PixelRadio, a DiY FM Transmitter with RDS RadioText

So far to date this transmitter is performing very well and is not causing issues with any of my other controllers or sound card.
I am running my Player FPP from a Pi 4 and using the PixelRadio plugin.
Is there any kind of documentation on this plugin?

My confusion is with the Station ID Display Time and the RDS Cycle Time.
If they are both set for 15 seconds, does one cancel out the other?
If I were to set one lower than the other, will it cancel out the other?

PixelRadio.jpg
 
I am running my Player FPP from a Pi 4 and using the PixelRadio plugin.
Is there any kind of documentation on this plugin?
Click to expand...
I see that Dan created "tips" for each entry on his PixelRadio FPP plugin. So the available documentation is what you see when you click each entry's "question mark" icon.


My confusion is with the Station ID Display Time and the RDS Cycle Time.
If they are both set for 15 seconds, does one cancel out the other?
If I were to set one lower than the other, will it cancel out the other?
Click to expand...
I looked at Dan's code and saw that the two timers are independent of each other. So they won't cancel each other. Per his tips, the timer actions are as follows:
Station ID Display Time = Time (s) that each 8 character section of the station ID is displayed.
RDS Cycle Time = Time (s) that each RDS string is displayed.

I'm hearing some good reports on this gizmo! Kudos to you, Tom!
Click to expand...
Thanks for the shout out. I appreciate it.

- Thomas
 
Has anyone found a USA source for the esp32 and qn8027 modules yet? Or is Aliexpress the only way? Or maybe someone has extra they would be willing to sell.

Thank you,

John
 
I was going to post a pic. showing over 20+ days online but we had a small power surge On Friday and it reset the clock. This has been a really nice addition to our show.
I've ask multiple people in various vehicles they all say it's working just fine.
My hats off to you Tom and a special Thank You for sharing it with us. Merry Christmas!!
 
rayhjr said:
I was going to post a pic. showing over 20+ days online but we had a small power surge On Friday and it reset the clock. This has been a really nice addition to our show.
I've ask multiple people in various vehicles they all say it's working just fine.
My hats off to you Tom and a special Thank You for sharing it with us. Merry Christmas!!
Click to expand...

Agreed!!!
PixelRadio.jpg
 
Is anybody using this while it's outside. Thinking about just buying one and leaving it outside and connecting to the my controller by the 3.5mm cable.
Wonder what I should put it in if I did.


That leads me to this...if anybody has one built with the external smd mod and want to sell it,PM me. I sold mine a while back and now wish I hadn't. Thanks
 
Kev7274 said:
Is anybody using this while it's outside. Thinking about just buying one and leaving it outside and connecting to the my controller by the 3.5mm cable.
Wonder what I should put it in if I did.


That leads me to this...if anybody has one built with the external smd mod and want to sell it,PM me. I sold mine a while back and now wish I hadn't. Thanks
Click to expand...

Mine has been outside in a weather proof enclosure with a raspberry pi and router, been out there since mid october with no issues.
 
jerryg said:
Mine has been outside in a weather proof enclosure with a raspberry pi and router, been out there since mid october with no issues.
Click to expand...

Excellent. I was thinking about putting it in an enclosure and then using the bulkhead connector to put the antenna on the ouside of the enclosure.
 
Kev7274 said:
Excellent. I was thinking about putting it in an enclosure and then using the bulkhead connector to put the antenna on the ouside of the enclosure.
Click to expand...

Yeap thats what I ended up doing, I made a short coax jumper to the connector then on the outside I hooked up the PVC J-Pole I made sometime ago so I would suspect you will have the same great results, fyi, with the J-Pole up, I do get a very good distance from my house. ;)
 
jerryg said:
Yeap thats what I ended up doing, I made a short coax jumper to the connector then on the outside I hooked up the PVC J-Pole I made sometime ago so I would suspect you will have the same great results, fyi, with the J-Pole up, I do get a very good distance from my house. ;)
Click to expand...

Nice. Got any pics? Did you put the actual enclosure with the board in it in the enclosure?
What directions did you use for your j-pole?
 
