How to build Webradio from Board A64 ?

[Bebert]

Hi,

I got "old" A64-DB-Rev B board, which looks perfect for building web-radio with IR remote. I would like to use simple LCD display (2 lines 16 characters) and if possible read mp3 from USB keys. I can use external monitor only to  configure the web-radio.

Unfortunately I did not find tutorial for this. Does somebody know some link ?

As I am familiar with Xubuntu, so I tried to configure an SD card with Armbian buster 5.4.20.7  : Boot is ok but I can not get any sound  on the headphone jack whatever I plug into. I put on SD a wav file to check the sound.

• aplay -l gives card0 : sun50ia64audio and card 1 : allwinnerhdmi
  

• aplay -vv 'track 1.wav' looks ok on screen, card0 is used and vumeter is dancing from 0% to 100 %, but no sound at all !
  
• I tried 'alsamixer' and play with all controls without good understanding : Still no sound.
  
• I tried to configure another SD card using Armbian bionic 5.4.20.7  : Sames results.
  

Sorry for bad English and thanks of somebody can help... I am afraid after this first problem I will run into some more (codec or IR configure...) so I'd better restart using a tuto if some exist...

[Luke]

Can't really help you, but have you considered trying to use Volumio for the purpose? they even built a high-end audio player using the SOPine and I'm sure they still support the original Pine A64. In the event you're interested: https://forum.volumio.org/volumio-pine64...t9465.html

[Bebert]

Luke : Thank for quick answer,

I already looked this page some weeks ago : https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pine_A...dio_Player
but it is written "Volumio is controlled using a Web-GUI which can be accessed via a web browser"

I still not use smartphone or similar thing, my plan is to use the IR receiver to select radio station and adjust / mute the volume. It would make no sense to turn on a computer just to control the webradio. another point is we do not like WiFi at home, we used only ethernet links...

Do you think volumio usable with only IR remote ?

[Luke]

@Bebert since I am not an expert (although I have a Volumio setup on the OG PINE A64 with nearly 3 years uptime in my kids room) I'll ping @gkkpch - lets hope he'll get back to soon with some answers

[Bebert]

Thank Luke,

I am afraid I did  not choose the right options for Armbian-Config, I follow " https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Armbian-Config/ " but lot of options are unclear for me...
Because I am familiar with Ubuntu, I tried another install following  the Thread "Step By Step How To Install Ubuntu Image" #45 : It worked, but system is often very slow, I am wondering if my old SD card is good enough. → much better since I replaced the mouse !

With this install :

•  aplay - l only gives one soundcard = sndhdmi, device 0
  
•  aplay wavefile gives lot of errors "underun!!! (at least 991mS long) and I can hear very short part of music.
  
•  trying audio from media application (Parole mediaplayer) does not work → Gstreamer backend error
  
•  I can't use DVI monitor,  I did not find trick as for Armbian where I could add a line "disp-dv-compat=1 into /boot/armbianEnv.txt
  

Last experiments : paplay wavefile gives correct sound to hdmi, (not the right souncard for me, but better than nothing !) paplay mp3 file does not work : failed to open audio file.

So What ? I need to learn how to use paplay with mp3, m3u or other web audio stream, and also find out how to control Pine64 from its IR port... Yet extracting analog sound from HDMI does not look simple !  Maybe I should switch for another install but wich one ?

[Bebert]

No progress ! so I tried from scratch using DietPi :

• I got aplay working fine for wav files on the jack, so at least hardware is Ok.
  

• I tried to install LXDE but startx failed for "fbturbo: module ABI major version (23) doesn't match the server's version (24)", well probably I do not need LXDE...
  
• Then I installed mplayer and could listen mp3 files.
  

Good : Now I can listen some internet radio !

Next steps : find out how to configure remote control and write script to select between radios station...

Remote control does not work for me, I can see the signal coming into IR connector using a scope, mplayer should be able to receive IR info but I do not find way to link both. I installed  LIRC and tried modprobe sunxi-cir... How to make it working ? Any tutorial for this ?