Raspberry Pi Online Audio Streamer

Description

This code turns a Raspberry Pi into an online audio streamer. Some of its features include automated recording or other tasks based on solar times and remote code updates or shell command execution using an internet dongle in remote. The installer is designed to work with Raspberry Pi OS and uses up-to-date libraries as of this release.

Features

• Automated recording or tasks based on solar times
• Remote code updates and shell command execution
• Support for ADS1115 battery sensor
• Support for MEMS microphones
• Icecast2 streaming server integration

Installation

Hardware Requirements

• Raspberry Pi (tested on Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W with Raspberry Pi OS Lite 64-bit, released on 2024-11-19)
• Audio capture device (usb microphones, MEMS microphones, or usb audio device with standard microphones)

Prerequisites

1. If using the ADS1115 battery sensor, enable I2C:

   sudo raspi-config 
   

   Then navigate to Interface Options → I2C → Enable

2. If using MEMS microphones, enable I2S by editing the config file:

   sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt
   

   Add the following line at the end:

   dtparam=i2s=on
   

Setup

1. Download the project folder to your Raspberry Pi's home directory. From the home folder:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install git
   git clone https://github.com/sensingtheforest/audio-streamer.git
   

2. Install all the necessary libraries.
   • Grant execute permission to the scripts in the project folder:

   cd audio-streamer
   find . -type f \( -name "*.sh" -o -name "*.py" \) -exec chmod +x {} \;
   

   • Now run the install script:

   ./install.sh
   

   • When prompted, say yes to configure Icecast2. After that, you can just use the default settings. If you change the default passwords, make sure to remember them — you’ll need them later for the Icecast2 config file. When prompted to configure msmtp (email app), and asked that confusing question, just go with the default no.
   • Say yes to reboot — this is the final step of the installer. If you changed the kernel headers setting in installer.sh, the installer will finish without rebooting.
   • Note: The script should install all required packages from the repositories. All the packages are listed in the script. There are some parameters at the beginning of install.sh you can set to spare some time, otherwise it will do a full OS upgrade and compile the latest darkice version. This may take a while - get a cup of tea... or two...
3. For MEMS microphones, install drivers:

   ./mems-drivers.sh
   

   • Reboot when prompted (type y).
   • Note: If not using MEMS microphones, skip to step 4.
4. Set up the microphone:
   • Open the setup script:

   sudo nano mic-setup___o.sh
   

   • Set DEVICE and FORMAT to match your microphone. You can find your device name running:

   arecord -l
   

   • Save the file as mic-setup.sh (remove "___o") and run it:

   sudo mv mic-setup___o.sh mic-setup.sh 
   ./mic-setup.sh
   

   • A 10-second recording test should start. You should see volume meters (or a vague memory of them) moving. Check for mic-test.wav in the project folder.
   • You can adjust the microphone capture volume in alsamixer. Run:

   alsamixer
   

   To see the fader, click on "F6: Select your soundcard", and then show all volume controls with "F5: All".
   If you want to repeat the test and observe the signal levels, run:

   arecord -d 10 -D mic_out_shared -c 2 -r 44100 -f S16_LE -t wav -V stereo -v mic-test.wav
   

5. Configure settings:
   • Edit all remaining files ending in "___o" with your settings (settings are commented inside each file).
   • Save them without "___o" (e.g., edit common___o.sh and save as common.sh).
   • Note: You can keep the originals, only those without "___o" will be used.
6. Test the stream:

   ./stream.sh
   

   • If set up correctly, you should be able to access the stream via your Icecast2 server address.
   • Note: This assumes that darkice.cfg has been set up correctly, there are no errors in the terminal, and the last line ends with SCHED_FIFO.
7. Enable email operations:
   • Obtain an App Password from your email account (we used Gmail).
   • Update the 'from', 'user', and 'password' fields with your own credentials.
   • Save this file as a hidden configuration in your home folder and set the appropriate permissions.

   sudo mv msmtprc___o.txt ~/.msmtprc
   chmod 600 ~/.msmtprc
   

   • Enable IMAP on your email account to allow the Raspberry Pi to download attachments from your emails and receive remote updates.
8. Set up cronjobs:
   • Open the crontab editor

   crontab -e
   

   • Copy the entire content of crontab.txt, paste it into the editor, and save.
9. Create boot service:

• Open boot.service.txt

sudo nano boot.service.txt

• Replace the placeholder values in the 'ExecStart', 'User', and 'WorkingDirectory' fields with your actual username. Save and exit the editor.
• Remove the extension and move the file to the correct systemd directory:

sudo mv boot.service.txt /etc/systemd/system/boot.service

• Reload systemd, enable the service to run at boot, and reboot the system:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable boot.service
sudo reboot

• After rebooting, you can check if the service is running properly with:

sudo systemctl status boot.service

11. ENJOY!

Troubleshooting

• Most TCP socket errors are caused by incorrect Darkice configurations or issues with the 4G dongle.
• For LAN streaming, the address to write in the browser to stream online will be similar to http://192.168.0.100:8000. Note http instead of https: in most cases, https won't resolve the address.
• For remote streaming with a 4G dongle, use a streaming server provider like StreamUp, which will provide a public IP address, port, and stream password to use in the darkice.cfg file (the address will look more like 178.23.45.144:8063).

Dependencies

The following libraries and tools are required for the streamer and additional tasks.
Note: Dependencies are automatically installed by the provided installer. No manual installation should be required.

System Packages

• DarkIce – Streaming app. (Tested with v1.5)
• screen – Multiplexer to detach the terminal session from SSH. This is essential to keep the stream running when you disconnect from the Raspberry Pi.
• CMT (Computer Music Tools) – Used to filter the stream.
• Git – Required for some libraries that use Git repositories.
• Minicom – Allows communication with most internet dongles. Needed only if you want to reboot the dongle from the command line.
• USB_ModeSwitch – Helps resolve issues with certain internet dongles.
• msmtp – A lightweight application for sending emails.
• Icecast2 – Turns the Raspberry Pi into a streaming server accessible remotely like a web page.
• Adafruit I2S MEMS Mic Drivers – Required for MEMS/I2S microphones.

Python Virtual Environment Packages

• Astral – Used to sync tasks to solar times instead of standard times via crontab. (Tested with v3.2)
• IMAPClient – Required to parse emails and download new files for remote code updates.
• Adafruit Blinka, Adafruit CircuitPython ADS1x15, and RPi.GPIO – Necessary for the ADS1115 battery sensor.

Additional Information

For tutorials and details about hardware and code, visit Sensing the Forest.

License

BSD-3-Clause license

Contribution Guidelines

Coming soon.

Credits and Acknowledgements

• Author: Luigi Marino Developed the Raspberry Pi online audio streamer project.

• Funder: Sensing the Forest is a project funded by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) (AH/X011585/1, AH/X011585/2).

• Contributors:

  • Anna Xambó Sedo
  • Pete Batchelor

• Acknowledgements:

  • LocuSonus Project
  • Alice Eldridge