Beta Testers Wanted: K1PGV's ScannerCast

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PeterGV

K1PGV
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I would like your permission to port it over to ubuntu if you would permit me to do so.

Thanks for all your nice comments. Sorry to say, it'll never port. The code's written in C#, and doesn't meet many of Mono's restrictions. It's also very closely tied to DirectAudio...

If it runs under Wine, I think that's terrific though. Wow.. I didn't think it would!

Thanks again for letting me know and for your comments about ScannerCast,

Peter
K1PGV
 

badman35

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Thanks for all your nice comments. Sorry to say, it'll never port. The code's written in C#, and doesn't meet many of Mono's restrictions. It's also very closely tied to DirectAudio...

If it runs under Wine, I think that's terrific though. Wow.. I didn't think it would!

Thanks again for letting me know and for your comments about ScannerCast,

Peter
K1PGV

Well it wasn't easy to get it to work had to tweak this install addon there but it does work great and as for the C# thing linux has a few converters for that type of code. And further more the direct audio thing there is a openaudio package that be installed on linux that will convert that as well over to a open standard rather than a closed source standard. But if you do not wish it to be ported over then that is your choice and your right... I have my coding hands into a lot of coding fire right anyway... but still nice code. remember the old saying "If you put your mind to it you can do anything"
 
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badman35

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Well as for it working in wine. They have been doing great things with that program "wine" in the past few months getting closer to getting a lot more games to work on it and getting a lot more apps to work on it as well. Programmers using C# to program there wares is fine but i prefer using a IDE for that back in the apple 2 days assembler or .ASM files were the stuff I fondly remember a great pre IDE for apple2 called Merlin assembler it was nice to work with. But today I use netbeans for my programming I also have the "i think Microsoft called it "programming suite express"" not to sure on the name of it the only wondows based system that i currently own is 2 laptops with win xp on them. I dual boot those with ubuntu on there and will be doing a full install when MS stops updating them with patches and updates.. but still you have a very nice program PeterGV very nice indeed I can't wait to see what version 1.0 (currently at 0.11)is going to look/feel like..
 

alabamarailfan

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Thanks for the update, John. I appreciate it.

I got a handful of those 99 cent USB sound cards as well. Just as you said, I'm hearing some background hum (which isn't great, but isn't terrible)... but overall, a damn good value for a buck, you know??

Peter
K1PGV

Hey Peter,
Just a quick update, it has been over a week now and I haven't picked up the corrupted audio issue since getting away from the SoundBlaster cards ( possibly the culprit? ). For the time being, I am still using the "Blanton endorsed" 99 cent USB card. :) I usually use Griffin iMics for my railroad ATCS data decoding, but decided to throw a couple of these 99 centers in and darned if it doesn't work pretty well on that, too! I think I will use the iMics for the audio feeds for now.

Anyway, just thought I would let you know. I got my little tower ( just 37' ) up last weekend and so far things look good so I am going to request a couple feeds here at rr.com soon! Thanks again for both the app and your help. Anything I can do to help, just LMK! :)
::john
 

PeterGV

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Thanks for the update John. Glad to hear that probelm seems to have cleared up.

Damn... I'm jealous of your tower. That's EXACTLY what I want...

Thanks for your all encouragement, and for your offer of help,

Peter
K1PGV
 

dm1313

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Scannercast autostart?

I'm using Scannercast V0.11 (1017) and in the Advance tab it has "Resume broadcast on restart" checked, but it doesn't automatically reconnect. I have to manually start it each time the computer is restarted or rebooted for various reasons. I placed the exe. file in Startup programs and that didn't work either as it says Windows can't find the file even though the path is correct.

Is there something I am missing to get it to autostart or reconnect?
 

GTR8000

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I'm using Scannercast V0.11 (1017) and in the Advance tab it has "Resume broadcast on restart" checked, but it doesn't automatically reconnect. I have to manually start it each time the computer is restarted or rebooted for various reasons. I placed the exe. file in Startup programs and that didn't work either as it says Windows can't find the file even though the path is correct.

Is there something I am missing to get it to autostart or reconnect?

Let's clarify here: Are you saying the program won't start automatically with Windows? Or are you saying that the feed won't start broadcasting automatically once the program is open? Those are two distinct things.

The "Resume broadcast on restart" checkbox has nothing to do with the program starting automatically after a Windows reboot. It controls whether or not ScannerCast starts broadcasting your feed once the program is running.

