#PiBlaster2

Docs and source code for the PiBlaster project....

To be completed...

Download latest sdk tools from android SDK download site. Untar it and put it to a desired location. Run the update manager

# from android sdk folder
$ tools/android update sdk

and install the updates. Make sure to select all required platforms e.g. Android 4.4.2 if required.

Be warned: the full android sdk + stuff will require >10gigs of disk space!

Download latest native development kit from android NDK download site. As of 2015/02/07 there is a bin which is a self extracting archive. Make it executable and run it.

$ chmod a+x android-ndk-r10d-linux-x86_64.bin
$ ./android-ndk-r10d-linux-x86_64.bin

You might move the kit wherever you want.

Download Qt >= 5.31 online installer and run it

$ chmod 755 qt-opensource-linux-x64-1.6.0-4-online.run
$ sudo qt-opensource-linux-x64-1.6.0-4-online.run

and install it to any location (/opt/Qt) is okay. Default selection of packages is ok, just make sure x86_64, armv7 are selected for Qt and QtCreator is selected for tools.

To configure android kit successfully, install a java sdk and the ant tool.

$ sudo aptitude install openjdk-7-jdk ant lib32stdc++6 lib32z1

See qt docs on how connecting android devices. If configured correctly, just hit deploy button and wait for the application to start on your android device.

See installing images on linux

Download zip image for Raspbian (debian wheezy) and unzip it.

Insert empty SD card and make sure its not mounted Check the device name of the inserted SD card

$ dmesg | tail

it should print some information about the last connected device or so. You need the device name like [sdb] or [sdc]. Don't make any mistake here or you might mess up one of your working devices!

Copy image to SD card:

$ sudo dd bs=4M if=2014-06-20-wheezy-raspbian.img of=/dev/sdX

put the device later instead of the last X

Place SD card into PI and connect LAN, monitor and keyboard. In the software configuration select

• Expand Filesystem
• Advanced options -> ssh -> enable

and reboot. If connected via LAN you can now use ssh to connect to your PI. Default password for user pi is raspberry.

To set locale do

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

You can select en_US.UTF-8. Relogin to apply locales for your terminal.

To upgrade run

$ sudo aptitude update
$ sudo aptitude upgrade
$ sudo rpi-update

TODO.

How to configure using ubuntu mate see below.

Comment out the default display manager in /etc/X11/default-display-manager and add

/bin/true

to that file.

PyBlaster won't start if some python packages are missing

$ sudo aptitude install python3-pip python3-dev libbluetooth-dev libasound2-dev libffi-dev libi2c-dev
$ sudo pip-3.2 install python-mpd2
$ sudo pip-3.2 install pybluez
$ sudo pip-3.2 install pyalsaaudio
$ sudo pip-3.2 install cffi
$ sudo pip-3.2 install smbus-cffi

Documentation of python-mpd2 can be found here

You can download and create the piblaster package right on your PI, all you need is cmake

$ sudo aptitude install cmake gdebi-core

You can skip this if you install a pre-packed package and install the dependencies by hand.

Now clone the git repo and create the package

# -- $ omitted, so you can copy and paste the whole block
cd /tmp
git clone https://github.com/ujac81/PiBlaster2.git
cd PiBlaster2/Pi/PyBlaster2/
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
cpack

To install the package with dependencies run

$ sudo gdebi pyblaster2-*-armhf.deb

Configure music player daemon which is used as sound back-end for PyBlaster2.

Install it like

$ sudo aptitude install mpd mpc

mpc is a command line client for mpd.

These are the settings you have to set in /etc/mpd.conf

music_directory         "/var/lib/mpd/music"
playlist_directory      "/var/lib/mpd/playlists"
db_file                 "/var/lib/mpd/tag_cache"
log_file                "/var/log/mpd/mpd.log"
pid_file                "/var/run/mpd/pid"
state_file              "/var/lib/mpd/state"
sticker_file            "/var/lib/mpd/sticker.sql"

# This is mean on other devices, but OK for raspberry PI as no
# other important services are run here.
user                    "root"
bind_to_address         "localhost"
auto_update             "yes"
follow_outside_symlinks "yes"
follow_inside_symlinks  "yes"

input {
        plugin "curl"
}

# NOTE: this is the setting for the alsa equalizer described below.
# If not using plugequal, do not touch this section!
audio_output {
    type            "alsa"
    name            "My ALSA EQ"
    device          "plug:plugequal"
    format          "44100:16:2"
    auto_resample   "no"
    mixer_device    "default"
    mixer_control   "PCM"
    mixer_index     "0"
}
# Same as above -- do not touch if using "normal" mixer
mixer_type              "software"

filesystem_charset      "UTF-8"
id3v1_encoding          "UTF-8"

