MightyOhm » wifiradio

Wifi Radio project mention in Popular Science

Jeff — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 04:01:19 +0000

My Wifi Radio project got a shoutout in this month’s issue of Popular Science!

“Radio How You Want It” by Vin Marshall appears on page 78. Vin built a gorgeous Wi-Fi radio based on my plans. He also added a number of twists and new features, such as an analog signal strength meter and a graphic LCD display.

Nice work, Vin! Thanks for the mention!

Jan’s Wifi Radio has a modern look

Jeff — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 21:16:25 +0000

Jan Wante made this gorgeous Wifi Radio with a modern look. It is based on my original Wifi Radio tutorials.

Not content to simply duplicate my work, he added a few creative twists of his own, including a custom handmade case made of alucobond, MDF, and real wood veneer that gives his finished radio a nice, modern look. Inside, a hacked WL-520gU wireless router running OpenWrt runs the show and an ATmega microcontroller programmed with BASCOM interfaces with a rotary encoder and graphical LCD display.

The very impressive result is shown in this video:

Nice work, Jan!

Wifi Radio mention on BBC’s Digital Planet

Jeff — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 19:35:00 +0000

Welcome, BBC listeners! You probably want to start here.

Last Friday, I was interviewed by Gareth Mitchell of BBC’s Digital Planet at the incredibly successful Dorkbot/Ignite SXSW show.

The Digital Planet SXSW episode (and a clip from my interview) is now online.

You can also subscribe to a podcast of the show, available for most media players.

I also uploaded some pictures of the Dorkbot/Ignite event. They only capture a small fraction of the exhibits, there just wasn’t enough time for me to see them all!

Austin Dorkbot / SXSW Ignite this Friday

Austin Dorkbot / SXSW Ignite this Friday

Jeff — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:00:32 +0000

This Friday, March 11th, Austin’s Dorkbot chapter is holding a science fair in conjunction with Ignite Austin for SXSW Interactive.

I’ll be demoing my Wifi Radio project and showing off various other projects. There is a list of presenters here.

General Admission is $10 ($0 for SXSW badge holders), but if you RSVP right now on Dorkbot Austin’s Facebook page there might be some free passes left.

Wifi Radio / Dorkbot 27

Jeff — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:05:34 +0000

Last night, I dusted off my Wifi Radio project and gave a 15 minute presentation about it at Austin Dorkbot 27: Electric Boogaloo.

Dorks who want to download the slides can do so here: Jeff_Keyzer-Wifi Radio Project

I had a particularly challenging evening because the hastily assembled wireless network in the ACTlab refused to hand out an IP address to the radio. After wrongly suspecting that the 802.11n network was causing problems (my home network is b/g), I discovered that if I set a static IP and default gateway, I could get a stable connection to the router. That process of discovery took something like an hour of tweaking settings, trying to remember iwlist arguments, how to set up routes, etc.

In the end I got it all working and gave a very successful demo of the radio. Whew!

How To Make A Cheap WiFi Radio

Jeff — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:27:05 +0000

@tinkernut just posted a video tutorial showing how to make a wifi radio for about $50 based on my Wifi Radio project.

The Tech Junkies Build a Wifi Radio (Video)

Jeff — Wed, 26 May 2010 18:57:43 +0000

In this episode of The Tech Junkies, Ben and Eric show how to hack an Asus WL-520gu wireless router into a music playback device. By loading the OpenWRT firmware onto the router and adding a USB sound card, it is possible to convert this cheap/powerful router into a streaming box to be placed anywhere your WiFi is in range. Now you can build your own shoutcast/icecast receiver for cheap and get music wirelessly to any room in your home.

Pretty cool video based on my original Wifi Radio tutorial.

To leave comments or download the video, visit The Tech Junkies Episode #6.

