View Full Version : I am such a geek, part the second
datachicane
02-05-16, 12:52 AM
I've been meaning to futz around with a Raspberry Pi for a while now, finally threw something together. It's an internet radio in a dead 1940 RCA radio case, stream pretty much anything from anywhere, podcasts, network shares, etc., etc. Rotary encoder controls with Bakelite knobs, HiFiBerry Amp+ through a single DVC speaker.
Still designing screens and buttoning it up, but this has been a bunch of fun. I have a gold mat that will be going in to make the edges of the screen more finished.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9kl9NN7sQE4/VrQnNfQTGII/AAAAAAAAGFY/ZKlSIimsBa4/s800-Ic42/IMG_0831.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-deXeRX_J31M/VrQnQagusfI/AAAAAAAAGFY/vPzLtJ0HxnU/s800-Ic42/IMG_0832.JPG
Here's my homemade interstitial graphic, plays when it's establishing a streaming connection:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1q-5n8vJTBs/VrQp6zLxfdI/AAAAAAAAGFg/vn9kdsWA-Hs/s800-Ic42/toweredit.gif
Boot screen:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-USPNFsKmWDg/VrRXMSkv3TI/AAAAAAAAGFw/OlFqLmeIFUs/s800-Ic42/IMG_0834.JPG
chop456
02-05-16, 06:40 AM
SUPER cool.
Nerd. :D
I love stuff like that. A friend runs this on a big monitor above his 8-tap homebrew setup. It even has flow meters to tell you how much is left in each keg. http://raspberrypints.com/
Don Quixote
02-05-16, 10:18 AM
:thumbup:
something to aspire to Data
This is probably the greatest custom PC build of all time (http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/02/this-is-probably-the-greatest-custom-pc-build-of-all-time/)
Artisanal PSU. Locally sourced GPU. Organic X-shape chassis. Made entirely of Lego.
http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/02/Lego-Gaming-Computer-980x651.jpg
Very cool. I got one for Christmas. If I ever get through my backlog of projects I have a couple of things in mind for it.
Did you run Raspbian or something else?
TravelGal
02-05-16, 01:05 PM
I LOVE IT! I have to leave the geek part to you but all the graphics are great. :D:D
datachicane
02-05-16, 01:12 PM
I started out with Raspian, but this one's running a Debian distro under Kodi (OSMC). After I built another Pi for the media center, I realized reskinning Kodi was a lot less work than building a gui on Volumio or similar.
Sidetrack: I'd run a couple of WD TV boxes for years to play media out of my library via SMB. After the last one expired, I switched to DLNA through either the smart TV, Bluray player, or satellite/DVR. Turns out all three are very picky about codecs and bitrates, whereas the old WD boxes would play just about anything. While thinking about the radio build I bought a 2nd Pi to build some sort of Kodi box to replace the WD.
Cut to the chase: It took me longer to unbox the Pi and plug it into the media center than it did to install and configure Kodi under OSMC. My completely non-technical wife could have done it- download the installer, execute it, confirm that it's an SD card I'm writing to, give it my wifi credentials, and them plug the SD card back into the RPi. That's it. Why everyone doesn't run one of these escapes me, especially at the price ($39 RPi + random SDMicro card + old USB micro phone charger + $5 case). Don't even need a remote, since it's controlled via HDMI and the existing TV remote.
I ran across this deal (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MV6TAJI?tag=slickdeals&ascsubtag=71a9db38cc2c11e5aa7752ceb81aa3410INT)the other day, it was actually $10 cheaper then. Looks complete but I wouldn't know what to do with it.
datachicane
02-05-16, 01:42 PM
I ran across this deal (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MV6TAJI?tag=slickdeals&ascsubtag=71a9db38cc2c11e5aa7752ceb81aa3410INT)the other day, it was actually $10 cheaper then. Looks complete but I wouldn't know what to do with it.
That's basically $30 for a phone charger, HDMI cable, MicroSD card, wifi dongle, and a case. OK price if you don't have most of those things laying around already, but frankly I'd be a bit skeptical of the Kingston SD card in this application. The software, etc., is all available free. The Edimax is a popular wifi dongle for these, and they're easy to find. Edit- $20? Yeah, that's not bad at all.
