yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Hi, hcitool is pretty generic. The problem is that it won't work with the proprietary BT stacks that most phones use. If it did, and hcitool was included on all TI and Broadcom phones, then my app would be running on all those phones, without needing the UART mode.

Of course I absolutely hate this since most people run stock ROMs and this means my app won't easily run on most phones. That severely limits my income potential from a paid app. OTOH, it also poses a large barrier to entry to potential competitors...

I think the RSSI is logarithmic as is. But there is something wrong with the numbers on your Tab; they are clustered and only show a few different values don't know why.

I've said it before but I hope you understand. We are going to have to take a break from this for a while. Possibly in a month or two I can code a solution that handles audio digitally. But even then I think the Tab has no antenna connection, so RDS will likely never work and signals will be weak.

In fact I think I have to take a week off from this project now, before I spend some time trying to make some income from it via ads and a pay version. I've been working 7 days a week, 12+ hours a day for four months and lots of personal work has piled up.

I hate the idea of ads but I don't think a pay version alone will be enough for me to keep this project going. Not for an app that will not run on the 90%+ of devices with stock ROMs and will usually require root.

It would be REALLY nice if the SonyEricson FM API takes hold, and becomes available on stock phones, but I have serious doubts that it will anytime soon. And google doesn't seem to care... AND Android phones that are rooted won't be able to stream protected movies... AND AFAIK, Google TV will be TV, without support for radio.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Great ! If enough people have this problem I may have to make the old way the default again. But I might be able to create a solution for all/most.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Great ! Thanks for your comments.

I haven't uploaded to the market recently. You can get v2.0.18 here: http://www.mediafire.com/?p3w4r8dfqi9zzal or v2.0.17 here: http://www.mediafire.com/?qzpbd5iezfm167k

v2.0.18 is the first that restores BT state when turning off. It also may fix some audio issues on some devices, but v2.0.17 might work better on other devices.

Yes, it would be possible to show the current frequency of the seek.

Yes, the signal required to stop the seek is a bit high. I tried to reduce it but that sometimes creates problems with the seek stopping on a frequency adjacent to a strong signal. In the ancient version 1 of my app I have a VERY complex seek algorithm that hardly even used the hardware support for seeking. It would jump back and forth and try to determine if and adjacent frequency has stopped the seek. But it took too long and the complex code made it fragile sometimes.

In future I can make the seek threshold configurable.

Yes, Yes, and Yes, there are many good things in the UI of the CM FM app, and I intend to implement a much better UI when I can. Thus far I've been concentrating more on making various devices work. but the UI is sorely in need of improvement.
[Spirit FM] idkidk:
Hi Mike,

1) Yes of course, i'm happy to try your future version even the tab haven't antenna i'm too curious... :D

2) I think ads version is a good idea (the app remain free..) but is not a bad idea to have a pay version adfree..

3) Car Radio have this funcion, is called "Local" help to find more or less radiostation when autoseek is enabled ("Local" so you can store the local radio, or the radio that have more signal strength)

For ui: an analog interface like old radio? Or support theme for customisation...

Anyway, good job Man!

Tia

Idk
[Spirit FM] Victorino86:
Shouldn't be better to find somebody that wants to help out doing some UI? So you can concentrate on the "hardware" work? :)
[Spirit FM] gaetanolip:
Sent log email,

thanks a lot
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
If you tell me what happens, or doesn't happen, then maybe I can do something.

Please don't make me guess.

Log looks fine, although your RSSI is a bit low, peaking at 18.

You have earphones plugged in ?
[Spirit FM] Jiangyi:
I've sent you a new log with the July 10th build on CM9 for I9100G (Still no audio output). I'll try my best to get a stock log for you too. Thanks a lot.
[Spirit FM] gaetanolip:
ok,

i 'am on paranoid rom ( cm9 based) with SiyahKernel ( galaxy s3). Spirit radio works with headset only one time after a fresh boot. I i shut off spirit and then i switch it on , spirit does not work anymore , i have a permanet ' Please wait' on the screen. I am using automode in settings.

