jj358mhz / pi-scanner

Set up files for scanning with a Raspberry Pi

pi-scanner

pi-scanner is a collection of scripts and configuration files that you can use to assist in setting up a RaspBerry Pi for streaming scanner audio to websites such as Broadcastify.com

Step 1: RaspberryPi Pre-Configuration Steps

• These instructions assume you have installed Raspbian Buster on your Pi

Audio set-up

• With your USB sound stick installed, in a terminal on the RasPi run the command

arecord –l

and note the output. You should see something like this:

**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 1: Device [Generic USB Audio Device], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

• This indicates that the capture (recording) device is card one. The numbering starts at zero and the on-board audio on the RasPi is card 0 (but it does not have a capture device). In ALSA configuration it is referred to by device and sub-device thusly: “hw:1,0”.

Next connect speakers to the audio jack on the RasPi (not the USB output) and a microphone or other audio input to the USB sound stick. A scanner tuned to NOAA weather with continuous output works well. Adjust the volume to mid level if using a scanner, etc. Then enter:

arecord -D plughw:1,0 temp.wav

• In this case we use the plug-in called "plug" to handle format conversion. Otherwise you could use “arecord –D hw:1,0 somefile.wav but you would need to explicitly set the format to match your sound stick. Using “plughw:1,0” makes life easier.

If using a microphone, speak into it for about ten seconds. Then type “ctl-c” to stop recording. If you hear the audio when you enter the command,

aplay temp.wav

then the recording on the RasPi and USB device is working. If you don’t hear anything using “aplay temp.wav”, or if it is too soft or distorted, try using the command:

sudo alsamixer

(along with the volume control on the radio) to balance the recording level. After entering “alsamixer” press “F6” and select the sound card (maybe called generic USB device), then “F5” to display all controls for that device.

Using one scanner I had to turn the scanner up quite loud, then using alsamixer turn on Auto Gain (arrow over to auto gain and press “m” until “00” is displayed). Using a different scanner I had to keep it rather low and turn auto gain off (mute) while keeping the capture level at + 9 dB - it’s fair to say “your mileage may vary.”

If despite all this you cannot get decent quality audio then you should suspect a problem with the attached audio hardware, audio cable, etc.

Once you have a feed running with good audio level you can save the alsamixer settings between reboots by issuing command:

sudo alsactl store

Update the Pi's Catalog, Kernel, & Firmware

Run these commands is successive order

sudo apt update
(wait)

sudo apt upgrade
(wait)
(reboot)

Step 2: Install Darkice & its Dependencies

This installs the Darkice package and its dependencies for file trimming and processing

sudo apt install darkice -y

Install the SoX (Sound Exchange) & id3v2 Tag Packages

This command installs the sox package required for mp3 encoding

sudo apt install sox libsox-fmt-mp3 id3v2 -y

Step 3: Configure & Install Support Scripts

This step will focus on installing and configuring DarkIce & Radioplay

Folder Creation for Radioplay

sudo mkdir /etc/radioplay
sudo mkdir /var/lib/radioplay
sudo mkdir scanneraudio

Download all Configurations Files

curl "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jj358mhz/pi-scanner/master/darkice.service" -o darkice.service && curl "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jj358mhz/pi-scanner/master/darkice.cfg" -o darkice.cfg && curl "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jj358mhz/pi-scanner/master/radioplay" -o radioplay && curl "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jj358mhz/pi-scanner/master/radioplay.conf" -o radioplay.conf

OR clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/jj358mhz/pi-scanner.git

• Update the darkice.cfg and radioplay.conf configuration files using vi or nano to conform it to your radioreference.com settings
• You may also need to modify the radioplay script at the trim area to customize the feed mnemonic

Edit Permission & Ownership

sudo chown root:root darkice darkice.cfg radioplay radioplay.conf
sudo chmod 755 radioplay darkice.service
sudo chmod 644 radioplay.conf darkice.cfg

Copy Files to Destination Folders

sudo cp radioplay /usr/local/bin/radioplay
sudo cp radioplay.conf /etc/radioplay/radioplay.conf
sudo cp darkice.service /etc/systemd/system/darkice.service
sudo cp darkice.cfg /etc/darkice.cfg

Step 4: Test and Final Cleanup

Test DarkIce without archiving

sudo /usr/bin/darkice

Listen to the feed and adjust the levels as needed. If all works as expected then “ctl-c” to stop DarkIce. If you see this error when running DarkIce, “…lame lib opening underlying sink error…” then DarkIce was unable to connect to the server. Check “/etc/darkice.cfg” for the proper entries and make sure the RasPi can access the internet.

Finalize the Installation

Create the cron.d file

cd /etc/cron.d
sudo nano radioplay

...and add the following lines

00 * * * *   root [ -x /usr/local/bin/radioplay ] && /usr/local/bin/radioplay cron > /dev/null

Enable the DarkIce startup service to run at boot & start DarkIce

sudo systemctl enable darkice.service
sudo systemctl start darkice.service

Reboot!

There is a live working feed accessible here http://www.jj358mhz.com

Step 5: (OPTIONAL)

RClone (third-party download)

https://rclone.org/

We will leverage it for syncronizing our local /scanneraudio/ to Dropbox. NOTE: You can also configure it to integrate into other cloud storage of your choosing.

Rclone

Rclone is a command line program to manage files on cloud storage. It is a feature rich alternative to cloud vendors' web storage interfaces. Over 40 cloud storage products support rclone including S3 object stores, business & consumer file storage services

Install Rclone

To install rclone on Linux/macOS/BSD systems, run:

curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash

Configure for Dropbox

See the configuration documentation for Dropbox here: https://rclone.org/dropbox/

Finalize the Installation

Create the cron.d file

cd /etc/cron.d
sudo nano radioplay

...and add the following lines

05 * * * * pi /usr/bin/rclone sync -P /home/pi/scanneraudio/ <YourDropboxAppName>: