Audio Streaming to Bluetooth Speaker Using Raspberry Pi B+ (Raspbian Jessie Solution)

Been a while since my last post. Totally crazy year for me last year.

Alright, for those who come from my previous post of bluetooth audio streaming using Raspberry Pi. I finally found a proper procedure to setup bluetooth device in Raspbian Jessie using solely command line only. This method will work on Raspbian Jessie lite version as well. Let's start.

My hardware setup is the same as shown in my previous post. The differences start on the software setup side. Assuming you already flash fresh Raspbian on your Pi (Mine is Raspbian Jessie dated on 2nd March 2017). Firstly we need to install additional packages using command below.

• sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
• sudo apt-get install alsa-utils bluez bluez-tools pulseaudio pulseaudio-module-bluetooth

Once installation complete. Type in command below to make sure PulseAudio is working. Use any command below for verification.

• pactl list sources short (List available audio sources with simplified format)
• pactl list sources (List available audio sources with more details)

Above command should provide you a list audio sources available. By now you should see only one audio source. Below is the output example from my Raspberry Pi using command pactl list sources short.

• 0       alsa_output.platform-soc_audio.analog-stereo.monitor    module-alsa-card.c      s16le 2ch 44100Hz       SUSPENDED

If you see same output above in your Pi that means your PulseAudio is working properly. Here are some simple explanation on the output. 0 means the unique id of your audio source, alsa_output.platform-soc_audio.analog-stereo.monitor is the name of your audio source, module-alsa-card.c is the driver name, s16le 2ch 44100Hz is audio source's sample specification and SUSPENDED means the audio source state is currently suspended.

Next, it is time for us to setup the bluetooth speaker. Follow instructions below:

1. Type in bluetoothctl in terminal to enter bluetooth command line terminal. You should see the next line in terminal start with [bluetooth]# once you press enter.
2. Type in power on and press enter. You should see output "Changing power on succeeded" from terminal.
3. Type in agent on and press enter. You should see output "Agent registered" from terminal.
4. Type in default-agent and press enter. You should see output "Default agent request successful" from terminal.
5. Type in discoverable on and press enter. You need to key in this command to make sure your bluetooth dongle is visible to your bluetooth speaker. You should see output "Changing discoverable on succeeded [CHG] Controller XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX Discoverable: yes" from terminal. The string XX:XX:XX...XX is your bluetooth dongle's mac address.
6. [Optional] If you see message from terminal state "[CHG] Controller XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX Discoverable: no", just repeat step 5 to make your device discoverable again.
7. Turn on your bluetooth speaker and set it to pairing mode. (Follow your bluetooth speaker manual to set it to pairing mode)
8. Type in scan on to start scanning for bluetooth devices. You should see a similar message "[NEW] Device YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY BLUE SYNC OR3". For my case my bluetooth speaker name is Blue Sync OR3. YY:YY:YY...YY is the bluetooth speaker mac address.
9. Type in pair YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY to pair with the bluetooth speaker. You will see a bunch of message and ends with message "[CHG] Device YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY Paired: yes Pairing successful" if pairing successful.
10. Type in trust YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY to enable authentication-less connection with your bluetooth speaker. You should see a message "[CHG] Device YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY Trusted: yes".
11. Type in connect YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY to establish connection to bluetooth speaker. You should see output "Attempting to connect to YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY [CHG] Device YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY Connected: yes Connection successful" from terminal if connection is successful.
12. Type in exit to exit from bluetooth command line terminal.

Once you successfully establish connection to your bluetooth speaker, you should be able to see new bluetooth audio sink available in the Pi. To verify this, type in pactl list sinks short to check how many audio sinks available in your Pi. You should see output below:

• 0       alsa_output.platform-soc_audio.analog-stereo    module-alsa-card.c     s16le 2ch 44100Hz        SUSPENDED
• 1       bluez_sink.YY_YY_YY_YY_YY_YY    module-bluez5-device.c  s16le 2ch 44100Hz       SUSPENDED

The second output show in terminal is my bluetooth speaker's audio sink. The name of the device usually similar to bluez_sink.YourDeviceMacAddress. If you see this in your Pi, that means PulseAudio is picking up your bluetooth speaker properly.

Now that we have almost everything ready, the trick is to redirect whatever source that is playing in Raspberry Pi and send the audio signal to your bluetooth speaker. To do this, we need to send another command to PulseAudio so that it will establish an audio link between the source and sink. Now remember in earlier section where we use one command to verify PulseAudio after its installation? That is the method we identify the audio source. We've already identify the name of the source audio to be alsa_output.platform-soc_audio.analog-stereo.monitor and its unique id is 0. We also know that our audio sink name is bluez_sink.YY_YY_YY_YY_YY_YY and its unique id is 1. Let's key in command below to establish the link between the require source and sink.

• pactl load-module module-loopback source=0 sink=1 rate=44100 adjust_time=0

Once you enter the command, key in top in terminal and you should see pulseaudio is utilizing around 11-12% of your CPU power. This indicates you successfully establish the link between audio source and sink. Press Q to quit top.

Lastly we need to test whether the bluetooth speaker is playing the audio properly. Similar to my previous post, I'll use mplayer to test it, so go ahead and install mplayer by type in command sudo apt-get install mplayer2. Wait for the installation to complete.

