I was looking at internet radios – looks like £120 for an entry level one. But then I realised that with Raspberry Pis at £15 or whatever they are, it should be pretty easy to build one for much less.

At the very least I should be able to have it boot up and tune into the station we always listen to, and connect it to the aux-in of some other speaker unit. But then I started wondering about having some buttons for preset favourites, or even a little screen.

Am I barking up the wrong tree or what?

It will do that , but you’ll need to learn a bit of Linux programming.

Yes it could do that for you.

All possible but you’ll probably end up spending more than £120 and a lot of time and end up with something doesn’t work quite as well. The pi is great for tinkering so if you want to play then go for it.

I wouldn’t set out to use a PI as an internet radio to save money, but it would make for an interesting project ( you’d need a case, shield, display, power supply, wireless dongle and so forth to get it working ).

Hmm.. plenty of people done this online, but would it really cost that much?

I guess it’s not as cheap as it sounds then.

you’d need a case, shield, display, power supply, wireless dongle and so forth to get it working

To be fair these are the costs:
case – £0.00 (I run one without quite happily and the case I got got my other one is great and only cost £5.00
Shield – no idea what that is
Display – not needed for setup as you can ssh into the pi from your pc/mac but you can get small screens fairly cheap if you want to set up a GUI
Power supply – you’ve probably already got one otherwise £5.00
Wireless dongle – less than £10

So total cost inc pi and sd card would be less than £50

Molly, it’s like a lot of things with hobbyist electronics… The project sounds cool, you can do it the way _you_ want to, customise it, tinker with it. In the end though, such projects are doomed to be less effective/usable/functional than something that a professional has made and possibly more expensive too.

I speak as one that has set up numerous projects using Arduinos, Pis, etc only to find out that someone has has the same idea and done a proper job of making a packaged device than my bread-boarded, badly coded frankengadget could ever be.

Give it a try though, it would be a good way to learn stuff.

A shield – useful if as stated you want to add buttons and a display to the project:

http://www.adafruit.com/products/801

Hmmm… well – the main reason I want an internet radio is because they took XFM off DAB. So I COULD (at least to start with) just have a black box with a 3.5mm jack that starts playing XFM when you turn it on, or come out of standby. Or even wakes itself at 7am and starts streaming 🙂 That would be the cheapest possible option.

If that comes in at £40-50 then I’m still ahead. The cheapest ready made radio I could find was a cube type job that only has 5 preset stations, and that was £80.

Of course I could gradually extend a project after building it initially. And it’d be fun.

As for cases, I could make a really nice one from wood and maybe leather, and it’d be better than a cheap radio. And include one of these:

http://www.adafruit.com/products/376

🙂

don’t forget to check the ecu flap valve whats it before you install it. pc world wont be able to help you even though they do computers

Good point. Maybe I should leave it to an expert eh greeble?

na this will be a good experiment once you can program the pi you’ll have no problem reprogramming the ecu of a passat

Some inspiration here – a Pi with touchscreen, amp and speakers built in:

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-LittleBox-Prototypes-A-Kickstarter-Project/

you won’t need to learn linux at all

I’m probably going to do the same, a couple of guys I work with have done it already.

All you need is XBMC and your away. you can use your phone as remote control too so no screen needed once set up (use a TV with HDMI) which is more of a copy and paste exercise on to the SD than anything

my plan is connect it to my AV receiver, wired network and it’ll stream music from the internet or my itunes library from my NAS, about £40 job done

you can stream films and sports from the internet with it too (up to 720P) which works really sell according to one of the guys I work with

na this will be a good experiment once you can program the pi you’ll have no problem reprogramming the ecu of a passat

If only they were open source 🙂

I’m quite happy with Linux and coding generally, but I don’t need to code anything. XMBC and whatnot would be good if I could get a small enough screen to work as the main display. However I don’t think I could. I don’t want to have to use my phone to use it, I want it to sit on the kitchen windowsill and be a radio.

Why not try setting up the software etc. in a VM, if you can make it do what you want, buy the hardware?

I know this may well not be as much fun, but could you not just buy a cheap android phone off ebay and use that?

Depending on how big you want you could get a 2nd hand, but decent, amp and built it into it or get one of the DIY amp kits and build quite a decent sounding all in one stereo. If you just want mono you could probably build it onto the back of a bookshelf speaker with a small amp and psu and have something which sounds a lot better than a £100+ mono radio.

I know this may well not be as much fun, but could you not just buy a cheap android phone off ebay and use that?

No, I don’t want the faff. I want a box on the kitchen windowsill that I press a button and it plays music. I already have a phone and bluetooth speakers if I want to faff.

Er…

plug phone into power and aux in. Set the screen permanently on or no lock screen. Where’s the faff?

It’s possible to use a RaspberryPi as a radio but note that the goals of the project meant making some shortcuts and the analog audio out is not of even reasonable audio quality.

