Cheap eBay FM Transmitter and MRDS1322 RDS Encoder?

S

Spankyty

New member
Hello again! I have this really neat cheap $7 FM transmitter I got from eBay and it works amazing! I'd now like to add RDS to it if it is even possible. I've seen Wayne has done it with his transmitter. I am hoping I can too with this. I am using FPP and Vixen 3. I see that TinyRDS is an option in Vixen 3.


Transmitter I have:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/DSP-PLL-87-108MHz-Digital-Wireless-Microphone-Stereo-FM-Transmitter-Module-Board/272315699393?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

The encoder I want to use:
https://pira.cz/rds/show.asp?art=micrords_encoder
 
The transmitter itself has to be able to support RDS. And those $7 transmitters do not have that capability. You would need to buy a new transmitter w/ RDS
 
dkulp said:
The SI4713 things work "OK" for both transmitter and RDS:

https://www.amazon.com/Adafruit-Stereo-Transmitter-RBDS-Breakout/dp/B00SK8ME4Y

Little more expensive than the $7 transmitter, but it does support RDS and there are actually two different FPP plugins that work with it.
Click to expand...

I realize I'm coming back to this thread a month later, but when you say it's "OK" for transmitting and RDS, does it have a clear signal with almost no noise, hiss, or static?

Now that the season is getting short, I've had feedback saying I should transmit with RDS, so I might think about switching out from that low cost Ebay transmitter that I am currently using and get one that does RDS without spending $200 to accomplish this.
 
Stormyblade said:
I realize I'm coming back to this thread a month later, but when you say it's "OK" for transmitting and RDS, does it have a clear signal with almost no noise, hiss, or static?

Now that the season is getting short, I've had feedback saying I should transmit with RDS, so I might think about switching out from that low cost Ebay transmitter that I am currently using and get one that does RDS without spending $200 to accomplish this.
Click to expand...

It does have clear signal for me and I have no issues with static or hissing. A problem I ran into was that I was using a USB sound card. That's what made it static and noisy. So use a good sound card or just don't use one. I use the pi on-board audio and had no more problems with static. It works about a block away with my antenna. It's shorter than what the transmitter came with so I bet if you used the wire it came with, it'll go more than a block!

Another issue is with the RDS... I just could not get it to work with my car. I have debugged it, it says it is transmitting fine. So I think it's just my car that has trouble receiving the RDS.

Lastly, it can be a bug or something but mine turns off randomly. I need to restart fppd for it to start transmitting again. Kinda annoying so at the end of each playlist I added a restart fppd script to make sure I am transmitting.
 
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Rhetorical question about using RDS with a light show.... why would you want people looking at the radio dial instead of at the lights?
 
Stormyblade said:
Now that the season is getting short, I've had feedback saying I should transmit with RDS...
Click to expand...

Feedback from who? That seems like an odd request from someone driving by watching your show.

Personally, I have a hard time trying g to justify the added time/expense—is it worth it?
 
Bwinter said:
Feedback from who? That seems like an odd request from someone driving by watching your show.

Personally, I have a hard time trying g to justify the added time/expense—is it worth it?
Click to expand...

Mostly my family. Apparently, my Tune To matrix is wayyyy over on the side of the house and isn't easily visible if you are parked in certain places. Also, one neighbor said they couldn't recognize one of the songs and it took them a while to figure out who did it and what it was (and they were parked where they couldn't read the Tune To matrix).

While I don't want to spend $200 to get the fancy FM transmitter with RDS, if I could spend $20 and invest a little time in some typing to get the info out there, I wouldn't mind doing that.
 
So is this both a transmitter and rds all in one? and im doing video only no pixels. Do i have to do anything special to get it to work cause i couldnt figure out how to do rds with my fm02.

The SI4713 things work "OK" for both transmitter and RDS:

https://www.amazon.com/Adafruit-Ster.../dp/B00SK8ME4Y

Little more expensive than the $7 transmitter, but it does support RDS and there are actually two different FPP plugins that work with it.
 
boarder3 said:
So is this both a transmitter and rds all in one? and im doing video only no pixels. Do i have to do anything special to get it to work cause i couldnt figure out how to do rds with my fm02.

The SI4713 things work "OK" for both transmitter and RDS:

https://www.amazon.com/Adafruit-Ster.../dp/B00SK8ME4Y

Little more expensive than the $7 transmitter, but it does support RDS and there are actually two different FPP plugins that work with it.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am quite willing to spend $20 to try this out, if it's just as good or better than the $8 ebay special that I currently use. I am not knocking the one I currently use as it seems to sound just fine -- I'd just like to try different options if it would help the display.
 
does this thing need any extra wires to rasp pi or is it just work right out of the box? im not very good at this rds thing that's why i never hooked up the one i have to my fm02
 
boarder3 said:
does this thing need any extra wires to rasp pi or is it just work right out of the box? im not very good at this rds thing that's why i never hooked up the one i have to my fm02
Click to expand...

There's a tutorial on the Adafruit website that tells you how to get it up and running with an Arduino. https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-si4713-fm-radio-transmitter-with-rds-rdbs-support?view=all

I have no idea how to hook it up to a Rasp Pi, but I'm betting some quick research might give you some answers...or some here might know.
 
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