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Kev7274 said:
Nice. Got any pics? Did you put the actual enclosure with the board in it in the enclosure?
What directions did you use for your j-pole?
Click to expand...

I went out today and grabbed some pics. I did put it in the recommended enclosure with the external WiFi mod as well. Was not sure how everything was going to end up, as you can see I could have left the WiFi mod out since its so close to the show router, but at least it does give flexibility for different setups if needed in the future. As for the antenna directions, I followed the build instructions from a wiki article here. Here is the link http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/wiki/images/a/a7/How_to_make_a_dipole_antenna.pdf

Here is a pic showing it installed in my outdoor enclosure with everything else and the coax jumper. I also added a pic of the j-pole for reference.
IMG_2167.jpgIMG_2168.jpg
 
jerryg said:
I went out today and grabbed some pics. I did put it in the recommended enclosure with the external WiFi mod as well. Was not sure how everything was going to end up, as you can see I could have left the WiFi mod out since its so close to the show router, but at least it does give flexibility for different setups if needed in the future. As for the antenna directions, I followed the build instructions from a wiki article here. Here is the link http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/wiki/images/a/a7/How_to_make_a_dipole_antenna.pdf

Here is a pic showing it installed in my outdoor enclosure with everything else and the coax jumper. I also added a pic of the j-pole for reference.
View attachment 46631View attachment 46632
Click to expand...

Thanks fior the pics of the enclosure and the j pole,appreciate it.
Now I need to find one already assembled with the mod.:biggrin2:
 
jerryg said:
I went out today and grabbed some pics. I did put it in the recommended enclosure with the external WiFi mod as well. Was not sure how everything was going to end up, as you can see I could have left the WiFi mod out since its so close to the show router, but at least it does give flexibility for different setups if needed in the future. As for the antenna directions, I followed the build instructions from a wiki article here. Here is the link http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/wiki/images/a/a7/How_to_make_a_dipole_antenna.pdf

Here is a pic showing it installed in my outdoor enclosure with everything else and the coax jumper. I also added a pic of the j-pole for reference.
View attachment 46631View attachment 46632
Click to expand...
This is a picture for a dipole antenna, this is the link for a J-Pole antenna.
 
Mine sits next to my main controller box on the porch. I'm in SE GA. So not to cold but last 5 nights have dipped into the teen and twenties. I just use the small antenna and it works fine for in front of the house. I'm about 8-10 miles from Savanah Airport and have overhead traffic, so I don't want any trouble with FCC or anyone else for that matter. It is in the case with printed ends. It has worked Great.
20221218_154315.jpg
Santa stands guard 24-7, LOL!
 
@all, Thank you for reporting how well PixelRadio worked in your holiday light show. Hearing the positive feedback is the best gift and I appreciate hearing about your success with it. It's great to know that your visitors enjoyed it too.

- Thomas
 
I also need to give a shout out to dkulp for the FPP plug-in he made for Pixel Radio. It is fairly straightforward and also worked like a champ! Thanks.
 
I'm running into an issue on MacOS uploading the initial build - is there some out of date packages? Attached the output log. Also - is this an okay place to discuss?
 

Attachments

  • pixelradio_outputlog.txt
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Your log shows that the project was successfully built. So the issue isn't code/library related. Seems to be something to do with the PlatformIO setup related to USB flashing.

Many USB flashing issues are cause by an open serial monitor terminal. Be sure to close all serial terminals before uploading.

Also remove the SD card (if installed) before flashing.

I'm not a MacOS user. However, I did a quick Google search and found a similar "StopIteration" problem that was resolved. See this posting:
https://techoverflow.net/2022/09/01/how-to-fix-esp32-esptool-py-running-stub-stopiteration/

If these suggestions do not help then check PlatformIO's GitHub Issue discussion area. A PlatformIO user may have reported this and resolved the problem.

- Thomas
 
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Thanks - will try when I get back to the computer. On a related note, I tried on windows and it won?t even compile over there, but unclear why not - it cant find pins_arduino.h for reasons I cannot explain?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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