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automatic_news_broadcast_by_vk7db

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Table of Contents

Raspberry Pi automatic broadcast machine

Here is what I did, to get started..

  1. Take one Raspberry Pi model B, one 8gb SD card, one EDUP wifi adaptor and one 8gb USB flash drive.
  2. Install latest Rasbian image to SD Card. A google search will find instructions for the various ways to do this if you don't know how.
  3. Assemble USB devices and SD card into RPi. Connect Cat5 LAN cable between Pi and router/switch to get it on the local network.
  4. Power Pi up, wait for it to do DHCP request and get on the network.
  5. Interrogate your router or do IP scan to obtain RPi's IP address.
  6. SSH into RPi with the IP address found in previous step. If using Ubuntu like I do, open terminal and 
    SSH pi@192.168.0.xx

    Windows users can use putty.exe for SSH. Password is raspberry.

  7. Do 
    raspi-config

    and adjust GPU memory to 16mb, this is found under the advanced settings.

  8. Do 
    sudo su

    to enable root, then change root password with 

    passwd

    follow the prompts and set the password to your preference. 

    reboot
  9. Wait for Pi to come back up again and SSH back into it, this time with the user root. 
    SSH root@192.168.0.xx

    The password will be what you created int step 8.

  10. Now we will put the Pi on the wifi network. Issue the command 
    lsusb

    and you should see something like this listed. 

    Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:8176 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8188CUS 802.11n WLAN Adapter
  11. Thats listed? All good, now we can configure the wireless network settings. Do 
    nano /etc/network/interfaces

    and make it look something like this. 

         auto lo
     
     iface lo inet loopback
     iface eth0 inet dhcp
     
     allow-hotplug wlan0
     auto wlan0
     
     iface wlan0 inet dhcp
             wpa-ssid "SSID"
             wpa-psk "WPA-PSK"
  12. Do 
    ifup wlan0

    then do 

    ifconfig wlan0

    In the ifconfig report you will see the IP of your wifi interface as the inet address. Do 

    reboot

    pull the Cat5 cable and SSH to Pi on wifi IP. That done we can move onto the next step..

Preparing the Pi for broadcast duties

We need some additional software.. Now is the time to install it.

  1. Do 
    apt-get update && apt-get upgrade

    to update the Pi to the latest version.

  2. Do 
    apt-get install mpg123

    to install the mpg123 player that the scripts use to play the news files.

  3. Do 
    apt-get install mp3gain

    to install mp3gain used to normalise file levels.

  4. Do 
    apt-get install ssmpt

    to install the email software.

I have used a 8gb USB drive to store files on rather than using the SD card. Probably for no good reason.

  2. To do this we create an entry in fstab
    nano /etc/fstab
  3. Add a line that looks like this
    /dev/sda1       /media/USB      ext4    defaults
  4. /media/USB is the location I chose to mount my USB drive. Now mount the drive. 
    mount -a
  5. Now that this is done, we can create the sripts and crontab entries. The scripts live in /media/USB

I have 3 scripts doing the work. One gets the files and prepares them, the next puts the repeater into broadcast mode and the third plays the files.

The getnews script

getnews.sh 

  <code>#!/bin/bash
  
  # Set directory
  NEWS="/media/USB"
  LOG=$NEWS/log/getlog.txt
  
  # Set date for file naming
  DATE=`date +"%Y-%m-%d"`
  
  # WIA file name
  WIAFILENAME="wianews-`date +"%Y-%m-%d"`.mp3"
  
  # Change directory
  cd $NEWS
  
  writelog ()
  {
  MESSAGE="`date '+%b %d %Y %T'` "$@
  echo $MESSAGE >> $LOG
  }
  
  # Get WIA file
  /usr/bin/wget http://www.wia-files.com/podcast/$WIAFILENAME && writelog "Got WIA file OK" || writelog "Download WIA file failed!"
  cp $WIAFILENAME $NEWS/archive/wianews-$DATE.mp3 && writelog "Archived WIA file OK" || writelog "Archive WIA file failed!"
  rm wianews.mp3 && writelog "Removed last weeks WIA file OK" || writelog "Remove last weeks WIA file failed!"
  mv $WIAFILENAME wianews.mp3 && writelog "Rename WIA file to generic name OK, file prepared :)" || writelog "Rename WIA file to generic name failed!"
  
