Broadcastify Raspberry Pi Feed Appliance Image v1.0 (BETA)

[sccarlso]

I've found a pretty big flaw with darkice feeds with this image vs using my own ones configured with darkice for about 5 years that didn't have this major issue.

If the internet connection drops, even for 10 seconds or so, the feed stops! I've tested this many ways. If I just reboot my firewall my feeds go offline, but the darkice instance still reports online and normal when it isn't connected anymore. And will never reconnect unless the darkice service is stopped and started, or the Rpi is rebooted as it auto starts.

The image needs some kind of keepalive so it actually checks that it's actually connected. My previous Rpi's I configured myself would do this automatically and would reconnect after an internet connection drop with no problems at all.

I can't see any other setting in the image, all I can say is with a basic darkice configuration for my feeds, it would always reconnect if the internet connection dropped and was restored. But the Rpi image here is missing that, so now when that occurs, the feeds remain offline on Broadcastify. But they "think" they are still online.

Is there a tweak to the darkice config or something to fix this issue?

Thanks!

 

[DC31]

Hmmm...

my darkice.cfg files for years have had the line reconnect = yes. The bcfy image has reconnect = 1. Is that the difference? I don’t know. My ISP drops out for a couple minutes in the wee hours of the morning occasionally per the Technical Details tab. the feed always comes back on.

it is hard finding authoritative information on darkice but the ubuntu man page says “yes” or “no”. Ubuntu Manpage: darkice.cfg - configuration file for darkice

 

[sccarlso]

Hmmm...

my darkice.cfg files for years have had the line reconnect = yes. The bcfy image has reconnect = 1. Is that the difference? I don’t know. My ISP drops out for a couple minutes in the wee hours of the morning occasionally per the Technical Details tab. the feed always comes back on.

it is hard finding authoritative information on darkice but the ubuntu man page says “yes” or “no”. Ubuntu Manpage: darkice.cfg - configuration file for darkice

Certainly worth a shot! It’s really easy for me to repo the failure.
Now to find where the .cfg file is on the image. I work with Windows servers, but use many on Ubuntu & Debian for specific things as it’s just well, better!

I’ll edit to yes and see if it still occurs.

Thanks for the tip! Saved me time researching!

I’ll test & update with the results!

 

[sccarlso]

Hmmm...

my darkice.cfg files for years have had the line reconnect = yes. The bcfy image has reconnect = 1. Is that the difference? I don’t know. My ISP drops out for a couple minutes in the wee hours of the morning occasionally per the Technical Details tab. the feed always comes back on.

it is hard finding authoritative information on darkice but the ubuntu man page says “yes” or “no”. Ubuntu Manpage: darkice.cfg - configuration file for darkice

Looks like a winner!

darkice.cfg with value reconnect = 1 Fails to reconnect after losing internet connectivity for 20 sec. (on my two feeds at least...)

Using config file: /home/pi/bcfy/configs/darkice/darkice_1.cfg
27-Apr-2021 21:48:00 Using ALSA DSP input device: plughw:1,0
27-Apr-2021 21:48:00 buffer size: 441000
27-Apr-2021 21:48:00 encoding
27-Apr-2021 21:48:00 Using POSIX real-time scheduling, priority 4
27-Apr-2021 21:48:01 HTTP/1.0 200
27-Apr-2021 21:48:01 set lame mode 3
27-Apr-2021 21:48:01 set lame channels 1
27-Apr-2021 21:48:01 set lame in sample rate 22050
27-Apr-2021 21:48:01 set lame out sample rate 22050
27-Apr-2021 21:48:01 set lame bit rate 16
27-Apr-2021 21:48:01 set lame quality 9
27-Apr-2021 21:48:01 set lame lowpass frequency 4000
27-Apr-2021 21:48:01 set lame highpass frequency 0
27-Apr-2021 21:48:01 set lame psycho acoustic model 1
27-Apr-2021 21:48:01 set lame error protection 1
LAME 3.100 32bits (LAME MP3 Encoder)
Using polyphase lowpass filter, transition band: 4001 Hz - 4268 Hz
27-Apr-2021 21:48:01 MultiThreadedConnector :: ThreadData :: threadFunction, was (thread, priority, type): 0x18a0420 4 SCHED_FIFO
27-Apr-2021 21:48:01 MultiThreadedConnector :: ThreadData :: threadFunction, now is (thread, priority, type): 0x18a0420 1 SCHED_FIFO

<EOF>

At this point all is running and Darkice still reports it is active/connected, but remains in an offline status on BCFY. Only a restart of the service or reboot marks it online again in BCFY.

darkice.cfg with value reconnect = yes Reconnects normally after losing internet connectivity for 20 sec!

