Peppy player

The issue was in one configuration parameter. If you still have the disk image for Rubens edition
you can change it. That will fix the issue.
Login to pi
Change the parameter in file /home/pi/Peppy/config.txt from
use.headless = True
to
use.headless = False
Reboot: sudo reboot.

I also updated the disk image on github. You can use it as well.
Disk Images * project-owner/PeppyPlayers.doc Wiki * GitHub

The following project is also using radio from 1940's:
Internet radio in 1940 vintage RCA case – HiFiBerry

If you will decide to share your project please let me know. The image(s) and short description
of your project could be placed in the Gallery:
Gallery * project-owner/PeppyPlayers.doc Wiki * GitHub

Happy Peppy 🙂
 
That's good -- I just finished with your earlier suggestion -- I made a fresh Vermeer, confirmed that it worked, backed up the configs, got the new Peppy and its requirements, restored my old config, rebooted, and - - - nothing. Sound worked (with the alsa test file), but the screen stayed blank and I got no web access. We'll leave that puzzle for later or never.

Next chance I get to work on this I'll start with a fresh Rubens and check the config file. Thanks for your work on this.
 
Success

Yes, that's what I did -- downloaded a fresh Rubens image. It installed without a hitch. Thanks for your quick response. As a bonus, I know more about Peppy's configuration files than I would have if everything had worked the first time. Now I'm working through configurating alsa equalizer before I combine the stereo tracks into mono. Once that's done, I'll have everything ready to listen to Peppy while I build the case.

I did see the case to which you linked -- it was a sort of inspiration for me: I think it's an excellent design. I don't want to reuse an antique case, though -- there are a lot of people interested in restoring old radios. I'll certainly post pictures when I'm finished, though it may be six months from now.

Incidentally, you're probably aware that the last picture sent to the screen continues to be displayed after the pi is shut down. It takes removing the power to blank the screen. That confused me for a while -- I thought I had an unresponsive screen. I'd suggest you blank the screen as a part of Peppy's shutdown process. That would remind users that they need to cycle the power to start their radio.

Thanks again for sharing Peppy with the world.
 
Oops. Shutting down Peppy with the touchscreen or web UI button does blank the screen. It's only shutting it down via a PuTTY terminal that leaves the last screensaver on the display.

So the display is normally blanked on shutdown, but still powered. I imagine that's about the limit of software control.
 
Hmm, interesting coincidence - I'm adding equalizer UI to Peppy player right now 🙂
It took me some time to figure out how to control it from Peppy player.

I'll try to address that issue with screen upon shutdown in the next release.
Good luck with your project.
 
I have equalization working. I (mostly) followed these instructions from hifiberry.com. I had to change a parameter in players.txt in the section [vlc.linux]
from: server.command = --aout=alsa -- alsa-audio-device=hw --verbose=-1
to: server.command = --aout=alsa --alsa-audio-device=equal --verbose=-1

I'm still having a bit of trouble, though. I've worked my to the "streams" section, and it doesn't function for me. What happens is that both the touchscreen and the webUI freeze without playing the stream -- whatever was playing (radio, audiobook) continues to play. At first I thought it was because the supplied stream URL "http://kuow.streamguys1/kuow2-hi.mp3" doesn't exist. Changing it to "http://kuow.streamguys1/kuow1-hi.mp3" which does work doesn't help, nor does making a list of 3 more working streams.

Perhaps I'm missing another parameter? I'd appreciate your advice.
 
It looks like there is a bug in Web UI for Streams. The easiest workaround is to
disable Web UI by setting parameter in config.txt:
use.web = False
I'll fix disk images tomorrow. Thank you for reporting the issue.

As for the equalizer it was not so obvious how to control it from player's UI
instead of amixer UI. Then I found two ways. One way is to send to stdin of
the amixer some parameters:
echo cset numid=1 74 > amixer -D equal -s
numid defines the frequency band number and the number after that defines the signal value in that band

Another way is to use alsaequal-mgr. Though I'm not sure if there is one available for Raspbian. Need to check that out.
 
