• Registered: 2011-02-10
  • Posts: 66

Topic: Internet radio options

Okay, if I understand this right, we can set an alarm to a stream; we can create a stream from our music files on the USB, but it won't shuffle.

So what are the options out there for random music to play when the alarm goes off?  Pandora is having issues.  Last.fm apparently won't work on anything but a desktop browser unless you have a paid account.  What else is there?  What looks like it's going to last more than a few months? (For example, grooveshark--about which I know very little--looks like it's imploding.)

Are there decent, simple methods of setting something up to use a desktop as a proxy to play internet radio on the chumby?  I don't know *anything* about this, and I don't know where to start.  My last.fm stations are pretty well trained and I'd love to have some way to just play it on the chumby. 

If there are other stations and ways to get them to work on chumby, can preferences be imported from Pandora or last.fm?

~ ~ ~

I'm still looking for a way to start and play music from the command line while ssh'd in.  I'd love to be able to ssh in and tell it to play/shuffle all the mp3's on the usb drive.  I'd love to be able to start Pandora up from the command line--well, if Pandora weren't glitchy right now.  If there's another option for internet radio I'd love to be able to start it up from the command line.  I don't know how, and previous times I've asked I haven't gotten a clear answer.

  • From: Somewhere on or near Earth
  • Registered: 2009-12-16
  • Posts: 774

Re: Internet radio options

From what I have read Pandora will no longer work once the Chumby servers go dark. I am not sure which other internet radio services (if any) will continue to work in the post Chumby Inc. world. I went ahead and ordered an internet radio from Grace audio. It is definitely not a Chumby but as a single purpose internet radio is is highly rated.

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

BoloMKXXVIII's Website

3 Reply by zurk (edited by zurk 2012-05-03 11:44:22)

  • Registered: 2010-05-10
  • Posts: 222

Re: Internet radio options

pandora and iheartradio (probably) will go dark. the rest of the stuff will work fine (as of offline firmware v11). NYT podcasts will also start working again.
you can shuffle music in an alarm by setting up your own squeezebox server (its free software). i am currently running mine on my home server using debian but i believe it runs on pretty much every platform. dump all your mp3s into the squeezebox where it will sort them out, connect neptune (your chumbies using my squeezebox in the streams) client and random stream and play. then set it as an alarm using my streams - http://ipofsqueezebox:9000/stream.mp3. works great.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logitech_Media_Server

  • Registered: 2011-02-10
  • Posts: 66

Re: Internet radio options

Oh great, zurk, thanks.  I didn't realize you had squeezebox there.  What elements of your .zip are needed for the squeezebox?  Remember, I was the one asking about the minimal install smile

Can I start a squeezebox stream from the command line?

Can I use squeezebox to play last.fm on the chumby?  Can I start that from the command line?

I'm off to sign up for an account and see if I can work it out.

  • bobsz
  • Blue Buddy
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  • From: Long Beach NY
  • Registered: 2011-01-01
  • Posts: 546

Re: Internet radio options

@zurk- a question re  your firmware 10 vs 11, as mentioned above. Is there one particular part of v 11 that fixes the music, that I could drag into 10 to fix it, or need to start from scratch with v 11 and do my modifications again. Thanks again for all your work.

  • Registered: 2010-05-10
  • Posts: 222

Re: Internet radio options

v11 changes the architecture for chumby1's. it keeps the same profile though.
the new architecture is not compatible with the old v10 and v10 will never have working music infrastructure. sorry. you will need to start with v11, copy your V10 profile over to the new location and copy the widget files to /www as usual.

for squeezebox all you need is the control panel and /psp and /www for v9 which you have already. no idea about last.fm...command line you use the follwing script :
#!/bin/sh
btplay http://ip.of.your.squeezebox.server:9000/stream.mp3 &

  • Registered: 2011-02-10
  • Posts: 66

Re: Internet radio options

Thanks, zurk.