Using config file: /home/pi/bcfy/configs/darkice/darkice_1.cfg
05-May-2021 17:24:28 Using ALSA DSP input device: plughw:1,0
05-May-2021 17:24:28 buffer size: 441000
05-May-2021 17:24:28 encoding
05-May-2021 17:24:28 Using POSIX real-time scheduling, priority 4
05-May-2021 17:24:28 HTTP/1.0 200
05-May-2021 17:24:28 set lame mode 3
05-May-2021 17:24:28 set lame channels 1
05-May-2021 17:24:28 set lame in sample rate 22050
05-May-2021 17:24:28 set lame out sample rate 22050
05-May-2021 17:24:28 set lame bit rate 16
05-May-2021 17:24:28 set lame quality 9
05-May-2021 17:24:28 set lame lowpass frequency 4000
05-May-2021 17:24:28 set lame highpass frequency 0
05-May-2021 17:24:28 set lame psycho acoustic model 1
05-May-2021 17:24:28 set lame error protection 1
LAME 3.100 32bits (LAME MP3 Encoder)
Using polyphase lowpass filter, transition band: 4001 Hz - 4268 Hz
05-May-2021 17:24:28 MultiThreadedConnector :: ThreadData :: threadFunction, was (thread, priority, type): 0x113f420 4 SCHED_FIFO
05-May-2021 17:24:28 MultiThreadedConnector :: ThreadData :: threadFunction, now is (thread, priority, type): 0x113f420 1 SCHED_FIFO
05-May-2021 17:30:24 BufferedSink, new peak: 216 / 441000
05-May-2021 17:30:24 BufferedSink, new peak: 555 / 441000
05-May-2021 17:30:24 BufferedSink, new peak: 1155 / 441000
05-May-2021 17:30:25 BufferedSink, new peak: 2393 / 441000
05-May-2021 17:30:26 BufferedSink, new peak: 4793 / 441000
05-May-2021 17:30:29 BufferedSink, new peak: 9748 / 441000
05-May-2021 17:30:33 BufferedSink, new peak: 19523 / 441000
05-May-2021 17:30:43 BufferedSink, new peak: 39088 / 441000
05-May-2021 17:31:03 BufferedSink, new peak: 78190 / 441000
05-May-2021 17:31:26 TcpSocket :: write, send error 104
05-May-2021 17:31:26 Exception caught in BufferedSink :: write2
05-May-2021 17:31:27 HTTP/1.0 200
05-May-2021 17:32:28 BufferedSink, healed: 0 / 441000


Appears like the value of yes instead of 1 is how it should be, as they both now auto reconnect just as they did with my previous darkice setup after losing internet connectivity.

So if anyone else experiences the same where your feed remains offline on BCFY after a brief connectivity loss, this edit should fix it up!

In the darkice.cfg file, change the line

reconnect = 1
to
reconnect = yes

Appreciate the help!

 

[edweirdFL]

try changing your screen resolution. You will need to use sudo raspi-config at the command prompt in a terminal window. I find that Mode16 1024x768 works well as a starting point.

That worked. I figured out it would work headless with the HDMI cable plugged into my monitor even though I was using VNC, but wouldn't when I unplugged it. I used the command quoted above and now can access it without issues.

I had a smaller Yagi on hand and the cable I needed arrived today, but I looked at the logs and don't think there's enough of a signal even though I replaced the Nooelec I bought for this with an AirSpy R2 which works on my notebook with DSD+ FL on this system. Better antennas and stands for them arriving in the coming days.

For now I see some things are being ingested so I think I'm pretty close.

 

[TFerg53]

Can I use two scanners (at the same time) with this device with the Broadcastify image (beta)? I like to have local/area fire on one and local/area city/county police on the other.

 

[DC31]

Can I use two scanners (at the same time) with this device with the Broadcastify image (beta)? I like to have local/area fire on one and local/area city/county police on the other.

Yes, you will need two usb sound cards

 

[TFerg53]

Yes, you will need two usb sound cards

i purchased a second sound card but can not determine how to configure Darkice to use both except by creating a second Darkice instance, but then I can only run one or the other, not both together.

 

[jc53593]

i purchased a second sound card but can not determine how to configure Darkice to use both except by creating a second Darkice instance, but then I can only run one or the other, not both together.

Looking forward to the answer on this one... I currently run two instances of Darkice on a Raspberry Pi to send both of my scanner feeds. If that doesn't work well on this canned image, I won't be able to use it.

 

[DC31]

i purchased a second sound card but can not determine how to configure Darkice to use both except by creating a second Darkice instance, but then I can only run one or the other, not both together.

Could you explain a little more what you are trying to do and where you run into a problem?

yes, two sound cards will require two instances of darkice. The Bcfy interface handles that. You choose usb device for one feed and usb device_1 for the second feed, then sign in and choose your feed. Are you trying to connect both of your darkice instances to the same Bcfy mount point? That is not possible. You need a separate mount point for each darkice instance.

