Scanner feed using Rasberry Pi ?

[clemfm]

The Edirol serves as a souncard??

Edirol/Roland have produced numerous professional grade USB sound capture devices.

I captured 20 seconds of a lull between transmissions in Audacity with the Griffin iMic and then did the same with the Edirol device. There was no comparison and I'm running the Edirol. I believe the iMic is good for DAC however, but I've no need for that capability obviously.

 

[frazpo]

Edirol/Roland have produced numerous professional grade USB sound capture devices.

I captured 20 seconds of a lull between transmissions in Audacity with the Griffin iMic and then did the same with the Edirol device. There was no comparison and I'm running the Edirol. I believe the iMic is good for DAC however, but I've no need for that capability obviously.

Thats cool. This has never been addressed on this thread.

 

[DC31]

Edirol/Roland have produced numerous professional grade USB sound capture devices.

I captured 20 seconds of a lull between transmissions in Audacity with the Griffin iMic and then did the same with the Edirol device. There was no comparison and I'm running the Edirol. I believe the iMic is good for DAC however, but I've no need for that capability obviously.

Could you direct us to your feed so that we could have a listen?

 

[frazpo]

Great info everyone! Just an update, running 2 simultaneous feeds successfully on one Rasberry Pi. No overclocking necessary, or slowing of the USB port necessary, and it's staying cool and happy. Running 2 Griffin I-mic USB cards with line inputs and it sounds great.

Just create 2 different config files each with it's own filename, (such as darkice-feed1.cfg) unique sound card inputs, mountpoints and passwords, ect.


audio input for my 1st feed:
device = plughw:1,0

audio input for my 2nd feed:
device = plughw:0,0

open 2 shells, then run the feeds like this:

sudo nano /etc/darkice-feed1.cfg
sudo nano /etc/darkice-feed2.cfg

more tips on the other R-PI thread here...


How wonderful it was to shut down my Windows XP machine after running it 24/7 after all these years!

I am guessing it may be the cheap soundcard dongles I am using but my audio goes bad when I start a second service of darkice. Anyone else have luck running two feeds with cheap soundcard dongles on one Pi??

 

[slingshot202]

Pi Problems.....

I have been using Pi for a couple of months now, but I am no expert.

I am using a WiFi dongle and this feeds randomly craps out. Though, it is not just the feed. I am also unable to talk to the device. Now, sometimes, I just let it be, it restores...no intervention, usually, if I am home I will just reboot it.

No rhyme or reason, it's as if the Pi falls asleep.

I think I may have seen something like this, but I am not sure. I have no spare hard wired ports up in the office and the wifi signal is strong.

Thoughts, comments, questions...

Speaking of which, my feed restored again on its own just now after being down 45 minutes. :-/

 

[frazpo]

Pi Problems.....

I have been using Pi for a couple of months now, but I am no expert.

I am using a WiFi dongle and this feeds randomly craps out. Though, it is not just the feed. I am also unable to talk to the device. Now, sometimes, I just let it be, it restores...no intervention, usually, if I am home I will just reboot it.

No rhyme or reason, it's as if the Pi falls asleep.

I think I may have seen something like this, but I am not sure. I have no spare hard wired ports up in the office and the wifi signal is strong.

Thoughts, comments, questions...

Speaking of which, my feed restored again on its own just now after being down 45 minutes. :-/

Have you concluded that it is the wifi? Have you tried it hardwired? I have had success with wifi on my pi. No problems at all. I remember setting it up but I would have to jar my memory a bit to remember the setup. I can share the files if you are sure its a wifi issue.

I also have it setup as a static IP. I know your limited on ports but it may be worth a try.

Talk to the device? You use SSH or Putty?

 

[slingshot202]

I will have to see about freeing up a port to try it hardwired.

As you, I set it up and I do not use the commands very often, not sure what I might have to do to get it running differently.

I do have a static WiFi address.