I will recommend to set the source volume to 50% first because by default it is set to 100%. If you play a song using 100% i think it is not going to be pleasant to your ear. So go ahead type in pactl set-source-volume 0 32768 in your command line and press enter. 0 is the unique id of your source audio and 32768 represent 50% of volume. If volume = 100% the value is 65536. So if you want to set your own level of volume by percentage X, the formula is (X * 65536 / 100). You can verify the current volume level by type in command pactl list sources, Look for details under "Source#0 -> Volume:".

Once mplayer2 installation complete, simply upload one MP3 file to your Pi for testing. In command line, type in mplayer -ao help to list available audio output driver visible to mplayer. You should see one PulseAudio driver in the output. The output look like this "pulse   PulseAudio audio output".

Type in command mplayer -ao pulse path_to_your_song.mp3 to start playing a song. You should be able to hear the song playing from your bluetooth speaker. It will play exactly like video shown in my previous post.

Thanks for reading! Enjoy playing with your bluetooth speaker using latest Raspbian Jessie!


Additional note:

1. To remove the link between audio source and sink when you are not using it. Simply type in command pactl unload-module module-loopback.
2. pacmd set-source-volume 0 32768 command works as well to set source volume.
3. You can also set sink volume using command pacmd set-sink-volume 1 32768. Remember use pactl list sinks short command to find out the unique id of your desired bluetooth speaker.

Reference:
https://gist.github.com/oleq/24e09112b07464acbda1

Compile and Install R-3.1.2 (32-bit) in Raspberry Pi Model B/B+

Hey guys,

It's been a while since my last post. I've been playing with RPi for some chart plotting features recently and i found out that Raspberry Pi can in fact install pretty recent version of R. In this case, R-3.1.2. I've been using R for my work since few years ago and still loving it. Therefore i tried to install it into my RPi to see how it perform. The available version of R in apt-get repo is quite old, so in order to get more recent version of R, I have to compile it in RPi instead and install it in the system. I'll describe how to do it step by step in the next section.

** Note: Since we are compiling R, i do not recommend to run the compiling over SSH. Instead please start a desktop session through tightvnc. If you don't want to install tightvnc, you can connect your RPi to a monitor, keyboard and mouse during compiling.

When your desktop session is ready, please double click LXTerminal icon on the desktop and you will see a terminal window show up.

1. We are going to need some extra packages installed in RPi in order to compile R. In the terminal window, type in "sudo apt-get install gfortran libreadline6-dev libx11-dev libxt-dev libpng-dev libjpeg-dev libcairo2-dev xvfb" (without the quote) and follow instruction from the apt-get prompt to install the necessary packages.
2. Once complete step 1, type in "mkdir R_HOME && cd R_HOME", this command will create a folder name "R_HOME" under "/home/pi/" and then enter the new directory "R_HOME"
3. Next, type in "wget http://cran.rstudio.com/src/base/R-3/R-3.1.2.tar.gz && tar zxvf R-3.1.2.tar.gz"  to download R-3.1.2 source archive file into the folder and extract it into "R_HOME" folder.
4. Next type in "ls" command to ensure you have one directory "R-3.1.2" and the archive file "R-3.1.2.tar.gz" in "R_HOME" folder.
5. Next type type in "cd R-3.1.2" to enter the extracted directory.
6. Finally type in "./configure --with-cairo --with-jpeglib && make && sudo make install" to start source code compilation and installation. Take note that this process will take several hours to complete due to RPi's slow processor speed. You will see a lot of messages pop up in the window, just leave it until the process complete. After that you will see "pi@yourhostname ~/R_HOME/R-3.1.2 $" popup in window where yourhostname is the hostname you set for your RPi. Once you see that line that means the compilation and installation is complete.
7. To verify whether R installation is complete, simply type "R" and type enter in the terminal window. You will see R console start up like figure below if everything goes well.

Well, that's it for now. I'll share some example of installing R packages like ggplot2 and running R to plot charts in the next post when I'm available.

Thanks for reading =)

Edit 20th Nov 2014: 
1. Add in additional libraries required at step 1 to enable additional plot output format capabilities (jpeg and png) on R during configuration.
2. Add in ./configure parameters at step 6 to ensure R compile with jpeg and png capabilities.


Reference:
1. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28309891/install-r-3-1-2-on-wheezy-7-8-raspbian-fails
2. http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Compiling-R-3-1-0-on-debian-with-libpng-libjpeg-td4693026.html

Remote Control Your Raspberry Pi With SSH

One thing good about Raspberry Pi is after you set it up, it only require a power supply and a network to work. You don't need to always keep it around your TV to work with your Raspberry Pi. As long as your RPi is connected to your home network (WiFi or LAN), You can always remote control your RPi through 3rd party application via your home network.

I'm going to cover on how to setup SSH connection between you RPi and PC/Android Smartphone/Android Tablet.

Here is what you need to install on your client devices before proceed to configure your RPi. I assume you will use PC, android tablet or android smartphone as your client device to connect to your RPi and control it remotely.

(i) PC

• Putty (Go to Intel x86 section and download Putty.exe, not require installation)

(ii) Android Tablet/Smartphone

• JuiceSSH (Go to Google Play or click on link to install JuiceSSH app)

SSH (Command Line Interface)

This is the simplest way of remote control your Pi. The SSH server is available out of the box for Raspbian, all you need to do is just enable it through Raspi-config and you will be able to control your RPi through command line interface.

To enable your SSH server, if you are in command line interface after boot up, simply type"sudo raspi-config" and press enter. You will see the command line interface pop up as shown in Figure1. You can do so in desktop session as well by enter the same command through Terminal.

