RokuM500Automation

Overview

I am a long-time owner of a Roku Soundbridge M500 internet radio. You may have never heard of these devices - the Soundbridge was Roku's first foray in to streaming before they moved to video streaming. While the M500 was discontinued many years ago, it still works and in fact I use mine daily to listen to the radio. This post covers my attempts to understand how to control the M500 remotely, and provides some info about how to make one of these old devices work in the modern age.

Network Control

The m500 is a device that sits on your network and can play internet radio streams. It runs a very simple web interface, so presumably it should be easy to automate. I spent an hour in the chrome dev console figuring out how to GET and POST data from and to it. The great thing is there is no authentication on the web interface, so you can just interact with it directly. I miss the early 2000s. You don't even need to bother with https (well actually, the m500 just can't do https). More on that later in the section about setting up internet radio stations on this device.

Anyway, after futzing around with the dev console in chrome and with curl, I was able to figure out the following remote control commands. I leave them on this page in case someone else finds this useful.

Commands

For reference, here's what the m500 main screen looks like:

Control of the device can be done by faking a click on each of the buttons, or submitting a value in the case of the volume control. This can all be done via standard http POST commands.

First, the basic commands. The number after "x=" can vary, I think it's actually the x location on the button image where the mouse was clicked. That doesn't matter since each image only controls one function.

Play

curl --data Play.x=1 http://192.168.1.45/Forms/SoundBridgeNP_1

Pause

curl --data Pause.x=1 http://192.168.1.45/Forms/SoundBridgeNP_1

Others

Rinse and repeat for the remaining buttons on the page, if desired:

• Prev
• Stop
• Next
• RptOff
• Shutoff

Volume Control

For volume control, you POST a number between 0 and 100:

curl --data gPageVolume=80 http://192.168.1.45/Forms/SoundBridgeNP_2

Presets

Presets work the same basic way, although the format of the data you send is more complex. Here's what the presets page looks like:

And here's what a curl command to set the presets looks like:

curl -v --data "PresetName%3F1=KAPA+FM+Hilo&SR_WP_PS_PLAY=Play&PresetLocation
%3F1=http%3A%2F%2Fplayerservices.streamtheworld.com%2Fapi%2Flivestream-
redirect%2FKAPAFM.mp3&PresetNum%3F1=1&PresetName%3F2
=KZYX+Philo+CA+Public+Radio&PresetLocation%3F2=http%3A%2F%2Fkzyx.mcn.org
%3A4000%2Fkzyxlive&PresetNum%3F2=2&PresetName%3F3=KEXP+Seattle+Public+Radio
&PresetLocation%3F3=http%3A%2F%2Flive-mp3-28.kexp.org%2F&PresetNum%3F3=3
&PresetName%3F4=BBC+6+Music&PresetLocation%3F4=http%3A%2F%2
Fbbcmedia.ic.llnwd.net%2Fstream%2Fbbcmedia_6music_mf_p&PresetNum%3
F4=4&PresetName%3F5=KQED+SF+Public+Radio&PresetLocation%3F5=http%3A
%2F%2Fstreams2.kqed.org%2Fkqedradio&PresetNum%3F5=5&PresetName%3F6
=RadioParadise.com+-+Eclectic&PresetLocation%3F6=http%3A%2F%2F
www.radioparadise.com%2Fmusiclinks%2Frp_128.m3u&PresetNum%3F6=6&
PresetName%3F7=KCRW+Eclectic+24&PresetLocation%3F7=http%3A%2F%2F
kcrw.streamguys1.com%2Fkcrw_192k_mp3_e24&PresetNum%3F7=7&PresetName
%3F8=Groove+Salad+-+SomaFM.com&PresetLocation%3F8=http%3A
%2F%2Fwww.somafm.com%2Fgroovesalad.pls&PresetNum%3F8=8&PresetName%3
F9=Indie+Pop+Rocks%21+-+SomaFM.com&PresetLocation%3F9=http%3A
%2F%2Fwww.somafm.com%2Findiepop.pls&PresetNum%3F9=9&PresetName%
3F10=Boot+Liquor+-+SomaFM.com&PresetLocation%3F10=https%3A
%2F%2Fsomafm.com%2Fbootliquor.pls&PresetNum%3F10=10&PresetName
%3F11=Trancebase.fm&PresetLocation%3F11=http%3A%2F%2Flw3.mp3.tb-
group.fm%2Ftrb.mp3&PresetNum%3F11=11&PresetName%3F12=
KBOO+Portland+Community+Radio&PresetLocation%3F12=http%3A
%2F%2Flive.kboo.fm%3A8000%2Fhigh.m3u&PresetNum%3F12=12&
PresetName%3F13=KAZU+Monterey+Bay+Public+Radio&PresetLocation%3
F13=http%3A%2F%2Ficecast.csumb.edu%3A8000%2Flive128&PresetNum%3
F13=13&PresetName%3F14=KCRW+WorldNews&PresetLocation%3F14=http%3A
%2F%2Fkcrw.streamguys1.com%2Fkcrw_192k_mp3_news&PresetNum%3F14=14
&PresetName%3F15=SomaFM+Christmas+Lounge&PresetLocation%3F15=http
%3A%2F%2Fsomafm.com%2Fchristmas256.pls&PresetNum%3F15=15&PresetName
%3F16=The+Current+-+Minnesota+Public+Radio&PresetLocation%3F
16=http%3A%2F%2Fcurrent.stream.publicradio.org%2Fkcmp.mp3&PresetNum%3F
16=16&PresetName%3F17=KAZU+Montery+Bay+Classical&PresetLocation%3F17
=http%3A%2F%2Ficecast.csumb.edu%3A8000%2Flivehd2high&PresetNum%3F17
=17&PresetName%3F18=KGO+AM+Talk+Radio&PresetLocation%3F18=http%3A%
2F%2F18533.live.streamtheworld.com%3A80%2FKGOAM_SC&PresetNum%3F18
=18" http://hardrckn/Forms/SoundBridgePresets_1

also need a separate page detailing the internet radio stations which currently work correctly, and how to find the regular http version of streams.

CategoryGeekStuff