 

[DC31]

Looking forward to the answer on this one... I currently run two instances of Darkice on a Raspberry Pi to send both of my scanner feeds. If that doesn't work well on this canned image, I won't be able to use it.

If you currently have two feeds from your pi, don’t fool with it!

 

[TFerg53]

Could you explain a little more what you are trying to do and where you run into a problem?

yes, two sound cards will require two instances of darkice. The Bcfy interface handles that. You choose usb device for one feed and usb device_1 for the second feed, then sign in and choose your feed. Are you trying to connect both of your darkice instances to the same Bcfy mount point? That is not possible. You need a separate mount point for each darkice instance.

Yes, that's what I was hoping to do and I appreciate your detailed reply. I currently have two Uniden BCDHP536's connected to a laptop feeding my Broadcastify "stream". One for area police and one for area fire so that, hopefully, calls don't get missed even though I have "Priority" channels set. Prior to that I had them connected to an older iMac desktop and got "stereo" with one scanner on the left channel and one on the right in the feed.

Well, that answers that question and I sincerely appreciate your not only taking the time to help on this issue, but also for developing the image for the Raspberry Pi, what an ingenious idea to save having to use a dedicated computer.

Tim

 

[blantonl]

What would a bigger machine be? I have 8gb ram in a RPi4, using twoNooelec NESDR Nano 3 SDRs

A real deal holyfield Intel or AMD computer running Ubuntu

 

[blantonl]

In the darkice.cfg file, change the line

reconnect = 1
to
reconnect = yes

Appreciate the help!

Good catch. I will issue a fix ASAP.

Thanks!

 

[RaleighGuy]

A real deal holyfield Intel or AMD computer running Ubuntu

Running it on Win10 laptop now, but only able to use one dongle. Looks likethere is another Calls feed for Wake I didn't see before (Node 755)

 

[KB9LMJ]

So, I got the Audio Injector Stereo Pi Hat <http://www.audioinjector.net/rpi-hat> and I'm trying to run a stereo feed from the canned Pi image. When I downloaded the necessary configuration files for the Hat, I got an authentication screen wanting me to enter my user name and password to finish installing them. The Pi's default username of "pi" is pre-filled, and the default password of "raspberry" doesn't work; neither does "broadcastify," leaving it blank, or "pi." What is the password, so I can use my stereo Hat?

Also, will this image even let me run stereo? I've been fooling around with it and can't figure out anywhere I can run stereo, only mono. And, there is so much info on RR regarding a Pi based streamer, I can't figure out which one works and which one doesn't. I've been fooling around with this for 3 weeks and can't figure it out, following instructions to the "T" and still can't get it to run.

Please help!

 

[blantonl]

So, I got the Audio Injector Stereo Pi Hat <http://www.audioinjector.net/rpi-hat> and I'm trying to run a stereo feed from the canned Pi image. When I downloaded the necessary configuration files for the Hat, I got an authentication screen wanting me to enter my user name and password to finish installing them. The Pi's default username of "pi" is pre-filled, and the default password of "raspberry" doesn't work; neither does "broadcastify," leaving it blank, or "pi." What is the password, so I can use my stereo Hat?

Also, will this image even let me run stereo? I've been fooling around with it and can't figure out anywhere I can run stereo, only mono. And, there is so much info on RR regarding a Pi based streamer, I can't figure out which one works and which one doesn't. I've been fooling around with this for 3 weeks and can't figure it out, following instructions to the "T" and still can't get it to run.

Please help!

The password is documented on the Wiki page in the advanced notes section:

• Default Login and Password for the appliance is pi / bcfy01a

 

[k2hz]

I am just beginning to set up a 8 GB RPi4 with a single Airspy Mini for Trunk Recorder and wonder what would be reasonable number of digital recorders and the sample rate for the Airspy? Info I have seen so far is for RTL-SDR.

 

[KB9LMJ]

The password is documented on the Wiki page in the advanced notes section:

• Default Login and Password for the appliance is pi / bcfy01a

Wow! You know how many times I've looked at that page and didn't see it!? Dozens of times!

Will this run a stereo feed, one separate radio on each channel? I won't have time to mess with this again for a couple of days.

Thanks!

 

[KB9LMJ]

In your darkice.cfg:

# this section describes the audio input that will be streamed
[input]
device = default # OSS DSP soundcard device for the audio input
sampleRate = 11025 # sample rate in Hz. try 11025, 22050 or 44100
bitsPerSample = 16 # bits per sample. try 16
channel = 1 # channels. 1 = mono, 2 = stereo

Ok, I've managed to get my Audio Injector Stereo sound card configured and working with my online feed; however, when I save and reboot, the settings go back to mono, 16, 1. It will work if I don't reboot it, but I'm concerned it will default back to mono if the power fails or something.

It will be nice to finally not keep my desktop running 24/7, so thanks for the image!

Am I missing something?
Thanks!