1 (edited by NigelS 2010-09-04 20:33:49)

Topic: USB Music Widget script installation

This post is to provide the installation of the supporting script for the USB Music Widget.

Simplified install as follows.

1. Download this zip file from usbmusic.zip

2. Unpack it on to root of a USB stick

3. Put the USB stick in you Chumby

4. Reboot the Chumby and wait for it to show the control panel

5. When finished you can remove files from your USB stick

That's it - install the widget, put some mp3's on a USB and off you go.

A few comments

1. Widget load time depends on number of files on the USB stick.

2. Flash lite struggles and stops on some mp3's (you can skip to next) - sorry but its hit and miss as to which work or don't. I will try to put some code into widget when I get te time to skip these mp3's

The app interface has now been documented here

Hope you enjoy and would appreciate any comments (good or bad).

cheers

Nigel

smile smile smile

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

NigelS wrote:

Hope you enjoy and would appreciate any comments (good or bad).

a good comment:

as a first try all works fine without any problem.

very good: the timer!


thank you

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

spunk_ wrote:
NigelS wrote:

Hope you enjoy and would appreciate any comments (good or bad).

a good comment:

as a first try all works fine without any problem.

very good: the timer!


thank you

Thanks - glad you like it

smile smile smile

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

Awesome!  I really missed the built-in "My Music Files" feature when it stopped working (Chumby support told me it's a bug in the last update that they're working on fixing), but that was frustrating when it worked, anyway, since you couldn't see a list of the files or even guess which order they were going to play in!  You can see that here, and it seems to order the files in a predictable alphabetical way!  :-)

Speaking of order, I figured out how to get the shuffle feature to work -- put the files you want to shuffle in a folder, select that folder, put shuffle on, & then play.  Now I can put in my USB drive with all the extant Goon Show episodes on it and listen to random episodes like I used to in "My Music Files"!  :-)

Oh, and it looks like it doesn't like VBR files?  I usually rip my CDs to VBR MP3s, but I couldn't get this to play those.

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

I also had some files play too fast.  These were 192 Kbps files.  Do you think it's the bit rate, or something else in how the files are encoded?

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

It's just too bad you have to stay on the widget.  You can't have it play in the background while other widgets run, like you could with "My Music Files."  I know you can't really do anything about that, though...

7 (edited by Ratzfatz 2010-06-26 06:55:15)

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

Dear Mr. Nigel, Sir !
You've started a very interesting Widget (pardon, app). I had a look at your perl-cgi-script and would like to give you an advice: use btplay as described here to play the songs.
This will probably solve some problems (playspeed, vbr) and comes with some benefits: background-play (switch to another widget if desired and playlist sufficiently long), ID3-Tags (!).
I use btplay to play/stop/pause/resume and for the ID3-tags from the youstreams-widget through a bash-script (if you want to have a look: http://chumbytube.appspot.com/srchtube.txt).
If not yet done: will you please also implement navigation by folders and support for cover art ?

Best Wishes to you there, down under !

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

revfelixblackcat wrote:

Awesome!  I really missed the built-in "My Music Files" feature when it stopped working (Chumby support told me it's a bug in the last update that they're working on fixing), but that was frustrating when it worked, anyway, since you couldn't see a list of the files or even guess which order they were going to play in!  You can see that here, and it seems to order the files in a predictable alphabetical way!  :-)

Speaking of order, I figured out how to get the shuffle feature to work -- put the files you want to shuffle in a folder, select that folder, put shuffle on, & then play.  Now I can put in my USB drive with all the extant Goon Show episodes on it and listen to random episodes like I used to in "My Music Files"!  :-)

Oh, and it looks like it doesn't like VBR files?  I usually rip my CDs to VBR MP3s, but I couldn't get this to play those.

revfelixblackcat,
     appreciate all the feedback - glad to see widget has some value - not much i can do currently with the VBR files etc as I am at the mercy of Flash Lite - however if you read my next quote below I may be able to use btplay which would address most of these issues. Not sure his will happen quickly but will have a look into it to see if can be done.

As a side issue I am also a goons fan so wondering where you got the goons audio - i did find a place online that sells 150 copies for about $10 all up - not sure if its legit or not. though.

cheers

Nigel

smile smile smile

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

Ratzfatz wrote:

Dear Mr. Nigel, Sir !
You've started a very interesting Widget (pardon, app). I had a look at your perl-cgi-script and would like to give you an advice: use btplay as described here to play the songs.
This will probably solve some problems (playspeed, vbr) and comes with some benefits: background-play (switch to another widget if desired and playlist sufficiently long), ID3-Tags (!).
I use btplay to play/stop/pause/resume and for the ID3-tags from the youstreams-widget through a bash-script (if you want to have a look: http://chumbytube.appspot.com/srchtube.txt).
If not yet done: will you please also implement navigation by folders and support for cover art ?