Gary’s Wifi Radio Project

Jeff — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:01:41 +0000

Gary Dion (N4TXI) created a Wifi Radio to match his entertainment center. His project is inspired by my original Wifi Radio project and shares several of the same parts (such as the Asus WL-520gU wireless router) and design philosophy.

Interesting features of Gary’s version of the radio:

Very cool 4 line VFD display allows more information to be shown at once (and it’s blue!)
AVR sends actual shell commands to the router, which allows the serial console to remain enabled for debugging/other purposes – brilliant!
Nice custom PCB for the ATmega8 microcontroller
Rotary encoder and significantly more advanced control menus
IR remote control support!

More details, photos, and source code are available on Gary’s site.

Thanks to the Make: blog for bringing this project to my attention!

Celebrating one year of hacks and projects at mightyohm.com!

Jeff — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:46:26 +0000

Wow! I can’t believe it’s been a year!

Based on the date of my first post, last Wednesday marked the one year anniversary of my blog.

While I pour a toast, here are a few highlights of the past year:

PID Controlled Solder Paste Fridge

The first project I documented on the site, my solder paste fridge was the end result of a weekend effort to turn an old beer chest into a PID-controlled Peltier cooler for storing tubes of solder paste. A year later, the cooler has a permanent home under my workbench and is still going strong, keeping its contents at a chilly 36 degrees F. Besides solder paste, I keep my POR-15 rust proofing epoxy paint and a few tubes of superglue in the fridge (they never dry out!).

Space Invaders! Making RGB video with the PIC

I needed an excuse to learn assembly language programming on the PIC, and this project fit the bill perfectly. Instead of slogging through yet another PIC tutorial I decided to “just do it” and the video above shows the result. One of my favorite projects of last year, I have plans to build more of these and make some electronic artwork for the lab.

Bluetooth Handset Hack

One aging bluetooth headset plus one obsolete telephone handset equals one retro-fabulous hack that I still use today. The best part: Look for this one in Make: volume 20!

DIY PID-Controlled Soldering Hotplate

I’m a big fan of the hotplate (aka reflow skillet) method of surface mount soldering. Over the course of a few months I designed, machined, and assembled this PID-controlled soldering hotplate to help build the first few prototypes of my AVR HV Rescue Shield kit. Hacking around in the garage is always fun, but creating a new tool is one of the most rewarding things I have can think of.

Here’s a video of the hotplate in action, reflowing the step-up converter on the Rescue Shield:

The AVR HV Rescue Shield

What started as a simple hack to save a crippled AVR microcontroller eventually became a kit that I’ve sold to AVR enthusiasts around the world. The AVR HV Rescue Shield includes a cool custom PCB, integrated 5V-12V step-up power supply, and is completely open source. I only made one batch of these, and when they’re gone, they’re gone, so head over to the AVR HV Rescue Shield product page to order one today!

Wifi Radio Project

Certainly the most famous project on the site, my Wifi Radio project has inspired many readers to start playing with cheap wireless routers and embedded Linux. If you haven’t seen it before, the finished project sounds something like this:

I brought the Wifi Radio to the Maker Faire in San Mateo in May. Everyone loved it, including some of the Make: staff, which got me a blue ribbon for the project. Awesome!

Onward!

Well, that’s it for year one… If I missed one of your favorite posts from the past year, leave a comment! If you’re new to the blog, happy reading, you have some catching up to do.

Here’s to another fantastic year of hacks, projects, kits, tools, and resources at mightyohm.com!

Building a Wifi Radio? Leave a comment here!

Jeff — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:58:48 +0000

Did my Wifi Radio project inspire you to buy a wireless router and start hacking? If so, I’d like to hear from you!

Leave a comment below and let me know how your project is coming along. Even if you’re not building a Wifi Radio but used my firmware or tutorials as a starting point (a great example is the Tweet-a-Watt), I’d love to hear from you.

If you have photos of your project, you can share them with the world by adding them to the Asus Wireless Router Hacks photo pool on flickr.

www.flickr.com

My Wifi Radio Station Playlist

Jeff — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:24:22 +0000

A few people have asked me about the playlist that ships with the interface.sh script for my Wifi Radio project.

