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MMXMPCR

Author: Michael Minn (see michaelminn.com for contact info)

March 23, 2005

MMXMPCR, a kernel module and command line program for playing the XM Radio PCR satellite radio receiver

1. Introduction

MMXMPCR is a simple program for playing the XM PCR USB satellite radio receiver under Linux. The XM PCR is an inexpensive USB device that permits listening to XM satellite radio through a PC. The PC only provides the means for viewing and selecting channels. Audio output from the device is analog via a 1/8" phone jack that can be plugged into a computer sound card or a home stereo system.

While digital audio output is not available from the device as purchased, if you're handy with a soldering iron, it can be modified for optical output. See myradiostore.com or XM411.com for more info. Because XM radio uses highly compressed audio (with nothing much above 15Khz) I'm not sure what you gain...but it's there if you want it.

The XM PCR is recoginized as a USB serial device by the ftdi_sio kernel module that is provided in most Linux distros and was built to support the FTDI RS-232 USB serial port convertor. The communications protocol has been partially deciphered and posted on the XM Fan Website. I also did some work using USB Snoopy under Windoze. Although the protocol seems relatively simple, there are some messages of unknown purpose that must be sent on faith. No attempt has been made to find a way of defeating the subscription protection that is built into the device. Since the future of XM Radio is tenuous and dependent on income from a subscription base, I would encourage you to support this fabulous resource rather than expending effort on trying to get it for free.

MMXMPCR can operate either from the command line or a graphical user interface. There are only two command line options: 1) power up the unit and select a channel, or 2) select a channel on an already powered-up unit. The user GUI program is a simple MOTIF list box that displays what is currently playing on the various XM radio channels and permits the user to change channels.

MMXMPCR is provided to the open source community to promote further adoption of this device. There are other existing packages out there. MMXMPCR is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of version 2 the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. It is provided to the open source community without a warranty of any kind.

Supposedly, DRM concerns (or perhaps pressure from manufacturers of more expensive receivers) let XM to discontinued sale of this device in late 2004, although existing units continue to work. Personally, the programming and sound quality of Sirius better and I made a move to Sirius in early 2005. As of this writing, both services are still losing money and merger talks are in the air. However, the variety of programming on both services is head and shoulders above what is available on traditional broadcast radio.

2. Version History & Download

Version 2004.02.28: Use 25 09 to get channel data rather than 25 08, which was returning unpredictable channel number data. Added command line options. Bug fix for segfault in XmListReplaceItemsPos() with negative position index.

Version 2004.01.11: Having problems selecting and displaying certain channels (namely 76 and 171). Changed channel selection command from "10 01" to "10 02" and that fixed the selection problem. Did further exploration of the channel info response codes to figure out the display problem.

Version 2003.12.11: Add mouse wheel page scrolling. Filter out bogus channel info messages. Refreshes only visible channels so refresh is faster. Added shortcut keys - required significant modification of widget implementation. Fixed scrolling and selection display problems from premature 12.06 release.

Version 2003.07.08: Upgrade to use the ftdi_sio module - proprietary mmxmpcr module no longer needed; Cleared up junk display due to overlapping channel info request messages.

Version 2003.06.14: Initial release that compiles under Red Hat 8.0

3. Installation

MMXMPCR consists of a single C++ source file that compiles into a single executable file (mmxmpcr). Download a tarball from the version list above and AS SUPERUSER decompress the tarball and make install: 

	tar -zxvf mmxmpcr*.tgz
	cd mmxmpcr
	make install

You MUST have a copy of a MOTIF clone (OpenMotif or LessTif) to compile and execute MMXMPCR. Note...you need the development version of the package with the header files, not just the executable libraries. These packages are available with all major distributions, although they may not be installed by default. Because there is no autoconf script, the error messages you get without the libraries will be cryptic.

4. Uninstall

MMXMPCR can be uninstalled by typing "make uninstall" in the source code directory you created above. You can also go into /usr/local/bin and manually delete the mmxmpcr executable.

5. Operation

It is recommended that you go through the setup and subscription process for the XM PCR under Windoze before attempting to use it under Linux. The signal strength meter is important for troubleshooting setup and no meter is provided with MMXMPCR.

There are three options for starting from the command line:

The initialization protocol takes a few seconds and if the GUI is chosen, a list of channels should pop up. The list refreshes sequentially and not very quickly. You can select a channel by clicking on the appropriate list entry. Nothing will play until you select a channel.

Channels are organized in groups of 10, which works out nicely for a single page of display. You will notice large gaps in the list reserved for unused channels. Selecting an unused channel will give unpredictable behavior - usually nothing happens.

The MMXMPCR program can be terminated by clicking the close icon in the title bar. The XM PCR will continue playing the last selected channel if the MMXMPCR program is terminated. Sound can be stopped by by unplugging the device, powering down the computer, or restarting MMXMPCR (which resets the device).