Best Wishes to you there, down under !

Ratzfatz,
     thank you very much for the feedback. I use both your widgets quite a bit (video and streams) and in particular am very impressed with your script update mechanism.  One of the main problems with this type of software is that whilst updating the widget is easy the script is difficult. You have solved this quite elegantly and I would probably do the same except I don't want to run a server myself.

I did originally think of using btplay but was not quite certain how the interface works - you script clarifies this for me - thanks. The second problem I have is that my widget has a lot of "state" information due to having lots of options and button. As the music would persist after the widget has disappeared I would need to store this somewhere e.g. either chumby servers or through the script. I think its possible but will have to toss it around in my head for a few days. I will probably end up building a second widget that uses btplay and a new script.

The other items you mention

1. Folder navigation exists already - select the folder with your finder on the folder tree then use the "Node +/-" button to expand / shrink folders. When you select a folder your basically selecting all files in that folder and sub folders. You can select an individual file if you want.

2. Cover art and tags - I will have a look but its starting to get complex so give me a little time.

Again thanks for the comments - will see if I can bring USB music up to the standard of your two widgets.

cheers

Nigel

smile  smile  smile

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

Thanks for your tool, but I need a searching function.
Is it possible, to implement that?

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

NigelS wrote:

As a side issue I am also a goons fan so wondering where you got the goons audio - i did find a place online that sells 150 copies for about $10 all up - not sure if its legit or not. though.

cheers

Nigel

smile smile smile

http://www.otrcat.com/goon-show-p-1329.html
I've gotten a bunch of things from otrcat.com and have found them quite reliable.  I've also used their site as a handy reference for old time radio shows.

-- Felix

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

Mmmh, just a few thoughts, I really don't want to be interfering...

About the

script update mechanism.  One of the main problems with this type of software is that whilst updating the widget is easy [, updating] the script is difficult... I would probably do the same except I don't want to run a server myself.

If you don't want to "run a server" yourself, you could always embed the whole latest script as a string in your widget and - if the embedded script-string is newer than the installed one, pass the string to the (older, installed) script and make the old script replace itself by the new one. Having once installed a script with this capability, the user wouldn't have to care about updates. But....there's a security-drawback with this method: any widget (like, e.g., another useless non-monochromatic clock [who needs it, nobody knows...])could make such a script replace itself with bad, bad things. To make this safe, i think you would have to use some complicated kind of asymmetric encryption/signing....

You could also apply for an account at appengine.google.com. You don't even have to actually write a single line of server-code if you just want to store the script for downloading. You could simply a) install eclipse, b) install the eclipse-plugin from gae c) create an app-engine-project in eclipse (creates a hello-world-template) d) copy your script into the war/WEB-INF-folder and click on the "deploy app-engine-project" button.

Then again, I think, if the widget is useful, and you don't come up with a script-update every day, those who were able to install it once, will also be willing to install an update now and then....

Anyway,
have fun developing !

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

Ratzfatz wrote:

Mmmh, just a few thoughts, I really don't want to be interfering...

About the

script update mechanism.  One of the main problems with this type of software is that whilst updating the widget is easy [, updating] the script is difficult... I would probably do the same except I don't want to run a server myself.

If you don't want to "run a server" yourself, you could always embed the whole latest script as a string in your widget and - if the embedded script-string is newer than the installed one, pass the string to the (older, installed) script and make the old script replace itself by the new one. Having once installed a script with this capability, the user wouldn't have to care about updates. But....there's a security-drawback with this method: any widget (like, e.g., another useless non-monochromatic clock [who needs it, nobody knows...])could make such a script replace itself with bad, bad things. To make this safe, i think you would have to use some complicated kind of asymmetric encryption/signing....

You could also apply for an account at appengine.google.com. You don't even have to actually write a single line of server-code if you just want to store the script for downloading. You could simply a) install eclipse, b) install the eclipse-plugin from gae c) create an app-engine-project in eclipse (creates a hello-world-template) d) copy your script into the war/WEB-INF-folder and click on the "deploy app-engine-project" button.

Then again, I think, if the widget is useful, and you don't come up with a script-update every day, those who were able to install it once, will also be willing to install an update now and then....

Anyway,
have fun developing !

Ratzfatz,
       don't worry its not interfering its helping me out. Will see if I can get it working using my simple home page as the server side.

cheers

Nigel

smile smile smile

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

SvenC wrote:

Thanks for your tool, but I need a searching function.
Is it possible, to implement that?