  # Get VK7 file
  /usr/bin/wget http://www2.vk7ax.id.au/wianews/VK7Regional.mp3 && writelog "Got VK7 file OK" || writelog "Download VK7 file failed!"
  cp VK7Regional.mp3 $NEWS/archive/tasnews-$DATE.mp3 && writelog "Archived WIA file OK" || writelog "Archive WIA file failed!"
  rm tasnews.mp3 && writelog "Removed last weeks VK7 file OK" || writelog "Remove last weeks VK7 file failed!"
  mv VK7Regional.mp3 tasnews.mp3 && writelog "Rename VK7 file to generic name OK, file prepared :)" || writelog "Rename VK7 file to generic name failed!"
  
  exit 0
  </code>

The broadcast mode script

bcmode.sh

This gets played about 10 mins before start time 

  <code>#!/bin/bash
  
  # Set news directory
  NEWS="/media/USB"
  
  # Set pause time value
  pause=1
  
  # Change directory
  cd $NEWS
  
  # Set up GPIO 17 and set to PTT output
  echo "17" > /sys/class/gpio/export
  echo "out" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio17/direction
  # Set up GPIO 18 and set to COR input
  echo "18" > /sys/class/gpio/export
  echo "in" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/direction
  
  # Broadcast mode function
  bcmode()
  {
  # PTT up
  echo "1" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio17/value
  # Wait a while
  sleep $pause
  # Play VK7DB
  mpg123 $NEWS/VK7DB.mp3
  # Wait a while
  sleep $pause
  # Play timeout disable
  mpg123 $NEWS/bcmode.mp3
  # Wait a while
  sleep $pause
  # PTT down
  echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio17/value
  # Goto end
  end
  }
  
  # End function
  end()
  {
  # Clean up
  echo "17" > /sys/class/gpio/unexport
  echo "18" > /sys/class/gpio/unexport
  exit 0
  }
  
  # Main loop
  while :
  do
  value=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/value`
  if [ $value -eq 0 ]; then 
  bcmode
  fi
  done
  # Goto end
  end
  </code>

The playnews script

playnews.sh 

  <code>
  #!/bin/bash
  
  # Set directory
  NEWS="/media/USB"
  LOG=$NEWS/log/playlog.txt
  
  writelog ()
  {
  MESSAGE="`date '+%b %d %Y %T'` "$@
  echo $MESSAGE >> $LOG
  }
  
  # Set pause time value
  pause=1
  thirty=30
  
  # Change directory
  cd $NEWS
  
  # Set up GPIO 17 and set to output
  echo "17" > /sys/class/gpio/export
  echo "out" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio17/direction
  
  # Wait 30 seconds
  sleep $thirty
  
  # PTT up
  echo "1" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio17/value && writelog "PTT up" || writelog "PTT fail!"
  # Wait a 30 seconds
  sleep $thirty
  
  # Play WIA news
  writelog "Play WIA news start"
  mpg123 $NEWS/wianews.mp3 && writelog "WIA play finished" || writelog "WIA play fail!"
  
  # Play Tas news
  writelog "Play VK7 news start"
  mpg123 $NEWS/tasnews.mp3 && writelog "VK7 play finished" || writelog "WIA play fail!"
  
  # Wait a while
  sleep $pause
  
  # Play timeout enable
  writelog "Enable timeout start"
  mpg123 $NEWS/26501.mp3 && writelog "Enable timeout done" || writelog "Enable timeout fail!"
  
  # Wait a while
  sleep $pause
  
  # Play VK7DB
  writelog "Play VK7DB start"
  mpg123 $NEWS/VK7DB.mp3 && writelog "Play VK7DB done" || writelog "Play VK7DB fail!"
  
  # PTT down
  echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio17/value && writelog "PTT down" || writelog "PTT down fail!"
  
  # Clean up GPIO
  echo "17" > /sys/class/gpio/unexport
  
  exit 0
  </code>

RAOTC script

getraotc.sh

I have also written a script to get the RAOTC file, should Winston not be able to run it. 

