EDM RDS and LOR setup example

[pdowns]

Hello,

I recently purchased an EDM RDS transmitter and it required a little thought (for me anyway) to get it set up with LOR. My simple objective was to have the song title and artist scroll on the display of radios while musical sequences were playing in a show.

Here is a pdf with an example that may help you.

Pat


Attached files EDM RDS and LOR setup.pdf

[Richard Hamilton]

Pat, that doc is a work of art! Thanks for posting it. That doc is easy to understand, informative, and saving me a lot of time.

cheers,
Richard

[Richard Hamilton]

Uh, another thought here...
RDS experts, put on your thinking caps:

I note from Pat's document and other posts on this forum that the EDM RDS unit is told what to display on RDS radios by use of the software called miniRDS although the company that makes the sofware is not the same as EDM. It looks like the miniRDS software was written to communicate with the pira.cz RDS encoder.

Since ZaraRDS software also talks to the pira.cz encoder, then it makes me think that Zara RDS might also work with the new EDM RDS unit? Perhaps EDM and pira.cz are using the same communication protocol?

If so, and if Zara RDS can talk to EDM, then I would much prefer to use it instead of the miniRDS unit. It's just nicer, simpler software. I'll have the added benefit that Zara can also send out the names of songs during the day when Christmas music is playing.

Has anyone tried using Zara RDS to talk to the EDM RDS transmitter?

ZaraRDS also works by reading a text file to see what text it contains and then outputs that text to a serial channel. Thus, I should be able to get LOR to do the same thing with Zara as Pat is currently doing with miniRDS.

Is any of this making sense to you folks? I'm fishing for a solution that allows me to use ZaraRadio and ZaraRDS with this neat new little EDM unit that everyone is buying.

[J_Plak]

Hello Richard, Check out this link on Great Zara Radio Tutorials Written by Michael Farney http://lightoramasequences.com/content/view/59/82/

[-klb-]

Pira's magic RDS works with their standard encoder that speaks USB. Pira's miniRDS speaks to their one chip solution that speaks I2C, and uses the readiness lines on a serial port to emulate I2C to the chip. Sadly MagicRDS is unable to communicate that way.

To support Zara Radio and LOR, point miniRDS to the Zara song.txt file in the Zara program directory. Then set up the batch files called by LOR to overwrite the song.txt fie.

Unfortunately, I don't have one of the units, but did get to evaluate it for a while. I was pretty impressed with the unit, but not enough so to upgrade when I already have a spare FM30B...

[pdowns]

Richard,

I installed the ZaraRDS and ZaraRadio 1.6.1 software. Neat, it almost tempts one to get in to radio! (I do have a sound studio after all.)

I didn't understand how ZaraRDS reads from a text file but it did seem that it would send the filename of a sound file to the selected COM: port using the "Pira protocol" when you check the checkbox "Send the current song" - I also suspect you want to select the box "Send to PS" I guess I'd alter my song filenames to include the name and artist? Again, I didn't understand how to read text from a file.

I put a couple songs in a playlist and as each song started the filename would be sent to the COM: port.

But I didn't actually connect to my EDM RDS radio or go out in the driveway to see the results on the radio dial. I'll do that tomorrow and post the results. It might actually work!

[Richard Hamilton]

J_Plak wrote:

Hello Richard, Check out this link on Great Zara Radio Tutorials Written by Michael Farney http://lightoramasequences.com/content/view/59/82/

That is a GREAT tutorial. I didn't learn anything from it because I have become so familiar with Zara for the last 3 years, yet I wish I'd seen something like that back when I was setting it all up long ago. Thanks for posting the link. A couple of other people have asked me about this, so I'll send them to that link. I didn't find it on Google, and I certainly overlooked it on the squences site!

[Richard Hamilton]

pdowns wrote:

I didn't understand how ZaraRDS reads from a text file but it did seem that it would send the filename of a sound file to the selected COM: port using the "Pira protocol" when you check the checkbox "Send the current song" - I also suspect you want to select the box "Send to PS" I guess I'd alter my song filenames to include the name and artist? Again, I didn't understand how to read text from a file.

I put a couple songs in a playlist and as each song started the filename would be sent to the COM: port........

Pat, this is very encouraging. I'd much prefer to use ZaraRDS since I have been using ZaraRadio for as long as I had more hair!

Maybe this tidbit of info will help:
ZaraRadio writes the song author and song name to a file called "CurrentSong.txt" that is in the Zara folder. This file location is configurable in Zara in the Options...General tab. When a new song starts, Zara writes to that file. ZaraRDS then watches for changes in the text file and outputs the information that is in it.

During the day ZaraRadio and ZaraRDS outputs RDS song information to the radio.

When the light show starts and ZaraRadio goes into standby, we should be able to get LOR to run a batch file that copies one of many text files into the "CurrentSong.txt" file. thus, containing the information we want to display for that song.

As a side note, I am hopeful that LOR will consider better support for this. We don't need direct support to push RDS text out to a serial port or USB port. It would be good enough if LOR could allow the assignment of text to each sequence which would get written to a text file when a sequence plays. The "Sequence Info" dialog might be the best place for that.

In this way, RDS text could go directly to the "CurrentSong.txt" file without the cumbersome method that now exist where we have to create a text file for every sequence and then use the Windows Command feature to copy it. Right now I use the Windows Command feature to put text out to my BetaBrite sign.