Thanks
[Spirit FM] Rebel2k:
Not sure to understand that correctly: does it mean the new version from today is safer to use than the official (and actual) one on the Play Store? (I'm a paying user of the light version ;))
[Spirit FM] alexovy:
no sound in phone calls

Hi,

since I installed spirit fm I have the following issue: after I close the app, I don't hear anything anymore during my phone calls. I have to reboot the phone to fix this.

I tried different versions...same thing. I have searched the forum and looks like there are many with this problem.

Witch version has this problem fixed?

Thank you!
[Spirit FM] altruistic666:
There is some problem somewhere.. Cant find it though the app force closes.. Can be a rom problem too since i don't use stock roms..
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Thanks.

(Post 4000.) :) EDIT: 4001, posted too slow trying to give good info, LOL.

Just FYI, I can't be sure that enabling FM audio on custom ROMs is even possible on the GT-i9100g.

It appears that the audio is digital, as opposed to the much simpler analog routing that most devices use.

That's nice in a way because it creates the prospect of Bluetooth, FM recording and digital enhancements such as equalization and VU meters etc.

OTOH, there needs to be some code somewhere that does all the complicated stuff to set this up, as is done for Bluetooth audio.

Often on custom ROMs, the audio libraries don't even "know" that FM audio is running, and tricks like Silent Loop are needed, to make the libraries think an audio file is being played. With digital audio, the libraries DO need to know.

On stock ROMs, it's easy to start and stop digital audio playback of FM. Spirit just does what the stock app does, and the hard part is done lower down. On custom ROMs, who knows.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
The same thing happens on CM9. Reportedly, using the NEAK kernel may help. Also, unplugging the headset before or after shutdown, then replugging it before or after restart may also help.

This is the main "annoying issue" that may me decide to finally order an SGS3 this week. I can solve problems likely 10 times faster if I have one in my hands.

Until then, I think, workarounds include never turning Spirit off (just mute) or rebooting.

SGS3 is a very expensive phone. I hope that most of the people who can afford such a $700+ phone will help me pay it off by purchasing at least the Light version of Spirit. Especially those asking me for help and fixes. ;)
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
I believe and hope so. Email me for the Light version, or for a license file that gives the Free package the Light capabilities.

I spent a LOT of time going through old emails to find which versions seemed to produce no speaker damage reports.

These periods were about 2 weeks in length. One at Mar25 / Mar29 and the next at May 11. So I modified the code to re-reflect the May 11 approach.

If no further damage reports come with this code, for at least 2-3 weeks, then I may keep it like that indefinitely, or at least several months. It DOES produce some audio glitches that may require mute/unmute, speaker/headset, or even sometimes a power cycle of the app/FM or even occasionally a power cycle of the phone.

But I'd rather have those glitches than constantly re-appearing damage reports among the 1-10% of phones that seem to have this problem.

For anyone willing to trade off risk for fewer glitches, there is the Debug-> Galaxy S settings.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
This is with the July 10 release I just posted today ?

Which phone and ROM ? If it's Galaxy S it is likely the "speaker safety modifications" at work, trading off risk for glitchiness.

Send me a debug log.
[Spirit FM] Rebel2k:
Ok got it. I sent you information about me and e-mail I used to buy the light version on the market through PM.

Thanks !

Envoyé depuis mon GT-I9000 avec Tapatalk
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Details like phone model, ROM, app version and if previous versions worked are pretty much essential when reporting a problem.

Please don't make me guess if it's what's in your sig or go looking through your recent posts.
[Spirit FM] neumant:
Awesome App, Dev... Droid 3 vs. Galaxy Nexus

This app is top notch. It works great on my Droid 3 - XT 862. I can listen to 4 hours of FM radio and my battery drops about 5%. It is incredible.

It sucks that I have to have that phone activated to use it though, do you know why that is? I just got a Vzw GNex and it is very known that the GNex does not support any FM, so if I want to use it I have to activate my Droid 3. Shouldn't I be able to pick up FM with a Droid 3 whether it is activated or not?
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
:)

I don't know why activation on a carrier would make a difference. I have a Droid 2 CDMA and a Droid X (both Verizon ?) and neither one is activated.