MMXMPCR can also be operated with the following shortcut keys: 

	PgUp: display up one page
	PgDn: display down one page
	0 - 9: select channel (i.e. if top channel on the page is 40, key 5 selects channel 45)
	q: quit

Fast, simple, effective. No pretty graphics, but this is about sounds, not pictures.

6. Protocol

Courtesy of Bushing and Dobbz via the XM Fan XMPCR Hardware & Development Message Board. Some additional "discoveries" of mine follow their comments... 

Requests from PC to PCR:

All requests take the form:

5A A5 xx xx  ED ED

where xx xx is the length of the data field in big-endian (MSB first) format

For example:

5A A5 00 05 00 10 10 01 ED ED -- power unit on


Known commands:
00 10 10 10 01     -- power on. see response 80
01 00              -- power off. see response 81
10 02              -- select channel
13 00              -- ? see response 93
25 08 xx 00        -- get channel info. see response A5
25 09 xx 00        -- get channel info. see response A5
31                 -- get radio ID. see response B1
42 01              -- ? see response C2
43                 -- get signal strength info. see response C3
50 00 00 00 00 00  -- ?
70 05              -- get radio info? see response E3


Responses from PCR to PC:

All responses take the form:

5A A5 xx xx  yy yy

where xx xx is the length of the data field in big-endian format
      yy yy is the last two bytes of the data field, repeated (why?)

Many response codes seem to be the request codes with the MSB set high.

Known responses:

80: HELLO
80 ?? ?? ?? aa bb cc dd ee ?? ?? ?? ?? ff gg hh ii jj ?? 
   aa         "SDEC Ver." in BCD
   bb/cc/ddee    SDEC revision date, in BCD
         (note: My PCR returns 25 10 29 20 02, but diag.exe
         refers to this as "SDEC Ver. 25 (10/02/2002)) ???
   ff
        gg/hh/iijj    XMSTK version info
    XM ID in ASCII, 8 characters long
   Sent on poweron. See request 00 01.

81: GOODBYE
81 ?? ?? ??
    Sent on power down.  See request 01.

93: ??
93 ?? ?? ??
    See request 13 00.

A5: CHINFO (see below for further notes on this response)
A5 ?? ?? aa bb ?? XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX
XX XX XX XX XX XX ?? ?? YY YY YY YY YY YY YY YY
YY YY YY YY YY YY YY YY ?? ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ
ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ WW WW WW WW WW WW WW
WW WW WW WW WW WW WW WW WW ?? ?? ?? ??

   aa   Channel number.  This is one two low when 25 09 is used?
   bb    Usually the same as the channel number -- but not always.
   XX   Station name.  (16 chars)
   YY    Genre name.    (16 chars)   all are padded with trailing
        ZZ   Artist name.   (16 chars)   whitespace (0x20)
   WW   Song title.    (16 chars)
    See request 25 08, 25 09.

B1: GETID
B1 ?? ?? ?? XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX
   XX   XM ID, in ASCII. (8 chars)
   See request 31.

C1: ??
C1 ??

C2: ??
C2 ?? ??
   See request 42 01.

C3: Signal strength?
C3 (lots and lots of numbers. :)
   See request 43.

D0: ??
D0 ?? ?? ??
   See request 50.

E0: Some sort of seperator or ACK?
E0

E3: XM INFO
E3 ?? ?? ?? XX XX XX XX XX YY YY YY YY YY ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ ZZ
   XX CBM Version
   YY XMSTK Version
   ZZ SDEC Version   (see 80 for more details)
   See request 70 05. 


Issue 5AA5000425090000EDED, and it will return a channel. Then you ack 
with 5AA500042509 xx 00EDED for whatever channel it just sent. It will 
then send you the next channel in the list. Repeat until it finishes. 

------------------- Additional Information -------------------------

Select (play) a channel (xx is the channel number)

5A A5 00 06 10 02 xx 00 00 01 ED ED


Channels can also be selected with the following command,
although some channels will not select, so the command
above should be used instead of this

5A A5 00 06 10 01 xx 00 00 01 ED ED


Request channel info (A5 CHINFO above) commands are 25 08 and 25 09. 
With 25 08 there is some meaning to "aa" and "bb". aa is always the 
channel number, but sometimes bb is not the same as aa, even if the 
channel exists.  If the channel doesn't exist, they are always
different, although exactly what this means is uncertain. Also, the
returned data is data for the last valid channel info request.

With 25 09, aa, bb, and the returned data are always only for 
valid channels. Request for an invalid channel will yield a response
with data for the next valid channel.

When changing channels, the XMPCR also issues a "50" request before and after the
channel change request. These commands do not appear to be necessary since 
MMXMPCR works fine without them. This is an example sequence, where xx is the
current channel and yy is the channel being changed to.

5a a5 00 06 50 xx 00 00 00 00 ED ED
5a a5 00 06 10 02 yy 00 00 01 ED ED
5a a5 00 06 50 yy 01 01 01 01 ED ED

The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is past the ocean is flat again. (John Maynard Keynes)