Thread: Roadmap for Neon Boombox

Ok quick update on XM. I've decided to really tear into it this weekend and so far things are great.

it has taken me practically all evening but I have successfully been able to pass the audio straight from the line in on my mac to the speakers so you will not need any third party software to use XM with NBB! (except for the driver of course)

the GUI is primitive at the moment. no fancy buttons or the like. give it a few weeks and it will be the best XM solution (that i have seen) for the mac.

thank you all for being patient.

P.S. if any of you have an XM direct or commander I would appreciate you help in testing and such so I can support those devices as well (I only have an XM PCR)

another update for XM.

sorry It has been kind of slow getting this working I had started the module using the termios library and was having issues with the program locking up waiting for the radio to send data (because i was reading and writing to the device on the main thread) then I discovered a cocoa class that will handle asynchronous communication with the device for me without blocking the main thread. so basically I am rewriting a great deal from scratch but It carries the benefit of having an object oriented I/O controller that any module can use with any device which will help in the future for say GPS or OBD2 modules. It will also listen for devices being attached/removed not that I expect many of you to be adding or removing devices on the fly. the exception is probably ipods/phones which my I/O handler will eventually support for syncing ipod/phone data carputer and using the devices such as using the ipod as the music module library and using the as a bluetooth headset.

now I have also been toying around with being able to record and store audio captured from the XM radio. It will definitely be a feature somewhere down the line its just not a high priority for now.

wow that sounds ****in awsome. even if i dont use the software in the car. I want to have XM on my comp with out having to be on the internet.

doesn't macXM and JXM etc do what I am doing? I know they can command the hardware but I don't know what features either of them have.

on another note after poking around the web I found that what I am working on (object oriented objective-c serial wrapper) already exists here. so once I tie it into my app XM should be really easy to finish

ok I am to the point where I need people to help me test this on other systems with different radios.

I am posting a special build of NBB only because there is a bug in the current releases implementation of my tableview class which would prevent you from changing the channel unless you clicked on the first table column only. FUTURE BETAS for the XM module will have to be installed by you manually by replacing the radio module bundle located in NeonBoombox/Contents/Resources/Modules with the new download.

EDIT: i have released 9E which incorporates the table view bug fix and so I have removed the special build tho if you previously downloaded it it will still run the new radio module builds for now

basically what I need from you is to install the appropriate driver for you XM radio (for the XM PCR this is the FTDI FT245 driver available here)

after you install and reboot verify that i will be able to communicate with the radio by UNPLUGGING ALL OTHER USB DEVICES and going into terminal and type ls /dev and look for an entry that reads cu.usbserialXXXXXXXX (X means whatever)

if you do not see an entry similar to that please post for me your radio type and the driver you installed and please list any cu devices that appear in terminal that are not bluetooth related

If you pass that last step be sure the audio out on your radio is plugged into the audio in on your mac (if you wand your sound to be controlled through the mac) make sure your sound is not on mute or too low to hear

launch the special build of NBB and launch the radio module. after a few seconds you should hear the radio on channel 1 at this point the module has deployed a background thread that is gathering the data for all your available channels when it is done they should appear on the screen and you can change channel by clicking on them.

if you have trouble at any point inside the program please post the section from you console log regarding the NBB radio module.

I should mention that the appearance of the test module should in no way be taken for the appearance of the final 1.0 build. it is just for testing so I can make the radio module compatible with other radios besides the PCR

if the module works as expected please post information about your radio. (such as model and driver used)

After installing the FTDI driver and rebooting I got the appropriate entry in terminal:

cu.usbserial-0000201A

I have the XM PCR connected to external speakers. After selecting the Radio module I can hear the audio from XM channel 1. At this point the mic on my MacBook becomes active and plays through it's internal speakers.

After 10 minutes the screen still only shows the exit button. I'm not that adept at finding threads in the console log, but a quick search for 'neon' found the below thread (I'll be more than happy to supply any others):

5/31/08 2:19:01 PM [0x0-0x20020].com.Project-X.NeonBoombox[326] profiling:/Users/Brad/Project-X/build/Project-X.build/Release/NeonBoombox.build/Objects-normal/i386/PXModuleLoader.gcda:Cannot open

I exited the radio module, quit Neon Boombox and the XM PCR continues to supply audio to the external speakers. When I relaunched Neon Boombox I selected the Radio module, but the NBB screen froze and required a forced quit to exit.

The next time I launched NBB and went to Radio the XM PCR audio cut for about 10 seconds, then came back (and the station was reset to channel 1) and the station listing appeared about 35 seconds later.

Very cool!

Thanks again,

Sean

hmmmm. I forgot to mention that for people with mics on their computers you may need to change your default audio input to "line in" the audio midi setup app in utilities
otherwise you will hear yourself instead of the radio. I will eventually fix it to automatically use line in instead of the default input

as for the problems mentioned I will likely need the console output to diagnose the problem. if you open /applications/utilities/console and select "console messages" from the lefthand list. then filter the results by typing "neon boombox" in the search field that should display every thing i need.

from my own testing I think occasionally the read operation on the radio is timing out.

I will release a new build today with an extended timeout and a fix for NBB crashing when you launch the radio module and it cannot find a radio.

glad it worked for you eventually.

this build doesn't fix or extend any functions but it does extend the read timeout to 10 seconds and does fix a crash for when a radio is not found. it also sets the audio input to the line in instead of the OS default so you should no longer have to set your default to line in for audio to work.

I remind you all that release 9E (or the previous special build) is required in order to change channels by clicking on their table view entries.

install by replacing the current radio module located at:
"neon boombox/contents/resources/modules"

note that at certain times NBB may appear to lock up. don't force quit it until you have waited for a bit some radio communication is still taking place on the main thread causing the program to block until the read is completed. each read will timeout after 10 seconds to prevent an infinitely long block in the event communication becomes impossible