SvenC,
    thanks for the feedback - not sure what you mean by search - do you mean fast forward / rewind ? If so I doubt this can be done with the current widget as its limited by Flash Lite sound capability.

cheers

Nigel

smile smile smile

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

revfelixblackcat wrote:
NigelS wrote:

As a side issue I am also a goons fan so wondering where you got the goons audio - i did find a place online that sells 150 copies for about $10 all up - not sure if its legit or not. though.

cheers

Nigel

smile smile smile

http://www.otrcat.com/goon-show-p-1329.html
I've gotten a bunch of things from otrcat.com and have found them quite reliable.  I've also used their site as a handy reference for old time radio shows.

-- Felix

Felix,
      thanks - just ordered the Goons CD's - looking forward to hours of pleaeure.

cheers

Nigel

smile smile smile

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

NigelS wrote:
SvenC wrote:

Thanks for your tool, but I need a searching function.
Is it possible, to implement that?

SvenC,
    thanks for the feedback - not sure what you mean by search - do you mean fast forward / rewind ? If so I doubt this can be done with the current widget as its limited by Flash Lite sound capability.

cheers

Nigel

smile smile smile

Hi Nigel.
Correct, I mean fwd / rwd function. This would be great. smile
Thanks for your information about the problems.

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

perhaps in combination with the youstreams-widget? link these two apps (or widgets) together.


i mean: save some podcasts into the local memory on the sd-card in the chumby to let these saved podcasts will be possible to fwd/rwd.

is it possible to use more place for all the metadata in the files (like titel interpret and album-name or the other fields)

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

SvenC wrote:
NigelS wrote:
SvenC wrote:

Thanks for your tool, but I need a searching function.
Is it possible, to implement that?

SvenC,
    thanks for the feedback - not sure what you mean by search - do you mean fast forward / rewind ? If so I doubt this can be done with the current widget as its limited by Flash Lite sound capability.

cheers

Nigel

smile smile smile

Hi Nigel.
Correct, I mean fwd / rwd function. This would be great. smile
Thanks for your information about the problems.

SvenC,
   the sound component in Flash lite does not support FF and REW directly but what I can do is a simple skip function such as jump forward / back say 10 seconds (the number of seconds could be configurable) - so when you use it to search you would go jump, listen, jump, listen until you fnd the part you want. Would this do what you need. 

cheers

Nigel

smile smile smile

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

spunk_ wrote:

perhaps in combination with the youstreams-widget? link these two apps (or widgets) together.


i mean: save some podcasts into the local memory on the sd-card in the chumby to let these saved podcasts will be possible to fwd/rwd.

is it possible to use more place for all the metadata in the files (like titel interpret and album-name or the other fields)

Hi spunk_],
     thanks for the feedback - I really like the work that Ratzfatz has done with YouStreams but I doubt combining widgets would add any value. The main reason people can turn widgets out so fast and with reasonable quality is that there is only one person working on them at a time. As soon as you go beyong one person communications / vision become confused and pretty soon it all falls to bits. I quite like your idea for downloading to local storage but its pretty limited on the chumby.

cheers

Nigel

smile smile smile

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

hi and thanks.
i´ve been waiting vor this so long.

is there a feedback after installing the script?

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

stuck24 wrote:

hi and thanks.
i´ve been waiting vor this so long.

is there a feedback after installing the script?

Hi stuck24,
      glad you like it. In answer to your question - No the install just looks like a normal boot but maybe slightly slower.

If for some reason the script install failed it would show up in the widget with a File not found error.

cheers

Nigel

smile smile smile

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

Chumby N00b with a question here:

I just got my Chumby One a few days ago.  I've already got a lot of widgets up and running, but I'm having trouble with the USB Music Widget.  I unpacked the zip and copied the two files to the root of a clean USB flash drive and put the drive in the Chumby.  I powered the Chumby off and back on again.  After the control panel came up, I pulled the first USB drive, and plugged in another USB flash drive with my music, and started the USB Music widget.  I got a big blue message overlay saying that said I had to install the script first, so I'm assuming that means that it didn't get installed for some reason.

I tapped on the screen and proceed anyway.  There was delay after which it starts playing one of the songs on the drive.  The directory/file navigation display area just had one line that has an icon and then "[type Function],[type Functio" (the rest of the line runs outside of the nav area).  All of the controls seemed to work except for the navigation stuff.