To get these devices started into Android, I had to do the trick with touching each of the 4 corners. Then I rooted and installed the Droid 2 recovery and that might have helped a bit.

Could you explain the problem a bit better ? Regardless, you'll likely get better answers on a Droid 3 forum than from me. But I'm presuming this issue isn't FM app specific.
[Spirit FM] alexovy:
I'm on Galaxy S with SlimICS 4.2 (ICS 4.0.4). I tried May and June versions. Both are acting the same regarding this issue.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
I tested my Galaxy S GT-i9100 tonight under both CM9 and Slim 4.2 and I can see no problem.

Phone calls come in and can be answered while FM is running, and FM pauses and resumes when the call is done.

After playing FM, phone calls work fine. Tests were run with June 15 and July 10 Spirit releases.

I have LOTS of Galaxy S users, so if a problem was widespread, this thread and my email would be stacked with reports, especially if it spanned May to June to July.

Some people have had problems when using certain audio control apps (like Volume Boost I think) that by their nature have to do low level audio things (as does Spirit).

If you can try some alternate kernels or ROMs, you may find a solution. I've had quite a few reports about SlimICS. For example the FM driver is just plain broken on SGS2 and a kernel like Siyah needs to be flashed.

I note that the dev doesn't seem to have been active since the 4.2 release, and bugs have gone unfixed, and I think people have been moving to other ROMs.
[Spirit FM] Jiangyi:
I'm just wondering, would contacting any of the devs about this help you? Because the 9100G has very few AOSP devs and I can get in touch with the ones behind CM9 and AOKP regarding this.
[Spirit FM] alexovy:
Thank you for your answer. I will try what you said and come back with the results.
[Spirit FM] boalovewjl:
lol thanks you
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Feel free to ask them if they have the "magic answer" to enable FM audio, or have any useful insights.

But if you are just going to "introduce us to each other", I don't think that helps.

One interesting bit of info is that I found I've had a browser tab open for at least a week to this code here which may be useful: http://pastebin.com/FtdFfYvg
[Spirit FM] cccpro:
The AF/PI/PTY functions are not available for SGS2, or the phone must be rooted?
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Requires the Unlocked version for RDS.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
July 12 updated on Google Play.

- Various small fixes relative to July 10 test release.

- GT-i9100g mods that probably won't help, but are worth a shot. Also, try setting Audio-> Volume Ctrl Stream to "10 ..."

July 12 Free: http://d-h.st/Zmz
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Forgot to add "I wonder what's broken now".

- Some people with Broadcom chips are triggering the Qualcomm API detection.

To fix this, set Debug-> FM Chip to "BCM 432x (Older)". If you know you have a newer Broadcom chip, "BCM 433x/207xx" is better, but doesn't matter right now.

- Also, Galaxy S2 etc. may have audio issues with the speaker after FM is turned off or muted.

This may be fixable by setting output to speaker before powering off or muting.

- I'll try to get a new fixed release out as soon as I can.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
July 12b Free: http://d-h.st/esj

This was happening on CM7 and CM7 derived ROMs that include the CM FM app. It was because they used a variant of the Qualcomm API that was used in the app they derived from.

Now the Qualcomm OEM API will only be used if specifically selected, or an AT&T One X LTE is detected. This API supports RDS so any One X LTE device with a ROM that misidentifies itself will need a specific Debug-> FM Chip setting for RDS to work on Unlocked.

The GS2/GS3 etc audio issues remain unsolved, but mostly affect people using speaker modes for audio.
[Spirit FM] prasad12ka4:
Hi

Thx a lot for this app

Its working well so far with my Dell Venue

CM 7.2

But I seem to have an unusual battery drain it seems even after I completely exit or force stop the app

Its getting all stations here

Speaker option doesnt seem to work but works well with headset and DSP manager

Thanks again
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
:)

Yes, didn't find out about the Dell Streak 5" cousin, the Venue, until yesterday.

In the beginning, speaker was forced on. I have no idea why it's stuck on headset now. I created some test functions for this, but I'm not sure anyone has tried them, and I don't have a Venue or Streak to test.

For power drain I'd recommend the command "fm_hcitool 11", but Spirit does that on power down already, so it likely won't help.