With the stuff in that kit, you'd download OSMC's installer, run it on your PC with the SD card plugged in (USB adapter, card reader, etc.), plug the SD card back in the RPi and you'd be done. If your TV supports CEC over HDMI you won't need a separate remote, but even if it doesn't there are multiple free iOS and Android remote control apps for Kodi.
If I were more hardcore techie, I'd like to mess around with this. But I'm not, and really don't have the time nor patience to learn on my own. I read this recently which I thought was pretty cool.
Comcast customer's Raspberry Pi bot tweets when speeds are lousy (http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/31/comcast-customer-complaint-bot/)
Napoleon
02-05-16, 05:55 PM
Very cool, love the graphics, did not understand 90% of what you said.
nissan gtp
02-05-16, 09:43 PM
very cool.. I just bought a Mac SE (not working) on eBay. trying to think of a project that for it. A music server would be cool if I can figure it out.
I've been meaning to futz around with a Raspberry Pi for a while now, finally threw something together. It's an internet radio in a dead 1940 RCA radio case, stream pretty much anything from anywhere, podcasts, network shares, etc., etc. Rotary encoder controls with Bakelite knobs, HiFiBerry Amp+ through a single DVC speaker.
Still designing screens and buttoning it up, but this has been a bunch of fun. I have a gold mat that will be going in to make the edges of the screen more finished.
What are you using for the display?
Looks nice!
datachicane
02-06-16, 01:15 PM
Cheapie 5" WVGA TFT display.
devilmaster
02-09-16, 12:49 PM
Very cool, love the graphics, did not understand 90% of what you said.
I'll give it a go explaining. We've all heard about the rumblings of raspberry pi. Its the minicomputer, designed and priced to promote programming and designs never thought of before. These computers are sold for 25 dollars. You add a plastic case, a wifi dongle and it gets up there. But still under $100 canadian to fully kit one out.
The size of a credit card, it is, for all intense purposes, no different than the desktop or laptop you are reading this post on right now.
It uses hdmi or a small ribbon cable as a monitor. Plug directly into your lcd tv, or you can buy a screen for a tablet for 30 bucks and connect it to that.
It has its own language, instead of windows, it uses raspbian, a version of linux programming language. But there is a graphical interface, like windows.
Raspbian is designed to be sleek and simple. It needs to be because the 'hard drive' the pi computer uses is a microSD card like the one in a smart phone, and an 8 gig SD card will hold raspbian and a few other apps.
So what did datachicane do? He took a pi, used a different language called desbian, added an app called KODI, which is an online streaming app for movies and the like, (big right now is internet streaming tv boxes, and thats all they are. 50 bucks gets you a pi with kodi installed directly and all set up to watch movies/sports/etc.)
He connected a 5 inch lcd tablet screen and installed all of it in his old radio. Add a interface to allow his old dial controls to work, and bam, he's got an internet radio pi computer, controlled with the original dials, that is beautifully installed (i might add) in an old radio box.
The two pics I've added for info, are my pi, with a comparison credit card, and then raspbian working on my tv.
But what can you do with pi? its becoming what can't you do with pi? There are applications galore that people are designing. Mine will be used as a wifi sniffer/repeater. I have a usb powered high gain wifi antenna which i'll use the pi to search out free wifi signals and once it finds a free signal, then the pi will become a wifi hotspot/repeater for my laptop and smartphone.
Another idea is using pi with arcade controls mimicking a keyboard, and you use an app called MAME to recreate playing all the old arcade video games of our youth on your regular tv. OR 3D printers, or whatever.... its opening up the ability to make anything that requires a computer, but needs to be small.
The applications for pi are endless.... if you need a small, simple computer for 1 task, its easier to use this than finding some old laptop or desktop to do the same thing.
Hope I explained it somewhat.
datachicane
02-09-16, 01:54 PM
Yep, that's pretty much it. KODI is intended as a full-blown home theater application, is open source, and has variants to run on anything from PCs to Macs to you-name-it, including Linux. Think of anything a smart TV would do, with much, much better support for various video formats and alternate sources, and a bunch of extra toys thrown in.
I'll warn you, these things are addictive. I've just ordered my 4th Raspberry Pi. Funny thing is, every time I go to do some heavy lifting-type coding or development with one of these, someone else has already done 90% of the work. As a lazy developer, much better to adapt something working than to reinvent the wheel. This one will be a replacement for one of my dying IP cameras. Nearly all of the hours I've put into the radio has been graphic design.
datachicane
02-14-16, 06:01 AM
Added a mat to finish off the display, finished a few more screens.
