02.26.09
Posted in Debian, Geek Culture, Hacks, Slug - the NSLU2 at 10:08 pm by Nate Smith
The Griffin RocketFM wasn’t cutting it. I hooked up a small USB audio adapter and a Ramsey FM30 Stereo FM transmitter and now I 
am cooking with GAS. The Ramsey FM30 has great power and range - all around my house and a bit beyond so I need to be careful not to get a visit from the FCC.
I had an old BBE sonic maximizer so I put that in the loop between the USB sound adapter and the Ramsey and now the Audio is almost commercial quality. (there is still some noise getting in somewhere - probably from dirty power). The BBE boosts the highs and the lows enough to make the music sound a little more robust.
This is exactly what I wanted for working around the house and in the garage. I’m looking forward to the summer.
The only thing I would like to add is the ability to Text-to-speech the local NOAA forcast and slip it into the playlist on a regular basis.
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02.15.09
Posted in Debian, Geek Culture, Slug - the NSLU2, gadgets at 1:53 pm by Nate Smith
I’ve wanted to stream from my SqueezeCenter to a radio for a while, this looks like one way to do it. It works but I’m still looking for alternatives.
The Griffin RocketFM is a USB device that can be plugged into a computer to broadcast sound over FM to radios in very close proximity. I found code and instructions for using the RocketFM under Linux here: http://tipok.org.ua/node/9 . (Thanks to Tipok.org.ua by the way). I followed the instructions there and built this little code on my Slug (NSLU2) and installed mpg123 on the slug. (apt-get install mpg123-alsa). Then you set the frequency the rocket is supposed to transmit at like this:
/usr/local/bin/rocket -freq 106.6
Then start mpg123 to play through squeezecenter, which I already had installed.
mpg123 -b 512 –gapless -T http://192.168.1.1:9000/stream.mp3
You don’t have to use all the switches, but I found these are working well for me right now.
Make sure SqueezeCenter is set to play something then tune in the radio to the station you set and you should be hearing it on the radio. Sometimes it takes a few seconds to buffer the stream and start to play.
I was amazed it worked at all, but it works OK. Great use for a slug as a personal radio station. I’d like to see if there is a way to get more range out ofthe RocketFM but I’m sure the range is limited by law.
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02.10.09
Posted in rant at 10:16 pm by Nate Smith
Dear Seagate, Hitachi, and Western Digital,
I would pay more for a highly reliable hard drive. I realize it would cut into your revenue stream to make a hard drive that would last more than about three years, but I would pay for that benefit.
Yours Truly,
-Nate
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