Can you help me figure out what I'm doing wrong?  I downloaded the squeezebox server, and started it running as root (because as my non-root user I got this error and it exited: Can't open /var/log/squeezeboxserver/server.log (Permission denied) at /usr/share/squeezeboxserver/CPAN/Log/Log4perl/Appender/File.pm line 103.)

I started squeezebox on the chumby with the command above.

I opened the http://127.0.0.1:9000/ page on my desktop browser.  It saw the chumby and asked if I wanted chumby to connect to my desktop or to the squeezebox server.  I told it to connect to desktop, then told it to start playing my music files at random.  It acts as if it's playing in the desktop browser, but I'm getting no sound from the chumby.  (I can get sound with other applications and other streams, etc.  After it failed to play I tried setting volume to 100% just in case, still nothing.)

What do I need to do to figure out why it's not playing?

  • Registered: 2010-05-10
  • Posts: 222

Re: Internet radio options

chumby needs to connect to the squeezebox server not your desktop. the server needs to have the mp3s in whichever directory it uses. once you have it go to the chumby and select squeezebox, put in the server ip and hit play. then open the squeezebox server in your web browser and select neptune which is your chumby, load the tracks you want to play (or use random selection) and hit play.  then you should see sound from your chumby.

  • bobsz
  • Blue Buddy
  • Offline
  • From: Long Beach NY
  • Registered: 2011-01-01
  • Posts: 546

Re: Internet radio options

Sorry, but need to ask for more clarification about the music. I'm not concerned about Squeezebox, I heart, Pandora- just want to use MyStreams and USB music. Will those also need version 11, or can I stick with 10 until I get all my bugs out? Thanks again.

  • Registered: 2010-05-10
  • Posts: 222

Re: Internet radio options

v10 is fine for that. you should really use v11 though. its much cleaner and if you make your modifications to v11, both the chumby8 and chumby1 use the same platform now. plus it has better failure analysis as a bonus so you can see misbehaving widgets in action.

  • Registered: 2011-02-10
  • Posts: 66

Re: Internet radio options

Ooookay, this morning I did everything the same as yesterday, and it worked this time.  (I think you misapprehended; when I opened http://localhost:9000 to the squeezebox server controller, it recognized the chumby and then asked me which music source I wanted to use: my localhost or to mysqueezebox.com server.  The latter connects me to the "App Gallery" on mysqueezebox.com and otherwise does absolutely nothing.)

So hey, it's working!  Nifty.  I wish I could figure out how to get last.fm, though.  I selected it in their app gallery for my squeezebox account, and configured it with my username and password, and it still doesn't know up in the :9000 controller sad  Nor Pandora.  At the moment all I can get it to play is my own music files.  I really do like the whole "find and play similar music" thing; I've heard all kinds of fantastic stuff.  And bought some of it, yeah, but there's still more out there to discover.

~ ~ ~

So here's my current question:

Do I need to leave squeezebox running on my desktop, permanently? 

Do I need to leave a browser window open, with the controller?

Do you know how to use the command line interface they mention?  I can't find ANY documentation.

~ ~ ~

And one more: Are any of the channels that *aren't* going to go down similar to Pandora (or last.fm)?  And if so, is it possible to import preferences from one or the other?

  • Registered: 2012-04-24
  • Posts: 54

Re: Internet radio options

Any chances of getting something like MPD working? I haven't received my 3.5" infocast units yet but one of the things I was looking forward to was getting the internet radio working. Up here in the north Pandora doesn't work unfortunately so that wasn't an option for me from the start. The squeezebox stuff is neat too but I don't consider that internet radio really, just media sharing or maybe "intranet" radio smile

  • Registered: 2012-04-24
  • Posts: 54

Re: Internet radio options

Nevermind, I should have googled first and asked questions later smile Apparently this has been looked into with ChuMPD

  • Registered: 2011-02-10
  • Posts: 66

Re: Internet radio options

Okay, I read the page you linked first on MPD, and the "what it is and what it is not" page.  I'm still a little lost.  Is this something we could use, independently of chumby.com servers, to listen to Pandora or last.fm on the chumby?  If it's not, can you give me an example of what it's used for?