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Thank you. Streams play for me now -- except that I can't see pictures associated with the streams. It took reading the new documentation carefully to see how I was supposed to handle it (give pictures the same names as streams). That doesn't work for me for either .png or .jpg files. I'd like to be able to use blanks in stream names ("Philip Marlowe 1947-06-12 Who Shot Waldo", for instance). It's not clear if I would have to put the stream name in quotes for the program to find a picture file or if I'd have to use underscores for the blanks.

But that's minor -- thanks for getting streams to work at all.

I'll be interested to see how you put together an equalization screen. Using alsamixer from an SSH instance works, but is not the most user-friendly thing in the world.
 
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Streams functionality was always like a step-child in Peppy. Hence less effort and testing
was put on that. You faced another bug. You have a rare gift to find bugs 🙂 I'll fix it in the
next release. But if you need a fix right now you can change the line #466 in file
/home/pi/Peppy/util/util.py from
return self.load_m3u(path, "", FOLDER_STREAMS, streams_per_page, default_icon_path)
to
return self.load_m3u(path, FOLDER_STREAMS, "", streams_per_page, default_icon_path)

The name in m3u file and image filename should be the same. There is no need to
use double quotes. Also no need to use underscores for whitespaces as it's valid
character in the filename. The only requirement - don't use in the names OS special
characters e.g. /
 
OK, the stepchild is feeling loved. Streams work as they should: supplied pictures are displayed, the default picture shows when it should. Good work.

I'm not convinced about embedded spaces in file names, though. I don't have time to test that tonight, but I know that I can't create files (e.g. with cp underscored_name blanked name) because linux commands interpret the space as a separator between file names. Enclosing the desired name in double quotes (e.g. cp underscored_name "blanked name") does work for system commands. I don't know how python handles that, but I expect to find out tomorrow.

Thanks for your quick response.
 
I meant don't use double quotes for names in m3u file as that will be interpreted as a part
of the filename. But you definitely should use double quotes when you create filenames
with whitespaces. Those double quotes don't become the part of the filename. They are
used only during creation time because of the reasons which you mentioned.

Good luck and don't hesitate to report new bugs (if any) 🙂
 
New version (Velázquez Edition) of the Peppy Player was released yesterday.

New features:

- Replaced all icons by SVG vector images. That will simplify creation of new icons
and allow UI look the same in different resolutions. Here is example of UI in
resolution 200*150:

vector.png


- Added functionality which will display album art for all radio stations which
provide information about current artist and song. Below is the collage which
shows Radio player with album art:

radio-album-art.jpg


- Implemented Equalizer UI.
Equalizer UI * project-owner/Peppy.doc Wiki * GitHub
Equalizer functionality was based on ALSA Equalizer
plugin. UI has five pre-defined frequency profiles for such music genres as Classical,
Jazz, Pop, Rock, Contemporary. Here is the screenshot showing Equalizer UI:

eq-2.png


- Added pagination for radio groups.
- Provided new disk image for Waveshare 5" touchscreen.
Disk Images * project-owner/PeppyPlayers.doc Wiki * GitHub
- Added support for m3u playlists with absolute filenames.
 
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New version (Goya Edition) of the Peppy Player was released today.

New features:

* Refactored VU Meter screensaver. Now it leverages peppymeter plugin.

* Added Spectrum Analyzer screensaver. It also leverages peppyalsa plugin.
spectrum.png


* Modified Weather screensaver. Backgrounds were added to the screensaver. That will reduce the screen brightness and help to better serve the screensaver role.


An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.


* Added Recursive Playback mode. In this mode player will automatically play all files in folder and all sub-folders.
Recursive Playback * project-owner/Peppy.doc Wiki * GitHub

* Introduced the flag disabling automatic playback upon startup.

* Improved support for SVG icons. Only one set of icons is required now. The icon colors will be changed accordingly during runtime.

* Fixed issues in Logo screensaver and Audiobooks playback. By setting image height to 100% in the Logo screensaver configuration file the album art will occupy full screen now.


saver-5.jpg