Turning the Raspberry Pi Into... an FM Radio Station??

In this video, I show you how to turn a Raspberry Pi into a tiny FM Radio Transmitter. It uses the PWM ability to make a full stereo broadcast with RDS (text information). I was surprised the Pi was able to do this!
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This video contains no paid promotion or paid product placement.
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LINKS
Documentation - github.com/ChristopheJacquet/...
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TIMESTAMPS
[0:00] - Intro/How it Works
[1:39] - Setup
[6:36] - First Test
[7:40] - Range Test
[10:19] - PPM Issue/Explanation
[13:06] - RDS Works!
[13:24] - Legal Stuff
[13:34] - Thanks for Watching
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MUSIC
Cats Walking - Yomoti (EpidemicSound)
Salamanca - Sarah, the Illstrumentalist (EpidemicSound)
Flowers - Yomoti (EpidemicSound)
Before Chill - Yomoti (EpidemicSound)
edamame - bbno$ and Rich Brian (Lickd)
Blurred Out - Yomoti (EpidemicSound)
Becoming Mr. Bossa - Redeemin' (EpidemicSound)
Chops - chernebeats.com
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HASHTAGS
#raspberrypi #fmradio #transmitter
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GET SUBSCRIBED!
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MUSIC ATTRIBUTION
Get edamame by bbno$, Rich Brian and over 1M + mainstream tracks here go.lickd.co/Music
License ID: jmqOlQJ5wvr lickd.lnk.to/3oQt2iID!Simon

[@ericplays2021]

Underrated channel!

[@steve_1507]

Finally, my own pirate radio station

[@BlueMSX.]

Great video, love how versatile raspberry pi's are!

[@SimonVideo]

Thank you! Yeah it's awesome!

[@artiedewey6117]

I totally wondered about this. Great job!😊

[@SimonVideo]

Thank you!

[@gammaboost]

Yo, I had no idea you could do this! Super cool! I've been getting into radios for a while now, I wanted to get one of those low power MP3 radio transmitters but the ones I could find are designed for car 12v sockets. I'm definitely going to try this out!

[@SimonVideo]

Yeah I was surprised it was capable of being a radio transmitter

[@avahahmor]

educational AND entertaining, the way you explained what seems to be complicated things, were easy to understand thank you!

[@SimonVideo]

glad you enjoyed it!

[@caiomendes377]

Me instantly clicking on this cuz I’m a nerd (not mocking you mkay)

[@SimonVideo]

LOL valid

[@The_darksideofme]

Me too

[@willemdosestuff6525]

A video on radio !!! Super cool vid

[@SimonVideo]

Thank you !!!

[@kyle207]

Damn that has better range than the bluetooth transmitter i have that plugs into the cig lighter

[@MatsK007]

About if its legal or not, that depends on witch country. In many countries its legal with low power transmitter that don't interfere with licensed transmitters. And I iike your approach and easy explaining.

[@sig6056]

I think where I am, you can go like 500 feet legally lol

[@mister.man.official]

103.1 is a channel that's active in my area, the southwest.

[@generic5783]

Cool!

[@benjaalbarran-rw6np]

hi very good vid but i keep on getting this error cc1: error: ‘-mfloat-abi=hard’: selected architecture lacks an FPU

[@ruffnutts]

very cool, imagen with a bigger anntana to boost it :)

[@turkey_sandwhich]

how the hell d o you not have 1m subs??? i didn't realize you had 900 until i looked down. SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPER UNDERRATED!!!!!!

[@SimonVideo]

LOL thank you!

[@ricecooker3]

Yo i want a rasberry pi now and know what all are the commands are

[@andres23380]

Hi! Im using your video as a proof of concept. Im followed all the steps and it worked out! The only issue is that it doesnt allow me to send audios/songs with "long duration" (more than 10s). How would you solved it? Thanks in advance :)

[@SimonVideo]

Does it show any error in the console?

