Autoplay Radio device?

I am trying to build an USB FM receiver. The USB device have a preset
frequency programmed into the microcontroller. My ultimate goal is to
have the device plug in and start playing the radio station PC with no
drivers or software installation.

I am stumped on the best way. I have considered a mass storage device
with player software in the flash memory. Is there a better way? I
would think Audio Class would be good.

Can a Audio device automatically send data to the sound card (or
speakers) with out special drivers or software?

Thanks much!

Maxim
Wed Nov 23 04:36:20 CST 2005

> frequency programmed into the microcontroller. My ultimate goal is to
> have the device plug in and start playing the radio station PC with no
> drivers or software installation.

I don't think it's possible, if you're speaking about playing radio to
computer's sound facility.

> Can a Audio device automatically send data to the sound card (or
> speakers) with out special drivers or software?

No, it requires the user app to attach its output to the soundcard's input
(logical) and to start this pipeline.

Nevertheless, Audio class is a way to go. This can save you from writing a
kernel mode driver for the device, so all you need will be a simple user app.

--
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation
maxim@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com

P
Wed Nov 23 14:08:15 CST 2005

If I had my device as a Mass Storage device I assume I could include a
player on the image then use use the AUTORUN to launch the player. I
assume my app could use the bulk transfer or other calls to get the PCM
data.

Could it work?? Thanks again

Max
Sun Nov 27 22:05:15 CST 2005

I don't know much about mass storage, but I suppose that your scenario might
work.
You would end up pretending that the device has one file - say radio.wav -
with the data and some sort of autorun file to start media player. The
player will start reading radio.wav and that's when you will have to start
pushing data out.

While it might work, I don't think it will ever work good enough to make
product out of it.

Every file has a limited size, which means media player will stop at some
point based on the file size.
There are ways to make players stream from URL, which means live stream with
no explicit stop point. You could probably run HTTP server on the local host
and have it supply your bits via URL, but that's an overkill.
There could be a better way, but I can't think of one.

On top of that your device should have enough memory to handle potential
worst case latency and buffer enough data ahead.
Also what do you do with fast forward and rewind? How about pausing the
stream?

-- Max.



"P.J. Steele" <steele.pj@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1132776495.239022.72720@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> If I had my device as a Mass Storage device I assume I could include a
> player on the image then use use the AUTORUN to launch the player. I
> assume my app could use the bulk transfer or other calls to get the PCM
> data.
>
> Could it work?? Thanks again
>

P
Mon Nov 28 08:10:14 CST 2005

Thanks Max. I read that a WAV has a max of 2 GB. I thought of streaming
but I thought it might take a web service.

Does anyone know of a way to stream from a file?

Thanks much. You guys are great!

Maxim
Mon Nov 28 14:35:29 CST 2005

> You would end up pretending that the device has one file - say radio.wav -
> with the data and some sort of autorun file to start media player. The

Does not work. WAV files have the finite length, while radio has none.

So, I would abandon the idea of software-less installation at all.

--
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation
maxim@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com

Pavel
Mon Nov 28 16:34:40 CST 2005

Is there any class for endless storage devices? Tapes, may be?
Just for kicks I've tried to open in media player file://com1 and it seems to really
attempt to read com1 :)
--PA

"Maxim S. Shatskih" <maxim@storagecraft.com> wrote in message news:OT1MtsF9FHA.4036@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>> You would end up pretending that the device has one file - say radio.wav -
>> with the data and some sort of autorun file to start media player. The
>
> Does not work. WAV files have the finite length, while radio has none.
>
> So, I would abandon the idea of software-less installation at all.
>
> --
> Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
> StorageCraft Corporation
> maxim@storagecraft.com
> http://www.storagecraft.com
>

Max
Fri Dec 02 03:07:19 CST 2005

I said that it won't work due to file size limit.
This however got me thinking in rather wild way.

Not that I suggest doing this, but what if...

1. the device implemented RNDIS based protocol on one of its endpoints.

2. and had DHCP server to assign an IP address to the "RNDIS net"

3. and ran HTTP server on that "RNDIS network"

4. and was a mass storage device with autorun on it, which would trigger WMP
autoplay from a given URL on its own HTTP server.

I think that might work.
Now start counting man months needed to implement all this crap and the idea
of driver/app-less self-sufficient little beast fades away rather quickly.
Would be fun to see something like this in action though ;-)

-- Max.



"Maxim S. Shatskih" <maxim@storagecraft.com> wrote in message
news:OT1MtsF9FHA.4036@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>> You would end up pretending that the device has one file - say
>> radio.wav -
>> with the data and some sort of autorun file to start media player. The
>
> Does not work. WAV files have the finite length, while radio has none.
>
> So, I would abandon the idea of software-less installation at all.
>
> --
> Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
> StorageCraft Corporation
> maxim@storagecraft.com
> http://www.storagecraft.com
>

P
Fri Dec 09 07:42:16 CST 2005

Thanks guys!! I apprecikate the the help