Hi,
The symptom suggests a network issue. Try either of the following and see if problem goes away.
1) Connect Pi via Ethernet cable to switch
2) Connect Pi via WiFi Adapter
You could also leave network as-is and run a ping test from the Pi to Router while music is playing and then wait until dropout occurs then Ctrl-c the ping and examine the stats.
Another test from your PC would be to stream a radio station from the Internet and verify that there are no dropouts. This would rule out Internet connection as possible source of problem.
-Tim
@hoverdonkey
Dollars to doughnuts it's mains noise affecting the homeplug 500 (Zyxel). Some appliance switching on/off , or ripple control ? .
I suffered this for ages until I noticed it happened whenever my wife was sewing. The sewing machine foot controller or the motor put enough garbage onto the power line to kill the power-line adapter's operation.
After that I checked other dropout times and found they matched the power company's ripple control signal (don't know if you have such a thing where you are but it is used to switch the hot-water heater off for extended periods to control power supply network use..it can happen at random times too)
Other devices such as poorly made switchmode supplies or shop tools can do the same. If you're in an apartment building then there could be many sources..
As Tim says , run with directly connected ethernet and I'm sure the dropouts will be gone..
Dollars to doughnuts it's mains noise affecting the homeplug 500 (Zyxel). Some appliance switching on/off , or ripple control ? .
I suffered this for ages until I noticed it happened whenever my wife was sewing. The sewing machine foot controller or the motor put enough garbage onto the power line to kill the power-line adapter's operation.
After that I checked other dropout times and found they matched the power company's ripple control signal (don't know if you have such a thing where you are but it is used to switch the hot-water heater off for extended periods to control power supply network use..it can happen at random times too)
Other devices such as poorly made switchmode supplies or shop tools can do the same. If you're in an apartment building then there could be many sources..
As Tim says , run with directly connected ethernet and I'm sure the dropouts will be gone..
There has been some noise about the Intellon 6000 chipset used in the Zyxel powerline kits having issues with timing out.
While they are certainly some of the fastest chips used in this application, they seem to not play nice with certain protocols and technologies (DNLA, for example).
One way to check would be to run a network monitoring app over a decent amount of time (say a month) with a short response time, such as Paessler's PRTG. It can monitor multiple hosts and store results in a DB, or warn you via email, SMS, etc. And it's free for small installations of 100 sensors (a sensor can be anything on a network you want to monitor). It has great reporting functions, so you can follow trends. https://www.paessler.com/prtg
While they are certainly some of the fastest chips used in this application, they seem to not play nice with certain protocols and technologies (DNLA, for example).
One way to check would be to run a network monitoring app over a decent amount of time (say a month) with a short response time, such as Paessler's PRTG. It can monitor multiple hosts and store results in a DB, or warn you via email, SMS, etc. And it's free for small installations of 100 sensors (a sensor can be anything on a network you want to monitor). It has great reporting functions, so you can follow trends. https://www.paessler.com/prtg
Thank you Tim, DRONE7 & Zootalaws, you all speak with much sense and lucidity. My system presents a rather long chain of possibilities for error, so it is great to have some light shed on where to look first.
A shame to hear about the Zyxel/homeplug issues - I installed these assuming that they would be more reliable than wi-fi. Netflix & Amazon Video (in my Samsung telly) which share the connection through these with the Pi (not at the same time!) never falter but they did buffer a lot on wi-fi.
However, since then I have a new router which I understand has solid wi-fi, so I will try that option first with the Pi as it is easy to try and if it works I'll be done. If still necessary, I will try wired ethernet for diagnosis purposes, but unfortunately it is not a practical solution as it would mean rewiring the house. I will also trying pinging from the Pi and Paessler's PRTG (it sounds like it could be a useful tool on an ongoing basis.)
Thank you again
A great idea on several fronts, thank you.
I will certainly try it (to eliminate the network or not). If I find I am stuck with intermittent network issues, then the USB drive could be great final solution (especially if can find a way to keep it synced and up to date).
hoverdonkey, I assume you are referring to the "elapsed time"/"time remaining" counter and dial in the Playback window.