I’ve actually modified my playlist slightly, so here’s what I’m currently listening to. Click on the links to open each station in Winamp or iTunes.

1. SLAY Radio

http://slayradio.org/tune_in.php/128kbps/listen.m3u

SLAY Radio is dedicated to playing original and remixed tunes from the Commodore 64. Regular live shows that feature guest DJs who select and play their favorite C64 tunes, plus occasionally some stuff from the Amiga and other platforms. SLAY Radio inspired me to dust off my old sid and mod files. Does it get any better than this?

This cool banner shows what song is currently playing. Click to visit their site.

2. KCRW Simulcast

http://scfire-dtc-aa06.stream.aol.com:80/stream/1046

An NPR affiliate based in Los Angeles, KCRW has a wide variety of music and talk radio programming. They also transmit on FM 89.9MHz.

3. Bassdrive

http://www.bassdrive.com/v2/streams/BassDrive.pls

Bassdrive plays jungle and drum and bass (see dnb). Lots of live shows and guest DJs. One of my favorites.

4. di.fm – Soulful House

http://www.di.fm/mp3/soulfulhouse.pls

This group of six stations are hosted by Digitally Imported, which offers a wide variety of electronic dance music at both free and premium (higher quality/bitrate) paid membership levels.

5. di.fm – Lounge

http://www.di.fm/mp3/lounge.pls

6. di.fm – Breaks

http://www.di.fm/mp3/breaks.pls

Di.fm’s breaks station. Another one of my favorites.

Hosted by San Francisco-based soma.fm. Plays “A nicely chilled plate of ambient beats and grooves.” Like many of the others on this list, this station has been around forever. It’s probably one of the first Shoutcast stations I ever tuned into, and it’s still going strong almost a decade later.

Of course, if you don’t like these presets or just want to see what else is out there, check out shoutcast.com. You can browse or search through hundreds of other streaming radio stations featuring every possible genre of music you could think of.

Microchip Internet Radio Demonstration Board

Jeff — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:22:21 +0000

Microchip Technology, makers of the PIC microcontroller, have released a demo board for the 8-bit PIC18F67J60 that is pre-programmed to function as an internet radio receiver.

Anyone familiar with the blog knows that I have a special love for internet streaming radio, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that this demo board immediate caught my eye.

The demo board’s features include ethernet, a dedicated MP3 decoder IC, pushbutton user interface, and a cool OLED matrix display. The PIC18F67J60 includes an ethernet PHY on-chip, which makes for a very simple way to add network connectivity to the microcontroller. Sadly, unlike my usual hacking platform, there isn’t any wireless on-board, but given the extremely small size and downloadable source code, I am really tempted to get one of these to play with.

Here’s a short video about the board by MicrochipTechnology on YouTube:

Internet Radio Demonstration Board.

Wifi Radio Cost Breakdown

Jeff — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:31:32 +0000

Many people have asked me for a cost breakdown of my Wifi Radio project. Well, here it is!

I added a link to possible sources for as many parts as I could. However, there were a few things I scrounged from local surplus electronics stores and couldn’t easily find a good equivalent online. I’m not expecting everyone to copy my design exactly (not everyone has a woodworking shop at their disposal), so use these numbers as a rough estimate only.

If you shop around you should be able to beat the listed prices on many items, so I see this as sort of a worst case scenario.

