Autolog Squeezebox Controller Discussion

Posted on
Tue Apr 15, 2014 6:12 am
autolog offline
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Autolog Squeezebox Controller Discussion

Please use this thread for any suggestions or questions on the Autolog 'Squeezebox Controller' Plugin that I have just started to develop :)

I am open to suggestions as to what is required for this plugin. I mainly use iPenq to control my squeezeboxes in day-to-day use and can't see my plugin matching anything like the functionality in that App (there would be little point!). I would find it useful for indigo to be able to interact with my Squeezebox's to highlight alarms and maybe to start playing music etc.

I am thinking that the Plugin will allow you to define Squeezebox Server devices and Squeezebox Player devices. Indigo will then be able to have a certain amount of control of the Squeezeboxes via the Plugin.

I have a Squeezebox Receiver, three Squeezebox radios and a Squeezebox Boom. I am running Logitech Media Server Version: 7.7.3. This runs on the same Mac Mini that I have Indigo running on. I also have a backup Logitech Media Server running on a Windows Home Server. I will be using the Mac Mini as my development environment :)

I'll keep this thread posted on progress which will initially be a bit slow as I have other things on at the moment that I have been told I must get on and finish :wink:

Posted on
Wed Apr 16, 2014 10:35 am
cconrad offline
Posts: 37
Joined: Apr 07, 2013
Location: Madison, WI

Re: Squeezebox Controller (Upcoming)

Hi Autolog,

I'm running Logitech Media Server v7.7.3 too, but it's not on the same Mac as my Indigo Server.

All my SBs are running the latest firmware. I never did the SmartRadio migration (or whatever it's called)..

I have 4 SB Radios and 1 SB Touch.

For the most part, I use iPeng HD and the official SB app on my iPad.

One of my favorite features of the Squeezebox is the ability to link them together so they play the same music throughout my house.

Most of the time, I'm actually using Pandora on the SBs. I'd love to be able to set up Indigo to launch a Pandora station on my SBs, for some wakeup music.

Another feature that might be nice is to target a specific SB to play a song from the server. e.g.: when someone walks into the bathroom, play some relaxing instrumental music..

At any rate, I'm very excited that you're working on this plugin, and I'm happy to assist you in any way I can: testing, bouncing around ideas, etc..

Thanks!

Posted on
Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:10 pm
autolog offline
Posts: 3988
Joined: Sep 10, 2013
Location: West Sussex, UK [GMT aka UTC]

Re: Squeezebox Controller (Upcoming)

cconrad wrote:
... One of my favorite features of the Squeezebox is the ability to link them together so they play the same music throughout my house.

I agree - we use this the whole time - it's a great feature :)

cconrad wrote:
Most of the time, I'm actually using Pandora on the SBs. I'd love to be able to set up Indigo to launch a Pandora station on my SBs, for some wakeup music.

We used to use Spotify but now use Deezer. I think it should be possible to control Pandora via the Plugin once I have got the basics in place.

cconrad wrote:
Another feature that might be nice is to target a specific SB to play a song from the server. e.g.: when someone walks into the bathroom, play some relaxing instrumental music.

I agree that this would be good to do and should be part of the basic functionality (selecting the player and specifying the music to play).

cconrad wrote:
At any rate, I'm very excited that you're working on this plugin, and I'm happy to assist you in any way I can: testing, bouncing around ideas, etc..

At the moment I am trying to figure out the basic logic. As soon as I have something that works, I will let you have a copy to try it out - it may be very basic to start with :)

Posted on
Thu Apr 17, 2014 9:03 am
keifer1 offline
Posts: 87
Joined: Oct 21, 2012

Re: Squeezebox Controller (Upcoming)

Super cool, I have a transporter... and appreciate your taking this on. If I can test or help let me know.

Computer Keith
Mt Pleasant SC - Charleston
Indi-Go -Go-Go

Posted on
Mon Apr 21, 2014 10:46 am
autolog offline
Posts: 3988
Joined: Sep 10, 2013
Location: West Sussex, UK [GMT aka UTC]

Work on the plugin is progressing ...

I have made some good progress on the Squeezebox Plugin in that I have got something basic working :wink:

Here is a sample of the Devices pane on the Home Window:
Squeezebox Devices.png
Squeezebox Devices.png (62.98 KiB) Viewed 7118 times


The Plugin relies on a Cynical Network for connection to the Squeezebox Server (I thought there was no point in re-inventing the wheel even if I was capable of it; which I doubt!). The Squeezebox Server has to be defined ('Squeezebox Server One' in the example above). However, the players are automatically added as new devices when detected.
I have set-up the following Player actions so far:
[list=]
[*]Power On
[*]Power Off
[*]Power Toggle
[*]Play
[*]Stop
[*]Pause[/list]

I haven't done anything yet with being able to select music - that's for a later phase - so Play will play what was last playing on the player. At this stage I was just trying to get something to work :)

I need to do a little bit of tidying up to make it release-able because there are some hard-coded settings like the id of the Cynical Network and Devices folder name. At the moment the only way to get the Plugin to recognise new players is to reload it from the Plugin Menu. All the names, models, addresses are derived from the attached players.

The plugin is very rudimentary at the moment (that is very 'alpha') but if anyone wants to try it out and provide feedback and/or further ideas then that would be great. I should have something available within a couple of days or less :)

Posted on
Mon Apr 21, 2014 11:30 am
cconrad offline
Posts: 37
Joined: Apr 07, 2013
Location: Madison, WI

Re: Squeezebox Controller (Upcoming)

Awesome! Your alpha release would already be incredibly useful to me. If I have a bunch of SBs sync'ed together and I issue the power and play command, do they all turn on and start playing?