I use Putty with an SSH connection, but, when the feed goes down I also cannot connect. Not sure what it is really and not sure how to trouble shoot other than trying to get the monitor set up during an outage and see what it is or is not doing.

CJ

 

[frazpo]

I will have to see about freeing up a port to try it hardwired.

As you, I set it up and I do not use the commands very often, not sure what I might have to do to get it running differently.

I do have a static WiFi address.

I use Putty with an SSH connection, but, when the feed goes down I also cannot connect. Not sure what it is really and not sure how to trouble shoot other than trying to get the monitor set up during an outage and see what it is or is not doing.

CJ

If you get some time you might want to post some screen shots of your interfaces file, wpa_supplicant file, and run ifconfig and post results.

 

[ka3bhq]

I Think this is my first posting, here - at least for awhile..?

f I missed it, sorry. Has anyone tried the Wolfson sound card, yet?

 

[k9swx]

Stereo feed on Pi?

Has anyone found a USB sound card for the Pi that has a stereo input for use with running a stereo feed? I'm wanting to move my stereo feed off the PC onto a Pi but seems all the cheap USB sound cards have mono inputs. Is it possible to use 2 of these sound cards and route one to the left channel and the other to the right channel? I don't really want to split them into their own feeds as there's not much traffic on it to begin with. (2 ham radio repeaters)

 

[DC31]

Has anyone found a USB sound card for the Pi that has a stereo input for use with running a stereo feed? I'm wanting to move my stereo feed off the PC onto a Pi but seems all the cheap USB sound cards have mono inputs. Is it possible to use 2 of these sound cards and route one to the left channel and the other to the right channel? I don't really want to split them into their own feeds as there's not much traffic on it to begin with. (2 ham radio repeaters)

Let me start by saying that I have never attempted a stereo feed...

One of my feeds uses an iMic usb sound card. (around $20-30 as I recall). According to the configuration list, this can be used Analog Stereo input and Digital Stereo input.
See the attached image for the configuration options.

http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Techn...5929&sr=8-2&keywords=imic+usb+audio+interface

 

[k9swx]

Let me start by saying that I have never attempted a stereo feed...

One of my feeds uses an iMic usb sound card. (around $20-30 as I recall). According to the configuration list, this can be used Analog Stereo input and Digital Stereo input.
See the attached image for the configuration options.

http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Techn...5929&sr=8-2&keywords=imic+usb+audio+interface

Thanks for the info. It looks like that might just do the job. Thanks!

 

[ka3bhq]

Wolfson sound card/dropouts

Again - has anyone tried the Wolfson Sound Card, newly-minted, just for the R-Pi..?

http://www.element14.com/community/community/raspberry-pi/raspberry-pi-accessories/wolfson_pi

Why is a USB Audio Interface necessary for the scanner/R-Pi, used as feed..? I'm missing the point on this..?


Dropouts - My ISP drops out, for anywhere from a few minutes to an hour, once or twice a month("Maintenance"). Usually about 3AM. Get a notice from Broadcastify that my feed is "gone", then another, later saying "it's back"(Everything at my end keeps running fine - just no internet.). As I, currently, run on an old XP computer, I also got dropouts when Java did an auto-update - sometimes that did not "come-back" and I had to re-start things manually. No "auto-updates" for the R-Pi/software "chain" are set-up - right..?

I also run the whole shebang on a UPS(The $60 APC, at radio Shack or BBY.). That keeps the occasional dropouts, at the AC line, from happening. If the outage lasts no more than a hour or so, it stays up. With a R-Pi setup, the same UPS might go for days with no AC..? The UPS also keeps my ancient gear running smooth, for as long as possible - no brownouts, no surges, just super-smooth, very proper power to everything involved.

One can makeup a 'pseudo' UPS, for everything that runs on 12v, with a battery and a charger running the show(The battery is really the 'star' with any UPS.). The battery acts as a very good 'noise/surge' filter, and keeps going when the AC goes down, for as long as the battery lasts. I run all my ham gear on battery/charger combos - nothing on AC supplies.