LOR, are you listening? Maybe I will just go put this in the wish list.

[Steven]

pdowns wrote:

My simple objective was to have the song title and artist scroll on the display of radios while musical sequences were playing in a show.

Back to the original subject, I was able to accomplish the LOR to RDS connection with a single BAT file. My command line looks like this:

RDS.BAT Boogie Woogie Santa Claus by Brian Setzer

...and my RDS.BAT file contains this:

@echo off
if NOT "%*"=="" echo %* > "C:Light-O-RamaNow Playing.txt"
if "%*"=="" ECHO. > "C:Light-O-RamaNow Playing.txt"

Last year I used a hacked transmitter with a Pira32 RDS encoder. This worked, but the integrated EDM unit means one more thing I don't have to connect and one more power supply I don't have to have plugged in. However, the Pira32 encoder works with their Magic RDS software, which is nicer than the Mini RDS software.

[Richard Hamilton]

Steven wrote:

However, the Pira32 encoder works with their Magic RDS software, which is nicer than the Mini RDS software.

Do I understand you correctly that the "Magic" RDS works with the EDM unit? Agree, it is much better than the "Mini" RDS.

And thanks for the bat example. I am doing something similar. It's been a decade since I created a batch file! I don't know why you are doing the "if NOT "%*"=="" echo %* >" thing?

And aren't you missing a back slash? ie "C:Light-O-RamaNow Playing.txt"

[-klb-]

No, the EDM only uses miniRDS. You need one of the Pira units larger than the single chip one to run magicRDS.

[Steven]

Richard Hamilton wrote:

I don't know why you are doing the "if NOT "%*"=="" echo %* >" thing?

And aren't you missing a back slash? ie "C:Light-O-RamaNow Playing.txt"

I'm going to blame the backslash on the MyWoWBB forum software. I fixed it.

The DOS "ECHO" command has two functions. If you put text after it, it will, in this example, put the text in the "Now Playing" file. However, if your just run ECHO with no arguments, it will display "ECHO is on." or "ECHO is off."

In RDS.BAT, it checks the arguments (%* means "everything in the command line after the batch file") to see if you just ran RDS.BAT without any. In this case, you don't want your RDS text to be "ECHO is off.", so the batch file instead puts nothing but a blank line into the file.

You can use this in a shutdown sequence at the end of your show to make miniRDS go back to sending the default PS.

I haven't written a batch file for a long time either, but now I can use Google to find a page that tells me how. In this case I learned something new: "ECHO." (with a period at the end and no space) will simple show a blank line.

On another subject, regarding your avatar, I own this album:

[Richard Hamilton]

Thanks Steven, that is a far better way of doing the batch file than the crappy method I was thinking about doing.

[pdowns]

Richard Hamilton wrote:

Thanks Steven, that is a far better way of doing the batch file than the crappy method I was thinking about doing.

Ouch, I think my solution just got dissed! But I totally agree, Steven's method is much more elegant.

Good work Steven, I'm changing my setup to match your example.

[Richard Hamilton]

pdowns wrote:

Ouch, I think my solution just got dissed! But I totally agree, Steven's method is much more elegant.

Good work Steven, I'm changing my setup to match your example.

Ha! maybe we were thinking along the same line. It's been so long since I did a batch file that I had forgotten about passing the song name as a command line parameter. I sent an email to Michael about that. He might want to update his RDS tutorial. Not to say it sucks. That doc is really good tutorial, yet passing the title as a parameter is easier and cleaner than having a batch file for every song.

I guess this is how Steven earned his Egyptian Pharaoh crown

[stanward]

Is it safe for me to assume that all of the above (RDS and LOR) requires the use of a computer to be running during the show and NOT the Director Card (or MiniDirector)?

[pdowns]

stanward wrote:

Is it safe for me to assume that all of the above (RDS and LOR) requires the use of a computer to be running during the show and NOT the Director Card (or MiniDirector)?

Yes, you are correct. The MiniRDS software is a Windows program. And the ability to have LOR execute a "Windows Command" (in these examples a .bat file) is again, a Windows specific capability. So yes, you must be using a PC running Windows to use these features.

[Surfing4Dough]

pdowns wrote:

stanward wrote:

Is it safe for me to assume that all of the above (RDS and LOR) requires the use of a computer to be running during the show and NOT the Director Card (or MiniDirector)?

Yes, you are correct. The MiniRDS software is a Windows program. And the ability to have LOR execute a "Windows Command" (in these examples a .bat file) is again, a Windows specific capability. So yes, you must be using a PC running Windows to use these features.

However, do I also understand correctly that you can load a "static" message on the the EDM using your computer, and then unhook it from the computer for stand-alone use (connected to a miniDirector) and it will still broadcast the static message (Such as "Welcome to the XYZ Christmas Display!")?

[Surfing4Dough]

Lightsonlinden posted this RDS test video over at PC--thought it was pretty cool and wanted to share. Excited for my EDM to arrive--supposed to receive shipment at the end of the week!

http://vimeo.com/7318984

[pdowns]

Surfing4Dough - your understanding is correct. You can load a static message in the EDM RDS that will be sent continuously. Once loaded, you need not have the EDM connected to a computer.