I am terrible at reading the HTML code which generates this display and figuring out where the data displayed in it comes from, so I did an empirical, black-box test: I fired up a browser on my laptop, surfed to my Moode Player, started it playing a track, and then switched off the WiFi adapter on my laptop. The counter continued without interruption even though there was no communication between the browser and Moode. Hence, it's not a useful diagnostic.
It looks like you are getting great suggestions for dealing with your problem. If you have a Windows system available, then Zootalaws' suggestion of PRTG looks to be a winner. I have a bunch of hosts running Linux or Android, only one of which I can dual-boot into Windows when I must, so I use Linux/Android tools where ever possible. Besides ping, there's tools like mtr and iftop available in Linux, but none is as slick as PRTG. They're tools for propellerheads like me.
Regards,
Kent
Is there a card size limitation with "expand sd card stoarage"? It worked great with 32GB sd card but not with 64GB card.
With 32GB SD Card:
With 64GB SD Card:
edit:
Nevermind, third time's the charm.
With 32GB SD Card:
Code:
pi@moode:~ $ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 29G 1.3G 27G 5% /
devtmpfs 459M 0 459M 0% /dev
tmpfs 463M 0 463M 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 463M 6.4M 457M 2% /run
tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 463M 0 463M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p1 60M 22M 39M 36% /boot
tmpfs 93M 0 93M 0% /run/user/1000With 64GB SD Card:
Code:
pi@moode2:~ $ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 1.5G 1.2G 224M 85% /
devtmpfs 459M 0 459M 0% /dev
tmpfs 463M 0 463M 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 463M 6.5M 457M 2% /run
tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 463M 0 463M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p1 60M 22M 39M 36% /boot
tmpfs 93M 0 93M 0% /run/user/1000edit:
Nevermind, third time's the charm.
Code:
pi@moode2:~ $ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 59G 1.2G 55G 3% /
devtmpfs 459M 0 459M 0% /dev
tmpfs 463M 0 463M 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs 463M 6.4M 457M 2% /run
tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
tmpfs 463M 0 463M 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p1 60M 22M 39M 36% /boot
tmpfs 93M 0 93M 0% /run/user/1000
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Using Moode Audio 2.7 and loving the SQ
Hi Tim,
I am now using a Raspberry Pi 3 with the Hifiberry Dac Pro + . I find this to be really resolute. I am able to connect it to my external DAC which uses a XMOS X20 chip. I tried yet could not get it to connect to a friend's Esoteric play USB port. The MPC page would fail so no luck.
I plan on getting the Dac board it's own power supply to achieve better bass and SQ.
Hopefully you and the others are able to release an update soon? I have to use AP mode to connect as wireless with not work even on the edimax adapter.
Is there a way of getting to a terminal or command prompt in Moode?
Liz
Hi Tim,
I am now using a Raspberry Pi 3 with the Hifiberry Dac Pro + . I find this to be really resolute. I am able to connect it to my external DAC which uses a XMOS X20 chip. I tried yet could not get it to connect to a friend's Esoteric play USB port. The MPC page would fail so no luck.
I plan on getting the Dac board it's own power supply to achieve better bass and SQ.
Hopefully you and the others are able to release an update soon? I have to use AP mode to connect as wireless with not work even on the edimax adapter.
Is there a way of getting to a terminal or command prompt in Moode?
Liz
Hi,
Moode Setup guide has userid and pwd for ssh terminal.
Many Moode users including myself use Edimax adapters and no issues. If u want to use a WiFi dongle on Pi-3B with Moode the integrated WiI/BT adapter needs to be turned off. There is a setting on System config to turn it off.
-Tim
Don't get me wrong, the Zyxel powerline adapters are pretty damned good, but like most comms gear, there are some circumstances where they don't perform as well as they could.
Just because some users have reported a problem, doesn't mean you will have the same issues. It can be a combination of many different conditions coming together to cause a problem, and it may have nothing to do with the powerline adapters.
Have you upgraded to the latest firmware?
You won't find a windows system in my house!
You will find a bunch of Linux, MacOS and Unix systems, though.
But, just as I accept people will vote for Trump despite alll sensible efforts to discourage them, some people will use Windows. Not my cross to bear
You won't find a windows system in my house!
Cave...? Taylors Mistake.....
Hope you have a fine and marvellous Labour Weekend....! (just don't travel North aye...
