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Amiko Alien2 to Raspberry Pi discussion thread

illdoit2morrow

This thread is spawned from the Amiko Alien2 thread.

From 4th April can we please use this thread for any discussion/tips/guides for all things that relate to AA2 to RPI.

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illdoit2morrow

homewardbound11 wrote: »

I can see my problem now . It is the bouquets. I have many listings for the same channel and it seems to be the issue. I will have to remove my bouquets and a fresh scan.

As Augeroo recommended, set the addon to look at a specific bouquet. I'm using champs open-arp image and there is a SD streaming bouquet.

There is an additional step in live tv which needs to be done if you select a different bouquet. Go to Setting>>XBMC>>Live TV>>Reset the PVR Database.

This will look at the bouquet setup in the addon, for some reason it doesn't just look at it when you save it.

FlexMcMurphy

So I got my Pi and been playing around with it today. Here's a pic of the same one that I got off eBay..

I've a few projects in mind which I'm excited about! Such as:

1. Use OpenElec on it to stream content around the house.
2. Stream channels from Alien 2 to another TV.
3. Put a Web Server on it.
4. Make it a personal Drop Box.

What I've got going so far:
I've installed the latest OpenElec image on it with the SD card for the OS and a USB key setup as the Storage. I gave it a fixed IP. I can browse its filesystem with Filezilla and use Putty to issue commands to it by SSH.

What I want to try now:
Currently I have a 1TB USB drive connected to my Alien2. The Pi and the Alien2 are in different parts of the house and both connected separately with network cable to the same router. Does anyone know if I connect the Pi to a TV can I get it to see the recordings on that USB drive that's attached to the Alien2?

Or should I set it up differently like connecting the USB drive to the Pi instead? But then will I be able to record from the Alien2 to that drive? Using Putty I was able to ping from the Pi to the Alien2 but when I ran the command df -h it didn't show the USB drive connected to the Alien2 only the USB key connected to the Pi.

Cheers,

Flex

FlexMcMurphy

Well I figured out my main question from above and for anyone interested here's what I did...

My Goal:
I have a USB hard drive plugged in to my Alien 2 that I record movies on to. I recently added a Pi to my network and have it plugged in to a TV in a separate room from the Alien2. I want to stream the movies from the usb drive to the other TV..

What I did:
I already had Samba Server set up on my Alien2. Here is a post with info on how to set up Samba on an Alien2.
I SSH'd into the Pi and Telneted into the Alien2 using Putty and ping'd each from one another to ensure they could talk together over the network.
Using Filezilla I FTP'd into the OpenElec OS of the Pi and created a new folder in Storage... /storage/alien2
On the Alien2 the configuration file that sets up your Samba shares is called smb.conf and is located in /etc/samba
I chose a share I made there that I called 'movie' that points to the folder on the USB drive where recordings are saved.
From the Terminal screen to the Pi I ran the command:

mount -t cifs -o username=root,password=pkteam,rw //192.168.1.102/movie /storage/alien2

The username and password to PKT Hyperion Enigma2 image is root and pkteam. The IP address of my Alien2 is 192.168.1.102 and you get to the share on the Alien2 with //192.168.1.102/movie and the folder on the Pi I want the share to appear at is /storage/alien2

Now on the TV that the Pi is connected to I have OpenElec/XBMC running. I navigated to the 'Videos' menu then 'Files' and in the 'Storage' folder there is a sub folder called 'Alien2' which when I click into shows all the movies I have on the USB drive that's connected to my Alien2.

I got the info on how to do this from an OpenElec Wiki page which also explains how to create a script that will mount the share from the Alien to the Pi when the Pi starts up.

When I tried to actually view a recorded movie through the Pi I could only hear it not see anything. I suppose that's because I have to install the MPEG-2 codec which will be my next project!

Flex

FlexMcMurphy

So now I've got the VU-Plus XBMC Add On working, cheers for the link Agueroooo. I've paid for the two codecs from raspberrypi.com, cheers also to championc, and my Pi is streaming channels from Alien2.. I'm definitely impressed.