Rachel

plug phone into power and aux in. Set the screen permanently on or no lock screen. Where’s the faff?

Two power cables needed, one for the speakers, one for the phone. A third cable from phone to speakers. Small unit that’s likely to be more sensitive to being splashed, and easier to knock over. Needs some kind of docking stand otherwise you have to pick it up to operate it. You have to worry more about clean hands, don’t want that touchscreen all grimy.

None of that is a major issue, but it’s all slightly not optimal. Plus how much are android phones? More than a Pi by the look of it. But anyway, I know that’s an option, the question is how cheaply could it be done with Pi.

Two power cables needed, one for the speakers, one for the phone.

Two power cables will be needed to run the pi and the speakers.

A third cable from phone to speakers.

bluetooth?

Small unit that’s likely to be more sensitive to being splashed, and easier to knock over.

the pi isnt?

Needs some kind of docking stand otherwise you have to pick it up to operate it. You have to worry more about clean hands, don’t want that touchscreen all grimy.

b/s

None of that is a major issue, but it’s all slightly not optimal. Plus how much are android phones?
More than a Pi by the look of it.

look for an old t-mobile g1…. components for the pi will all add up…

Why the hell is this an argument? I want to see if I can build a radio from a Pi. Why are you even posting?

As I said, if you want to actively go down the Pi route, I can understand that but the android solution (or probably others) will be at least as good, probably better in terms of the actual function and the issues you list are just silly.

the issues you list are just silly.

Oh ffs. Only on STW. “Can I do X?” “Yes, but YOU’D BE SILLY AND WRONG HEADED!”

Thread over, thanks for nothing.

Regarding a case, my boy made one for his from cardboard (cereal box), Blue Peter style, cost zero.

There’s template’s online, one of which he printed, so I suppose actually the cost was a piece of paper (0.01p) and the however much ink the deskjet used to print one page (so about a tenner probably).

LOL. If you’d just said that you didn’t want to do that, I wouldn’t have pressed you. If you give silly reasons though…

I’m just trying to give you a solution that you mightn’t have considered to your question. As I’ve said a couple of times, if you specifically want to go for the Pi solution then I can understand that.

You’re a sensitive soul, aren’t you? I guess you miss TJ.

😀

If you give silly reasons though…

Silly in your opinion. Not in mine, obviously!

I was more angry with greeble for telling me my own reasons about what I want in my own kitchen are in fact bullshit.

You’re a sensitive soul, aren’t you?

Yes. Yes I am.

Right, so you definitely want a Pi solution then?

😉

Just prepping myself for a 100+ post thread appearing soon when the pi doesn’t work after being taken to 4 independant computer experts because you’re adiment the ARM is faulty. yet it turns out to be a fault with the connection to the power supply..

Molgrips: Am I barking up the wrong tree or what?

The thread: Have you considered a different tree, this tree is easier, cheaper and involves less work.

Molgrips:

Classic

It’s possible to use a RaspberryPi as a radio but note that the goals of the project meant making some shortcuts and the analog audio out is not of even reasonable audio quality.

Rachel

You should be paying attention to that.

Though you could use a USB DAC (can be had for about a fiver) but then costs mount more…

LOL @ lemonysam 😉

Fairly easy to do molgrips, as the distribution you’d need (XBMC) already has a couple of usable Pi ports.

But you’d need to couple it with (optionally) a case, a power supply (definitely), a display, a keyboard, possibly a WiFi module if you don’t want to use the fixed ethernet port, and of course an amp and speakers.

That’s a lot of kit to be sitting about, and while it would work, it would look uneasy on the eye, and would mean clicking with the mouse or keyboard every time you wanted to change a channel.

I have a Pi (had one of the UK’s first) and do a lot of hacking with it, and what I’d do instead is get myself a Pure One Flow- £80 or so quid. Sounds great, is great, all in one compact unit.

My Pi is connected to my AV receiver. I can use the telly as a monitor but don’t need to as Rasbpmc/XBMC can be controlled via iphone/ipad/etc. Sound comes out of the sound system via HDMI so the analog output of the Pi is not an issue. It can play internet radio/spotify/PLEX library. All you need really!

he thread: Have you considered a different tree, this tree is easier, cheaper and involves less work.

Of course I have considered all possible trees. This is me you’re talking to! Considering trees up which to bark is what I do all day long…

Back to the Pi then.. I would want to package it in a case of some kind of course, but I had envisaged buttons on it for changing channels, rather than a keyboard and monitor.

Good point zilog- I do this with mine all the time via a phone. Less kit. What distro are you running?

Quite an old version of raspbmc. Not sure offhand which one. Need to update it soon and see what’s new! Might give xbmc a try as well. The beauty of the Pi is that all you have to do is swap out the SD card and reboot it to totally change the machine.