If you want ScannerCast to start automatically with Windows, you have to either put a shortcut in the Startup folder (the easier but not as reliable method), or you can make an entry in the registry instructing Windows to load it automatically (the more reliable method).

Remember that any shortcut needs to have quotes around it if there is a space in the path/filename. "C:\Program Files\ScannerCast\ScannerCast.exe" as a typical example. Or, if you're using a custom .ini file, "C:\Program Files\ScannerCast\ScannerCast.exe" custom.ini Create a shortcut from the executable, then move it to the Startup folder on the Start menu. That should do the trick.

If that doesn't work reliably, create a new string value in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run using the same path as the shortcut as above.
 

dm1313

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The problem was getting Scannercast itself to autostart. The broadcast would resume when I opened it. I edited the registry as you suggested and that took care of it.

Thanks for the help and quick reply.
 

GTR8000

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The problem was getting Scannercast itself to autostart. The broadcast would resume when I opened it. I edited the registry as you suggested and that took care of it.

Thanks for the help and quick reply.

Outstanding! Glad to be of help whenever possible. :D

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Peter,

Perhaps a little change in the wording for the "Resume broadcast on restart" function might clarify what it actually does? It does sound as if that function is to auto-open ScannerCast after a Windows reboot. "Start Broadcasting Automatically" or something to that effect might be a little more clear.
 

PeterGV

K1PGV
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Good work!

Perhaps a little change in the wording for the "Resume broadcast on restart" function might clarify what it actually does? It does sound as if that function is to auto-open ScannerCast after a Windows reboot. "Start Broadcasting Automatically" or something to that effect might be a little more clear.

Tough to get the wording right, you know? Perhaps a change to the Tool Tip, and some documentation on the web site would help.

Thanks!

Peter
K1PGV
 

PeterGV

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EXCELLENT question. I haven't even looked into this, but I will. Assuming I can add it, it'll work the same as Radio IDs for GRE scanners (%RID, I believe, in the custom format box).

Thanks for the suggestion!

Peter
K1PGV
 

PeterGV

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ScannerCast Updates?

If you'd like to be informed about updates to ScannerCast (such as when a new version is available), visit my web site and sign-up for the ScannerCast Mailing List. Note that I'll ONLY use the address you provide for informing you about ScannerCast. I will NOT use it for other purposes, or provide your email information to anyone else.

Of course, I'll post info about updates here on RR.. and the next update of ScannerCast will have the (long anticipated) feature of checking for updates and letting you know when they're available.

But the mailing list provides you another option.

Peter
K1PGV
 

N2JDS

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I am running your application, works great, but I find that the stream starts getting out of sync with the tags by several minutes. But if I stop the stream and restart sending, it gets back in sync. So I've been having to do this about twice a week. This is the only application I have running on this computer, as it is dedicated to just streaming. Any special setting I need to try. I've tried adjusting my speed from 16 kbps to max, and it still seems the same.
 

PeterGV

K1PGV
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I am running your application, works great, but I find that the stream starts getting out of sync with the tags by several minutes.

Thanks for the report. That's really weird. I can't think of any mechanism that ScannerCast has the would be ABLE to delay the tags by several minutes. REALLY, huh? Several MINUTES? Hmmmm....

What type of scanner, and which player are you using? Have you been able to reproduce the behavior with another player (Winamp seems to be have very good tag sync, in my experience).

What type of system are you running this on (operating system, computer speed, memory, etc), and how much CPU time is available?

Did this recently start happening, or has it always happened since you started running ScannerCast.

I see you're running build 1017, which is the latest version (darn!). I spent some time watching your feed (assuming your feed is the one that identifies itself as "visit paramedic-ems.com/onlinescanner for scanner information"). I agree, the tag syncronization is pretty bad. Tonight, it seemed like the tags were about 5 seconds behind the audio, which is about 10 times what the maximum error should be. (by the way, your feed should be running at16Kbps... you currently have it at 24Kbps -- I don't think this is related to the tag problem, but the RR standard IS 16Kbps).

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm trying to diagnose the probelm and I'd very much like to find out why it's happening and fix it!