Posted on
Mon Apr 21, 2014 11:57 am
autolog offline
Posts: 3988
Joined: Sep 10, 2013
Location: West Sussex, UK [GMT aka UTC]

Re: Squeezebox Controller (Upcoming)

cconrad wrote:
Awesome! Your alpha release would already be incredibly useful to me. If I have a bunch of SBs sync'ed together and I issue the power and play command, do they all turn on and start playing?

The Play, Stop and Pause controls all sync'ed SBs. (just tested)

The Power On/Off/Toggle works on individual SBs. (likewise just tested)

It should be possible to do something to power on all sync'ed devices say using a 'Power on Sync' command or some such. You would apply it to a player which would power on and then the player could be interrogated to find out what other players it was sync'd to. Of course, if you knew what players were sync'd you could set up an action group to power them all on - though that wouldn't handle dynamic changes very well. :)

Posted on
Wed Apr 23, 2014 12:04 pm
autolog offline
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Re: Autolog Squeezebox Controller Discussion

Alpha version now available here

Posted on
Thu Apr 24, 2014 8:12 am
autolog offline
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Re: Autolog Squeezebox Controller Discussion

Alpha version 0.1.1 now available - see here

Posted on
Thu Apr 24, 2014 11:08 am
autolog offline
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Re: Autolog Squeezebox Controller Discussion

Alpha version 0.1.2 now available - see here

Posted on
Fri Apr 25, 2014 3:53 am
autolog offline
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Joined: Sep 10, 2013
Location: West Sussex, UK [GMT aka UTC]

Re: Squeezebox Controller (Upcoming)

cconrad wrote:
.... If I have a bunch of SBs sync'ed together and I issue the power and play command, do they all turn on and start playing?


Alpha version 0.1.3 now available - see here

This adds in commands to 'Power On' or 'Power Off' all players attached to a single server. :)

Posted on
Fri May 02, 2014 10:33 pm
cconrad offline
Posts: 37
Joined: Apr 07, 2013
Location: Madison, WI

Re: Autolog Squeezebox Controller Discussion

Autolog, you sir, are a genius. I finally installed your plugin for the first time this evening, and it's AWESOME.

Thanks so much for you efforts!

Oh, one thing I noticed in my Squeezebox device list, my Squeezebox Touch is identified in the Notes column as: fab4

Posted on
Fri May 02, 2014 11:38 pm
cconrad offline
Posts: 37
Joined: Apr 07, 2013
Location: Madison, WI

Re: Autolog Squeezebox Controller Discussion

I was pleasantly surprised to see that 'Forward Now Playing' already works with Pandora!

I've set the six front-mounted preset buttons on my SB radios to different Pandora stations. Do you know if it will be possible to 'press' those buttons with your plugin? Might be a quick shortcut to calling specific Pandora stations by name.

I've also created lots of favorites using iPeng that appear globally across my sync'ed SBs and I've noticed (that in iPeng anyway) there's a number associated with each favorite: 1-x. Not sure if that's just something iPeng is doing to show you how many favorites you have, or if in fact it would be possible to say: Play Favorite 3, for example.

Posted on
Sat May 03, 2014 3:10 am
autolog offline
Posts: 3988
Joined: Sep 10, 2013
Location: West Sussex, UK [GMT aka UTC]

Re: Autolog Squeezebox Controller Discussion

cconrad wrote:
Autolog, you sir, are a genius. I finally installed your plugin for the first time this evening, and it's AWESOME.

Thanks so much for you efforts! ...

I am glad you find it useful and thanks for your kind words :)

Regarding:
cconrad wrote:
... Oh, one thing I noticed in my Squeezebox device list, my Squeezebox Touch is identified in the Notes column as: fab4

and
cconrad wrote:
... I've set the six front-mounted preset buttons on my SB radios to different Pandora stations. Do you know if it will be possible to 'press' those buttons with your plugin? ...

a new Alpha version 0.1.4 now available - see here. It should now show 'Squeezebox Touch' instead of 'fab4' and also handle preset buttons. I will look into how to handle favourites :)

New Action : 'Play Preset' - Select the required preset from the pull down menu.

I am currently working on version 0.2.0 which will handle the playing of alerts i.e. it will interrupt the currently playing playlist, sound an alert (user specified sound file) and then resume the playlist. I have tested the changes for playing the preset in 0.2.0 and retrofitted the changes to 0.1.4 - but I haven't tested this version :wink:
Last edited by autolog on Sat May 03, 2014 3:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Clarification on Play Preset action setting

Posted on
Sat May 03, 2014 7:54 am
autolog offline
Posts: 3988
Joined: Sep 10, 2013
Location: West Sussex, UK [GMT aka UTC]

Re: Autolog Squeezebox Controller Discussion

cconrad wrote:
... I've also created lots of favorites using iPeng that appear globally across my sync'ed SBs and I've noticed (that in iPeng anyway) there's a number associated with each favorite: 1-x. Not sure if that's just something iPeng is doing to show you how many favorites you have, or if in fact it would be possible to say: Play Favorite 3, for example.

Implemented in Alpha version 0.1.5 now available - see here. :)

New Action : 'Play Favorite' - Enter the required favorite number e.g. '3', '4.1.2' etc (no quotes).

As before, tested in v0.2.0 and then code implemented in 0.1.5 but not tested :wink:

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