P25RX-II Rdio-Scanner support added to ADV-BTCFG-II

[btt]

The only issue I have seen here is NOT a BTConfig problem.

Tried the Android Rdio app. The Rdio app display is working but no audio. Using the Web browser on Android the audio is all good. Must be an Android Rdio app issue on my tablet - no big deal for me. The Apple Rdio app works fine with audio on my phone.

I'm running the Android version of the app on a phone here. It works good. I've had it stop once after about 6 hours or so.

 

[btt]

I was thinking today, this would be a great reason to get a Raspberry Pi and write some code to interface to the P25RX/P25RX-II. The Rdio server and audio-collection from the P25RX could run on the Pi. Could also feed Broadcastify from the Pi. The java software (BTCFG) could then access via networking (Ethernet/WiFi) instead of USB. I looked around. Apparently you can't buy them anymore. (no stock). I would be curious to know how much interest there would be in this. Ok, back to adding scanning support to the P25RX now..

 

[vince48]

I was thinking today, this would be a great reason to get a Raspberry Pi and write some code to interface to the P25RX/P25RX-II. The Rdio server and audio-collection from the P25RX could run on the Pi. Could also feed Broadcastify from the Pi. The java software (BTCFG) could then access via networking (Ethernet/WiFi) instead of USB. I looked around. Apparently you can't buy them anymore. (no stock). I would be curious to know how much interest there would be in this. Ok, back to adding scanning support to the P25RX now..

Todd,
I would like to use and have interest my Pi4 with my P25rx and P25rxII

 

[FreqNout]

The java software (BTCFG) could then access via networking (Ethernet/WiFi) instead of USB.

I think btconfig access via network (IP) as an option would great. As @goldmyne99 has tested, the Wio Terminal WiFi has potential to connect to BTconfig as remote control.

 

[goldmyne99]

I think btconfig access via network (IP) as an option would great. As @goldmyne99 has tested, the Wio Terminal WiFi has potential to connect to BTconfig as remote control.

I have not used the rdio app long enough to understand what it has to offer.

As for BTconfig via IP, I agree the Wio Terminal adds WiFi to the P25RX models at low cost. I would be interested in testing how well the Wio sends audio to BTConfig. I know the P25RX commands over WiFi work well.

 

[btt]

I have not used the rdio app long enough to understand what it has to offer.

As for BTconfig via IP, I agree the Wio Terminal adds WiFi to the P25RX models at low cost. I would be interested in testing how well the Wio sends audio to BTConfig. I know the P25RX commands over WiFi work well.

I guess the main thing it has to offer is being able to monitor the system audio, manage what systems/talkgroups are enabled for playback, and a portable display. It seems this is what a lot of people were wanting. It also allows pausing of the playback on the client. It can handle multiple clients. The client keeps track of where it currently is for playback, so one person could have their phone paused and catch up later while another is monitoring real-time.

Someone asked me for a quick-start configuration guide. Here is a quick attempt at that. Let me know if there are omissions, mistakes, etc. Thanks! https://bluetailtechnologies.com/pages/getting-started-with-rdio-scanner-and-the-p25rx-p25rx-ii

 

[shirsch101]

Thanks for the quick start guide!!

 

[vince48]

I guess the main thing it has to offer is being able to monitor the system audio, manage what systems/talkgroups are enabled for playback, and a portable display. It seems this is what a lot of people were wanting. It also allows pausing of the playback on the client. It can handle multiple clients. The client keeps track of where it currently is for playback, so one person could have their phone paused and catch up later while another is monitoring real-time.

Someone asked me for a quick-start configuration guide. Here is a quick attempt at that. Let me know if there are omissions, mistakes, etc. Thanks! https://bluetailtechnologies.com/pages/getting-started-with-rdio-scanner-and-the-p25rx-p25rx-ii

Todd, this most likely the answer to the "LAN" hopes we discussed. This is great

 

[FreqNout]

I guess the main thing it has to offer is being able to monitor the system audio, manage what systems/talkgroups are enabled for playback, and a portable display.

Okay, Rdio is more of an audio control tool. That adds value. The Wio WiFi remote control with btconfig would be a different use case. Both would add value.

 

[btt]

Okay, Rdio is more of an audio control tool. That adds value. The Wio WiFi remote control with btconfig would be a different use case. Both would add value.

Yes sir. I'm not giving up on the Wio terminal or anything like that. It doesn't change the plans for that at all. I ran across the Rdio-scanner app the other day and realized it would be easy to add support for it. I think quite a few P25RX owners are going to enjoy it. I am. The Wio terminal opens up all kind of possibilities for the user to do something programmable with the P25RX. It definitely adds value in a different way.