Figure1: Bring up raspi-config Command Line Interface

Using keyboard to navigate to "8 Advanced Options" and press enter. You should see second command line interface like Figure2.

Figure2: Advance Options Command Line Interface

Using keyboard to navigate to "A4 SSH" and press enter. You should see a message like Figure3 asking whether you like to enable SSH server or not. Select "Enable" and press enter.

Figure3: Raspi-config Enable SSH Message

Once you complete step above, your RPi's SSH server is enabled and ready to receive remote command. You can now connect to you RPi using client devices below:

PC

There are a wide range of SSH client available for PC, i will recommend to use Putty since it is pretty user friendly and it doesn't require installation. In earlier section i require you to download Putty. Now go to the location of Putty and double click it. You should see a interface like Figure4 below:

Figure4: Putty's Interface

Once you see Figure4, you just need to type in your RPi's IP address and click "Open" button to start a SSH session with your RPi. Putty will prompt you whether you would like to remember your RPi's keys, just click "Yes" and continue. You should see Figure5 below.

Figure5: Login to Your RPi

If you see Figure5, you need to type in your RPi's user name and password. Default user name for RPi is "pi" and password "raspberry". You won't be able to see your password when you type it in for security purpose. Once you key in your user name and password correctly, you should see system message appearing and look like Figure6 below.

Figure6: RPi is Ready to Receive Remote Command

Android Smartphone / Tablet

There are several SSH client available in Google Play, i choose JuiceSSH because it is quite user friendly and it can manage your SSH connection quite well. Go to Google Play, search for JuiceSSH and install it.

Figure7: JuiceSSH, Android SSH Client

Tap the app icon once you install it. You will see the app GUI like in Figure8. Tap on connection button and then you will see a "+" yellow button on bottom right of your screen. Tap on it to create a new connection.

Figure8: Create New Connection in JuiceSSH

Next you will see a page with some field require to fill up for your SSH connection. Please refer to figure9. You will need to fill up "Address" field with you RPi's IP address, tap "Identity" field to create a new identity "pi", you can also change your identity to your other RPi user name. Lastly key in "22" into "Port" field as we will be using default SSH port. Tap tick button on top right of GUI to finish setup your connection.

Figure9: Fill up Necessary Info for SSH Connection

Once complete, you will go back to connection GUI and you should see a new connection appear. Refer to Figure10. Tap on that connection you will see some connection message and then app will prompt you to enter password, enter your RPi password (default is "raspberry") and you should be able to see similar terminal command line for RPi. If you already setup your password during last session, it will auto connect to your Pi with configured password.

Figure10: Connecting to Your RPi Using JuiceSSH

There you go! Now your RPi is ready to receive remote command from your PC or Android! You can pretty much do everything just like working with Terminal in desktop session.


Reference:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Audio Streaming to Bluetooth Speaker Using Raspberry Pi B+

Edit 2016Jan3: This guide was based on old Raspbian Wheezy distro, some packages were no longer included in latest Raspbian Jessie distro. I'll have a look on how to make the old setting works on Raspbian Jessie.

Edit 2017May14: Finally found a way to make it work on Raspbian Jessie distro. Please refer to this link for instructions to setup bluetooth speaker.

Hi~ Here is a small project for my new RPi B+. So i got some bluetooth peripherals lying around the house, so i thought i can make a small music box using RPi. Did some research and got it working!

So here are what you need for the hardware:

1. RPi Model B+ with Raspbian Installed (Should work with model B or A)
2. Bluetooth Speaker
3. USB Bluetooth dongle
4. USB Wifi dongle / LAN cable for internet connection
5. 5V 1A/2A Power Supply

Figure6: Hardware Setup

 If you have everything ready for the hardware. You need to install some packages to your RPi before you can connect to your bluetooth speaker. Boot up your RPi, but do not plug in your bluetooth dongle yet. Open up terminal and enter commands below for installation of the required packages.

1. "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade" - upgrade your Raspbian packages list to latest version. Wait for program to finish upgrade before next command.
2. "sudo apt-get install bluetooth bluez bluez-utils bluez-alsa blueman" - install five packages for bluetooth dongle and bluetooth audio. Wait for installation to complete before next command.
3. "sudo usermod -a -G lp pi" - this command will add "lp" group under account "pi". You account need to have access to this group for this to work. If you are using other account, just replace the "pi" in command with your account name.
4. "sudo nano /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf" - you need to add some command in the audio.conf file. This command will open nano text editor and allow you to edit the file. You need to add in two line in the file. "Enable=Source,Sink,Socket" and "Disable=Media". Refer to Figure1 and Figure2 below. After edit file, press Ctrl+O and Enter to save the file.
   

   

   Figure1: Editing audio.conf file

   

   Figure2: Add in highlighted two lines in audio.conf file

5. Once save the file, enter command "sudo shutdown -h -P now" to safe shutdown the Pi. Once you see green light blip for 10 times. You can turn off the power supply.
6. Now plug-in your bluetooth dongle to the USB and start up your RPi.
7. Wait for boot complete, go to terminal and enter command "lsusb". You should see your bluetooth dongle available as shown in Figure3. You can refer HERE for list of working bluetooth adapter for RPi in case your bluetooth dongle is not detectable.

