Hi all, I have the pirate radio kit and have installed it successfully on a legacy desktop version of the Pi OS, using the terminal. I want to add more radio stations but am at a loss as to how to do this. I can find the station URLs ok but where do they need to be stored?
Thanks in advance,
Chris.
There are two ways to do this. The quick easy way is to make up a playlist.m3u file with the stations you want in it. Save it as a text file then change the extension from txt to m3u. Then drop that file onto the boot partition of your Pirate Radio SD card. On boot up it will get automatically moved and saved as the new default playlist. You will lose the current one in the process though.
The other way to do it is to hunt up the default.m3u in use and edit it.
I “think” its in etc/vlcd/, if yes run sudo nano /etc/vlcd/default.m3u
Hi thank you for your reply. Having a tinker earlier I found the icon for default.m3u, I went into its properties and changed it to “text editor”, when double clicked it becomes an editable text file. I have copied the internet url for bbc radio 6 into this file using .m3u8 as the file extension, that’s what the other bbc radio stations had. I have saved the file changed back the file properties but have yet to try it.
I hope I am on the right track?
Thanks again for your help.
Chris.
You can edit the original default.m3u with nano, without having to change the file extension. Sorry it I confused things.
It’s just easier to start with a text file when making a new one on a Windows PC.
File > new > text
Then when done rename it as playlist.m3u and copy it over to the SD card.
Yeah I will try that. It’s just occurred to me I could put news stations into the file also not just music. :-)
Thanks Kerry,
Chris.
Hurrah, finally, at last I have managed to add radio stations to this project. Very satisfying to build and finally get working. Now all I need to work out is how to run it on battery pack power??
I run a couple of my headless rigs with a PowerBoost 1000c. Pi Zero’s in most of those.
PowerBoost 1000 Charger - Rechargeable 5V Lipo USB Boost @ 1A - 1000C – Pimoroni
There is also the LIPO Shim. It’s good for 1.5A out but won’t recharge the battery.
LiPo SHIM for Raspberry Pi – Pimoroni
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That’s perfect I’ll get one. My pirate radio kit is powered with a Zero WH. Means not having to be near a wall socket. :-)
Hi Chrispi1 - do you still have a working Pirate Radio playing BBC stations? I have been unable to get the new BBC streams (.m3u8 or .pls) to play on an a legacy version of the OS (the 2018 Pimoroni pre-built image, which I think is either Jessie or Stretch). The only BBC station I can get to work is World Service, since the stream for that is still available in an older format.
The same streams play fine on a current version of VLC on Windows, so I assumed I needed to update VLC or add some codecs, but am unable to do so. SSH in doesn’t work (I read elsewhere that it is useless anyway on this build, since it runs entirely in RAM), and for some reason a connected keyboard doesn’t work either, so I’m at a loss. I tried using a newer Buster Lite install (the last version for which PhatBeat has updated libraries), but couldn’t get it to run, most likely becuase I don’t really know what I’m doing! I can buy a commercial internet radio for 50 quid, but seems a terrible waste to ditch such a neat little kit whose hardware is still perfectly good.