I'm using the Webinterface to control it from my laptop and I have a few problems now.. I'm running OpenElec 3.95.6, it's the beta version which might be the problem:

1. When I start a recording then go to stop it by disabling it in the Timer Menu, the recording stops but if I go out and back in to the Timer menu it says that recording is active tho it's not. Also on the Home screen the 'Currently Recording' icon with the red dot is still there at the top right of the screen. I have to reboot to clear it.

2. Subtitles won't go away. I can't pause a Live TV stream. If I pause a recording then arrow down as Agueroooo recommended previously then I don't get an Audio settings menu to allow me to configure subtitles.

Should I switch to the Stable 3.2.4 build?

Any help appreciated!

Flex

FlexMcMurphy

I 'flashed' stable build OpenElec 3.2.4 (Frodo) and managed to turn off subtitles.

I was trying to control XBMC with just a keyboard but when I plugged in a mouse an info bar appeared at the bottom of the screen with extra icons that get you in to the Audio Settings menu. Toggle 'Enable Subtitles' there to turn them on/off and 'Set as default' to keep them off.

I still have the problem of the Timer recording label going back to Active even when I have disabled it and the 'Currently Recording' icon with the red dot remains on the XBMC Home Screen when 'Live TV' is highlighted even after I have stopped the recording. Just a bit annoying is all.

I realise now that I was running the OpenElec 'Gotham' beta initially. I'm going to back to it because the menu transitions are faster and video streams load a lot more quickly compared with Frodo.

Next project >> Creating a Keymap file to add more keyboard shortcuts to control XBMC and over-clocking the pi.

Flex

Agueroooo

FlexMcMurphy wrote: »

I 'flashed' stable build OpenElec 3.2.4 (Frodo) and managed to turn off subtitles.

I was trying to control XBMC with just a keyboard but when I plugged in a mouse an info bar appeared at the bottom of the screen with extra icons that get you in to the Audio Settings menu. Toggle 'Enable Subtitles' there to turn them on/off and 'Set as default' to keep them off.

I still have the problem of the Timer recording label going back to Active even when I have disabled it and the 'Currently Recording' icon with the red dot remains on the XBMC Home Screen when 'Live TV' is highlighted even after I have stopped the recording. Just a bit annoying is all.

I realise now that I was running the OpenElec 'Gotham' beta initially. I'm going to back to it because the menu transitions are faster and video streams load a lot more quickly compared with Frodo.

Next project >> Creating a Keymap file to add more keyboard shortcuts to control XBMC and over-clocking the pi.

Flex

glad you're impressed.
when you get it up and running its hard not to be when you see the bang that you get for your buck.

You're right, the current BETA has big improvements for the Vu++ add-on.

I have seen the 'timer recording' probelm myself but more of an annoyance than anything else.
I think I remember it being raised on a snag list for the BETA, but dont quote me on that. If not, it might be an idea to raise it over on the Openelec forum.

Agueroooo

FlexMcMurphy wrote: »

Next project >> Creating a Keymap file to add more keyboard shortcuts to control XBMC and over-clocking the pi.

Flex

There is a add-on now that when installed will allow you to change the config.txt file from within the XBMC GUI.

Pretty cool if you ask me.

http://openelec.tv/forum/124-raspberry-pi/68533-addon-to-configure-raspberry-pi-config-txt

FlexMcMurphy

Has anyone got a keymap file working? When I'm watching a channel I'd like to make the info bar thing (OSD?) appear when I click 'm' on the laptop keyboard. I have the webinterface open when I press m but nothing happens on screen. Here is my keyboard.xml file that I have saved in /storage/.xbmc/userdata/keymaps

<!--Template XBMC keyboard file-->
<keymap>
  <global>
    <keyboard>
      <m>ActivateWindow(PlayerControls)</m>
      <key id="77(0x4D)-VK_M">Notification(Keypress, You pressed M!, 3)</key>
    </keyboard>
  </global>
</keymap>

I used two programs, ShowKey.exe and KeyMapEdit.exe, to detect the keypress on the keyboard and generate the .xml file then used Filezilla to copy it over but still nothing happens. I reboot the Pi after making every change to the file.

