Silabs USB Radio bugs thread

RS200Z · 05-20-2007, 05:37 AM

I have gotten Silabs USB radio to work in RoadRunner. However, here are some reported bugs and problem I am facing.

When radio is playing (no problem when it's not playing), my skins which has buttons that switch focus to 3rd party apps via the ACTIVATE command is either only working some of the time or causing RR CPU's utilization to shoot up to 99% and stays there for a while if I click on that button say 2-3 times.
Here's an example of my button code:

B,291,543,98,51,"ACTIVATE;PicViewerForRR||SENDKEY; {P}",Prev
B,392,543,98,51,"ACTIVATE;PicViewerForRR||SENDKEY; {N}",Next

The other problem is the station that is playing doesn't match what is highlighted/displayed by RR if you leave the RADIO skin, goes to MUSIC skin and back to RADIO skin.

GizmoQ · 05-24-2007, 10:03 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by RS200Z

I have gotten Silabs USB radio to work in RoadRunner. However, here are some reported bugs and problem I am facing.

When radio is playing (no problem when it's not playing), my skins which has buttons that switch focus to 3rd party apps via the ACTIVATE command is either only working some of the time or causing RR CPU's utilization to shoot up to 99% and stays there for a while if I click on that button say 2-3 times.
Here's an example of my button code:

B,291,543,98,51,"ACTIVATE;PicViewerForRR||SENDKEY; {P}",Prev
B,392,543,98,51,"ACTIVATE;PicViewerForRR||SENDKEY; {N}",Next

The other problem is the station that is playing doesn't match what is highlighted/displayed by RR if you leave the RADIO skin, goes to MUSIC skin and back to RADIO skin.

Can't help with the first problem, I got same issue when using the plugin. Second problem has to do with SILABS hardware. The Silabs dongle remembers the last station its software was on before exiting and whenever it starts back up its tuned to that station. I assume the fix for this will have to be a RR code script that reloads the last station from radio.ini, but I haven't bothered to try to write one. It would really be better if it was in th RR source to reload last station.

rcubed3r · 05-24-2007, 10:46 PM

If my silabs is plugged in, my griffin powermate will not work until I replug it.
Ron

Sonicxtacy02 · 05-25-2007, 08:03 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by GizmoQ

Can't help with the first problem, I got same issue when using the plugin. Second problem has to do with SILABS hardware. The Silabs dongle remembers the last station its software was on before exiting and whenever it starts back up its tuned to that station. I assume the fix for this will have to be a RR code script that reloads the last station from radio.ini, but I haven't bothered to try to write one. It would really be better if it was in th RR source to reload last station.

Very annoying problem that must be fixed!

GizmoQ · 05-25-2007, 12:27 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Sonicxtacy02

Very annoying problem that must be fixed!

Sonic,
If you're gonna look into changing the source to fix this, I have an additional request. About a year and a half ago there was a thread on standardizing alternate functions (i.e., RRNEXT and RRPREV have multiple functions based on what screen you're currently viewing). I thought we also discussed multifunction labels, but RDS hadn't been implemented at the time. Since its now in RR:

How hard would it be to have RR automatically change ARTIST and ALBUM labels to show RDSNAME and RDSTEXT, respectively, whenever an RDS radio is active? This would be most beneficial when listening to the radio and viewing main.skin in most skins. I currently use switchlabel (ARTIST>>RDSNAME) manually,but could easily be automated using variables, but why put the onus on skinners to accommodate this enhancement, especially since the current source leaves the last played MP3 data in those fields when the radio is active which really looks dumb.

EDIT: Just thought about this again, add the following to your exectbl.ini:
"RADIO", "LOAD;RADIO_PLAYER.SKIN;RADIO||RRNEXT||RRPREV"

This adds a second or two to the radio startup but is a simple solution to the last channel played issue.

Sonicxtacy02 · 05-25-2007, 01:09 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by GizmoQ

Sonic,
If you're gonna look into changing the source to fix this, I have an additional request. About a year and a half ago there was a thread on standardizing alternate functions (i.e., RRNEXT and RRPREV have multiple functions based on what screen you're currently viewing). I thought we also discussed multifunction labels, but RDS hadn't been implemented at the time. Since its now in RR:

How hard would it be to have RR automatically change ARTIST and ALBUM labels to show RDSNAME and RDSTEXT, respectively, whenever an RDS radio is active? This would be most beneficial when listening to the radio and viewing main.skin in most skins. I currently use switchlabel (ARTIST>>RDSNAME) manually,but could easily be automated using variables, but why put the onus on skinners to accommodate this enhancement, especially since the current source leaves the last played MP3 data in those fields when the radio is active which really looks dumb.

