So here’s the story:
- I woke up to Mum complaining that she can’t listen any longer to the radio from our kitchen due to noise interferance
- My brother suggested of buying an online radio
- I said “No..I can build one using the Raspberry Pi 2 and Music Player Daemon”
- I expected some excitement from their end but they just replied “ok”. Sad.
- Using the terminal I installed the player:
sudo apt-get install mpd mpc
- Changed the audio output to the headphone jack: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/audio-config.md
- In the terminal I added some local radio stations using the command mpc add. I used Chrome’s Developer Tools(f12) to get these links:
- From Ebay, I bought: 16 x 2 LCD Keypad Kit + DIY Transparent Acrylic Case For Raspberry Pi. I selected this product because it comes with 5 buttons and a case. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-16-x-2-LCD-Keypad-Kit-DIY-Transparent-Acrylic-Case-For-Raspberry-Pi-/112058244362?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&nma=true&si=D01jYFjgSMSs6rfWdX2eA1IH%252F%252Bo%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc
- When the product arrived, I attached the LCD on the Pi. No soldering is required. It’s very easy. Just place the LCD board in the respective GPIOs.
- Followed this tutorial to enable I2C (with Raspi Config) – https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-4-gpio-setup/configuring-i2c
- Continued the setup : https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-16×2-character-lcd-plus-keypad-for-raspberry-pi/usage
- Installed the following library (can be done in step 10): https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Python_CharLCD
- Programmed the following code (Buttons Up&Down = Volume Control; Buttons Left/Right = Skip radio; Button Select – Turn off Pi) :
#!/usr/bin/python
# Example using a character LCD plate.
import time
import Adafruit_CharLCD as LCD
import traceback
import subprocess
import os.path
# Initialize the LCD using the pins
lcd = LCD.Adafruit_CharLCDPlate()
# create some custom characters
lcd.create_char(1, [2, 3, 2, 2, 14, 30, 12, 0])
lcd.create_char(2, [0, 1, 3, 22, 28, 8, 0, 0])
lcd.create_char(3, [0, 14, 21, 23, 17, 14, 0, 0])
lcd.create_char(4, [31, 17, 10, 4, 10, 17, 31, 0])
lcd.create_char(5, [8, 12, 10, 9, 10, 12, 8, 0])
lcd.create_char(6, [2, 6, 10, 18, 10, 6, 2, 0])
lcd.create_char(7, [31, 17, 21, 21, 21, 21, 17, 31])
#turn on green light
lcd.set_color(0.0, 0.0, 1.0)
lcd.clear()
lcd.message("connecting: \n")
message = ""
def isConnected():
global lcd
while True: #keep repeating until internet connection is found
try:
ip = subprocess.check_output("hostname -I",shell=True)
ip = ip[:3]
if ip != "192":
counter = 0
while True:
print 'trying to connect to internet'
lcd.clear()
lcd.message("connecting to\n internet")
time.sleep(1)
remote_server = "8.8.8.8"
status = subprocess.call(['ping','-c','1',remote_server])#test connection with google
if(status == 0):
lcd.clear()
startPlaying()
break
else:
counter +=1
if(counter > 3):
break
else:
break
except:
pass
def startPlaying():
global lcd
lcd.clear()
subprocess.call("mpc stop ",shell=True)
subprocess.call("mpc play ",shell=True) #start player
updateCurrentStation()
lcd.clear()
def updateCurrentStation():
global message
time.sleep(0.2)
message = subprocess.check_output('mpc current',shell=True)
message = updateStationName(message.strip())
if(len(message) > 15):
message = message[:16] + '\n' + message[16:30]
def updateStationName(message): #this function updates those station name that are not returning a proper name
if(message == "http://stream.vanilla.net.mt:8000/Title1=Radio%20101Length1=-1Version=2"):
message = "101"
elif(message == "http://162.252.85.85:8202/stream/1/"):
message = "One Radio"
elif(message == "http://majestic.wavestreamer.com:8209/Live"):
message = "Bkara FM"
elif(message == "http://stardust.wavestreamer.com:3328/Live"):
message = "RTK"
elif(message == "http://media-ice.musicradio.com/ClassicFMMP3"):
message = "Classic FM"
return message
def checkStatus():
status = subprocess.check_output('mpc status',shell=True)
if(status[0:6] == 'volume'): #empty status starts with text volume
startPlaying()
def Main():
global lcd
global message
cache_oldmessage = ""
try:
# Make list of button value, text, and backlight color.
buttons = ( (LCD.SELECT, 'Select', (1,1,1)),
(LCD.LEFT, 'Left' , (1,0,0)),
(LCD.UP, 'Up' , (0,0,1)),
(LCD.DOWN, 'Down' , (0,1,0)),
(LCD.RIGHT, 'Right' , (1,0,1)) )
while True:
isConnected()
updateCurrentStation()
# Loop through each button and check if it is pressed.
for button in buttons:
if lcd.is_pressed(button[0]):
if(button[0] == LCD.LEFT):
print("left button")
lcd.clear()
lcd.message("connecting:\n ")
subprocess.call("mpc next ",shell=True)
checkStatus()
updateCurrentStation()
elif(button[0] == LCD.RIGHT):
print("right button")
lcd.clear()
lcd.message("connecting: \n")
subprocess.call("mpc prev ",shell=True)
checkStatus()
updateCurrentStation()
elif(button[0] == LCD.UP):
subprocess.call("mpc volume +5" ,shell=True)
print("volume increased")
elif(button[0] == LCD.DOWN):
subprocess.call("mpc volume -5" ,shell=True)
print("volume decreased")
elif(button[0] == LCD.SELECT):
lcd.set_color(0.0, 1.0, 1.0)
lcd.clear()
lcd.message('Goodbye...')
time.sleep(2.0)
lcd.clear()
lcd.set_color(0.0, 0.0, 0.0)
subprocess.call(['poweroff'], shell=True, stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
time.sleep(0.75) #button click delay
if(cache_oldmessage != message):
lcd.clear()
lcd.message(message)
cache_oldmessage = message
except Exception as ex:
traceback.print_exc()
lcd.set_color(1.0, 0.0, 0.0)
lcd.clear()
lcd.message("error")
Main()
- Followed the following tutorial to launch the python script automatically on start-up: https://www.dexterindustries.com/howto/auto-run-python-programs-on-the-raspberry-pi/
- If you are having mpc connection timeouts with newest raspbian versions, just follow the fix by user csrlima in the following forum: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=159485
- Tested the radio. Like a boss 🙂