~ ~ ~

Still can't get rhythmbox and squeezebox (Logitech media server) playing nice so I can serve rhythmbox's last.fm feed to the chumbys.  I think it may not be possible; I think perhaps all rhythmbox can do is receive the LMS's output, not control it.

  • From: Somewhere on or near Earth
  • Registered: 2009-12-16
  • Posts: 774

Re: Internet radio options

I've been wondering if all you need is an internet radio maybe it would be easier to use something like a Raspberry Pi. Adding a wifi dongle to the $35 model and stripping out all the stuff not necessary to stream Pandora shouldn't be too difficult. If I can get my hands on one I may give it a try just to see how far I can take it.

Tar, feathers, congress. Some assembly required.

BoloMKXXVIII's Website

  • Registered: 2011-02-10
  • Posts: 66

Re: Internet radio options

Well, but I've already *got* two chumbies smile  And I will certainly continue using them as the time/date/temperature display, and to sound an alarm about 7 times a day for various things.  So why not see if I can make them play good music as long as they're there?

Raspberry Pi looks great and can probably do a lot, but I *have* my chumbies.

17 Reply by Xav

  • Xav
  • Xav
  • Chum
  • Offline
  • From: UK
  • Registered: 2012-04-26
  • Posts: 25

Re: Internet radio options

BoloMKXXVIII wrote:

I've been wondering if all you need is an internet radio maybe it would be easier to use something like a Raspberry Pi. Adding a wifi dongle to the $35 model and stripping out all the stuff not necessary to stream Pandora shouldn't be too difficult. If I can get my hands on one I may give it a try just to see how far I can take it.

<offtopic>
I'm really hoping that someone comes up with a small, cheap touchscreen to go with the RasPi. Add in a couple of speakers and you've basically got the guts of a Chumby.

It wouldn't be too tricky to write a minimal web browser (i.e. a wrapper round an existing rendering engine) with no UI of its own which cycles through a list of URLs. Thos eURLs might just be the mobile version of a website, or specific "widgets" made up of HTML and Javascript.

I know there's a bit more to a Chumby than that, but I could easily see the RasPi forming the basis of a device which encompasses the spirit of the Chumby, if not its specific implementation. Well, a man can dream, can't he?
</offtopic>

Xav's Website

  • Registered: 2012-04-24
  • Posts: 54

Re: Internet radio options

Galadriel, sorry I forgot about this post and I appologize if I led anyone astray. That widget is just a controller for MPD unfortunately, that means you'd need MPD running on a different PC and you'd just be using the Chumby as a remote.

However, I did come across this forum where someone claims to have compiled MPD for the Chumby which should be possible. Then a guy could use the remote widget as a controller for it.

As Xav points out the RasPi would be good for this but like you I already have an Infocast and I like getting things to do stuff they either weren't meant to do or won't do out of the box. Besides my RasPi won't be here for a few months yet anyway smile

I'm still a linux newbie but I'm going to look into compiling this and we'll see how it goes. If anyone else has already done this (maybe Avuton Olrich is a member here?) feel free to chime in with a little help smile

19 Reply by jphphotography (edited by jphphotography 2012-05-27 20:02:00)

  • Registered: 2012-04-24
  • Posts: 54

Re: Internet radio options

Ok so it turned out that Avuton was actually a member here back in the day and had even posted offering to put the binary he compiled up on sourceforge if there was interest. Unfortunately nobody replied showing interest until about a year after his last post.

I managed to track down his email and send him a message to see if he still has the files so we'll see what happens. If we can get his then most of the hard work is done for us smile

When I get home I'll see if I can try to compile my own MPD anyway, half the reason I got my infocast was to play around in linux more and "learn by doing".

[Update]
Well I just got a response from him and he says he's not really able to help, he hasn't had is chumby for some time now and doesn't really do any development anymore. Looks like we'll have to figure this one out on our own.

Anyone have experience compiling for the Chumby? Like I said I'm willing to try but I have close to zero experience compiling binaries so no guarantees here smile