EDIT: Just thought about this again, add the following to your exectbl.ini:
"RADIO", "LOAD;RADIO_PLAYER.SKIN;RADIO||RRNEXT||RRPREV"

This adds a second or two to the radio startup but is a simple solution to the last channel played issue.

the label change would be easy to do... so would fixing this bug PROBABLY but i've got very little time on my hands until the holiday is over on tuesday.. if not solved by then i'll see what i can do.

Sal R. · 06-01-2007, 11:52 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by GizmoQ

Sonic,
How hard would it be to have RR automatically change ARTIST and ALBUM labels to show RDSNAME and RDSTEXT, respectively, whenever an RDS radio is active? This would be most beneficial when listening to the radio and viewing main.skin in most skins. I currently use switchlabel (ARTIST>>RDSNAME) manually,but could easily be automated using variables, but why put the onus on skinners to accommodate this enhancement, especially since the current source leaves the last played MP3 data in those fields when the radio is active which really looks dumb.

I really don't think that the label switching issue is that big of a deal. The label tags for audio and radio are already there and its just a simple addition of a variable to automate it. This give skinners more flexibility on what the label will display instead of a straight artist/album to RDSNAME/RDSTEXT swap.

Skinners are already putting in code for so many different commands and features already, what's a few more copy and pasted BYVAR, SETVAR lines of code, really?

GizmoQ · 06-01-2007, 08:50 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Sal R.

I really don't think that the label switching issue is that big of a deal. The label tags for audio and radio are already there and its just a simple addition of a variable to automate it. This give skinners more flexibility on what the label will display instead of a straight artist/album to RDSNAME/RDSTEXT swap.

Skinners are already putting in code for so many different commands and features already, what's a few more copy and pasted BYVAR, SETVAR lines of code, really?

Its not so much that skinners have to fix it now, but its more about the professional look and feel of RR. Think of it from the newbies point of view: he spends all the time and effort to install RR, get his favorite skin to work with his hardware, tweaked his system to optimize his CPU and video, and everytime he switches from MP3 to radio - the album and artist data from th last MP3 he played is still visible. Looks unprofessional.

What other alternatives are possible? 1) Leave it for the skinners to fix; 2)Blank the label (that would seem a waste of code and space.); 3) ???

Once you have a chance to come up with any other alternative, lets open up a poll and find out what others think.

Oakey22 · 06-17-2007, 02:17 PM

I have a problem with RR and the radio, when i put the frequency 105.4 in it tunes in for a second then goes to 105.5 which takes it off the radio station. It is very annoying and i dont know why it is doing it.

Also why is the text all jumbled up but in the silabs program it is fine?

guino · 06-17-2007, 02:21 PM

check the "Allow tunning of all frequencies" in RRConfig.

Oakey22 · 06-19-2007, 01:09 PM

One thing i notice is when i have been listening to station 3 on the radio, then turn off RR when it shuts down, the next time it loads the radio it is playing station 1 but with station 3's name?

i dont think that made sense really.

GizmoQ · 06-19-2007, 04:15 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Oakey22

One thing i notice is when i have been listening to station 3 on the radio, then turn off RR when it shuts down, the next time it loads the radio it is playing station 1 but with station 3's name?

i dont think that made sense really.

See post #2

Goddy · 07-24-2007, 04:22 PM

When I leave the radio on and go to hibernation and back, I can hear that station for about 1 second and then I hear some noise. Then I am unable to tune to a channel. It seems that it switches to AM. After I switch to MP3 then back to radio I can tune to FM channels normally.

R33vit · 08-11-2007, 10:15 AM

The plugin does not work with Win2K, does with XP. Or is this a known fact. In Win2K I see RDS data but no sound.

Sal R. · 08-14-2007, 01:13 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by R33vit

The plugin does not work with Win2K, does with XP. Or is this a known fact. In Win2K I see RDS data but no sound.

Yeah, I've got the problem on my W2K dev machine too. No sound. There's another thread out there about it. IIRC, there was a solution posted, but it didn't work for me.

Something to do w/ radiator.