To flash the wireless router and create a minimal radio (with no user interface), you will need:

Asus WL-520gU wireless router – currently $34.99 with MiR
SYBA SD-CM-UAUD USB Stereo Audio Adapter – $7.99
FTDI USB TTL-232 3.3V serial adapter cable – $20
0.1″ Break-away Header Strip – $2.50

Total: $65.48

To make the LCD display and tuner interface, you’ll also need:

USBtinyISP AVR programmer – $22
16×2 Character LCD (5V) – $13.95
ATmega168 microcontroller – $4.11
28-pin socket – $1.50
16MHz crystal – $1.50
2 x 22pF capacitors – $0.25 ea.
Contrast trimpot, 1k (or similar) – ~$0.75
Tuner potentiometer, 10k – $1.40
Reset microswitch – $0.35
Serial connector (cut an old CD-ROM audio cable in half) – $0
Protoboard – $5
Some hookup wire - $0
0.1uF bypass cap and a few resistors (10Ohm and 1K) - around $1 at any decent electronics store

Total: $52.06

(This is on the high end, the interface can certainly be built for less by using scrounged/surplus components.)

To make the finished radio, add:

Volume and tune knobs – ~$2 @ HSC
Cool tuner knob – $8.55
5V/12V power supply brick – $10 @ Weird Stuff
5-pin mini-DIN power connector – ~$3 @ HSC
Power switch – ~$1 @ HSC
Cheap set of PC speakers (gutted for the speakers and amplifier) – $5 @ Weird Stuff

Total: $29.55

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot…

An awesome friend named Tony with a full woodworking shop in his garage who will make you a killer wooden enclosure for free – $priceless

Grand total (excluding the box) – $147.09

If you take out the cost of the development tools, namely the FTDI cable and the USBtinyISP, the total comes out to $105 (without the box).

By scrounging materials and using parts from your junkbox you should be able to reduce that figure even more, but obviously the grand total hinges on what kind of enclosure you use. Not everyone has a friend with serious woodworking skills willing to donate time and materials, but use this as an excuse to get creative.

I wanted a box that showcased the time and effort that I spent on the electronics inside, but that doesn’t mean an old boombox from the Salvation Army couldn’t work just as well.

When I first started this project, my goal was to keep the total parts cost under $100. On paper, it looks like I came pretty close to that, thanks to the donated box and excluding the reusable development tools like the FTDI cable and AVR programmer. To be honest, I probably spent twice that amount on spare power supplies, extra knobs, a second router to bring to NOTACON, and a bunch of other stuff that I didn’t end up using in the final project. But I’m pretty ok with that. I think this just highlights the fact that:

If you just want a Wifi Radio, it will always be cheaper to buy one off the shelf. But if you make your own, it will be infinitely more rewarding.

It certainly has been for me.

WL-520gU for $34.99 after rebate @ Newegg.com

Jeff — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:13:57 +0000

Newegg.com is currently offering the Asus WL-520gU for $34.99 after rebate. This is the lowest price I have seen in a while, so if you’ve been debating picking one of these up to play with, it might be a good time to buy.

The WL-520gU is the very hackable wireless router I used in my Wifi Radio project. It’s also the router used in LadyAda’s Tweet-a-Watt and the subject of a talk I gave this year at NOTACON.

It’s interesting to note that Newegg recently added the words “DD-WRT Open Source support” to the product title, so obviously they are aware of how many people buy these routers just to toss the stock firmware and throw on DD-WRT, Tomato, OpenWrt, or the oleg.wl500g.info firmware instead.

ASUS WL-520gU Wireless Router with All-in-One Print Server/ DD-WRT Open Source support

We rocked the Maker Faire!

Jeff — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:02:36 +0000

Sadly, the Maker Faire is over – but it was totally awesome! Kylie, Tony and I gave out hundreds of moo cards and stickers, met lots of Makers, and spread the word about my DIY wireless streaming internet radio project.

Here’s a pic of me and Tony during the second day of the Faire. Tony built the awesome wooden enclosure for the project. Last week, he decided to come up from Los Angeles at the last minute to see what the Maker Faire is all about. Based on the grin he had all weekend, I’m pretty sure he’ll be back next year.

My project won an Editor’s Choice ribbon! Here’s a very happy me with Phil Torrone and Limor Fried of Make/Adafruit Industries:

I took lots of photos! Check em out.