  <code>#!/bin/bash
  
  # Set directories
  NEWS="/media/USB"
  LOG=$NEWS/log/getlog.txt
  
  # Set date for file naming
  DATE=`date +"%Y-%m-%d"`
  
  # Set file naming
  RAOTC=`date +%B%Y`.wma
  RAOTC=${RAOTC,,} # convert to lower case
  
  # Change directory
  cd $NEWS
  
  writelog ()
  {
  MESSAGE="`date '+%b %d %Y %T'` "$@
  echo $MESSAGE >> $LOG
  }
  
  # Get RAOTC file
  /usr/bin/wget http://www.raotc.org.au/Audio_files/$RAOTC && writelog "Got RAOTC file OK" || writelog "Download RAOTC file failed!"
  cp $RAOTC $NEWS/archive/raotc-$DATE.wma && writelog "Archived RAOTC file OK" || writelog "Archive RAOTC file failed!"
  rm raotc.wma && writelog "Removed last weeks RAOTC file OK" || writelog "Remove last weeks RAOTC file failed!"
  mv $RAOTC raotc.wma && writelog "Rename RAOTC file to generic name OK, file prepared :)" || writelog "Rename RAOTC file to generic name failed!"
  
  exit 0
  </code>
Play RAOTC Script

playraotc.sh 

  <code>
  #!/bin/bash
  
  # Set news directory
  NEWS="/media/USB"
  
  # Set pause time value
  pause=1
      
  # Change directory
  cd $NEWS
  
  # Set up GPIO 17 and set to output
  echo "17" > /sys/class/gpio/export
  echo "out" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio17/direction
  
  # PTT up
  echo "1" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio17/value
  
  # Play WIA news
  mplayer $NEWS/raotc.wma
  
  # Wait a while
  sleep $pause
  
  # Timeout enable
  mpg123 $NEWS/26501.mp3
  
  # Wait a while
  sleep $pause
  
  # Play VK7DB
  mpg123 $NEWS/VK7DB.mp3
  
  # PTT down
  echo "0" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio17/value
  
  # Clean up GPIO
  echo "17" > /sys/class/gpio/unexport
  
  exit 0
  </code>

Cron Scheduling

These scripts are scheduled with cron 

  <code># m h  dom mon dow   command
  @reboot /usr/bin/amixer set PCM 4dB unmute >/dev/null 2>&1
  0 05 * * 0 /media/USB/getnews.sh >/dev/null 2>&1
  50 08 * * 0 /media/USB/bcmode.sh >/dev/null 2>&1
  59 08 * * 0 /media/USB/playnews.sh >/dev/null 2>&1
  50 19 * * 2 /media/USB/bcmode.sh >/dev/null 2>&1
  59 19 * * 2 /media/USB/playnews.sh >/dev/null 2>&1
  </code>

Log Scripts

Just for something to do, I made another script log repeater usage to a file and echo it to the screen. 

  <code>#!/bin/bash
  
  NEWS=/media/USB
  LOGDIR=$NEWS/log
  CORLOG=corlog.txt
  
  # Set up GPIO 18 and set to COR input
  echo "18" > /sys/class/gpio/unexport
  echo "18" > /sys/class/gpio/export
  echo "in" > /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/direction
  
  
  writeopen ()
  {
  echo; echo
  echo "Mute opened at `date`"
  echo "Mute opened at `date`" >> $LOGDIR/$CORLOG
  }
  
  writeclosed ()
  {
  echo "Mute closed at `date`"
  echo "Mute closed at `date`" >> $LOGDIR/$CORLOG
  echo >> $LOGDIR/$CORLOG
  loop
  }
  
  loop ()
  {
  while :
  do 
  cor=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/value`
  if [ $cor -eq 1 ]; then
  	writeopen
  	while :
  	do
  		cor=`cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio18/value`
  		if [ $cor -eq 0 ]; then
  		writeclosed
  		fi
  	done
  fi
  done
  }
  
  loop
  </code>

+==Footnote==+ I set the audio output of the Pi to 100% on startup and adjust level inside the modified PRM8010. This is done in cron 

@reboot /usr/bin/amixer set PCM 4dB unmute >/dev/null 2>&1

GPIO 18 is used as an input, it looks at the output of the CTCSS decoder in the receiver of the PRM8010.. When the repeater user stops transmission, the repeater tone encoder stops. Monitoring of the repeater mute allows the bcmode script to be polite if the repeater is in use.

The next trick will be to write errors to a separate error log file and email me the error log only if it exists.. If something has failed I can fix it, otherwise I don't need to know about it..

Special mention must be made of Matt VK3VS for thanks for his ideas and scripting assistance with this project.

Since I'm new to all of this, if someone can see a better or different way to do things, I'd be happy to know.

Dion.

automatic_news_broadcast_by_vk7db.1536848519.txt.gz · Last modified: 2018/09/13 14:21 by vk3smb

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