In fact by going in to /usr/share/xbmc/system/keymaps I see there is already a keyboard.xml file there anyway with the <m> mapped so my own .xml file shouldn't be necessary but pressing m on my laptop keyboard isn't recognised regardless.

I'll take a look at that add-on Agueroooo.

Cheers,

Flex

FlexMcMurphy

Gents, sometime when one of you have OpenElec xbmc running could you load the Webinterface to it and try pressing 'm' and 'i' on your computer keyboard? Does it make any menu appear on screen?

There is a Keymap file called keyboard.xml which should set things up to recognise keyboard presses. There's already one in the system folder: /usr/share/xbmc/system/keymaps

but you can also put one in your userdata folder: /storage/.xbmc/userdata/keymaps

properties in the userdata folder over-ride whats in the system folder.

Maybe it won't work for me because you need to have a keyboard connected via USB. I'm pressing keys on the laptop with the webinterface to XBMC running in Chrome. Lots of keys do work like ENTER and BACKSPACE and the arrow keys but none of the letter keys etc.. I've tried putting my own keyboard.xml file in userdata with no effect. I'm on OpenElec 3.2.4 now.

Thanks,

Flex

Fresh Pots

Just wondering do you guys keep your pi plugged in 24/7 as it seems to slow down my aa2 when connected?

illdoit2morrow

Fresh Pots wrote: »

Just wondering do you guys keep your pi plugged in 24/7 as it seems to slow down my aa2 when connected?

I haven't noticed any slowness, but i'd only be viewing one or the other at any one time.

Fresh Pots

illdoit2morrow wrote: »

I haven't noticed any slowness, but i'd only be viewing one or the other at any one time.

Yeah if I have a channel playing on each the box goes down to about half speed. Not a big deal though. I'll just make sure to stop the stream on the pi before going back to the receiver.

Johnboy1951

Fresh Pots wrote: »

Yeah if I have a channel playing on each the box goes down to about half speed. Not a big deal though. I'll just make sure to stop the stream on the pi before going back to the receiver.

Gosh that's quite bad.

The Amiko Alien is underpowered it seems?

zefer

Anyone know what the error "Vu+\Enigma2 Client: Connection Lost" is all about. Keeps appearing at bottom right of screen
I've added just 1 bouquet, deleted empty ones, bought & added in the codecs (so basically tried all the fixes that google has suggested so far) but still no joy..
I'm using fresh pots hyp v4..

Fresh Pots

zefer wrote: »

Anyone know what the error "Vu+\Enigma2 Client: Connection Lost" is all about. Keeps appearing at bottom right of screen
I've added just 1 bouquet, deleted empty ones, bought & added in the codecs (so basically tried all the fixes that google has suggested so far) but still no joy..
I'm using fresh pots hyp v4..

Try pulling down all bouquets and see if that works.

Johnboy1951

zefer wrote: »

Anyone know what the error "Vu+\Enigma2 Client: Connection Lost" is all about. Keeps appearing at bottom right of screen
I've added just 1 bouquet, deleted empty ones, bought & added in the codecs (so basically tried all the fixes that google has suggested so far) but still no joy..
I'm using fresh pots hyp v4..

I often see such messages when I stream from my HTPC to my desktop using Wireless dongle ...... it is cause in my case by the router giving priority to some other traffic, but does reconnect again almost immediately.

If no one else is using the router then I do not get the error.

I believe I do not get the error when connected by ethernet cable either.

If yours is a similar cause then the connection between the two devices is being dropped momentarily ......

zefer

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I often see such messages when I stream from my HTPC to my desktop using Wireless dongle ...... it is cause in my case by the router giving priority to some other traffic, but does reconnect again almost immediately.

