My USB Radio, can you make it work?

**djchicago** · 11-15-2007, 12:04 AM

I Have a USB radio from Silabs and I like it so far and the price was not bad {$35.00}. I'm currently using the radio through the the software as a "xApps" button. Is it possible to add this radio to the software? I see in the driver download the "Source" info is in the package. It can be downloaded at www.silabs.com/usbradio.

**phat_bastard** · 11-15-2007, 10:00 AM

Does it work with Radiator? It would make more sense to interface into Radiator, which has been on the todo list for ages.

Having said that, the amount of time I can devote to developing MediaEngine is extremely limited of late so this may not happen for some time.

**CarComp** · 11-15-2007, 10:41 PM

I'd be happy to put some effort into this if my and phat_b happened to have a couple of these said devices. Right now I have to put my money towards mortgage and a new car engine.

**djchicago** · 11-16-2007, 09:53 PM

I hear you and I will see if I can make that happen. I have a large family so I understand how it is when it come to money. PB I will see if this will work with the other program.

**djchicago** · 11-16-2007, 11:58 PM

The usb radio will not work with radiator. It uses the HIC Compliant drivers that come with windows and the software that you download is just a frontend to control the functions

**phat_bastard** · 01-10-2008, 03:09 PM

Just FYI - I just bought one of these silabs tuners and I'm aiming to port in native control as well as an option to use radiator.

**jbell** · 02-01-2008, 02:43 PM

won't the adstech instant fm radio work? (It's same chip as silabs) It has it's own application, and there is a way to skin that application to look however you want. (BIG plus over silabs) You could then call that app from ME,and it'd look like it was integrated.

**phat_bastard** · 02-06-2008, 10:20 AM

I'd rather have fully integrated control. I've had some other projects come up that have to take precedence, but I have the control functions and RDS display code pretty much ready to port into MediaEngine. The only issue that may be a hangup is connecting to the correct audio pin since the silabs board creates it's own audio input device.

I've found the RDS logic in the silabs app is pretty conservative and doesn't pick up rapid changes to the 8 character PS (program source) field. IMO this kind of sucks because many stations that use RDS scroll the track info in this field instead of the 64 / 32 character RT (radio text) field, and the silabs proof of concept app basically never displays this field due to their overly pessimistic error detection algos.

**Beezer** · 04-03-2008, 07:21 AM

phat, try this http://code.google.com/p/silabsradiodll/

**phat_bastard** · 04-04-2008, 09:10 AM

Beezer - thanks, nice work!

I had worked over the vb app this is based on and handled most of the RDS display sequencing there by decoding the data directly. But this is so much cleaner to work with. Now I just need to find the time to port it into ME.