About VS1053 example

[Frank-Bemelman]

Problem Description

Trying to make an internet radio, and of course I have more urls to play with than just the example.
Many urls work just fine, certainly the one used in the example.
But many other give problems.

Here is one example, trying to connect to http://theoldiestation.dyndns.org:8020/stream.mp3 which is in fact a dead link.
If I try that link in a webbrowser, I immediately get a response from the browser that this url is unreachable, which is ok.

Below is dump from the serial monitor in Arduino IDE 2.3.6:

18:04:43.986 -> url.begin ->http://theoldiestation.dyndns.org:8020/stream.mp3
18:04:46.955 -> [E] HttpRequest.h : 243 - Connect failed
18:04:50.459 -> [E] MetaDataICY.h : 246 - icy-metaint not defined
18:04:50.505 -> [W] ICYStreamT.h : 77 - url does not provide metadata
18:04:50.505 -> url.begin finished -> time elapsed = 6521
18:04:50.505 -> url Started with bool result: 1

  Serial.printf("url.begin ->%s\n", RequestedStationUrl);
  lapMillis = millis(); 
  return_result = url.begin(RequestedStationUrl,"audio/mpeg"); // what about "audio/mp3"
  currentMillis = millis(); 
  Serial.printf("url.begin finished -> time elapsed = %ld\n", (currentMillis = millis()) - lapMillis);
  
  if(return_result==1){
    Serial.println("url Started with bool result: 1");

The serial output reports connect failed but takes almost 3 seconds to find out. (yes I changed #define URL_CLIENT_TIMEOUT 3000;)
My webbrowser decides in a tenth of second about this. Is there any reason to keep this URL_CLIENT_TIMEOUT so high?

Secondly, there is the question why does url.begin(..... return a solid 1 while obviously it is not succesful?

Thanks in advance for any clarifications!

Frank.

Device Description

Board ESPWROOM-DA

Sketch

Just a snippet...

      Serial.printf("url.begin ->%s\n", RequestedStationUrl);
      lapMillis = millis(); 
      return_result = url.begin(RequestedStationUrl,"audio/mpeg"); // what about "audio/mp3"
      currentMillis = millis(); 
      Serial.printf("url.begin finished -> time elapsed = %ld\n", (currentMillis = millis()) - lapMillis);
      
      if(return_result==1){
        Serial.println("url Started with bool result: 1");

Other Steps to Reproduce

No response

What is your development environment (incl. core version info)

No response

I have checked existing issues, discussions and online documentation

• I confirm I have checked existing issues, discussions and online documentation

[pschatzmann]

You must be mistaken: This url is not working for me neither in the browser nor with curl!

curl http://theoldiestation.dyndns.org:8020/stream.mp3
curl: (6) Could not resolve host: theoldiestation.dyndns.org

[Frank-Bemelman]

Well, yes, as I said it is a dead link, and doesn't work in my browser except for a (windows) notification screen that it is not available .

So I don't expect any sound coming through, but my problem is that url.begin() for this url takes long (>6 seconds) before it returns with a 1 (succes) while in fact it could not connect.

Still puzzled here ;-)

[pschatzmann]

I can't reproduce your issue. The following test sketch works exactly as descigned:

URLStream url("ssid","password");

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  AudioToolsLogger.begin(Serial, AudioToolsLogLevel::Info);
  bool rc = url.begin("http://theoldiestation.dyndns.org:8020/stream.mp3");
  Serial.print("rc = ");
  Serial.println(rc);
}

void loop() {}

Which produces the following log

entry 0x400805b4
[I] URLStream.h : 90 - virtual bool audio_tools::URLStream::begin(const char*, const char*, MethodID, const char*, const char*): http://theoldiestation.dyndns.org:8020/stream.mp3
[I] Url.h : 58 - Url::parse
[I] Url.h : 96 - url->http://theoldiestation.dyndns.org:8020/stream.mp3
[I] Url.h : 97 - host->theoldiestation.dyndns.org
[I] Url.h : 98 - protocol->http
[I] Url.h : 99 - path->/stream.mp3
[I] Url.h : 100 - port->8020
[I] URLStream.h : 411 - bool audio_tools::URLStream::login()
........
[I] URLStream.h : 385 - WiFiClient
[I] HttpRequest.h : 240 - process connecting to host theoldiestation.dyndns.org port 8020
[I] HttpRequest.h : 367 - is connected false  with timeout 60000
[E] HttpRequest.h : 243 - Connect failed
[I] HttpRequest.h : 316 - Request written ... waiting for reply
[I] URLStream.h : 105 - ==> http status: 0
rc = 0

The timeout has been selected that high in order to resolve the issue of false negatives, where the API was reporting an error on a perfectly valid connection.

There is a method to define the timeout...

[Frank-Bemelman]

Thank you for your kind help.
The AudioToolsLogLevel is helpful.

I also enabled core dubug level info in Arduino IDE which also gives me this:

[ 90511][E][NetworkManager.cpp:136] hostByName(): DNS Failed for 'theoldiestation.dyndns.org' with error '-54'

Which happens roughly 300mS after the url.begin("http://theoldiestation.dyndns.org:8020/stream.mp3") call.

If the DNS already fails as expected, would't it make sense to quit the attempt immediately, and skipping all the subsequent efforts such as HttpRequest(s) and trying to find ICY metadata? This only consumes the timeout times, while the outcome is already known.

You could say, what's the big deal, but I am trying to build an internet radio with a database of 150K urls, and not all are pretty.
It would help if url.begin() would not spend time if the DNS already failed.

Don't you think so? Or should I test first, for DNS succes, before calling urel.begin() ?

Thank you for your time.
BTW, I also started a discussion on this very topic, perhaps it can be deleted now.

[pschatzmann]

Feel free to to submit a request with the Espressif Arduino Core: I am just using the functionality provided by WiFiClient.

[Frank-Bemelman]

I added an additional check, WiFi.hostByName(host, aResult) and only if the result of that is positive, I proceed with url.begin();
The Wifi.hostByName() call consumes roughly 20mS.

I would think that adding that check inside url.begin() wouldn't hurt. At least that would save the timeouts of 60000.
And then it could also return a false, rather than a true, which it returns now, with a bad url.

Anyway, I tackeled this one, albeit quick and dirty perhaps..

Thanks again ;-)

[pschatzmann]

I think it is better to keep this in you sketch because

• I think this might fail if you use an ip address
• it only works if you use WiFi and I am not sure if this available for other WiFi implementations other than the ESP32

[Frank-Bemelman]

Just for fun, I tested WiFi.hostByName(host, aResult) with an IP address as a text string. Just returns a true and the same IPAddress as given in the hostname argument.

But you are right, not all Wifi implementations have hostByName.
Lucky me ;-)