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I encountered some issues when trying to create my own FM radio after downloading pifm. Indeed after plugging my own designed antenna, writing on my pi's terminal:

sudo ./pifm sound.wav 100.0

I used a Raspberry 2 V1.1.

After setting two radios on this fm wavelength, I don't get the Star Wars soundtrack on them. Can you help me fix this issue?

I don't think it is an antenna issue as far as I have read that even without antenna it does work. Anyway, here is a picture of its extremity wired to the RPi.

I live in France in a big city.

Here is a picture of the wiring between the foot of the antenna and the component that goes to the 4th pin of the Raspberry.

Picture of the antenna

And here is a picture of my actual wiring between the component and the 4th pin:

Component to pin wiring

I followed this tutorial

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  • "Can you help me fix this issue?" -> How? All you've said is it doesn't work. You don't even mentioned the model of pi; you might want to check on that if it isn't a single core as I believe there are a number of issues with pifm including the fact that it isn't really maintained and may or may not be viable on the 2/3. TBH most of the stuff we see here about it is not very positive, I think it is more of an experimental oddity than anything practical. If you don't hear anything at all with the radio tuned and the pi right next to it, I would say it just plain is not doing anything.
    – goldilocks ♦
    Sep 5, 2016 at 3:09
  • Not sure on your location but USA FM broadcast channels always end in an odd number, so output should be 100.1 or 99.9 for US radios.
    – spicetraders
    Sep 5, 2016 at 3:38
  • @goldilocks Okay I added my pi version and the serial port I'm using for the antenna. I understand your concerns. I just started with the pifm software but you are the first one I hear that gives bad feedbacks.
    – Revolucion for Monica
    Sep 5, 2016 at 8:24
  • Looks from this thread like someone else has said they "checked pifm it do not work with pi2". I haven't used it personally, but if you search around here I think it doesn't come across as hugely practical -- dubious quality, and hogs a processor while running.
    – goldilocks ♦
    Sep 5, 2016 at 11:58
  • For experimentation it is an interesting project and could lead to interesting possibilities. (sig gen, ref marker, etc) -- If some one had to have a FM modulator and only a Pi to make it happen then it could serve a purpose, but would be more to my thoughts to head to the thrift store and pick out a old used modulator to interface with or pick up a single chip modulator for a couple bucks. -- I think I will head off to shop and try it any way.
    – spicetraders
    Sep 5, 2016 at 15:40

1 Answer 1

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There is a fork, called PiFmRds. This works on Raspberry Pi 2 and also lets you set the station name, radio text and much more. I've tested it and can pickup a good 500 metres in the car!

https://github.com/ChristopheJacquet/PiFmRds

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  • God ! Next time I work on it I try this. That sounds appealing !
    – Revolucion for Monica
    Nov 12, 2017 at 13:56

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