If no one else is using the router then I do not get the error.

I believe I do not get the error when connected by ethernet cable either.

If yours is a similar cause then the connection between the two devices is being dropped momentarily ......

hmm, dont think its this as I'm connected through powerplugs and the error pops up constantly..

zefer

Fresh Pots wrote: »

Try pulling down all bouquets and see if that works.

I'll give this a go later, cheers

FlexMcMurphy

I have seen that msg a few times but only when the Alien2 was turned off. Are you powering the Pi form the mains or USB?

Could the powerplugs be the cause? The Pi may not be getting a consistent connection to the Alien2. You could open one SSH to the Alien2 and another to the Pi and ping each one from the other... might be dropping packets.

Flex

zefer

FlexMcMurphy wrote: »

I have seen that msg a few times but only when the Alien2 was turned off. Are you powering the Pi form the mains or USB?

Could the powerplugs be the cause? The Pi may not be getting a consistent connection to the Alien2. You could open one SSH to the Alien2 and another to the Pi and ping each one from the other... might be dropping packets.

Flex

Pi powered from mains.
Doesn't seem to disconnecting from network as I can continuously ping pi.
I'll do test above and see if any packets are being dropped

zefer

Figured out my issue, had put in wrong IP address of box in pvr client settings! (I'm an idiot)!

FlexMcMurphy

FlexMcMurphy wrote: »

Gents, sometime when one of you have OpenElec xbmc running could you load the Webinterface to it and try pressing 'm' and 'i' on your computer keyboard? Does it make any menu appear on screen?

To answer my own question above (again)... With the OpenELEC webinterface running you can control some of the XBMC menus using your computer keyboard. I thought you could configure what keyboard presses execute what XBMC menus by changing Keymap xml files in OpenELEC. I wanted to open the 'On screen Display' for instance by pressing 'i'. It turns out you can't. The Webinterface only supports certain key-presses and you can't change or add to them. In the end I finally bought a decent LED Tv which supports HDMI-CEC and now I can control all the menus from the TV remote.

Flex

FlexMcMurphy

Just to update an earlier post I left for anyone interested or browsing this thread in the future...

To mount a Samba share on my Alien2 running PKT Hyperion to a folder on the Pi... from the Terminal screen to the Pi I ran the command:

mount -t cifs -o username=root,password=pkteam,rw //192.168.1.102/movie /storage/alien2

I must have been running Gotham at the time. For anyone still running OpenELEC Frodo and want to do this it won't work unless 'sec=ntlm' is added to the command:

mount -t cifs -o username=root,password=pkteam,rw,sec=ntlm //192.168.1.102/movie /storage/alien2

I added that command to the /storage/.config/autostart.sh file:

#!/bin/sh
 (sleep 30; \
 mount -t cifs -o username=root,password=pkteam,rw,sec=ntlm //192.168.1.102/movie /storage/alien2; \
 )&

... and the share is mounted at boot up.

Flex

Johnboy1951

FlexMcMurphy wrote: »
Just to update an earlier post I left for anyone interested or browsing this thread in the future...

To mount a Samba share on my Alien2 running PKT Hyperion to a folder on the Pi... from the Terminal screen to the Pi I ran the command:
mount -t cifs -o username=root,password=pkteam,rw //192.168.1.102/movie /storage/alien2
I must have been running Gotham at the time. For anyone still running OpenELEC Frodo and want to do this it won't work unless 'sec=ntlm' is added to the command:
mount -t cifs -o username=root,password=pkteam,rw,sec=ntlm //192.168.1.102/movie /storage/alien2
I added that command to the /storage/.config/autostart.sh file:
#!/bin/sh
 (sleep 30; \
 mount -t cifs -o username=root,password=pkteam,rw,sec=ntlm //192.168.1.102/movie /storage/alien2; \
 )&
... and the share is mounted at boot up.