 

[DC31]

The pi comes configured with audio output only, no input. Thus a $3 usb sound card. I don't know of anyone who has tried the Wolfson. Those of us doing scanner feeds don't need top end sound cards. The audio is never going to be any better than the scanner output. We aren't looking for Dolby Surround Sound. Lot of pi's end up being media centers, they may want something better than a $3 sound card.

I run 2 pi's, two scanners, and a network switch off a ups also. The draw for all this equipment is something like 19 watts. It smooths out all the bumps. I agree, the weak link in the whole thing is the internet service. I regularly see 3 minute dropouts a couple times a week and longer ones occasionally.

 

[ka3bhq]

My apologies. Head in wrong arena... The "top end" sound card(LynxOne), for my home VO studio, was $500, 14 years ago(Still works great, by the way, though only up to XP - I got my money out of it...). My "planned for"(?) new USB Audio Interface(Lynx Hilo), would be $2500. Thus, when I saw 30 bucks(?) for the Wolfson, made for the R-Pi, I was thinking "ridiculously cheap, but, maybe OK for the purpose - easy worth the 30, just to give it a shot"... Cheap is relative - hi!(None of our "feed" stuff will ever pay itself off - sigh...)

All said - I have not had time to investigate the R-Pi, it's audio abilities or the Wolfson, any further than a few introductory paragraphs. I am not a "tech", but my truly tech buddy says "all would be fine" with such a set-up. What? Around a hundred bucks, for everything I need to run two feeds, other than radios and internet? Should save it's cost in AC(And worry over impending failure at any moment), fairly soon, over the antique desktop I'm running one feed on, now - don't ya' think..? And yes, other than the UPS and Wi-Fi dongle, everything I'm running now is built from "shelf-sitting junk", that cost me no actual coin.

I will look at our local Nerdholic/Used store(Free Geek Penn, Ephrata, Pa.) and let you know if I find anything that may suffice. 2 months ago, there was a dual quadcore, i7, HP desktop "with everything to go" for a few hundred dollars. There are, generally, several dozen assorted "cards" in-stock - ya' never know what you will find - the $3 range would not be out of line... the USB, I don't know.

Meanwhile. I am so glad I do not have to use "scanners" - their audio is, indeed, poor, with intermod often brutal. I am thinking of updating the radio(s), to something in a vintage Motorola. I forget which model we had decided on? One model does 99 channels, with the proper "control head"..? They were going for about $125, each, in "ready to go" shape. Only thing I know that might do better than the old Kenwood 2 meter transceiver I use now, which does all of VHF "fine". Fortunately, I do railroad voice frequencies, so don't need multiple bands or a trunking anything - yet. Of course, we would almost prefer that a transceiver we might use no longer transmits, anyway, so may be even cheaper, if able to be found with fried finals. Anyone use anything Motorola..?

One last thing and I'll let you go. I'm considering putting together a vertical co-linear, maybe 4 elements. Should give me some gain, should(More importantly, in my case) narrow the bandwidth, so as to hold-down the weather channels to my north and the hospital pagers to my south(RR is Around 161Mhz.). Fairly easy and very cheap to build. More difficult to test than anything. Better for severely limited frequency range, like I do(Perfect for long-range single channel.). Anyone use one?

Thankx guys!
Teddy G., KA3BHQ
Lancaster(PA)Rail(Feed)
Teddy G. Voiceover

 

[ka3bhq]

