#oggstreamer – Repair Series 1 – channel not working / high gain

some weeks ago I had to exchange an OggStreamer because one channel was not working – the user Mike recorded the following video to demonstrate the problem:

If you watch the video closely you can see that the left channel is always amplifying the Audio with a very high gain – and only as he turns the gain up also the right channel appears – actually it is the right channel that is working correctly and the left has an error where it has a very high gain.

Looking at the schematics reveals that a connection error to the Potentiometer (which is in the Feedback loop) could cause such a high gain of the inverting amplifier:

So a loose connector is my first guess. My second guess would be a faulty potentiometer.

Lets take the device apart:

gently push the whole assembly (top and pcb) out of the extruded alluminium case:

A quick look around and touching cables reveals the problem:

because I had a spare contact lying around i soldered on a new contact, but elsewise I could have recycled the orignial one:

Time to put everything to gether and check if it works:

 

both channels work now 🙂 success.

#oggstreamer – Firmware Release Candidate 3 – released ;)

it has been a while since there was an official Firmware Update for the OggStreamer – now it is time to release RC3 (maybe the last Release Candidate before V1.0)

Whats new:

• Working WebGUI-Firmware upload (until RC3 you had to use the Command Line Tools)
• Support for MP3 completed
• Patches for AudioDSP are now working (fixes high pitch mp3 issues, and incorrect samplerates)
• Support for DynDNS – Services like FreeDNS, DynDNS and many more
• Support for the ShoutCast (ICY) and legacy IceCast1 Protocol
• Cleaner Code for WebGUI – now using libcgi to be compliant to GPL

Where to get it:

The upload_firmware.sh script and the update-rc3.tgz can be found in the repositories if you want to update from a UNIX like environment

For windows download the updater tool here

Once you installed RC3 on your OggStreamer future updates can be done via the WebGUI 😉

#oggstreamer – Talk about the OggStreamer and OpenHardware @ MediaLab Prado

I had the chance to present the OggStreamer at Medialab Prado and I was also talking about some random thoughts about OpenHardware and the Open Technology Laboratory in Austria http://otelo.or.at

(click on the image to get to the video)

Many thanks to the people at MediaLab who made this talk possible 😉

#oggstreamer – OggStreamer Distribution

We produced a limited number of devices and are now able to distribute those devices. If you are a developer working on related projects or want one device for your Medialab, Hackerspace, School, University or Radiostation.

Don’t hesitate to contact us:

#oggstreamer – PayAsYouWish Campaign Round 2

DONE

Welcome to the 2nd round of our PayAsYouWish OpenHardware campaign.

If you want to obtain an OggStreamer – we can now provide 5 pcs. to interested institutions (including schools, hackerspaces, radios and media labs) and individual developers (who work on similar projects or have an idea for a contribution to this project). Just write a small email to georg <at> otelo.or.at and explain what you want to do with the OggStreamer. All you have to pay for is shipping and make a donation of your choice for the “Open Technology Labratory Vöcklabruck” – If there is more demand than 5 pcs. we will choose from all applicants. Entries are welcome till 15th of October.

This time we got 5 applications … perfect 🙂

#oggstreamer – Batch Assembling 40pcs.(1) – LineOut Jack

Today we assembled around 40 front panels – like these ones:

the assembly of the cable to the Jack has been done before. Today we did the following steps:

1. Removing the anodized aluminium at the corners so that the screws make a proper electrical connection to the main body

2. Removing that anodized aluminium at the back of the front panel to ensure a proper grounding of the LineOut Jack

3. Cutting a piece of copper tape (approx. 2,5cm)

4. Making an additional cut to copper tape – this is where we will make the solder joint to the Jack

5. Applying the copper tape to the back of the front panel (be careful with the orientation of the cut for the solider joint)

6. Cutting the hole in the copper tape

7. Inserting the Jack (once again check orientation)

8. Place the plastic washer and the plastic nut on the Jack

9. Mount gently the plastic nut

10.Bend the cutout of the copper tape so it touches the first Pin (GND) of the Jack …

11. … and solder it

12. Solder the first capacitor (10nF 100V)

13. Solder the second capacitor (10nF 100V)

The final result:

Stay tuned for more Batch Assembling 40pcs. photo-series and videos … 🙂

#oggstreamer – WebGUIs first steps

A friend of mine together with is brother coded the WebGUI. It is a C-Programm running as a CGI on top of a webbrowser. It works with boa but this server lacks Authentification and SSL in its unpatched version – although there are patches for auth, SSL would require a sperate programm to tunnel the HTTPS requests. So I searched for alternative Webbrowsers – mongoose and hiawatha  seemed to be the most promising alternatives – unfortunately integrating this servers into the Lantronix XportPRO SDK is a bit of work. Then I found out that the axhttpd from the axTSL package ships already in the SDK. I tried this but i had to notice that the version shipped with the SDK has broken .htpasswd support. So this issue is not resolved yet but I think I will update the SDK to a newer axTSL Version …. tomorrow – This work of choosing and getting a Webserver running on this Platform is quite a pain –  ¡qué rollo! – I wish Lantronix had integrated a working solution for this kind of problem in their SDK …

So for now lets stick with a screen shot how the WebGUI looks like:

#oggstreamer – pay-as-you-wish OpenHardware

If you want to obtain an OggStreamer – we can now provide 5 pcs. to interessted institutions or developers. Just write a small email to georg <at> otelo.or.at and explain what you want to do with the OggStreamer. All you have to pay for is shipping and make a donation of your choice for the “Open Technology Labratory Vöcklabruck” – If there is more demand than 5 pcs. we will choose from all applicants. Entries  are welcome till 15th of June. But later in Autumn we plan to provide more devices ….

UPDATE: 4 people showed interest in obtaining an OggStreamer till 21th June – In Autumn there will be another possibility for obtaining OggStreamers. Of course it will be announced on this blog.

#oggstreamer – OpenHardware and open workshops as tools for experimental exploration of alternative economic models

If you are by any chance in Vienna on the 24th Feb. – I would like to invite you to a talk i am giving within the Solidarity-based Economy Congress 2013. I will be talking about the Open Technologie Labratory and the OggStreamer Project. The experiences from the past years and how these two project benefited from each other. The short description reads as follows:

OpenHardware and open workshops as tools for experimental exploration of alternative economic models

Field report and thought-provoking impulses from 3 years of work on two projects. The first project, called OTELO, aims at the installation of open workshops in rural areas. The second project, called OggStramer, is an electronic OpenHardware product. It was developed with the support of many friendly people within the OTELO Vöcklabruck, where it became a production-ready device. This development was made possible due to the OTELO framework, which served as space, network and source of inspiration. With this lecture we want to tell the story of these projects to show, that complex ventures (regardless their nature) are possible with the support of a community.

Date: Sunday, 24th Feb 2013 – Time: 11:00 – 12:30

#oggstreamer – Go watch OggStreamer in Vienna 19.Okt – 16.Nov 2012

I am proud to announce that OggStreamer will be presented at the Vienna Open Exposition. It is an Exposition about Open Design and there are numerous interesting projects worth being watched by you 😉

http://viennaopen.net/en/gal/