   

   Figure3: Bluetooth Dongle Detected in USB list

8. If you able to find your bluetooth dongle in USB list, you should see a Bluetooth icon at your RPi tray. If you did not boot up your Pi in GUI and you are in command line interface, enter "startx" to start your GUI session. Refer to Figure4 below to setup your bluetooth connection with your bluetooth speaker with 3 simple steps.
   

   

   Figure4: Setup Bluetooth Connection with Your Bluetooth Speaker
9. Follow up on step 8. You can also click "Trusted" on the device as shown in Figure4 if you want to let the speaker auto connect to RPi in the future. Mine is showing "Untrust" because i've already "Trusted" this device.
10. Open up terminal again to edit one last file. Enter "sudo nano ~/.asoundrc" and enter the script as shown in Figure5. For line start with "device 00:", that the place where you put your bluetooth speaker's MAC address. You can find you MAC address in Figure4. Copy and paste in to the script. Once done save the file and you are done setting up the bluetooth portion for RPi.

    

    Figure5: Script to Connect Bluetooth to Alsa

11. If you completed the steps up to 10, you are almost ready. You just need to install one more package so that you RPi can play music. In this case i recommend Mplayer because it is a terminal player that can support wide range of audio format including m4a. Go to terminal and enter "sudo apt-get install mplayer" and wait for installation complete.
12. Once you complete installation of mplayer. Navigate to your music folder using terminal and then enter command "mplayer -volume 10 -ao alsa:device=bluetooth youmusic.mp3" to play music.
13. You should be able to listen to your music from bluetooth speaker from now. 
14. Here is the video showing the working bluetooth speaker using RPi.

Hope you like this tutorial. Thanks for your time!

Reference:
http://elinux.org/RPi_USB_Bluetooth_adapters
http://www.correderajorge.es/bluetooth-on-raspberry-audio-streaming/

Simple Test / Check of Power Supply for Raspberry Pi

There are numerous blog posts and forums that discuss about the suitable power supply that Raspberry Pi can operate on. In layman's term, as long as your power supply can support 5V and 1A, you Raspberry Pi should operate properly. However, there are questions remain, for example:

1. How can we be so sure that our power supply we use can supply 5V 1A all the time?
2. Can the power supply still supply 5V 1A to Raspberry Pi if we have several peripheral connected?


Today I'm going show a simple method on how to check your power supply whether it is good enough to support RPi's operation.

First you have to know some basic info on RPi's operating condition. You can get them HERE or HERE. I'm using a Model B board, so according to the sites, the operating voltage is from 4.75V to 5.25V. Operating current is from 700mA to 1500mA. I don't have a equipment to measure current consumption for now. So I'm going to assume the power supply i will use later can provide current that RPi requires.

Next, you should have the following hardware prepared. Refer to list below:

• Raspberry Pi loaded with Raspbian. (Refer to HERE for more info, if you haven't install Raspbian)
• Power Supply (I'm using a smartphone charger, refer to HERE for more info)
• Wireless LAN USB adapter
• USB Keyboard and Mouse
• LAN cable (Hooked up through router or computer)
• Multimeter (To measure voltage across Pi)

I've set my Pi to boot up normally and do not boot to GUI, this should keep the Pi's processes to minimum so that i can get good reading on Multimeter. You can set the RPi to boot without GUI loaded by typing command "sudo raspi-config" in LXTerminal and select option 3 to choose booting without GUI. After you finish the configuration, enter "sudo shutdown -r now" to reboot to apply changes.

You should also enable SSH in raspi-config so that you can still control your RPi remotely. Refer to HERE for more info.

I've configure my RPi through raspi-config to use normal operating condition for its processor, ie no overclocking, frequency set to default 700Mhz and no overvolt.

I also configure RPi's config.txt file to make sure RPi is turning on HDMI port even without HDMI connected. I was away from my TV when i was doing this test. So i had to change the config.txt file to tell RPi to keep turning on the HDMI port. Refer to HERE on how to edit you config.txt file.

We are going to monitor the voltage across RPi under different setup to see whether the power supply is indeed within 4.75 to 5.25V when operating. To achieve that we are going to measure the board using Multimeter on TP1 and TP2. You can check out Figure1 below for the location of TP1 and TP2 on board.

Figure1: Location of TP1 and TP2

Here is a list of hardware configuration i tested and its respective voltage level when i boot up my RPi.

Hardware Configuration	Measured Voltage Across TP1 and TP2
Normal Mode + WLAN + LAN	4.76V
Normal Mode + WLAN	4.80V
Normal Mode + LAN + USB Keyboard + Mouse	4.83V
Normal Mode + LAN	4.87V
Normal / Idle Mode	4.91V
Power Down Mode	5.03V

Note:

• As i mentioned earlier, i just boot up my RPi and did not boot GUI. So basically my RPi is idling and do nothing. I call this state of RPi, "Normal mode".
• Power Down Mode is where i shutdown my RPi and leave the power supply on. I achieve this by sending in command "sudo shutdown -h -P now". This is a rough estimation of the voltage level that my smartphone charger provides to my RPi.

Based on the Multimeter's reading that i get under different hardware configuration, the RPi is operating within 4.75V to 5.25V. So in this simple test we can conclude that the power supply used is capable of providing enough power to RPi under normal usage.You might notice the lowest voltage reading is 4.76V (very close to 4.75V lower operating voltage) where WLAN and LAN were turn on at the same time. So from this test you know you should avoid turning on both network at the same time. =)


Now you might ask, what is the accuracy of that multimeter, and how reliable this method is on rating the power supply? I would say, these readings are all estimation and it is not 100% accurate. This method can just give you an idea on how well your power supply perform, based on the specs given.