# restore_paused "yes"

Create symbolic links to your library in /var/lib/mpd/music like

# if having a directory local on your SD for local music:
$ sudo ln -s /local /var/lib/mpd/music

# For usb devices autmatically mounted by usbmount
$ sudo ln -s /media/usb0 /var/lib/mpd/music/usb0
$ sudo ln -s /media/usb1 /var/lib/mpd/music/usb1
$ sudo ln -s /media/usb2 /var/lib/mpd/music/usb2
$ sudo ln -s /media/usb3 /var/lib/mpd/music/usb3

Update mpc library by

$ mpc update

If using an extra sound device like Hifiberry DAC or AMP, just configure it.

Unblacklist i2c from /etc/modprobe.d/raspi-blacklist.conf (just comment out both lines) Follow instructions on Hifiberry site and make sure not to load the onboard sound module in /etc/modules. Also make sure to have made the Hifiberry made default in /etc/asound.conf.

If you want to install a software equalizer and enhance the sound quality by best speex encoding do:

$ sudo aptitude install libasound2-plugin-equal libasound2-plugins

And add

defaults.pcm.rate_converter "speexrate_medium"

to /etc/asound.conf. You can also try "speexrate_best", which will consume more CPU, but not provide way better results. See alsa-dox.

For the equalizer add some lines to the /etc/asound.conf. Together with the Hifiberry device, mine looks like

pcm.!default  {
 type hw card 0
}
ctl.!default {
 type hw card 0
}


ctl.equal {
 type equal;
 #controls "/home/pi/.alsaequal.bin"
}

pcm.plugequal {
 type equal;
 slave.pcm "plughw:0,0";
 #controls "/home/pi/.alsaequal.bin"
}

pcm.equal {
 type plug;
 slave.pcm plugequal;
}

defaults.pcm.dmix.rate 44100 # Force 44.1 KHz
defaults.pcm.dmix.format S16_LE # Force 16 bits
defaults.pcm.rate_converter "speexrate_medium"

To test your equalizer, use

$ alsamixer -D equal
$ mplayer -ao alsa:device=equal Foo.mp3.

Note: for later testing, make sure to run alsamixer -D equal as that user, who is playing the music. If e.g. mpd is run as root, you will have to do sudo alsamixer -D equal to get any effect of the equalizer.

To use i2c to control amps or other devices, install

$ sudo aptitude install i2c-tools

Unblacklist i2c from /etc/modprobe.d/raspi-blacklist.conf (just comment out both lines). Add

i2c-dev
i2c-bcm2708

to /etc/modules and reboot. Wire your I2C device to:

• 3.3V: Vi2c
• GPIO2: SDA (Raspberry PI B+ -- check for your device!!!)
• GPIO3: SCL (Raspberry PI B+ -- check for your device!!!)
• GROUND: GND Example for MAX9744 board using i2c

To control the amplifier mentioned above, use i2cset from command line:

$ sudo i2cset -y 1 0x4b 0x0 20

Where 1 is the i2c bus id, 0x4b is the device id of the amplifier (found via i2cdetect -y 1 or from documentation), 0x0 is the internal address for the volume setting and 20 is the volume value between 0 and 63 for this amp. Be careful, a setting of 35 or 40 might be very loud. Note: This applies for the MAX9744 class D amplifier board from adafruit. Your settings might differ.

Follow instructions on this page to wire and configure the remote control.

For a generic remote, use the lirc_rpi module with an extra option to tell which pin to use in GPIO mode (not board mode!). To load the module on boot, add these lines to /etc/modules file

lirc_dev
lirc_rpi gpio_in_pin=26

Tell lirc to use the default drivers. Settings in /etc/lirc/hardware.conf should be

LIRCD_ARGS="" LOAD_MODULES=true DRIVER="default" DEVICE="/dev/lirc0" MODULES="lirc_rpi" LIRCD_CONF="" LIRCMD_CONF=""

No teach the remote control. Google for irrecord or find a lircd.conf that matches your remote. To record use

$ sudo irrecord -d /dev/lirc0 /etc/lirc/lircd.conf

Store the file to /etc/lirc/lircd.conf. For my controller it looks like this:

# Please make this file available to others
# by sending it to <lirc@bartelmus.de>
#
# this config file was automatically generated
# using lirc-0.9.0-pre1(default) on Tue Oct  8 07:05:38 2013
#
# contributed by
#
# brand:                       /home/pi/lircd.conf
# model no. of remote control:
# devices being controlled by this remote:
#

begin remote

  name  /home/pi/lircd.conf
  bits           16
  flags SPACE_ENC|CONST_LENGTH
  eps            30
  aeps          100

  header       9006  4447
  one           594  1648
  zero          594   526
  ptrail        587
  repeat       9006  2210
  pre_data_bits   16
  pre_data       0xFD
  gap          107633
  toggle_bit_mask 0x0

      begin codes
          KEY_1                    0x08F7
          KEY_2                    0x8877
          KEY_3                    0x48B7
          KEY_4                    0x28D7
          KEY_5                    0xA857
          KEY_6                    0x6897
          KEY_7                    0x18E7
          KEY_8                    0x9867
          KEY_9                    0x58A7
          KEY_0                    0x30CF
          KEY_DOWN                 0xB04F
          KEY_LEFT                 0x10EF
          KEY_UP                   0xA05F
          KEY_RIGHT                0x50AF
          KEY_ENTER                0x906F
          KEY_SETUP                0x20DF
          KEY_PLAY                 0x807F
          KEY_AGAIN                0x708F
          KEY_STOP                 0x609F
          KEY_VOLUMEUP             0x40BF
          KEY_VOLUMEDOWN           0x00FF
      end codes

end remote

The key naming is free, but there is an unwritten standard for the key naming. So maybe just use these names.

Now lirc daemon should be started on boot. To tell your application how to use the lirc commands, you need to configure the .lircrc file of the user running the application. As PiBlaster is run as root at the moment, place the file to /root/.lircrc

begin
  button = KEY_PAUSE
  prog = pyblaster
  config = playpause
end

begin
  button = KEY_UP
  prog = pyblaster
  config = playprev
end

begin
  button = KEY_DOWN
  prog = pyblaster
  config = playnext
end

begin
  button = KEY_VOLUMEUP
  prog = pyblaster
  config = volinc
  repeat = 2
end

begin
  button = KEY_VOLUMEDOWN
  prog = pyblaster
  config = voldec
  repeat = 2
end

The pyblaster software will check lircrc for commands for the program pyblaster and lirc will send the commands given after the config keyword to it. For the volume increase and decrease command we allow repeat (hold key works).

To run other commands via remote controller, you will have to start the irexec daemon, but its not required for pyblaster to work.

Per default PyBlaster will start on boot in terminal mode. This means it won't daemonize silently and just do its work, but will print to boot console. In terminal mode it will also prevent blanking of the screen. This is good for development/debugging, but might not be the right thing for you. To enable/disable terminal mode, check /etc/default/pyblaster2 file.

If using model B, set a static ethernet address in /etc/network/interfaces like

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet static
        address 192.168.X.Y
        gateway 192.168.X.Z
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        dns-nameservers 192.168.X.Z

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
        wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

And set your nameserver in /etc/resolv.conf

nameserver 192.168.X.Z

To overclock your Pi while add this to /boot/config.txt

arm_freq=1000
core_freq=500
sdram_freq=600
over_voltage=6
force_turbo=1

Note: Higher values will set a sticky bit inside the Pi and your warranty will be voided. This will boost your boot time by ~50%, but will lead to a higher power consumption. Also your Pi might run unstable. You have to play with the overclock settings to find something that suits your requirements. I disabled overclocking for my Pi because I want to save power and I found that my Pi runs unstable with these settings.

If you have a second screen to connect to the Pi, there is a nice tmux setup to display some interesting data on that screen, while testing your stuff. To let the Pi automatically log in and start the pyblaster2 daemon in terminal mode, change this line inside your /etc/inittab:

1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty --autologin pi --noclear 38400 tty1

A file place in /etc/profile.d installed by pyblaster2 package will launch a tmux window if a screen is connected and PYBLASTER_RUN_TMUX=1 is set in /etc/default/pyblaster2. Note: this setup will prevent the normal daemon from starting at boot, but this is intended. You don't need 2 pyblaster2 instances at a time ;)

Install ubuntu mate on a raspberry pi 2 and configure it with the wizzard at 1st boot (keyboard and video required).

sudo aptitude install python3-dev python3-pip ipython3

ssh

sudo aptitude install ssh

Extend disk

sudo fdisk /dev/mmcblk0
# Delete the second partition (d, 2)
# re-create it using defaults (n, p, 2, enter, enter)
# write and exit (w)
# reboot
sudo resize2fs /dev/mmcblk0p2

MPD user to pulse audio group (to check pulse audio stuff, google "mpd pulseaudio")

sudo usermod -aG pulse,pulse-access mpd

Enable pulse in /etc/mpd.conf

Comment out the default display manager in /etc/X11/default-display-manager and add

/bin/true

to that file.