As you may be aware, Dell abandoned the idea of enabling FM for some reason, as far as we know it's always been broken.
[Spirit FM] prasad12ka4:
I can help you with testing as I own a venue

But can you tell me how to sqash the battery bug?

Cause dont wanna disable this Radio as it rocks
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
For speaker mode, in theory you may be able to set the app to speaker (headset shows on button) and reboot, and it might work.

Heck, switch FM to speaker, turn off phone, remove battery for 5 minutes and try again.

There are also a lot of functions at Menu-> Test-> Dell Streak. You could try hitting random combinations and see if audio ever switches to speaker.

Probably not, but we can try to narrow the cause down and see what else I think of.

Set Audio-> Method to "None" (at bottom) and reboot.

Start the app, verify there is no audio, then stop the app. Is the battery draining now ? If so, it's not due to audio.

Set Audio-> Method to "Dell Streak" and set Debug->FM Chip to "Emulator (Test)" AND reboot.

Start the app, verify the FM sort of appears to work in a test mode, then stop the app. Is the battery draining now ? If so, it's due to audio.
[Spirit FM] Neokazaki:
Hi! I recently installed Spirit FM UL from Google Play. It is really working great on my SGS3 (@ CM9 nightly 0712)! However I find a small issue: each time I start Spirit FM and listen to music using my headphones, the speaker stops working after closing Sprint FM in all other apps (Play Music, YouTube and so on). But Audio Out on my headphone is still working. Re-booting the phone solves the issue, but only until I start Sprint FM again ;)

It is just a small thing but I wonder if there are any settings I can change to prevent this bug oder if it will be adressed in a future update?

But great app! Keep going on! :)
[Spirit FM] dboechat:
I have this same issue on stock ROM, too.
[Spirit FM] Lagkage:
I have the same issue on a GT-I9100. Setting Debug>Mute kill mediaserver>enable solves the problem
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
:)

As Lagkage said, "Setting Debug>Mute kill mediaserver>enable" may fix this.

It's a "brute force" fix, but if it works, it works.

I have some cleaning up to do for the SGS2/3/Note audio stuff.

I should also be receiving my own SGS3 within the next few days. Ordered from the US on Monday.

EDIT: Got the GT-i9300 tonight. :)
[Spirit FM] prasad12ka4:
For now speaker is not an issue

Atleast it rocks on headset

Will do this later on

Tried the above, battery drain was the same to worst

Tried the above, no change
[Spirit FM] luexi:
What do u mean it's a brute force ? Bad for phone ?:confused:
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
No change meaning battery drain is still too high ?

If so, then at least we can say it appears to be related to the FM hardware and drivers, and is not directly related to the audio side of things.

Finding this kind of issue would require me to have a device. I've kept an eye on Dell Streak EBay prices, but they've stayed high, even with the $200 Google 7" tablet out now (sort of).

And I just checked out Venue prices the other day, and they seem to bottom out around $200 if memory serves.
[Spirit FM] prasad12ka4:
Yes Battery drain is high

Still as you had suggested tried tweaking in debug and here and there

Will update you if I find some solution

But as off none
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Not bad for the phone hardware, just software. Meaning worst case is a reboot is needed.

By "brute force" I mean going far beyond using documented APIs and methods. IE, it's not elegant or normal software.

In this case it means killing the mediaserver, which is an Android process that handles a lot of audio tasks. It restarts itself and resets the whole audio system.

"Tricks" like that require SU/root and can result in not hearing some audio notifications, or delayed ringing from a phone call.

But when FM users have a choice between such a nasty hack and no FM (or no ICS or must run stock ROM or phone calls won't work etc.), they generally choose the nasty hack.

I let people know it's a hack, so they better understand why audio is wacky sometimes.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
You can try turning off WiFi, Bluetooth, and just for luck GPS too. Then turn them all back on, then off again.

Worth a shot.

Have you ever tried "Streak Radio" ? It's a bit of a GUI wrapper over fm_hcitool.