Ideally, regardless of what hardware configuration you use, voltage across the TP1 and TP2 should be always within 4.75V and 5.25V. If one of the hardware combination caused voltage across TP1 and TP2 drop below 4.75V, we can say it is either one of the hardware consume too much power, or the power supply is not capable of provide enough power for RPi to operate normally.

Here are some pictures on the measurement i get during the test.

Figure2: Normal Mode + WLAN and LAN

Figure3: Normal Mode + WLAN

Figure4: Normal Mode + LAN + USB Keyboard + Mouse

Figure5: Normal Mode + LAN

Figure6: Normal / Idle Mode (No other hardware connected)

Figure7: Power Down Mode (Measurement after shutdown)

I hope this post will be useful for you. Enjoy! Feel free to drop your questions in comment. =)





Disclaimer: Please use this site's info at your own risk. I am not responsible for any damage to your RPi or you. Cheers =)

Reference:
http://elinux.org/R-Pi_Troubleshooting
http://elinux.org/RPi_Hardware

Raspberry Pi Video Output Configuration

In case you read my tutorial HERE on RPi first boot, and you still not getting the best display out of your TV. You come to the right place. Continue read for more information on setting your RPi video output.


When i was booting my RPi (with Raspbian) for the first time, i thought RPi is able to determine which video output it should turn on automatically based on the connected device. Apparently i was wrong =P

It still need user to tell which output it needs to turn on, and which resolution it should use in order to display the desktop correctly. Now i will cover for the details config of Raspberry Pi video output for HDMI and RCA.

We need to access configuration file that RPi reads when it boot up the system. One of the functions in that configuration file is to set the display parameters / property for RPi, so that the RPi will display the desktop properly on your monitor / TV. The configuration file is located in "boot" folder in RPi's root. Here is the full path on RPi "/boot/config.txt"

You can access it by double click the "LXTerminal" icon on your desktop. You should see the similar window on Figure 1. Follow the instruction below

1. Type in "cd /" and enter to access root folder of your RPi.
2. Type in "cd boot" to access "boot" folder.
3. Type in "ls" to list out all the files in "boot" folder. You should see a  "config.txt" file
4. Type in "nano config.txt" to view the content of the file.

Figure1: Locating Config.txt File

For your info, nano is a text editor for linux. I didn't ask you to put "sudo" in front yet because this will only give you read only permission just in case you accidentally edit the file. Here are the documentations you need to read for more understanding on how to use the config file before you edit any content inside it. Figure2 shows you how the file looks like on the terminal.

Documentation
R-Pi_ConfigurationFile - Click HERE
RPi_config property and values - Click HERE

Figure2: Config.txt file open in nano program

Here is how the entire config.txt file look like:

# uncomment if you get no picture on HDMI for a default "safe" mode
#hdmi_safe=1

# uncomment this if your display has a black border of unused pixels visible
# and your display can output without overscan
#disable_overscan=1

# uncomment the following to adjust overscan. Use positive numbers if console
# goes off screen, and negative if there is too much border
#overscan_left=7
#overscan_right=-9
#overscan_top=-11
#overscan_bottom=-10

# uncomment to force a console size. By default it will be display's size minus
# overscan.
#framebuffer_width=1280
#framebuffer_height=720

# uncomment if hdmi display is not detected and composite is being output
#hdmi_force_hotplug=1

# uncomment to force a specific HDMI mode (this will force VGA)
#hdmi_group=1
#hdmi_mode=4

# uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work in
# DMT (computer monitor) modes
#hdmi_drive=2

# uncomment to increase signal to HDMI, if you have interference, blanking, or
# no display
#config_hdmi_boost=4

# uncomment for composite PAL
#sdtv_mode=2
#sdtv_aspect=3

#uncomment to overclock the arm. 700 MHz is the default.
#arm_freq=800

# for more options see http://elinux.org/RPi_config.txt

# NOOBS Auto-generated Settings:
#hdmi_force_hotplug=1
#config_hdmi_boost=4
#overscan_left=24
#overscan_right=24
#overscan_top=16
#overscan_bottom=16
disable_overscan=1

Once you have an overview of the file that you are going to edit later. Press Ctrl + X to exit the nano program. Time to get ready for editing the text file =)

I'll divide the detail configuration for HDMI and RCA into two sections. Please follow the instruction carefully.


RCA Configuration

If your current directory is still under /boot/, you may enter command "sudo nano config.txt" to open the config.txt file. If you are in root folder, you can enter command "sudo nano /boot/config.txt". Refer to Figure3 below:

Figure3: Command to open config.txt

Use keyboard arrow key to navigate around the text file. Add hash tag or "#" in front of the lines that contains "hdmi" property so that RPi won't read them. You need to enable "sdtv_mode", "sdtv_aspect", "overscan_left", "overscan_right", "overscan_top" and "overscan_bottom" property in text file by simply remove the "#" character at that line and finally set "disable_overscan" property to 0.

Refer to the code below for the edited config.txt file. Pay attention to the yellow lines for required property.