...) [With all the strife on SH1 we Wellingumbootites are better relaxing at home.....and the weather's GREAT...best kept secret of Hive-Central ]Cheers,
Bob.
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Thank you for running that timer test Kent, that is as I suspected.
Yes, the support here has been fantastic, I am very grateful.
I will try PRTG, I have a Windows laptop.. as soon as my brain is working (thanks to my son for the nasty bug!).
Firmware updates for homeplug adaptors? I had no idea that was a thing! I shall certainly do that.
Thank you again.
PI2 & DigiAMP+
Hi, just bought the DigiAMP+ and downloaded the Tim Curtis' Moode Audio release 2.6 preconfigured for IQaudio [IQ_moode-sdimg-r26.zip]; sorry for being a complete newbie but I am stuck - cannot see the player over the network (cabled pi) no matter what.
I might have missed something but i just cannot figure this out - any ideas please?
Thanks,
Axell
Hi, just bought the DigiAMP+ and downloaded the Tim Curtis' Moode Audio release 2.6 preconfigured for IQaudio [IQ_moode-sdimg-r26.zip]; sorry for being a complete newbie but I am stuck - cannot see the player over the network (cabled pi) no matter what.
I might have missed something but i just cannot figure this out - any ideas please?
Thanks,
Axell
Hi Axell
I have just spent 6 hours with the same problem. Didn't even know if my sd card was working.
The instructions that Tim puts up were confusing to me not understanding some of the terminology.
How I got mine going..
I used mood 2.7 in the end (it is very easy to configure for iqaudio dac after).
Moode allows the pi 3 to run an access point. What this means is that the pi 3 sends out it's own Wi-Fi signal that you can log on to with your laptop.
So switch the pi on with no ethernet cable attached.
On your laptop disconnect from your normal Wi-Fi network, and wait for moode to appear on your laptop as a Wi-Fi network you can log in to.
On your laptop Log in to moode Wi-Fi network.
Use moodeaudio as the wifi password. (May be capital M).
Then in your internet browser on your laptop open a new tab and go to http://moode.local
Hang on that browser tab and within a few minutes the moode interface well miraculously appear!!!!
This worked for me!!!
Once in there are menus for setting up Wi-Fi and ethernet connections to your home network.
Tim PLEASE put instructions like this in your set up page. I was within a few seconds of giving up on moode totally when I thought to try this!!!! We lesser beings need this kind of instruction
I have just spent 6 hours with the same problem. Didn't even know if my sd card was working.
The instructions that Tim puts up were confusing to me not understanding some of the terminology.
How I got mine going..
I used mood 2.7 in the end (it is very easy to configure for iqaudio dac after).
Moode allows the pi 3 to run an access point. What this means is that the pi 3 sends out it's own Wi-Fi signal that you can log on to with your laptop.
So switch the pi on with no ethernet cable attached.
On your laptop disconnect from your normal Wi-Fi network, and wait for moode to appear on your laptop as a Wi-Fi network you can log in to.
On your laptop Log in to moode Wi-Fi network.
Use moodeaudio as the wifi password. (May be capital M).
Then in your internet browser on your laptop open a new tab and go to http://moode.local
Hang on that browser tab and within a few minutes the moode interface well miraculously appear!!!!
This worked for me!!!
Once in there are menus for setting up Wi-Fi and ethernet connections to your home network.
Tim PLEASE put instructions like this in your set up page. I was within a few seconds of giving up on moode totally when I thought to try this!!!! We lesser beings need this kind of instruction
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I am now this morning playing music with moode!
A request! Tim please make playlists more intuitive if possible.
I need more than 1 playlist, and playlists need to be obvious. I'm struggling to find the one I've got.
Random play of all tracks in the playlist from the start would also be good, rather than me spending half an hour loading 6gb of music then googling to discover random play only happens when the last track on that playlist ends! You what!
Tim, let me know if I'm being a beginner and missing something. Thank you!
A request! Tim please make playlists more intuitive if possible.
I need more than 1 playlist, and playlists need to be obvious. I'm struggling to find the one I've got.
Random play of all tracks in the playlist from the start would also be good, rather than me spending half an hour loading 6gb of music then googling to discover random play only happens when the last track on that playlist ends! You what!
Tim, let me know if I'm being a beginner and missing something. Thank you!