[@kyle207]

Idk if u will see this but is it possible to set it up to auto play songs one after the next?

[@SimonVideo]

I haven't messed around with it. The way I did it was by making one long mp3 of all the songs. But I'm sure theres a way to make a script that autoplays

[@user-yl9rl3kx5d]

What Raspberry Pi are you using? I have Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 8GB ram and it's not working. Browsing through different forums, I have come to a conclusion that older model works but not the latest one. So I would like to know which version do you have.

[@SimonVideo]

I have the 3B+... are you getting any errors?

[@user-yl9rl3kx5d]

@@SimonVideo No, I am not getting any errors but the song/music plays for few seconds when I tune in to the freq set in the command and then static continues forever. PS:- I have tried different frequencies and they all have same issue. Also, to receive the signal, I am using my phone which has built-in Radio. If not Raspberry, then it ought to be the phone and may need to purchase a FM radio. What do you suggest?

[@albaqobe]

​@@user-yl9rl3kx5d I have the same issue with my PI 4 and came across this GitHub repo that has it use pin 21 instead of 4, I'm in the middle of configuring it

[@roblox_casual_hazmat]

I couldn’t get it to work on my pi 5 4 gig :(

[@giov5342]

how do you go about getting the program that your running to make this work find the .wav file that is your own and not use one of the sample audio files that come in the programs directory?

[@giov5342]

i wanna insert my own audio file instead of the sample files but dont get how i can do this, maybe im over thinkin it and its not as complicated as im making it.

[@SimonVideo]

You should be able to transfer it to the pi with a thumb drive or something and put the path to it in the command

[@kitwheston]

Any clue why the broadcast would be slowed down like 2x? For whatever audio file I play it seems to do this. Great vid otherwise!

[@SimonVideo]

Yeah, it's the weird PPM error. Try adding "-ppm 1000000" to the end of your command.

[@manelould6925]

what if i want to transmit my voice in real time ... do u have any idea!!!!

[@SimonVideo]

PiFmRds should be able to take input from the mic jack on the pi. I would check the documentation for that

[@MrRetroTechOffical]

I’m a bit stuck with something, how do you terminate it? I can’t get it it to stop 😂

[@SimonVideo]

CTRL+C _should_ work

[@MrRetroTechOffical]

@@SimonVideo Thx 👍

[@MrRetroTechOffical]

@@SimonVideoNow got a complete working radio station! Tunez! on 103.5 FM!

[@rowanklein7538]

it plays out super slowed down

[@SimonVideo]

Yeah try skipping to the part where I talk about PPM.. you might have to adjust that setting. (Starts around 10 minutes)

[@rowanklein7538]

@@SimonVideo yeah I commented that than watched the rest of the video and felt like an idiot for commenting that😂😂

[@SimonVideo]

😂😂 it's all good it happens

[@user-rv6jv2bd5y]

does it work on raspberry pi zero

[@SimonVideo]

Sadly the GitHub doesn't list it as compatible but it's worth a try

[@user-rv6jv2bd5y]

@@SimonVideo its probably a risk I dont want to waste my money

[@SimonVideo]

That's fair

[@user-bo5is3vs4f]

3:00 Command "make clean" not working help

[@user-bo5is3vs4f]

also get error when I type: make

[@user-bo5is3vs4f]

its says lacks an FPU

[@MCBlast1999]

how do you not have 10k?!

[@Hoerli]

Have you managed to record music via the 3.5mm connection? I'm currently trying to send a stream with Snapcast via the Pi. I also have a USB sound card to plug in a loop if necessary.

[@SimonVideo]

I think I got it working once but haven't been able to since then :(

[@deadproxerator1225]

It doesn't wanna work! I have a raspberry pi 3 which by the way looks the exact same to yours but I keep getting sudo: ./pi_fm_rds: command not found it won't work even tho I downloaded everything!

[@SimonVideo]

You're in the PiFmRds directory? It's like a folder inside of a folder.