# uncomment if you get no picture on HDMI for a default "safe" mode
#hdmi_safe=1

# uncomment this if your display has a black border of unused pixels visible
# and your display can output without overscan
#disable_overscan=1

# uncomment the following to adjust overscan. Use positive numbers if console
# goes off screen, and negative if there is too much border
#overscan_left=7
#overscan_right=-9
#overscan_top=-11
#overscan_bottom=-10

# uncomment to force a console size. By default it will be display's size minus
# overscan.
#framebuffer_width=1280
#framebuffer_height=720

# uncomment if hdmi display is not detected and composite is being output
#hdmi_force_hotplug=1

# uncomment to force a specific HDMI mode (this will force VGA)
#hdmi_group=1
#hdmi_mode=4

# uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work in
# DMT (computer monitor) modes
#hdmi_drive=2

# uncomment to increase signal to HDMI, if you have interference, blanking, or
# no display
#config_hdmi_boost=4

# uncomment for composite PAL
sdtv_mode=2
sdtv_aspect=3

#uncomment to overclock the arm. 700 MHz is the default.
#arm_freq=800

# for more options see http://elinux.org/RPi_config.txt

# NOOBS Auto-generated Settings:
#hdmi_force_hotplug=1
#config_hdmi_boost=4
overscan_left=24
overscan_right=24
overscan_top=16
overscan_bottom=16
disable_overscan=0

Here are the explanation for each line added into config.txt

1. sdtv_mode - set RPi to display video on RCA port in PAL or NTSC mode, value can set from 0 to 3. You can try out different value to get the best display from your TV. Refer to detail description below for each value. Info available in the documentation link i provided earlier.

sdtv_mode=0    Normal NTSC
sdtv_mode=1    Japanese version of NTSC – no pedestal
sdtv_mode=2    Normal PAL
sdtv_mode=3    Brazilian version of PAL – 525/60 rather than 625/50, different subcarrier

2. sdtv_aspect - set RPi display aspect ratio. value can set from 1 to 3. Refer to detail description below and set the value for your TV.

sdtv_aspect=1  4:3
sdtv_aspect=2  14:9
sdtv_aspect=3  16:9

3. disable_overscan - tell RPi to disable the overscan property or not. Set 1 to disable overscan, set 0 to enable oversan.

4. overscan_top/bottom/left/right - set RPi to adjust the display to fit your TV screen size. Most of the time RPi need these value to fit the desktop to your TV screen size, otherwise you might see your TV displaying partial of your desktop only. If you don't know the correct value for your TV, i will suggest you put a large positive value first and then adjust the value until you fit the desktop to your TV screen. Refer to Figure4 below to get an idea on how the screen will react to the value you set on the config.txt file.

Figure4: Overscan Property vs Screen Size

HDMI Configuration

RPi's HDMI configuration is pretty straight forward. Most of the time RPi will auto detect your TV and configure accordingly. If you want to know more detail on the HDMI properties available. Please refer to the link above under documentation.

You need to enable property "hdmi_group", "hdmi_mode" and "hdmi_force_hotplug". Just like what i mentioned in RCA section, you just need remove the "#" character in front of the line to enable that property.

Remember to add "#" in front of "sdtv" and "overscan" properties, and disable overscan by change the value to "disable_overscan=1". Otherwise it will interfere with the screen size if you enable them both.

"hdmi_safe" is optional, in case you are using HDMI to VGA converter, you might need to set "hdmi_safe=1" just in case the desktop does not display correctly.

Here is what you need to edit in config.txt file. Refer to yellow line.

# uncomment if you get no picture on HDMI for a default "safe" mode
hdmi_safe=1

# uncomment this if your display has a black border of unused pixels visible
# and your display can output without overscan
#disable_overscan=1

# uncomment the following to adjust overscan. Use positive numbers if console
# goes off screen, and negative if there is too much border
#overscan_left=7
#overscan_right=-9
#overscan_top=-11
#overscan_bottom=-10

# uncomment to force a console size. By default it will be display's size minus
# overscan.
#framebuffer_width=1280
#framebuffer_height=720

# uncomment if hdmi display is not detected and composite is being output
#hdmi_force_hotplug=1

# uncomment to force a specific HDMI mode (this will force VGA)
hdmi_group=1
hdmi_mode=4

# uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work in
# DMT (computer monitor) modes
#hdmi_drive=2

# uncomment to increase signal to HDMI, if you have interference, blanking, or
# no display
#config_hdmi_boost=4

# uncomment for composite PAL
#sdtv_mode=2
#sdtv_aspect=3

#uncomment to overclock the arm. 700 MHz is the default.
#arm_freq=800

# for more options see http://elinux.org/RPi_config.txt

# NOOBS Auto-generated Settings:
hdmi_force_hotplug=1
#config_hdmi_boost=4
#overscan_left=24
#overscan_right=24
#overscan_top=16
#overscan_bottom=16
disable_overscan=1

Here are the explanation for each line added into config.txt

1. hdmi_safe - Optional. Set value to 1 if  HDMI not display correctly.

2. hdmi_group - Specify HDMI group. For HDMI TV, usually they belong to CEA group, so you need to set value to 1. If your TV supports DMT, set the value to 2. If you not sure, set it to 0, RPi will choose preferred group based on your TV.

3. hdmi_mode - Specify the screen resolution RPi need to output. If your TV support 720p, you should set the value to 4. Set value to 5 if your TV can support 1080i. Refer to the list of resolution table RPi can support HERE.

4. hdmi_force_hotplug - Force RPi to turn on HDMI port even no HDMI connected. Set value to 1 to enable this property.


Once you done type in the properties and values, press Ctrl + O and then press enter to save the config.txt file. Remember do not rename the file! Once saved, press Ctrl + X to exit the nano text editor.

