Audio Receiver Replacement by Roger

Actually, it's a replacement server for the Rio and Dell Audio Receivers. I'm trying to come up with a convoluted acronym that spells "Arrrr", purely so that I can use a picture of a pirate for the icon .

Better suggestions for the name on a postcard please.

As some of you know, late last year I promised to start working on a Rio Receiver server replacement. I was planning to use it as a way to learn C#, so it was going to be written entirely in C#, using the .NET framework.

More information about the goals of this project is on my website.

Anyway, I stopped work on it around November last year, because I found a more profitable way to occupy my time (namely a job).

I've still been playing with bits of C#, writing ID3 tag parsers, simple HTTP servers and so on. If you're interested, the C# pages on my website start here.

Last week, I started pulling all the different snippets of code together.

This weekend, you'll be pleased to hear, I reached the first milestone in the project plan.

Version 0.0.2 successfully implements the service discovery, portmapper, mount daemon and NFS daemon portions of the server software to the extent that I managed to get an original Rio-branded Receiver to boot from my software, using the original Receiver firmware distribution.

Source code for version 0.0.3 of my software is here, which I was playing with before work this morning.

I'm pleased with it, so I thought I'd share.

At my current rate of progress, I anticipate that I'll be able to get out an alpha release, including installer and stuff in a couple of weeks time. Is anyone interested in helping me test it?

Okay, I love "Arrrr", you have to keep that.

Roger,

Willing guinea pig here.

NB Key feature for me would be WOL. The missus is most unimpressed with the (already silenced) PC whirring away all day, for the sake of 15 mins music before I crash out.

Cheers

M

Key feature for me would be WOL.

Wake-on-LAN is not the server's problem: it's turned off, right?

Wake-on-LAN is supposed to work already. If it doesn't, it's not going to work with my server, either.

Willing guinea pig here.

Cool. I'll be making more announcements as I get closer to finishing it.

Wake-on-LAN is supposed to work already.

Having said that, check out this page:

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article04-101

And, also on that note, in Windows XP, I discovered the following:

but, more interestingly, I also discovered this. I don't know if it's related to Wake-on-LAN, or to some other Microsoft thing, though:

Although, thinking about it more: one problem with the software as shipped is that it runs as a normal application, which means that you need to have a user log in at startup, otherwise it won't work from wake-on-LAN.

The one I'm writing runs as a Windows service, which means you won't have this problem.

What you will have is problems accessing MP3 files stored on other machines, and stuff like that .

I think the XP snapshots you posted are indeed WOL related. I run W2K and there are similar options to enable WOL.

Under the original ARM setup, the music serving PCwill only go to sleep if the Rio is in "soft off" mode (i.e. blank screen). However, when the Rio power button is pressed to switch it on, the PC wakes up as expected. The niggle is that there is a requirement to soft power off the Rios manually. I have one in a poolhouse a long way from the house, and have a guess if the kids always leave it on?

What sounds best to me is for the music serving PC to be able to sleep when the Rio is in active (but not playing anything) and standby/soft power-off mode, and be woken up on a change from either a change in state, or a request to play music from an active Rio.

Not a deal breaker, and I don't know if anyone else cares, but certainly an environmentally friendly approach.

Cheers


M

Roger,

I'm certainly willing to help where I can - main problem would be time ;-)
Beta testing, some code snippets (C or VB), etc.
Key feature for me would be the layered database search - like search for an artists first and then for all albums of that artist, etc.
That said, I wanted to make the statement, that IMHO the original ARM is an awesome piece of software - sure, has some limitations, but it works great and while so many people have been writing replacements, none of them has even come slightly close to the easy installation of the ARM. With ARM, for the most part, its install it and go. Can't say that of any of the replacements! So, while we're excited that you are rewriting the ARM, don't think noone appreciates the original...
ARRRR = Audio Receiver Rewrite & Replacement Ruler

install it and go

One of the goals for the new software is, in fact, install and go. I spent some time the other day playing with the Setup and Deployment Wizard in Visual Studio, and I think I can do it as a single, downloadable, installer.

The one problem is that you'll need to provide it with firmware files from the original, which means installing that. I'm not sure how I'll handle that. Maybe I'll just talk nicely to Rob....

PC will only go to sleep if the Rio is in "soft off" mode

Ah. The PC going to sleep is something that the server software can control. You're right: the original software only allows sleep if the Receivers are all in soft-off.

I'll look into this.

some code snippets

Well, if you want to get involved, it's all written in C#, and the source code is available on my website: http://www.differentpla.net/node/view/269

I'll be finishing it over the next couple of weeks, so it'll be a moving target, but, if you're trying to learn C#, it might be worth a look.

The one problem is that you'll need to provide it with firmware files from the original, which means installing that. I'm not sure how I'll handle that. Maybe I'll just talk nicely to Rob....

Or write your own replacement firmware...

well, isnt it acceptable that in order to send the PC to sleep, you turn off your Rio? I'd be happy with that!

Marc

Manually turning off the Rio works with ARM. Aes mentioned, it just becomes a bit dull when one of them (I have 5) is in the farthest location: typically the pool house 100m away!

It's not a deal breaker, but might be worth incorporating if it's not too much aggro. We can always hug trees as well to prove our environmental credentials.

Cheers

M

Okay, I love "Arrrr", you have to keep that.

It occurs to me this morning that using an icon of a pirate for something as contentious as MP3 files might not be the most sensible thing to do.

Hmmm.

You could use the tRio software: http://triot.sourceforge.net/
Then you could remote-control all 5 of them from a web browser anywhere on your network. I think you could also synch them, so they can all play the same thing for a party or something.

Indeed I do use tRio, but it does not work with WOL.

Oh, I thought clicking "Standby" on the tRio Front-End was the same as "soft-off", but apparently not - the clock stays on. Nevermind.

Quote:
Arrrr

Speaking purely hypothetically, how easy would it be to add support for "&_utf8=1" on tag queries, causing the tags to be returned in UTF-8 rather than Latin-1?

Peter