I tried it again, this time putting the two files from the zip directly into the root of my music USB drive.  I powered the Chumby off and back on again, but the same thing happened, including the blue message screen.  I let the music play to see what would happen.  After a while, it stuttered for half a second, then stopped with that blue screen message again.  When I dismissed it, the widget showed "Loading Filelist - 160 files" at the bottom and then froze up.  Because it was playing music from the USB drive for a while, I know the Chumby is able to read it, but something is obviously still messed up.

I tried the same thing yet again, and this time, after the blue message it went straight to the frozen state I described above.

What am I doing wrong?  What can I do to fix this?  Any enlightenment would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

Ken

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

KenHoltPgh wrote:

Chumby N00b with a question here:

I just got my Chumby One a few days ago.  I've already got a lot of widgets up and running, but I'm having trouble with the USB Music Widget.  I unpacked the zip and copied the two files to the root of a clean USB flash drive and put the drive in the Chumby.  I powered the Chumby off and back on again.  After the control panel came up, I pulled the first USB drive, and plugged in another USB flash drive with my music, and started the USB Music widget.  I got a big blue message overlay saying that said I had to install the script first, so I'm assuming that means that it didn't get installed for some reason.

I tapped on the screen and proceed anyway.  There was delay after which it starts playing one of the songs on the drive.  The directory/file navigation display area just had one line that has an icon and then "[type Function],[type Functio" (the rest of the line runs outside of the nav area).  All of the controls seemed to work except for the navigation stuff.

I tried it again, this time putting the two files from the zip directly into the root of my music USB drive.  I powered the Chumby off and back on again, but the same thing happened, including the blue message screen.  I let the music play to see what would happen.  After a while, it stuttered for half a second, then stopped with that blue screen message again.  When I dismissed it, the widget showed "Loading Filelist - 160 files" at the bottom and then froze up.  Because it was playing music from the USB drive for a while, I know the Chumby is able to read it, but something is obviously still messed up.

I tried the same thing yet again, and this time, after the blue message it went straight to the frozen state I described above.

What am I doing wrong?  What can I do to fix this?  Any enlightenment would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

Ken

Hi Ken,
     sorry for the delay here but I didn't get notified of your post. Anyhow a couple of thoughts are 1. reduce the number of files on your USB stick and if you have any strange directiry name reduce these to standard characters etc and 2. Use the stadard music feature on chumby that now has good support for USB as it pretty well copies the widget.

cheers

Nigel
smile smile smile

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

NigelS wrote:
KenHoltPgh wrote:

Chumby N00b with a question here:

I just got my Chumby One a few days ago.  I've already got a lot of widgets up and running, but I'm having trouble with the USB Music Widget.  I unpacked the zip and copied the two files to the root of a clean USB flash drive and put the drive in the Chumby.  I powered the Chumby off and back on again.  After the control panel came up, I pulled the first USB drive, and plugged in another USB flash drive with my music, and started the USB Music widget.  I got a big blue message overlay saying that said I had to install the script first, so I'm assuming that means that it didn't get installed for some reason.

I tapped on the screen and proceed anyway.  There was delay after which it starts playing one of the songs on the drive.  The directory/file navigation display area just had one line that has an icon and then "[type Function],[type Functio" (the rest of the line runs outside of the nav area).  All of the controls seemed to work except for the navigation stuff.

I tried it again, this time putting the two files from the zip directly into the root of my music USB drive.  I powered the Chumby off and back on again, but the same thing happened, including the blue message screen.  I let the music play to see what would happen.  After a while, it stuttered for half a second, then stopped with that blue screen message again.  When I dismissed it, the widget showed "Loading Filelist - 160 files" at the bottom and then froze up.  Because it was playing music from the USB drive for a while, I know the Chumby is able to read it, but something is obviously still messed up.

I tried the same thing yet again, and this time, after the blue message it went straight to the frozen state I described above.

What am I doing wrong?  What can I do to fix this?  Any enlightenment would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

Ken

Hi Ken,
     sorry for the delay here but I didn't get notified of your post. Anyhow a couple of thoughts are 1. reduce the number of files on your USB stick and if you have any strange directiry name reduce these to standard characters etc and 2. Use the stadard music feature on chumby that now has good support for USB as it pretty well copies the widget.

cheers

Nigel
smile smile smile

Yes, I do have some weird directory (and file) names, so maybe that was messing things up.  On the other hand, I just started playing with the standard music feature and it's been working flawlessly for the last 45 minutes, weird names included.  So I guess everything's cool now.  Thanks for the help.

Ken
cool

Re: USB Music Widget script installation

Should this work on infocast 8 running Chumby 8?.
I have tried few times to install the scripts. but when i run the app i get the error loading file list message