You will need to reboot your RPi for the changes to take effect. Just type in "sudo shutdown -r now" in LXTerminal and hit enter to reboot your RPi. See the screen changes according to the value you put in!

I hope this post will help you to solve your problem in case you encounter TV screen size / resolution issue. Have fun tweaking your RPi!





Disclaimer: Please use this tutorial at your own risk. I am not responsible for any damage to your RPi or you. Cheers =)

Reference:
http://elinux.org/R-Pi_ConfigurationFile
http://elinux.org/RPi_config.txt

Raspberry Pi First Boot Tutorial

Its been only a few days since i got my Raspberry Pi, i gotta say its not easy to get this little device to work especially on the part of getting RPi to select the desired video output. You have to do a lot of readings in the forum to understand how the RPi work and how to troubleshoot if something wrong happen.

Here is the tutorial of setting up your RPi for first boot, I'm going to share what problem i encountered during my setup as well so that you guys know what to do when you see the same problem. This tutorial is meant for Model B RPi NOOBS setup and assume you will use Window PC for setup. I hope you find this tutorial useful and informative. Enjoy!

Setting up SD card for first boot (NOOBS Setup)

Depends on the RPi package you purchase, some of the package comes with a SD card with RPi logo on it, some comes with the only RPi. For me, i purchase the package with 8GB SD card included, it is actually a micro SD to SD card slot + 8GB micro SD card. Click HERE if you want to find out how it looks like.


Let's start with a list of items required for initial setup. You can download the software required first as it will take a while (~1.3GB total). You can read the documentation in link below while waiting for download to complete.

Hardware required:

(i) PC with Window XP / Win 7
(ii) SD card reader

Software Required:

(i) SD Formatter v4.0 for Window - Click HERE to download
(ii) Download NOOBS 1.3.7 from RPi Web - Click HERE

Documentation:
(i) RPi Quick Start Guide V2 - Read HERE
(ii) RPi NOOBS Setup - Read HERE

Once you have download everything you need
1. Install SD Formatter v4.0 to your Window PC.
2. Plug in SD Card to your SD card reader and connect to your USB.
3. After window detect your SD card, inspect the content of the SD card. Some SD card already comes with NOOBS and OS installed, How to identify it?

•  Assuming you are using Win7, you should have detect one logic drive (~1GB in disk size) and it got NOOBS content inside the logic drive. (Refer to Figure1).

Figure1: SD Card with name "Recovery" & 1.38GB Size

• If you see the 1GB drive please click Window's logo at bottom left of your screen, right click on "Computer" and click on "Manage" context menu. You should see Computer Management application start up in a short while. (Refer to Figure 2)
• Click on "Disk Management", wait for a few seconds until you see a list of your PC's disk drive. (Refer to Figure 2)
• If you notice there are two unknown logic drive (disk drive without name) in the list under your SD card, that's the Raspberry Pi's OS drive. It means your SD card already have RPi OS installed. (Refer to Figure 2)

Figure2: The RPi OS Partitions

• Note** If you found the RPi OS in the SD card,  you can skip and go straight to "Readying Your Raspberry Pi for First Boot" Section. If you like start fresh you may continue to step 4.

4. Now that your SD card are ready. Let's start SD Formatter v4.0. You should see the program in Figure3 below.

• Select the drive letter of your SD card.
• Click on "Option" button and select "Format Type" to "Full" and "Format Size Adjustment" to "On".
• I recommend to use the full format for first time setup. This will take a while so please wait for the program to complete format the SD card.

Figure3: SD Formatter 4.0 Interface.

5. After you complete format, you should see you SD card is completely empty and with the size of ~8GB.
6. Now extract the content of the NOOBS archive you have downloaded and copy all the files and folder to you SD card. (Refer to Figure 4 and 5)

Figure4: Extract All Files from NOOBS_v1_3_7.zip and copy them

Figure5: Paste the files in SD card

7. Once you done copy and paste all the files and folders to SD card. Your SD card is ready.

Readying You Raspberry Pi for First Boot

Once you complete setup your SD card, you are almost ready to boot up you RPi. Here are the list of hardware you should prepare before proceed to do so:

(i) USB Keyboard (Recommend not to use wireless keyboard)
(ii) USB Mouse (Recommend not to use wireless mouse)
(iii) TV with HDMI or RCA port
(iv) HDMI or RCA cable (Recommend to use HDMI for first boot)
(v) Micro USB cable
(vi) Smartphone charger with 5V 1A rating. 

Note** According to RPi web sites, your power supply require to have 5V, 700mA to 1000mA in order to make RPi work properly. So normal smartphone charger should be able to provide that power. However, you need to double confirm by looking at your smartphone charger power rating at the back of the charger. Every charger should have it. Make sure its stated 5V 1000mA / 1A. If no power rating on your charger, don't use it! It might damage your RPi. Refer to Figure6 for more detail.

Figure6: Smartphone Charger with recommended Power Rating

Now lets connect the parts together. Here are the steps. But i must let you know first, powering up your RPi should always be the last step. Otherwise your RPi will not work properly =)

1. Connect HDMI or RCA cable to your TV.
2. Connect the other end of the HDMI or RCA to your Raspberry Pi.
3. Connect USB keyboard and USB mouse to your RPi. 
4. Turn on your TV and switch to HDMI / RCA channel.
5. Connect your smartphone charger and RPi

Here is the picture of how it is connected. 

