Thread: New FM USB module, maybe good for our carputers?

i just ordered one of these and would also like to know if anyone has had luck hooking them up to the stock car antenna. thanks!

Originally Posted by W3bMa5t3r

I bought one day.. I was shopping at MicroCenter and just happened to see this and since I had seen the talk here about it, I was like aawww shoot. lol I gotta buy it. Well, it didn't work well on my 6' usb extension cable, but it works just perfectly plugged into my powered hub with a shorter extension cable. All but a few stations come in nice and strong. I paid $34.99 for it.... It works just fine since I've been without a radio since early summer. lol granted my 60Gigs of music has been doing just fine... but this is a great addition

OH... as it was said, the software isn't really suitable for touchscreen operation. Even on my 10.4" it's hard to hit the buttons...

W3bMa5t3r,

i was hoping to hear that it integrates well with RR - this way you can avoid the programs buttons and instead use RR.

I am currently using Blue Devil Skin and was thinking it may be appropriate to add this FM module into the existing skin (or any skin for that matter).

Have you done that?

Originally Posted by afterdigital

W3bMa5t3r,

i was hoping to hear that it integrates well with RR - this way you can avoid the programs buttons and instead use RR.

I am currently using Blue Devil Skin and was thinking it may be appropriate to add this FM module into the existing skin (or any skin for that matter).

Have you done that?

I haven't gotten around to trying to integrate it yet, and I didn't check to see if it had hotkeys ability... hopefully later today. that would work with sendkeys until someone figured out how to hack the program, since that's way beyond my skills lol

For those wishing to just use the FM Radio Tuner portion of the software, the download is here
It's quite unnecessary to install alll the other software. Just install the drivers (if needed) and install this program to receive radio
Also, if you're looking for the Instant Radio device in device manager, it's in the "Sound, Video, and Game Controller" section as "USB Audio Device"

I'm trying to fool around with Radiator, I downloaded the newest package, but I can't seem to even get the program to run. The Instant Radio program runs and plays FM just fine...

Ok well I finally got radiator to run on my laptop (wouldn't on my main system for some reason) and none of the drivers want to play with the Instant Radio, not even the few usb drivers... so I guess someone would need to write/hack a driver for it to work with radiator, or get the sdk for InstantRadio and go about it that way...

Hey guys, I just noticed in the InstantFM folder, there is a SKINS folder, and inside that there is a 'instant fm music.skn' file... I used resourcehacker and it seems that the program uses this skin file for the main interface (though I could be wrong)... so if someone can figure out how to edit the skin file... that might be all we need to do make it larger and more touchscreen friendly... /then again.. lol I could be wrong about the whole thing... just an idea afterall

Cheers...
The W3bMa5t3r

can't wait for mine to get here tomorrow so i can try it out! W3bMa5t3r, have you had success with it in the car? what antenna are you using?

Well... seems I was right. The program uses an ActiveX control "actksin4.ocx" which with a program "ActiveSkin"...

ActiveSkin is an ActiveX control that changes the visual appearance of forms or dialogs, providing developers with full-featured support for 'application skins', or 'application look and feel'. ActiveSkin makes it easy to create programs with visually stunning, fully interactive user interfaces.

With ActiveSkin you could make your program look exactly like it was from another OS, or create your own user WinAmp-like "skinned" interfaces, or just give it a different, distinctive look.

So... lol if we can acquire (or if someone has) that program, we might can work with it that way... I'm looking around...

Originally Posted by FMode

...and back to this AdsTECH:
The Silabs Radio is just a demo for developers how the Si4701 chip works...
I think it is quite possible that ADSTECH uses a Si4701 chip !
So if I were you I would download the Silabs Software (Source!) and try it with the ADSTech !
(I guess the USB Vendor ID and stuff is changed - so change it into the source!)

ehmmm.... yes I am a native german speaker/writer but is my english that worse ?

(the first valueable information here is that a USB Audio Device is installed - I bet there is also a HID device installed - go and look for it !)
so a good idea idea is to take an USB mon and look for:
Vendor ID stuff
(please post here)
and to grab a piece from the HID protocol with a USB monitor (to the HID device! not the USB Audio).
Start the USB Monitor and then start the ADSTech software...
I only need some seconds...

...and guess what: I have a Silabs and a USB monitor too - so I can compare!
I bet they are the same.

Can you open the ADSTech ?!

I want to help you to start... but I will not write a driver this could be done by someone else !
(As you can use the Silabs stuff this will be easy I guess)