GUI design is slow and fiddly work compared to plain old development, but it's good fun for my inner graphic design freak. As the menu choices scroll up or down, the position of the highlighted selection remains constant.
Still working out the proper debounce in the rotary encoders, which is more up my alley.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kXdHlS0WTI0/VsFZQCVXqgI/AAAAAAAAGH0/HKZrWDHYWS4/s800-Ic42/IMG_0857.JPG
This one's animated as above. I hacked it from the old RKO Pictures film intro, liked it too much to leave as an interstitial:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DGClwG561Zo/VsFY_NhP1nI/AAAAAAAAGHk/U06SKpHSjxo/s800-Ic42/IMG_0855.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1NDrZoa1mVk/VsFeN9gRGeI/AAAAAAAAGIM/8JJixpakX0A/s800-Ic42/ezgif-1903788243.gif
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_4FxxN7WCoA/VsFZXeY_MnI/AAAAAAAAGH4/M-E-aWgMG90/s800-Ic42/IMG_0861.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8-rqGXlg1vY/VsBK0uSVAEI/AAAAAAAAGHY/vFVwqVgCvzU/s800-Ic42/IMG_0849.JPG
The Hifiberry Amp+ through a single 5 1/4" Retrosound DVC speaker (pretty much all that will gracefully fit in there) is plenty loud, and actually has some decent bottom end for such a small cone. Fills the room up nicely, and takes some of the pain out of abandoning my original plan of running it through the original tube amp. I decided teaching myself to debug vacuum tube electronics was too much scope creep. Maybe for the next project...
TravelGal
02-15-16, 01:04 PM
Major props. Plus I am absolutely and unequivocally stealing the term "scope creep." It is perfect for almost everything I do, particularly my own trips. [in context, of course; otherwise it sounds, ugh creepy ;) ]
Insomniac
02-15-16, 01:14 PM
Major props. Plus I am absolutely and unequivocally stealing the term "scope creep." It is perfect for almost everything I do, particularly my own trips. [in context, of course; otherwise it sounds, ugh creepy ;) ]
See WB. This is how tech terms become used as regular words. :D
Napoleon
02-15-16, 03:58 PM
I'll give it a go explaining.
. . .
Hope I explained it somewhat.
Thanks for taking the time. That gives me an idea of what he is doing.
Data - once you are done with it post a YouTube video of it in action.
datachicane
02-22-16, 02:43 AM
Data - once you are done with it post a YouTube video of it in action.
Here it is. My apologies for the low sound levels, it was about 2AM when I shot this.
It takes it a second to spool up after I hit 'Music' under 'Library'- that's about a TB collection on my file server it's scanning.
cqtDAGBJvYo
datachicane
02-22-16, 12:24 PM
Well, that's an interesting lesson in modern copyright enforcement.
Youtube has informed me that the video I posted above has been restricted from playback on some devices (phones, etc.), blocked entirely in some countries, and elsewhere plastered with overlay ads to compensate the rights holder because it includes 44 seconds worth of the intro to a B.B. King track. I wonder how much of that ad revenue will make it to B.B.'s estate? :saywhat:
I submitted a fair use dispute as a matter of principle, but my hopes are not high.
TravelGal
02-22-16, 06:45 PM
My clients are the Ventures so I can find out the ins and out of this. (same era but they are not all dead yet) I'll try to remember to ask when their business manager gets back from Europe next week.
datachicane
02-22-16, 07:19 PM
Not a huge deal, just tweaked me, likely due to inadequate coffee consumption.
I suspect most folks figure, fine, whatever, get slapped with overlay advertising, and generate a little money for the rights holder.
I'm certain it's an automated crawl of some kind that identifies potentially infringing videos, and it's hard to blame the rights holders for trying to cash in on any opportunity as quickly as they can. Certainly no human actually looked at it.
devilmaster
02-27-16, 02:01 PM
Its the way they're going....
The lengths to how they're checking is deep.... I watched a John's Arcade video, where John had walked through someone's arcade, talking the whole time, so it wasn't like the music was the only sound.
He had just walked by a Star Wars arcade machine from 2000, while talking, and youtube had killed his audio completely cause you could barely hear a cd quality soundtrack....
Google basically runs their rights management like a protection racket. That's a nice song you've got there. It'd be a shame if something were to happen to it.
https://thetrichordist.com/2015/01/26/zoe-keating-vs-youtube-the-end-of-an-artists-right-to-choose-where-their-music-appears-on-the-internet/
chop456
02-29-16, 05:20 AM
^ David Lowery, :thumbup:
^ David Lowery, :thumbup:
Lowery is great. Besides being a great songwriter he's a tech nerd, mathematician, and business person. He's ideally qualified to speak out on artist's rights. Unfortunately everyone is so caught up in the "I want everything immediately and for free" model that few people really care.
TravelGal
03-07-16, 08:23 PM
Well, that's an interesting lesson in modern copyright enforcement.
Youtube has informed me that the video I posted above has been restricted from playback on some devices (phones, etc.), blocked entirely in some countries, and elsewhere plastered with overlay ads to compensate the rights holder because it includes 44 seconds worth of the intro to a B.B. King track. I wonder how much of that ad revenue will make it to B.B.'s estate? :saywhat:
I submitted a fair use dispute as a matter of principle, but my hopes are not high.
My clients are the Ventures so I can find out the ins and out of this. (same era but they are not all dead yet) I'll try to remember to ask when their business manager gets back from Europe next week.
Took a while to but here is the reply verbatim:
Regarding the YouTube issue, it’s possible (or highly likely) that BB King’s estate has someone/entity monitoring whatever goes out on the Internet. We have someone working for us who is doing tracking on YouTube and, since about 6-8 months ago, we do get a small check each month but, when it comes to BB King, I would imagine it would be considerable. This type of tracking is to some degree in its infancy and, for a long time, it was the Wild West out there – but they are trying to actively compensate artists, especially those who see fit to follow up on things – although I imagine there are many people who either don’t or can’t and I have no idea what happens in those instances.
datachicane
03-13-16, 02:33 AM
Finally finished up the hardware side of the build with proper power supplies and separate microcontroller for power management (power up/shutdown functions driven by one of the encoder switches, fires off a shutdown script on the Raspberry Pi and cuts power when shutdown is complete). That's another microcontroller in the large heat shrink tube below the display (blue flat thing), which I've programmed to provide keyboard emulation from the rotary encoder output. 12v and 5v power supplies on the right, Raspberry Pi and DAC/amplifier mounted on the left, red power management microcontroller and associated relay boards at bottom. Being a total geek, that's a reproduction cloth-covered power cord, complete with nice bakelite plug. I have the original but very fragile cardboard back soaking in a dilute glue bath, it'll go back on it after it's cured.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-HlT8mF8Qy1Y/VuT6VtvNVnI/AAAAAAAAGLA/NPZX-MkEGMI1wvJOs9-QXDzoZreDlC2IgCCo/s800-Ic42/IMG_0934.JPG
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-yiD4l75E7IE/VuT6bajexhI/AAAAAAAAGLA/DWHBvFKKSLkL_76g6ZnBtjRmom2FwNg9QCCo/s800-Ic42/IMG_0936.JPG
TravelGal
03-13-16, 02:26 PM
When you mentioned the cloth covered cord, I could absolutely feel it in my fingers. Amazing all the memories we have that just need to triggered. :thumbup:
Very neat. Does the bakelite plug have genuine period exposed wiring so that kids learn not to mess with those things?
datachicane
03-14-16, 01:36 AM
Very neat. Does the bakelite plug have genuine period exposed wiring so that kids learn not to mess with those things?
Hmmm, may have to go back and add that, just gotta figure out how to explain it to the wife.
:tony:
Amazon's Raspberry Pi guide lets coders use Alexa (http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35899887)
datachicane
06-01-16, 05:06 PM
Part the third. I'm particularly happy with how this one turned out, added some additional functions.
Somebody stop me. I was done after the first, but this Philco case was so pretty I couldn't help myself.
uERMsE8bEeA
Very cool!:thumbup: I'll bet you could find many similar cases to do the same to. I've got an old Firestone radio console in the basement that was my grandparents. I had a local electronics repair shop bring it back to life. However it has push button presets that can't be tuned to other channels. Each button has its own tuner and can't be replaced.
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