Figure7: RPi Connections to Hardware

You might notice my RCA connector is Red, that's because that's the only RCA cable lying in my house, the usual RCA connector for video feed suppose to be yellow. So don't get confuse. It doesn't matter what color it is as long as it can connect to your TV RCA connector properly.

6. Finally, turn on your smartphone charger to boot up RPi.


Now for those of you who use HDMI port, you should see NOOBS booting up on your TV and prompt a box to choose which OS to install to RPi. But...

For those who use RCA port, you should be getting a black screen instead. Don't worry, follow steps below:

• Look at your RPi, you should see a red LED light and another flashing green LED light. 
• Wait for green LED light to stop flashing. It should take only a few seconds.
• Tap "Num Lock" button on your keyboard to make sure keyboard is working. You should see "Num Lock" LED light up when you tap it.
• Now press 3 or 4 button on your keyboard. You should be getting your video feed now.   

Figure8: NOOBS, Choose which OS to install

Now that you get the video feed on TV, NOOBS should be up by now and you can choose which OS to install (Figure 8). For first time user, i recommend to install Raspbian to get familiar with how RPi works. I find the information on Raspbian is more on the net as well. So use your mouse to click on "Raspbian" check box and click "Install (i)" on the upper left of your screen. A progress box should be up by now. You have to wait for a while as it will takes some time to install the Raspbian. 

Once installation of Raspbian is complete, you should see Figure9 on your TV, if you are using HDMI. You can configure your time zone and keyboard layout. The rest of the options let's leave them alone for now. Use your keyboard to navigate, when complete, press "Tab", select "Finish" and press enter. You should be able to continue boot to Raspbian.

Edit: I recommend to enable ssh by navigate to Advanced Options and press enter, select SSH and press enter and enable it. This will enable you to connect to your RPi remotely. I will cover this SSH option in the next post.

Figure9: Rasp-config for First Time Use

Additional Info: RCA Port Troubleshooting

Now for those of you who use RCA, if you see only a black screen for a long time after Raspbian installation complete, then bad luck. You got more work. Other wise you can skip this entire section on RCA troubleshooting if you can see Figure9 on your TV.

I'll explain briefly on how to fix this. You need to do a hard reboot (Turn off the power supply to RPi), and boot into NOOBS, (ie recovery mode for RPi) to edit the config.txt file for Raspbian (The instruction for RPi to follow during Raspbian boot) to force turn on RCA video output, and the tricky part is you have to boot into NOOBS without a TV output. Yeah =) So carefully follow the steps below:

• Wait for green LED light to stop flashing and red light stays constant. 
• Turn off your smartphone charger (Do not pull out the micro USB cable from RPi !)
• Put your finger on left "Shift" button on Keyboard (Just do it trust me =D )
• Turn on smartphone charger again, wait for 3 to 5 seconds, then press and hold the left shift button.
• You should see the green LED flash for a moment, then you can release the shift button and press 3 or 4 button. You should be able to get a TV output by now and you will see Figure8 on your TV again.

Congratulation! you have successfully boot into NOOBS again. You should be able to see Figure8 again. There are still more works to make sure RPi output video on RCA port. So stay with me for just a little bit. Here are the steps.

• Select "Raspbian", by now you should see "Raspbian" is installed, click on the "Edit Config" on top left of the screen. You should be able to open the config.txt file for Raspbian.
• Check on the lines that doesn't start with "#" character. If it is contain with "hdmi", add a "#" character at the beginning of the line. This will disable anything to do with HDMI configuration during boot.
• Check for the lines that begins with "sdtv", that is your RCA configuration. Remove the "#" character in the beginning of the line.
• Insert these two lines "sdtv_mode=2" and "sdtv_aspect=3" if you cannot find it in your config.txt file. This will set your RPi to output video of Normal PAL standard for TV with aspect ratio of 16:9. If you want aspect ratio of 4:3, change second line into "sdtv_aspect=1"
• Search for lines with "overscan", remember to remove the "#" character.
• Finally, search for line with "disable_overscan", again, remove the "#" character. Make sure to set the disable_overscan to 0, ie change the text to "disavle_overscan=0"
• Save the config.txt file and press "Esc" button to continue booting Raspbian.

Now everything is complete! You should be able to see Figure9. Continue to configure the Raspbian as i mentioned earlier and select "Finish" when you are done.

Botting Up Raspbian GUI

Figure10: The mystery word > pi@raspberrypi ~ $

Once you complete configuration for Raspbian, it will continue by showing you its command interface. If it ask you for login, please key in "pi" as username and "raspberry" as password. You should see Figure10 once you successfully login to Raspbian. Type "startx" and press enter to begin GUI session. Now you should see Figure11.

Figure11: The Final Goal!

Congratulation! You have successfully booting up your RPi with Raspbian! Go ahead and navigate around. Get yourself a beer for your success, you deserve it. =) 

I'm very happy if you are reading this tutorial until here. I hope all this information is helpful for you =) feel free to drop a questions in comment if you need more info. I'll try my best to answer you.

You may read my next post on how to configure your RPi video output HERE in case your display still got problem. Happy tweaking your RPi!



Disclaimer: Please use this tutorial at your own risk. I am not responsible for any damage to your RPi or you. Cheers =)   

Reference:

1. http://elinux.org/RPi_config.txt 

2. http://elinux.org/R-Pi_Troubleshooting#Composite_displays_only_back_and_white_or_no_image