Thanks again for taking the time to post,

Peter
K1PGV
 

PeterGV

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A couple of things just occurred to me:

a) If you're using a Uniden scanner, make SURE your port speed is set to 115200 -- As fast as possible (the scanner speed setting has to match ScannerCast, of course).

b) Your tags are pretty long -- One thing you might try, just to see if it makes any difference at all, is to
JUST send the channel name (not the group/system/slist name, and not send the frequency). I'm not suggesting you do this permanently, but just as a test.

Hmmmmm... I'll look forward to getting your answers to the questions in my previous post, as well as the result of the suggestions above,

Thanks again,

Peter
K1PGV
 

N2JDS

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A couple of things just occurred to me:

a) If you're using a Uniden scanner, make SURE your port speed is set to 115200 -- As fast as possible (the scanner speed setting has to match ScannerCast, of course).

I am using BCD996XT Uniden , Default was set at 115200

b) Your tags are pretty long -- One thing you might try, just to see if it makes any difference at all, is to
JUST send the channel name (not the group/system/slist name, and not send the frequency). I'm not suggesting you do this permanently, but just as a test.

OK, made that change to channels only

Hmmmmm... I'll look forward to getting your answers to the questions in my previous post, as well as the result of the suggestions above,

Thanks again,

Peter
K1PGV

I am using BCD996XT Uniden , Default was set at 115200

OK, made that change to channels only


As far as the nuts and bolts, it's a no name unit stick built by CompUSA about 5 years ago.
MS Windows XP, Home Editionver 2002, service pack 3
Intel(R), Celeron(R) CPU 1.8GHz, 992 MB of RAM

If it help diag the problem any, I do have 2 sound cards installed, one unit stream weather channel, that is the built in card, and I installed a RocketFish PCI card tags/streami8ng feed this feed. Thought about running stereo feed but didn't want both streaming on my BBScanner, wasn't sure if you can pick left over right on apps like that.
Other wetaher feed using OddCast. Other than that, running software is just the basic windows stuff that needs to run in background.
Will watch to see if "just channels" tag keeps it all synced up. Maybe next year you can rewrite code to send weather info in the tag line, as I also have my own weather station, did streeam through the same computer, but shut that down to see if that was problem with syning.

Sorry if this is too much info, or not enough to help. Jeff
 
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PeterGV

K1PGV
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Good start, thanks.

1) What model scanner? If Uniden, do you have the speed set to 115200? This is THE most important thing.

2) How much free CPU time? (right click a blank space on the menu bar, select "Start Task Manager"... look at the very bottom of the display for "CPU Usage" -- this is amount of CPU time used in percent. Is this near 100% Does it hit the 90% level? This is second most important thing to check.

3) What type of NETWORK -- Wired or wireless?

I'm running out of things to ask... Again, sorry for all the questions, but it's all part of searching for the cause. And, while there are tons of people running ScannerCast that don't seem to have this problem, if YOU have the problem others WILL eventually have it or have it and aren't reporting it. So, every bug report helps!

Thanks again,

Peter
K1PGV
 

N2JDS

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Good start, thanks.

1) What model scanner? If Uniden, do you have the speed set to 115200? This is THE most important thing.

2) How much free CPU time? (right click a blank space on the menu bar, select "Start Task Manager"... look at the very bottom of the display for "CPU Usage" -- this is amount of CPU time used in percent. Is this near 100% Does it hit the 90% level? This is second most important thing to check.

3) What type of NETWORK -- Wired or wireless?

I'm running out of things to ask... Again, sorry for all the questions, but it's all part of searching for the cause. And, while there are tons of people running ScannerCast that don't seem to have this problem, if YOU have the problem others WILL eventually have it or have it and aren't reporting it. So, every bug report helps!

Thanks again,

Peter
K1PGV

I watched it CPU usage for quite a while, it stayed in the 20% range, with an occasion jump to 60% for a second.
This unit is LAN cabled to router. My at home service is 5 meg down, and 1 meg up whenever I run speed test through my wireless laptop.
Scanner is the BCD996XT, by Uniden, and yes speed is at the 115200 setting.
 

Forts

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I had the audio go to static on me once again a few days ago and I too am wondering if this is a SoundBlaster issue. As I had mentioned earlier I'm 98% sure I occasionally had this problem when I was using Oddcast too. Might hafta pick me up one of these USB jobbies and give that a try too. On the plus side I switched my feed to a stereo feed (police in left channel, fire in right). That took me a grand total of about 3 minutes to do and it's been working flawlessly.
 
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