 

[vince48]

Yes sir. I'm not giving up on the Wio terminal or anything like that. It doesn't change the plans for that at all. I ran across the Rdio-scanner app the other day and realized it would be easy to add support for it. I think quite a few P25RX owners are going to enjoy it. I am. The Wio terminal opens up all kind of possibilities for the user to do something programmable with the P25RX. It definitely adds value in a different way.

Todd,
perhaps, incorporate both and you now have a Killer product!!

 

[FreqNout]

Yes sir. I'm not giving up on the Wio terminal or anything like that. It doesn't change the plans for that at all. I ran across the Rdio-scanner app the other day and realized it would be easy to add support for it. I think quite a few P25RX owners are going to enjoy it. I am. The Wio terminal opens up all kind of possibilities for the user to do something programmable with the P25RX. It definitely adds value in a different way.

I think that is great. The more options and features the better for all users. Adding the network option to btconfig opens the door to a lot of ideas not yet created.

 

[btt]

Today I configured 3 receivers for different systems and enabled the Rdio-Server output. Then configured the server for 3 separate "dirwatch" configurations. It works really well. I discovered another cool thing about monitoring this way. When there are simultaneous conversations on multiple systems, it plays back the audio from the database one at a time. This way, you don't hear multiple conversations going on if if they occurred at the same time.

 

[vince48]

Today I configured 3 receivers for different systems and enabled the Rdio-Server output. Then configured the server for 3 separate "dirwatch" configurations. It works really well. I discovered another cool thing about monitoring this way. When there are simultaneous conversations on multiple systems, it plays back the audio from the database one at a time. This way, you don't hear multiple conversations going on if if they occurred at the same time.

Wow Todd,
you are putting the P25RX product on another planet. Keep it going my man!!!

 

[FreqNout]

Tried the Android Rdio app. The Rdio app display is working but no audio.

I had the Android app stop playing audio today. There is an open issue on the github for the Android app loss of audio (issue 191)

I'm running the Android version of the app on a phone here. It works good. I've had it stop once after about 6 hours or so.

Issues · chuot/rdio-scanner

Rdio Scanner is an open source software that ingest and distribute audio files generated by various software-defined radio recorders. Its interface tries to reproduce the user experience of a real ...

github.com

 

[btt]

I had the Android app stop playing audio today. There is an open issue on the github for the Android app loss of audio (issue 191)

Issues · chuot/rdio-scanner

Rdio Scanner is an open source software that ingest and distribute audio files generated by various software-defined radio recorders. Its interface tries to reproduce the user experience of a real ...

github.com

There is another minor issue. The server runs an audio-leveler/AGC during the conversion from wav to m4a as it populates the dbase. The leveler is not as good as the leveler in the P25RX firmware. Currently, there is no way to disable this. I don't know the 'go' language, but I see where this is happening in the code. I may fork the code and see if I can add an option to disable the audio normalization on the server.

 

[btt]

I found it was actually quite straight forward to make changes to the server and rebuild packages for all platforms. I forked the project into the BlueTail repository and made the change to disable audio normalization during the conversion from wav to m4a. It sounds much better using the P25RX audio normalization (audio leveler) only. I've only tested the linux-AMD64 release, but the other platforms are available. The release is available here: Release v6.4.0-btt1 · bluetailtech/rdio-scanner-btt

 

[btt]

I am also working well on Windows 10.

I am having trouble with calls replaying, tweaking the duplicate call rejection now. It appears BTconfig is working perfectly!

The replay should work now. The latest version of BTCFG depends on the .wav files being configured for deletion after conversion by the server (this is the default). It looks for no-more-wav files in the rdio_dirwatch folder, before updating the file name and starting a new file. What was happening before is duplicate filenames were causing the previous audio in the database to get overwritten. Should work now. The new release without the audio normalization has been sounding good all morning!

 

[FreqNout]

@btt could this rdio scanner be configured or reworked for use offline? Meaning have the audio playback/archive feature without a network connection. Just using the btconfig on a pc with the rdio interface.

 

[btt]

@btt could this rdio scanner be configured or reworked for use offline? Meaning have the audio playback/archive feature without a network connection. Just using the btconfig on a pc with the rdio interface.

The server will constantly "ingest" or populate an SQLite dbase (single file) with all converted wav files (converted to mpeg 4). So yes, you don't have to connect to the server with a client in order to create a single-file-dbase full of m4a audio BLOB records. By default it prunes the records after some time to keep the file from getting too big. On Linux, I found that the app sqlitebrowser works nicely for exploring the dbase file with a default file name of rdio-scanner.db in the same directory as the executable. I'm thinking of using sqlite for BTConfig now. It could offer quite a few advantages.

I found another related issue. There is a new release for all releases. You may have to delete any remaining .wav file in the rdio_dirwatch directory if a bad filename was created with sys_id=0, tgid=0, or freq=0.