Webradio with the Raspberry Pi / Raspberry Pi Zero

Preliminary Description

This is the Setup description for the Raspberry Pi zero as a Webradio. It uses Six buttons and one 4 line LCD display. You can also use it for any other Raspberry Pi, just leave out the part with the dtoverlay=..., and use any desired audio output.

Webradio Setup

Clone the project with the Raspberry by:

If you want to use all preconfigured files, do clone the project into /home/pi

cd /home/pi git clone [email protected]:JackTheEngineer/Webradio.git

Use PWM Audio

Please google "adafruit raspberry pi zero audio output" and build the schematic.

Add line to /boot/config.txt,

This is done to map the Audio output to HEADER pin 33(GPIO 13)and HEADER pin 12(GPIO 18), using PWM.

dtoverlay=pwm-2chan,pin=18,func=2,pin2=13,func2=4

To make this change active, reboot the system:

sudo reboot

The Audio quality is not the very Best, but it is adequate. My Raspberry pi sometimes makes a little buzz sound, when the load is high. If you expect something better, you should get some Audio-HAT, and see for yourself how to configure it. If you wish, open an issue, so i could help you.

Install all required packages

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install python3-setuptools  python3-pip python-pip

sudo pip install RPi.GPIO
sudo apt-get install mpc mpd alsa-utils

Audio Output

Here the output is being set to 1, which is the headphone jack/PWM output Setting the output to 2 switches to HDMI. The default setting is 0 which is automatic. (You probably don't want to use that, but i haven't tried)

amixer cset numid=3 1	

test audio

aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

for changing the volume, run

alsamixer 

backup /etc/mpd.conf by the file in the project

sudo cp /etc/mpd.conf /etc/mpd.conf.backup

Replace it by the mpd.conf file provided by the project

If you edited the file your own way:

To fix "mpd error: Timeout": In the file /etc/mpd.conf within the audio_output settings, change the mixer_type to "software".

Important Assumption:

From here on i assume that you have cloned your project to the folder /home/pi

This now depends on the configuratin of the mpd.conf file

If you copied the given file here, create the folders:

mkdir -p /home/pi/music
mkdir -p /home/pi/.mpd/playlists

And copy your playlist into the folder playlists.

	 cp /home/pi/Webradio/playlist.m3u /home/pi/.mpd/playlists

Enable and start mpd service

sudo systemctl enable mpd.service
sudo systemctl start mpd.service

Test that mpc working

mpc load playlist
mpc play 1

This should play, depending on the contents of the playlist.m3u, BBC Radio 1 or something similar

Run the Program:

Currently it is a rather simplish program that views the Radio Stations, and if you click the button, it switches.

python3 view.py

Enable autostartup of the webradio python script by adding a new service:

I again provided the ready to go webradio.service file, but this will only work if you have cloned the directory to /home/pi.

 cp /home/pi/Webradio/webradio.service /etc/systemd/system/
 sudo systemctl enable webradio.service

Layout of GPIO numbers on my specific board:

Button |  HEADER Pin | GPIO Number |
-----------------------------------
enter  |   19	     |	10
center |   10	     |	15 
left   |   11	     |	17
right  |   13	     |	27
up     |   18	     |	24
down   |   21	     |	9