---

software and other stuff for my personal internet radio side project

WORK IN PROGRESS

---

what have i done:

My father tidied up his basement and found a Loewe Opta R115 radio. It worked but had an annoying noise in the background and along with the fact that UKW (FM), "Ultrakurzwelle" will be turned off in the future, I decided to rip out all of the stuff and turn it into an internet radio.
It took quite a while. But now I reached a step in which the software and hardware is usable!

I try to document everything, so if you want to recreate this (aka. wake up the dragon): Good luck 🍀
This is no step to step instruction, so you should take your time and think yourself.

---

hardware i used 🕹

• Raspberry Pi 3 Model B V1.2
• 1024x600px Display with HDMI
• cheap USB Soundcard (3.5 plug on RPI is crap)
• Amplifier with TPA3116D2 (have to check it out first, if it works fine)
• Monacor SP-13/4 speaker
• MeanWell RS-75-12 power supply (hope it delivers enough power for everything)

---

how i use/make/run that:

You can run the radio software as standalone on your desktop, buts that a bit stupid, because there are way better tools to play internet radio on your pc.

prepare 🥧

[all commands in your user space: /home/pi unless its explicit declared]

1. flash Raspbian Lite on a micro sd card
2. touch ssh in the root dir on the micro sd card
3. connect via ssh and run raspi-config
   • System Options > Wireless LAN
   • System Options > Password
   • System Options > Boot / Auto Login > Console Autologin
4. remove boring booting stuff (optional)
   • add disable_splash=1 at the end of /boot/config.txt and save
   • add logo.nologo quiet and change console=tty1 to console=tty3 in /boot/cmdline.txt and save
5. install everything needed
   • apt update
   • apt upgrade
   • apt install --no-install-recommends xserver-xorg x11-xserver-utils xinit
     (i know, i could use framebuffer with pygame, but I want to grab the pygame window over ssh and therefore I need xserver)
   • apt install git python3-pip vlc imagemagick pulseaudio libsdl-ttf2.0-0 python3-rpi.gpio
6. dpkg-reconfigure tzdata and set your correct location for time
7. git clone https://github.com/p4cx/optaradio.git in your user directory /home/pi
8. run pip3 -r install requirements.txt in the freshly cloned optaradio repo
9. grab an api url from openweathermap and paste it into nano weater.cfg - it should look like this: http://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?q=munich&units=metric&appid=1234567890abcdefghijklmnopqrstuv
   Attention: get sure, that units is metric: "units=metric".
10. ./optaradio/build.sh to get fonts and emojis from external repositorys

-- have to test this

8. create a crontab for autostart
   • sudo crontab -e
   • insert @reboot sh /home/pi/optaradio/radio_startup.sh >/home/pi/optaradio/logs/cronlog 2>&1
9. test it and if it runs: be happy

developing 💻

• activate X11 fowarding on your host machine (sshd config)
  ssh pi@x.x.x.x -Y on your machine and you will get the pygame window on your desktop
• how do get radiothumbnails on the pi? Copy it manually with filezilla!

gpio usage 💡

USAGE	PIN	PIN	USAGE
Power for all buttons	3V3	5V	--
Favourite button 1	2	5V	Power for rotary encoder
Favourite button 2	3	GND	Ground for rotary encoder
Favourite button 3	4	14	Rotary encoder button
--	GND	15	Data channel rotary encoder
Favourite button 4	17	18	Clock rotary encoder
Favourite button 5	27	GND	Ground for relais
Favourite button 6	22	23	Channel 1 for relais
--	3V3	24	Channel 2 for relais
--	10	GND	--
Favourite button 7	9	25	Setting button 1
--	11	8	Setting button 2
--	GND	7	Setting button 3
Update button	0	1	Setting button 4
--	5	GND	--
--	6	12	--
--	13	GND	--
--	19	16	--
--	26	20	--
--	GND	21	--

run the 🐍 radio software

1. cd ./optaradio
2. python3 ./init.py

control optaradio

basic idea of controlling the radio: Like iDrive from BMW, rotate the wheel (in my case the KY-040 rotary encoder) to go up and down und press it to activate menu entry.

control on desktop:

• return: input
• up: up
• down: down
• 1-7: Favourite buttons
• q: go back
• w: audio on/off
• e: LED on/off (future project)
• r: settings
• ESC: exit

control with real buttons:

• look at gpio usage, it should be self explaining

build 📻

1. get an old radio
2. get rid of all old crap inside
3. put a nice lcd and other fancy electronic stuff inside
4. jump in 🌙 light around the radio
5. squeeze your Raspberry Pi in the housing
6. turn it on and have fun