BATC Forum

I have just uploaded an update to the Langstone project.
This improves the error handling during start-up and also includes some new diagnostic programs for testing the Pluto connection, Sound device, and I/O hardware.
See https://wiki.microwavers.org.uk/Langsto ... iagnostics for a description of the new diagnostic programs.

If you are not experiencing any problems with your current Langstone then there is probably no need to update, the basic Langstone code has not changed.

As usual to update:-

SSH into the Pi
Langstone/stop
Langstone/update
Langstone/run

Colin G4EML

I have made a change to the new Langstone Diagnostics.

'Sound_Test' has been deleted and replaced with 'set_sound'

This new script will list all suitable sound devices and allow you to select the one you want Langstone to use.
The Lang_TX.py and Lang_RX.py files will automatically be modified to use the selected driver.

You will only need to use this script if you are not using the recommended USB sound card.

The script excludes the Raspberry Pi Headphone socket because this does not support a microphone. Therefore normally only the one driver for your USB sound card will be shown. If you have more than one sound card then it is up to you to identify the correct one.

Only the hardware level drivers starting with hw: are listed. If your sound device requires the use of the plughw: software level driver then you will still need to edit the .py files manually.

Colin G4EML

Would I be correct to assume that running Langstone update from the Portsdown menu will achieve the same thing?
Thanks
Gareth

Yes, I think the Portsdown update re-clones the entire Langstone project in the same way.

Yes, it does. It backs up the old config file to /home/pi/rpidatv/scripts/configs/Langstone.conf, but does not restore it.

Dave

That’s the only difference then, the Langstone update saves and restores the config file.

I updated the 16-Oct Langstone release via putty and I found I had to re-run set_sound in order to re-edit the Lang_RX.py and Lang_TX.py files to accommodate my non-standard audio dongle.

Would an update from Portsdown still require this?

Graham

Yes

The Portsdown-triggered Langstone update does almost exactly the same as the Langstone putty-triggered update. The only difference is that it does not retain the user's config file, because Portsdown does not know if the format needs to be changed during the update (and the pure Langstone update does).

Any changes that you make to enable your non-standard hardware in the Portsdown code will also be over-written by Portsdown updates. It is for this reason that I do not recommend non-standard hardware.

Dave

As Dave says any local changes to any of the files will be lost with either method of updating. That is because the update copies the config file to a safe place, completely deletes the Langstone folder and then re-clones it from the latest GitHub version. That keeps the update simple and ensures all the files are up to date.

Regarding the config file, I always try make any new Langstone version compatible with older config files so it should be safe to restore the backed up version.

Colin.

OK Dave & Colin, thanks for the info.

Graham