android

Bob_Seger__The_Silver_Bullet_Band_-_Turn_the_Page-2012-07-28_03.45.08

Stream My Pi

2

Alright, so most of my friends already know, I’ve recieved one of my Raspberry Pi computers!

w00t!

So being my old love is streaming radio, I figured why not get this little guy pushing out some tunes for me!

MPD To the rescue!

Now I did a post for Ubuntu 10.04 a while ago where I had custom compiled a .deb file that included mp3 support, however the new version of MPD for the pi has it already built in! Double sweet!

So here’s how to get it started.

First install a few apps. I personally prefer ncmpcpp as my local client to control my MPD stream from the cli. And of course you’ll need to install MPD.

 

Type in “Y” when it asks if you would like to install the dependencies as well, let it run and install your requested apps.

Shucks, you’re already half way done!

Now you just need to configure your server (mpd) and client (ncmpcpp) to cut down on overhead I’ll just be using the built in httpd stream as well as the alsa mixer, however the config files are much more built out with better examples then they had on my last post, so configuring them should be quite simple these days.

In order to get MPD working as your local user “pi” in this case, we’ll first need to create some directories and files. Enter in the following commands one at a time from the pi user’s home directory.

That will create the “state” and “pid” file in your .mpd folder and the “cache” and “sticker.sql” files in your .mpd/db folder.

Now let’s backup the original mpd.conf file and then edit the original file.

You can copy it straight up if you like, as your username is most likely “pi” as well. I’ve set my default music folder to “/home/pi/Music” and Playlists to “/home/pi/Playlists” if you don’t have these directories either, go ahead and make them with the mkdir command, I’ll wait.

Alright, here’s my /etc/mpd.conf file (click it to expand, it’s kinda long):

I went and left all of the default comments in there, but of course if you want to make it more readable feel free to remove what you don’t use.

So, yea. MPD’s ready. Just restart it.

Now let’s get our client up and running so we can start playing some music!

This one’s a little more tricky as the default config file is hiding and compressed.

First let’s create the local config directory like we did for MPD.

and let’s copy the example config over to our new directory.

and then extract it.

Now go ahead and edit that file.

Again, these are the settings I used, but it’s well documented so feel free to make changes as well. Here is my config for ncmpcpp (again, click it to expand it, it’s even longer…)

So yea. That’s it! You should be up and running!

Start ncmpcpp in a tty with the logical command of “ncmpcpp” This will open the client app and allow you to start playing music! Being it’s a command line app, most of the work is done with keyboard commands. Press the number “1″ on your keyboard (NOT on the 10key if you have one to the right of your normal keyboard but the numbers above the qwerty row) and you will be shown a VERY long list of keyboard commands to control ncmpcpp, however the arrow and space and enter key’s will get you through most of it easily.

Plug it in to your amplifier, or better yet, grab your android phone and grab the free app called “MPDroid” it’s the best app I’ve found to interface with MPD. Now you can control your music from your phone, and get a stream of it sent TO your phone as well! No wires needed! (however it will be significantly buffered, so be patient when you first choose to start your stream)

Not too bad right!

Enjoy and if you have any questions, feel free to post a comment, here or in our forums, or even in my IRC hangout at italktomachines.com !

wigle.output.in.2.days.use

wigle wifi VS G-MoN – Wardriving App Faceoff.

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In my last post I mentioned wardriving, and being a big fan, I figured I’d do a little comparison of the free wardriving apps available on the android marketplace.  Having issues with wardrive (the app) as alot of other’s seem to be for now I’m going to leave it out and only going to do a one on one comparison for now as I’ve only had a few days to play with them, as until now I’ve been happy with my netbook and kismet.

I’ve been looking for uses for my old samsung moment that I bought when I was unhappily with sprint. So I’ve installed both G-MoN which has recieved high praise and seems to be the defacto app people recommend for wardriving. Wigle on the other hand seems to be a lesser known app but is gaining popularity and for good reasons I’ll get into in a bit. First let’s show some screenshots to keep the random stumblers attention for a bit so I actually might get a few hits on this lonely site.

Alright. G-MoN. The app is simple enough, and I have to say I like the layout of the stat’s and map better then the layout on wigle but the output file alone kills this app for me. It ran fine, saw gps quickly and did a good job of collecting the “access points” (AP herein) in a nice layout, and if your a person that loves stat’s, this app has a ton of them! Numbers and lists galore! But back to that darn kml output file. The info just isn’t in the G-MoN output. Here’s an example of G-MoN’s kml file in google earth.

G-MoN info in Google Earth

And here’s a screenshot of what it looks like on the map.

Not a whole lot going on. (Although I do like the smaller icon, especially when you have over 5000 on one map at a time…)

So I fired up wigle wifi. First thing it does is TALK TO ME! Sweet! In the settings you can also control what it says, and how often it says it. Both very nice features, keeping you up to date without having the need or want to check your screen (you wouldn’t do that while driving anyways right?!!!) Next it tells me to optimze the scanning abilities to turn off notifications of new AP. Well heck! that’s just a great idea! So I do and start scanning and after my short test drive, I open the results again in Google Earth and wow what a difference!

wigle wifi info in Google Earth

And then again a screenshot of it in the map.

This is the same street and I already notice several more points meaning that the gps is most likely more accurate or scan’s more frequently (probably the case) then in G-MoN. But again the info included is what get’s me going. Much more to work with.

So if exporting your data to the kml file to import into Google Earth or similar apps I’d deffinatly say go with wigle. Plus they have more of a use for the data as they offer you the ability to import your data from apps like wardrive (the app), kismet, G-Mon, and many other formats to add to their database as well as the ability to upload your data right from your phone.

So all around I am already very pleased with the results you get from wigle wifi wardrive app. And it’s free. Shucks what’s not to like!

Oh Yea, and you can post a badge showing off your AP count ;)

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