Flex

I have never used anything but the XBMC GUI for setting mount points .... in my case NFS shares as the LAN devices run Linux.
So I am wondering if for some reason this manual set up is necessary?

Scoobydoo 2

I know this is not a pi but I have been mucking around with the cubieboard 2 ( similar to pi )
I have this mini pc streaming HD from the amiko alien 2 to a tv in the kitchen
After some issues with the default android Tvdplayer ( would stop streaming after about 15 mins )
I have downgraded the default android image to
Android 4.2_v1.06

Installed on the nand memory of the cubie

using Dreamdroid to stream from the Alien over a hardwired network Its been streaming in HD now from AA2 for about 90 mins without any issues

hughes_bn

my AA2 is running championc's open arp image which I go from Linux sat support last Christmas.
I created a bouquet on the AA2 called rpi

the pi is running gotham 13.1 on openelec 4.0.5
I've installed vu+/enigma client on the pi and set up with the AA2 IP address, selected fetch only 1 bouquet and put in the correct name. username and password are root & pass - this is what I use on DCC when I want to FTP files to the AA2.

the mpg2 and vc1 licences have been installed on the pi. I remembered to remove the # tag and using putty and comand "vcgencmd codec_enabled......" I confirmed the licences have been enabled

the pi has been over clocked to
arm_freq=950
core_freq=450
sdram_freq=450
over_voltage=6

only other addons are mashup, sports devil, ustv now

when I go to live tv the 20 or so channels I have added to the rpi bouquet are there and I can see whats on. but when I click on a channel I hear the sound effect that's its been selected but the stream doesn't start

anyone know where i'm going wrong??
I had it working before but reset the rpi so its not a problem with the enigma image

thanks

illdoit2morrow

hughes_bn wrote: »

my AA2 is running championc's open arp image which I go from Linux sat support last Christmas.
I created a bouquet on the AA2 called rpi

the pi is running gotham 13.1 on openelec 4.0.5
I've installed vu+/enigma client on the pi and set up with the AA2 IP address, selected fetch only 1 bouquet and put in the correct name. username and password are root & pass - this is what I use on DCC when I want to FTP files to the AA2.

the mpg2 and vc1 licences have been installed on the pi. I remembered to remove the # tag and using putty and comand "vcgencmd codec_enabled......" I confirmed the licences have been enabled

the pi has been over clocked to
arm_freq=950
core_freq=450
sdram_freq=450
over_voltage=6

only other addons are mashup, sports devil, ustv now

when I go to live tv the 20 or so channels I have added to the rpi bouquet are there and I can see whats on. but when I click on a channel I hear the sound effect that's its been selected but the stream doesn't start

anyone know where i'm going wrong??
I had it working before but reset the rpi so its not a problem with the enigma image

thanks

I had the same issue albeit running openelec 3.2.4 although you appear to have ruled out my error. I left in the # at the start of the line in config.txt for the codec.

It might be a pain, but try going with an older version openelec to see if this works.

hughes_bn

yeah, i'd seen your comments on the #tag earlier in the thread
someone else had suggested updating championc's open arp image on the alien2 box so will have a look at that.
I think the older version of openelec may be a good idea as I had it working before but did a hard reset on the pi and now cant get the pvr addon to work
thanks for the suggestion

hughes_bn

I updated the AA 2 image to freshpots PKT Hyperion and the stream is working

Only problem is now sometimes the audio and video don't sync up and can be out by several seconds. If I switch channels they sync up again but after a bit the audio and video don't tie up.

Has anyone else encountered this or any suggestions on how to fix it?

mossym

hi all. thanks for putting the thread together. i've been trying to get my pi up and running with my amiko, i get it connected, it downloads the channels, so happy days

not quite. my issue is more fundamental. when i boot the bi, the keyboard works fine. but if it is left for any length of time inactive the keyboard then refuses to work, as does the remote on my phone(which works after a boot as well). i've turned off all the sleep modes i can see, and the supply is from an ipad so should be well capable of providing enough juice. any thoughts?