Android Question Simply control an Android phone from other Smartphone (for Interent Radio)?

fredo

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I'm reaching out to inquire if anyone has experience or a ready-to-use B4A project that could help me with a special little craft project I have in mind.

Here's the situation: my wife loves listening to a particular internet radio station on her laptop.
However, I want to make this music available to her on a different receiver amp, which only has FM radio, Bluetooth, and Aux input.

My plan is to repurpose an old Android phone as an internet radio receiver using Wi-Fi connectivity.


To achieve this, I intend to place the Android phone inside a black box with its own power supply. The phone is then connected e.g. via Bluetooth to the receiver amp.
The main idea is that all the operation and control of this "Black-Radio-Box" should be done entirely from my wife's smartphone.
For example, she should be able to control the volume of the "Black-Radio-Box" from her smartphone.

While I could certainly embark on this project myself as a fun weekend activity, I thought it would be prudent to seek advice from the knowledgeable B4A community before investing time and effort into it.

Perhaps someone has already tackled a similar craft project and could provide insights, guidance, or even a ready-to-use B4A project that aligns with my idea.

If you have any experience, suggestions, or existing projects that could help me get started with creating this custom internet radio receiver using B4A, I would be grateful for your assistance. Your expertise would not only save me time but also ensure that I'm heading in the right direction.
 

Sandman

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I have almost this exact situation at home. This is my setup:
  • A Raspberry PI running Linux
  • Music Player Daemon (mpd) installed on it, with ~20 internet radio channels configured (mpd at Wikipedia, mpd homepage) (it also has access to mp3 files, which is not relevant to your situation)
  • Controlled mostly by MPDroid on our Android phones, and now and then by using a desktop client
I would not dare to use an Android phone for something as crucial as this. I feel it could decide to sleep or go inte some power-saving mode whenever Google or the manufacturer decides is correct - which certainly would not be desired by me or my family.

It's worth noting that mpd is a server solution with support for many clients, meaning it can be controlled by pretty much anything able to run code. It would certainly be possible to make a "remote" using B4R and some sort of small board and a mini-keyboard to basically just control the volume of the radio channel. :)

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fredo

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Thank you, @Sandman, for your helpful tip! I appreciate your suggestion, and it sounds like it could be quite useful for me.
While the Raspberry solution you mentioned is intriguing, I'm personally inclined to try an approach using just an old smartphone.
I'm curious to see what I can accomplish with the basic idea I have.
Thanks again for the inspiration!
 
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Sandman

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My pleasure. And for whatever it's worth, it's actually possible to install mpd (the server software) on an Android phone too, so you could control it using MPDroid or some desktop solution... Meaning, if you could just make sure your phone stays awake and online, and you can figure out the configuration for the mpd server, you already have a working solution without the need for any coding. Which might be a good or bad thing, depending on what you want the project to be. :)

 
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