I was curious if anyone has considered using the empeg to control a Winradio receiver. Winradio (www.winradio.com) manufactures computer-controlled wide-band receivers. Their external receiver units are controlled via serial port connection to the host computer. Although their name suggests that the receiver is designed to operate under Windows, they are also encouraging support for receiver control under Linux (www.linradio.com).

With the MkII tuner out of reach just now, excess processing power in the empeg, and the serial port, Windradio would give the empeg user access to am/fm/mw and just about every other frequency (up to 4GHz if you need it).

Has anyone tried this? Are their hardware / software issues that would preclude empeg control over a Winradio receiver? Are their any potential developers willing to explore this?

Adrian
(Anxiously waitng for a MkII empeg / Rio Car with a radio)

I had a glance at the winradio web site, and it looks like what you're describing is do-able. The 4ghz box they advertise does indeed have a serial port and a 12v input.

For control software, you'd have to write your own standalone executable which runs on the empeg. Although you might be able to use someone else's Winradio Linux code as a starting point, you'd still have to do a lot of work yourself. You would have to use some of the known information about interpreting button/IR presses and displaying text on the empeg.

Assuming the Winradio serial control command interface is "open" (i.e., you can get the specs), this is definitely something you could do if you had the programming skillz.

You could replace the empeg's init with one that looped back and forth between the empeg player software and your Winradio control software. Select "quit" from the empeg's menu to run the Winradio software. Do the same from the Winradio software to go back to the empeg.

Interesting idea for a project. Let us know if you go through with it.

(Although it seems to me that it'd just be easier to wait for the Empeg tuner...)

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Tony Fabris

Yeah, but then you'd have a wide band scanner empeg! That would be fairly bad ass. Listen for those speed traps and such on your empeg. mmmm... pretty pricey though.


|| loren.cox || 080000446 ||

Hmm, if you could write some software that ran in the background and sampled the WinRadio output and did Voice Recognition on it, you could have it pipe up and interrupt your music when it detected certain speed-trap-related keywords.

I can see it now... the empeg is playing Sammy Hagar's "I can't drive 55", and then it gets interrupted to tell you there's a speed trap ahead.

Yeah, I'm dreaming. But hey, it's fun.

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Tony Fabris

Tony,

Car Talk *and* Sammy Hagar?? Sounds like a potential case of IIBBS-C -- Incipient Idiopathic Bad Brain Syndrome (California) -- to me!

Well, if May arrives and I'm tunerless, I could be very interested in this concept! Actually, I own a competing product, the ICOM PCR-1000. Same concept, 12V, serial port, all software control. Fair amount of 3rd party software for it, including at least one Linux daemon that could be a starting point for something. The one I'm thinking of is at: http://www.mv.com/ipusers/cdwalker/pcrd.html. This was done in C, I think, no idea whether it could be adapter to WinRadio or whether their message syntax is remotely similar.

Fun, idea, though. I may have to think about it even if the tuner module shows up.

Jim

Just for fun, I looked and found another Linux/PCR control project (C++) at: http://www.philtered.net/icomlib.phtml

I particularly liked their open, candid approach to some topics, as in ... "Additionally, if you do not like the fact that the code is written using the QT widget set, get bent."

Don't hold back.

Jim

Car Talk *and* Sammy Hagar?

Actually, I don't own any Sammy Hagar stuff. I don't even own any Van Halen (with or without Sammy). I am familiar with the song, though, and I thought the image was funny.

Fun, idea, though. I may have to think about it even if the tuner module shows up.

What's this "IF" stuff?! WHEN.

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Tony Fabris

OK, OK, I should have said "if it shows up *before* sailing season really starts". That would be April/May. I am, after all, the IIBBS poster child.

I actually own a few Van Halen. Bought them for a hurried 3-day Boston-->Seattle drive in 1988. They still help keep me aware on long drives...or is that awake?

I found another PCR control app that runs on a palm. If nothing else I suppose I could plug the ICOM into the AUX port and stick the Palm to something with some velcro.

Jim