Stream FM Radio on Raspberry Pi, Changing Frequency without Restarting

I am playing FM radio and trying to change the frequency of my RTL-SDR for my Raspberry Pi 3, while streaming (i.e., without having to shut down the program and restart)

It currently plays the station and I can increment the station/frequency slowly. However, if I increment it too fast, the SDR stops playing.

I'm using:

• Raspberry Pi 3, writing in Python 2.7.9
• NooElec R820T SDR & DVB-T USB dongle
• Rotary Encoder to input desired frequency
• pi-encoder library
• rtl_fm to receive and sox to play

My code is currently:

import os
import time
import subprocess

from pi_encoder import *

def updateStation(station_addr, kill=0):
    print 'creating pipe1a'
    pipe1a = subprocess.Popen(['rtl_fm', '-M', 'wbfm', '-f', str(station_addr) + 'M', '-g', '10'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
    print 'creating pipe1b'
    pipe1b = subprocess.Popen(['play', '-r', '32k', '-t', 'raw', '-e', 's', '-b', '16', '-c', '1', '-V1', '-'], stdin=pipe1a.stdout, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
    print 'creating pipe1c'
    pipe1c = pipe1b.stdout

    pid_a = pipe1a.pid
    return pid_a, pipe1a

# Export LD_LIBRARY_PATH; doesn't seem to retain
os.system('export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/lib')

## Rotary encoder GPIO PIN assignments are set in 'pi_encoder' module

## SET INITIAL VALUES
tuner_value = 0
station_addr = 95.1
max_tuner_addr = 109.1
min_tuner_addr = 88.0

## INITIALIZE ROTARY ENCODER WORKER THREAD
tuner_encoder = EncoderWorker(SwitchEncoder(TUNER_CLK_PIN, TUNER_DT_PIN, TUNER_SW_PIN))
tuner_encoder.start()

## MAIN LOOP
try:
    print 'Starting main loop'
    pid, process = updateStation(station_addr)
    while True:
        delta_tuner = tuner_encoder.get_delta()

        if delta_tuner!=0:
            tuner_value = tuner_value + delta_tuner
            print "tuner value", tuner_value
            station_addr = station_addr + (delta_tuner/10.0)
            if station_addr > max_tuner_addr:
                station_addr = max_tuner_addr
            elif station_addr < min_tuner_addr:
                station_addr = min_tuner_addr
            print 'station_address: ', station_addr

            print 'terminating process:'
            process.terminate()
            try:
                os.kill(pid, 0)
                process.kill()
            except OSError, e:
                print 'Terminated gracefully'

            pid, process = updateStation(station_addr)

        if tuner_encoder.get_upEvent():
            print "tuner up!"

        if tuner_encoder.get_downEvent():
            print "tuner down!"

finally:
    print 'Cleaning up GPIO...'
    IO.cleanup()

Is python subprocess tolerant to this use?

Is there another way (command, method, library) that would allow a more smooth and quick change of station/frequency that wouldn't affect play or stop the SDR from playing?

You may need to find a way wait for process.kill() to finish and the pipes to close (it happens asynchronously), before starting the a new process with your updateStation call. Try putting a small delay in your main while() loop after any kill to prevent it from sending process commands faster than the OS can reliably handle.