OK, one more thing. If you are using "scanners", now, and you know any hams, ask them if they have any old Kenwood mobile radios. If they do, and they no longer transmit, ask 'em for it(Them?). Some do quite a range of frequencies, and Kenwood has long been known for their audio. They are all still sitting on shelves, somewhere... Too pretty to throw away, and too costly to repair. The receive ability and audio quality increase(Even when monitoring railroad engines - noisy as it gets) is excellent. If it'll do the frequencies, and you don't want to pay for used Motorola, Kenwood is likely the best scanning receiver you'll find(Probably for free. Tell the ham what you're doing with it, they can't possibly resist donating it to the cause.). For VHF, you're looking at a 241A, 261A, 271A or 281A. For UHF(Mostly dual-band or more.), the numbers are not so easy - but they're easy to find. The transmitting parts don't last so long, not because they're not good, just because hams talk sooo much(Have you noticed..?). It's worth noting that most of the other ham rigs are NOT much better than a normal scanner, audio-wise. A tech can tell you why. I just know the KW's use more power(Amps) - always - but they use it very, very well.

 

[clemfm]

Cheap will give you a noisy feed! See the thread elsewhere for an iMic to Edirol comparison, and there is no comparison.

You can pickup an Edirol AU-1A for $20 from time to time (I have 2 now) or a US-5 for more, however the UA-5 is way overkill for steaming IMHO.

UA-1A :: Products :: Roland These were about $150 new and worth every cent!

Both use the base USB audio standard and so no drivers are necessary on the Pi (or on iPads or iPhones for that matter which is pretty cool).

 

[frazpo]

Cheap will give you a noisy feed! See the thread elsewhere for an iMic to Edirol comparison, and there is no comparison.

You can pickup an Edirol AU-1A for $20 from time to time (I have 2 now) or a US-5 for more, however the UA-5 is way overkill for steaming IMHO.

UA-1A :: Products :: Roland These were about $150 new and worth every cent!

Both use the base USB audio standard and so no drivers are necessary on the Pi (or on iPads or iPhones for that matter which is pretty cool).

I operate two feeds on one Pi, one is a personal feed of decoded NXDN from a linux laptop to a cheap USB dongle. The other is from a scanner into a another cheap USB dongle into the same Pi. Both are extremely clear. The scanner feed shows no audible noise between transmissions. The NXDN decoded stream sounds unreal with earbuds. So a good clean feed can be accomplished withe cheap dongles. I must be lucky. In the past I have experienced noise that came from particular scanners and from scanners that were plugged into the same outlet. So I guess noise can be generated from about anywhere in the setup.

 

[kb8zxe]

I will agree that cheap sound cards CAN work just fine for scanner feeds on the Pi. I have been using the Syba SD-CM-UAUD exclusively and I am happy with the audio. For the older Pi's (B model) I have found that I needed to put the USB speed to 1.0, for the B+ I have not ran into this yet.

I will note though that I have had my share of ground loop noise and have a lot of time into fixing things. If I interface a radio to a PI I will always put a cheap audio isolation transformer in-line. Perhaps the more expensive sound cards have an isolation transformer built in. I also ran into an issue of getting a ground loop from the power and antenna (common ground). I was hooking up a PRO-197 direct to a battery string and an antenna that had the shield grounded. I tried CATV 75 ohm isolation transformers for the antenna feed, they eliminated the hum but the decoded audio form the simulcast p25 signal suffered. I found that using using a normal wall wart on every device (scanner and PI) and plugging them into a UPS provided much better audio than getting power from my AGM battery.

I have also had very low level audio being picked up by my feed from the local AM station in town. I cranked the audio way up when I was listening and faintly heard an O'Reillys commercial, not cool. Grounding the coax by the scanner eliminated this problem.

I won't even go into the issues that I have had receiving good audio with the P25 simulcast system. The leaves are off the trees and the multi-path is low so I am good until spring... If you would like to listen to either of my Broadcastify feeds here they are. Brown County Public Safety Brown County Fire and EMS Considering a handheld scanner is pretty much useless while listening to this system I think the feeds sound ok.

 

[k9swx]

I ended up ordering the Behringer UCA202 sound card from Amazon for $30. It works fine with the Pi but does not have recording controls in alsamixer. I just adjust the audio on the scanners and it works fine. Nice to have a stereo feed working without having to use my old power guzzling PC.