I'm interested to know if it also shows this battery drain behaviour. Anything it does, Spirit should be able to do (You'd think.)
[Spirit FM] prasad12ka4:
WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS all is off

But did as you said --> No change

Streak Radio didnt work well

went in speaker mode so had it removed long back
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Well if it goes into speaker mode, you'd think you could use it to get Spirit into speaker mode. You can probably run them at the same time.

It's probably just a matter of a different "fm_hcitool". One is a hacked one that only goes to speaker. The one embedded in Spirit is the original that supposedly allows selecting speaker or headset.
[Spirit FM] prasad12ka4:
Well thats not an issue now

Your app is the most stable FM radio app

Just the battery drain is a concern as without using the Radio also there is a battery drain

And I travel a lot so this isnt feasible

I also love the Fm so I dont know what to do
[Spirit FM] Neokazaki:
Thanks. Unfortunately this method is not working for me. Still, rebooting is the solution. Maybe with a future update it will work. Thanks for your help again !
[Spirit FM] Lagkage:
Mike, thank you for your great app.:) Listen to it every day on a Samsung Galaxy S II with Cyanogenmod 9. Besides audio problems when it is closed it works perfectly.
[Spirit FM] chorl:
Hello,

First of all, I have to say I love this app, it has been a "must-have" app since I tried it with my new Samsung Galaxy SIII, because original stock FM app is not able to change preset with pressing headset buttons. So, I love this feature, and the fast response of the change of presets, and the quality of the sound.

So, thank you very much, It has been the best purchase I've ever made in Google Play.

I'm very happy with it, but I find an annoying issue with button behavior. Just annoying, app it's fully usable as is, but I'll aks here if there is a better configuration for my issue. The issue I found is that I can't get volume up/down from headset to work as preset change buttons. Play/pause button can change preset, so I'm happy with that, but If I press them, I always got volume up/down behavior, not preset up/down behavior as desired. I couldn't find that issue searching in the thread (it's very big :)), so I decided to ask here. I would prefer preset change than volume change with that buttons, I think.

Another strange issue is the interaction with Opera browser. It's my favourite browser (faster and smoother than Chrome), but when I'm running the app in foreground, I can't get play/pause button to change preset. Weird...

My phone is an international Samsung GT-i9300 phone with stock 4.0.4 ICS. I'm using Galaxy S3/Note/S2_ICS method, with output device "Headset".

Thank you very much for your app. I really hope you can provide support for a very long time :)

Kind regards.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Problem started happening with a version after June 15 ?

See July 14 in next post.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
July 14 Free: http://d-h.st/pam

I had quite a few emails on this, so...

This is only a workaround for Galaxy S2/S3/Note audio issues since I added the Speaker mode.

The audio code is reverted to the same as June 15 now, with the exception of Speaker mode. Speaker mode never worked on June 15, except with the trick of removing the wired headset partly.

Speaker mode "sticks" now. Once you select it, you are stuck in speaker mode. This can be fixed by unplugging and re-plugging the wired headset.

So, if you never select Speaker mode, it has the same characteristics of June 15. If you DO select Speaker mode, you have to do the re-plugging. This may cause problems with other audio, or phone calls, I don't know yet. I hope to resolve this soon.

Now that I have a GT-i9300 Galaxy S3. I see the OEM API / unrooted mode has a strange audio startup. After a second, sound disappears, but mute brings it back. At that point mute/unmute is backwards. Strange...

RDS also doesn't work on SGS3 unrooted, and I can see why. The SGS3 will likely remain on the stock ROM for at least a few days while these problems are addressed.
[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Hi, thanks, I hope so too. :)

I've been talking to a few interesting people, organizations etc. lately about the app, business ideas, doing contract work etc.

But so far at least, I'm pretty much convinced I'll be happier serving thousands of small customers (and free users too), than to serve one or a few customers/clients/employers.

So anything the above people might want from me, has to accommodate that. I can't do one or more weeks straight in contract work if that means I can't answer posts and emails for a whole week.

I have sufficient income now that I'm "getting along" (Anyone counting the rough range Play numbers should reduce by half for all the cancels.)

So I tend to think I'll keep Spirit a full time job as long as the income gets me through life.

I'll get bored sooner or later, but we'll see what the app scene is like when we get there in a few years or whenever.

See next post for technical.