couple other add-ons. Of course I encourage you to try to get it working by yourself first, but if you get discouraged and give up let me know. I can put an image on Google Docs or something like that.

I've had my feed up for a couple weeks and it is sounding good. I have had no issues with the PI. In my opinion this is really the way to go. I have my dsl modem, router, scanner and PI all running off of a 12volt power supply with a AGM battery for backup. The entire system will run for hours if the power goes out.

Good luck.

Bob

FatCat46 · #12 (**permalink**) 04-19-2013, 12:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kb8zxe

I finally got my Raspberry PI streaming to Broadcastify.com and sounding good. Like aaknitt states I had to change the USB port to a 1.1 speed instead of 2.0 speed.

All the documentation is out there to make Darkice work but it can be challenging if you are not familiar with Linux. What I am offering is access to a copy of my current image with the only difference being the server settings and password will be removed. The PI speaks it's IP address on boot and has a couple other add-ons. Of course I encourage you to try to get it working by yourself first, but if you get discouraged and give up let me know. I can put an image on Google Docs or something like that.

I've had my feed up for a couple weeks and it is sounding good. I have had no issues with the PI. In my opinion this is really the way to go. I have my dsl modem, router, scanner and PI all running off of a 12volt power supply with a AGM battery for backup. The entire system will run for hours if the power goes out.

Good luck.

Bob

What OS are you using and what are you streaming? I have been wanting to stream audio from a D-STAR DVDONGLE, but I don't know linux. I don't even know if the PI can handle the DVDONGLE or how I would even get that to work.

kb8zxe · #13 (**permalink**) 04-24-2013, 12:28 PM

I am using the standard Wheezy Raspbian Linux operating system with Darkice as the streamer software. Darkice takes whatever comes into the USB sound card and streams it to Broadcastify.

I recently installed Icecast on the same PI and Darkice now streams to Broadcastify and locally to an Icecast server. This way I can listen without using the internet.

If you want to eliminate the Broadcastify feed you can use the PI as a local all in one streamer where people connect directly to you. Maybe you just want a small group of friends to listen.

It will stream anything that you feed into the audio jack.

As long as you are willing to learn a few basic Linux commands you should be fine. Once it's up and working there isn't a whole lot to go wrong.

Bob

P.S. I am streaming this http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/13794/

FatCat46 · #14 (**permalink**) 04-24-2013, 1:09 PM

Thank you Bob!

blantonl · #15 (**permalink**) 04-25-2013, 8:19 AM

Bob, what is the process to change the USB port to 1.1 from 2.0 speeds?

kb8zxe · #16 (**permalink**) 04-25-2013, 2:40 PM

just use nano or pico and edit /boot/cmdline.txt

Add "dwc_otg.speed=1" to /boot/cmdline.txt.

then re-boot

I am not sure if it matters or not but I forgot to mention that I am using alsa for sound instead of pulse.

Bellingham_Scanner · #17 (**permalink**) 04-25-2013, 8:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kb8zxe

I am using the standard Wheezy Raspbian Linux operating system with Darkice as the streamer software.

As long as you are willing to learn a few basic Linux commands you should be fine. Once it's up and working there isn't a whole lot to go wrong.

I have to agree here. In fact Darkice runs so well that the few times something did go wrong I had to re-learn how to set it up all over again almost from scratch.

I have gone so long between reboots that I have forgotten the command line to start Darkice with my config file.

btrogdon · #18 (**permalink**) 04-27-2013, 9:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kb8zxe

..... What I am offering is access to a copy of my current image with the only difference being the server settings and password will be removed. ......

Bob, I have a Raspberry Pi configured for Amateur Radio application (D-Star DVAP) and have seriously pondered replacing my dedicated laptop hosting two feeds with a RasPi dedicated to each feed.

Could I get a copy of your image please sir?

I see this as a huge benefit to the Streaming community as images can be created that Auto Start and once configured all you ever have to do is plug and play.

I can provide you FTP access if you prefer or you can email it.

Can you access your RasPi via VNC?

Thanks in advance!

StreamingProjects@trogdon.org

kb8zxe · #19 (**permalink**) 05-03-2013, 10:17 AM

Sure thing. The image is rather large even compressed with rar. I will e-mail you and figure out a way to get it to you. The image is way to large to e-mail.

I do not have vnc running on my image. All I use is SSH, but if you plug in a head phone or speaker to the audio jack it should speaker the ip address on boot.

You also have to make sure you have the correct sound card.

I am just on break at work. I will e-mail you tonight and figure out a plan.

Bob

IredellMon · #20 (**permalink**) 05-04-2013, 8:28 PM

Been using a RasPi to feed scanner audio for a while now. it has run as long as 37 days and even then it only came down because I did a shutdown in order to back up. Its down now and I'm not home to see if its a RasPi problem or maybe my ISP.. still its been a great performer so I wrote up a guide..
https://sites.google.com/site/glyman3home/scannerfeed
Oh, did I mention I also have local audio file archiving with dead air removed? Thats sweet.