saablin.net - SAAB audio player

I did some in car test with RaPi, and I have troubles with connection to i-bus.
When I test it 5-times, just one time I did successful connection to ibus.
There is also some troubles with RaPi and canusb, but in latest kernel should be fixed, but seem for me not working, because I have latest kernel There is possibility to switch usb to 1.0 speed, and it should work, but I must test it.

Other issue is speed, when I got connection to i-bus, but my saablin script is slow, data going to SID slowly compared with old solution, sound is also very bad. So extra usb sound card will be needed.

I don't have too much time for testing, but still old solution with mini-itx is more times better.

So what I did till now:

installed armedslack 14, compile new kernel with canusb modules and seems working fine.
Also can utils, was compiled fine, saablin.pl seems running fine, I plan to do some in-car test this week.
I also added low cost wifi usb dongle, so PI with saablin.pl will be as access point.
Then will be easy to use any MPD client app like MPDroid for android to manage playlists on saablin.

What is still open:

1.AUDIO
=> first I realized that audio from jack no so fgood ( a lot of info can be find on RaPi forum)
=> so only possibility is to use quality external usb
=> best recomendation is pcm2704, cost is not so bad and sound should be really better.
2.POWER
=> other issue is power, on old ITX solution I used inteligent automotive power supply (to handle correct startup/shutdown) and also power with +(-) 12v balanced audio convertor.
=> on RaPi it is another story, because I want to keep it low cost as RaPi is ... so only possibility is to run RaPi in read only fs mode, to handle startup/shutdown without intelligent power supply without ignition signal from head unit ...
=> now when saablin.pl sometimes crash, I just power on/off head unit for restart, with PI I must find another solution for reboot/restart saablin, I am thinking maybe with gpio
=> low cost power solution for PI is to use 12v -> 5V DC/DC, I ordered this, but still is needed -12 for balanced audio.
=> for -12v I see good low cost solution inverter chip (TC962EPA) which inverts any input from +3 to +18V to -12v
3.USB
=> usb on PI has just 2 ports with limited power, connect hard drive without external power is not possible
=> also when connect usb flash with more gig, PI going down hardly like you disconnect power, just 2gig flash can handle without crash, this is due to limited usb power, and with hub should be okej
=> so only solution for all issues regarding usb is usb powered hub
=> we need four ports, canusb, extra sound card, wifi dongle(optional), and hard drive or flash for music collection
.... will continue ...

So I am starting to build kernel modules for socket can and all other tools.
If everything goes well I should have some image till 1-2 weeks.

Rass.

Hi All,

I am waiting for Raspberrypi, and then I will start to port saablin.
If everything goes well I plan to provide SD card image with armed slack and saablin.
So for all saab owners it should be now really eazy to implement saablin :-)

Rass.

After more requests to create saablin image, for user who are not familiar with linux I decided to do it.
I created image of system partition /dev/sda1, with partimage software.

So here it is.
Update recommended to all users ...

Enjoy :-)

I am working this days on small updates, changes and bug-fixing on saablin.

Changes:

I have on saablin harddrive cca 18tis songs, and very often I am using randomize from all songs. After idea of my girlfriend, I added new feature .... if during random playback some song is interesting, with long push on set_sid button all songs from current song album are set as playlist.

Updates and bug fixing:

=> added auto-start remuco-mpd to saablin code (I am using it for some months but newer published)
=> fixed mode text on row2
=> small changes to buttons handling
=> if saablin text is disabled on sid, just next, prev, clear, cd buttons is activated (all other buttons and functions are inactive)
=> in randomize mode load just 50 files and switch back to play mode automatically
=> if saablin is not running, saablin buttons are not active
=> and some small fixes
=> disabled ssablin logo to speed up startup (same info visible during play with next_sid and prev_sid)
=> next (+) button on sid show album, artist count
=> prev (-) button show saablin version

R.

Hi All,

nice new article from my new friend.
He visited me this Friday :-)

Enjoy,
Rass.

I did next small saablin update to saablin.
I created simple udev rule which auto mount usb flash drive, then update mpd db, clear current playlist and add all files to current playlist. On usb remove, update mpd db and clear current playlist.

Change path in attached rules file to mpd home dir and to mpc and copy file to /etc/udev/rules.d/ and reload udev.
Plug usb drive with some music files and you should see files from usb on SID in saablin play mode.

Enjoy ...

Hi All,

I did great update for controlling, saablin. I found nice app called "remuco" (http://code.google.com/p/remuco/).
With "remuco" you can control mpd and saablin via bluetooth from your mobile using java application.
So everybody in the car can manage playlist or control saablin via mobile phone.

Remuco is also easy way for me to manage playlist in saablin, especialy if you had thousans of artist in saablin hadrdrive.

So I can just recomend to install remuco to saablin, it's really great !

Rass.