RDS/RBDS FM receiver (external) for traffic conditions

Joshua Layne joshua at willowisp.net
Sun Nov 18 18:49:45 CET 2007


Hi All,
A lot of my personal interest is in context-aware aps (particularly with 
the embedded GPS) and (unfortunately) I spend a fair bit of time in my 
car each day.  It would be really nice to get traffic updates to the neo 
as an enhancement to any mapping/navigation programs.
and *no*, this is not a request to change the hardware - there are 
external modules that would work.

The one that looks most interesting to me is the Si4701 - available in 
the US from mouser electronics for $35.
http://www.silabs.com/usbradio for more info
The interesting thing to me is that they supply source for both the 
firmware and the GUI 
http://www.silabs.com/public/documents/software_doc/othersoftware/Microcontrollers/USB/en/AN264SW.zip
unfortunately it looks to be linked to M$ c++ extensions.  I got an 
error on missing stdafx.h when I tried to compile the RDSData.cpp file 
(which as near as I can tell comes from a M$ dev kit)

Would this be usable as reference to generate linux code 
(copyright/licensing mavens among you)?  is there any interest in this?

They claim it uses standard USBaudio for the sound and that they use the 
HID spec for control interface (which doesn't make a ton of sense to me, 
as it seems backwards, but I have not reviewed the spec).
This is also the FM chip used in the M$ Zune, but there doesn't appear 
to have been a lot of progress made on the linux front there.

Interested to hear your thoughts on this.

Rgds,
josh




More information about the community mailing list