I guess it’s not one with an RJ45 socket then?
No. I believe that there is a google nest device that DOES have an RJ45, but would that be a case of garbage in/garbage out? If the signal coming into a router/extender is coming in thru wifi, and then has Ethernet out to the Node, would that “create” a sufficiently hardwired connection to the Node or is the Ethernet just being a conduit for a signal that the Node still won’t behave with?
No. It should be fine. As I understand it the issue is likely the WiFi implementation on the node - but I have no first hand knowledge of that.
Unfortunately I’ve also heard of problems with google mesh systems, so that’s another can of worms…
Yeah, well, if it ain’t one thing it’s an udder. Twas ever thus.
I think I’d cobble together a hard wired connection - long patch cable or move something - just to confirm that it’s ‘something in the WiFi’. Or not. It would drive me nuts not knowing…
Hi @dcw96161
As for that, I want to contribute a funny story:
Until nearly the end of the year Roon worked fine via Wifi in my house. All wifi, only the core in a NUC running ROCK was wired. But after Christmas suddenly the problems started:
On time and every single day dropouts occurred, stuttering, later also “Qobuz media is loading slowly”, skipping tracks - the full program.
I have tried around and around and changed wifi channels, but without success.
It only helped to reboot the router and next the NUC Rock, after that everything ran flawlessly again. For about an hour, then dropouts occurred and everything started all over again.
You could have set the clock after that, I thought.
And then suddenly thought of my new Fitbit Inspire 2 …?!
It’s a fitness tracker that reads all kinds of data, heart rhythm, heart rate, step count, calorie consumption and sends it to an app on my phone and on my iPad.
And, as I only realized then, can NOT be turned off, in any way. Only when the battery is empty.
I was forced to put the thing in the turned off microwave to be able to test if that changes anything. You see, this tracker has excellent transmitting power over two floors and I couldn’t find a place in my house where the data wasn’t getting through. Just turning off Bluetooth on the phone did nothing.
But the microwave did it - no more dropouts at all!
Well, this experience made made me think and the next day I started to wire every single wifi endpoint in my house.
It’s all done now.
And since then no more dropouts, hiccups or other problems with Roon. Everything is running fine again.
But what I was thinking about, then and just now:
What, if you don’t have a big house and the neighbors live in close proximity?
And what happens if one of your neighbors also gets one of those transmitters that can’t be switched off and shoots up everything within a radius of 80 meters?
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Okay…So I’m beginning to suspect that there’s something wrong with the Node itself.
I hardwired it to an 8 port TP Link unmanaged switch that itself is hardwired to the modem a foot away.
Keeping Roon out of the mix for the moment, the player is not being found at all in either the desktop or iOS Bluesound apps. Like it doesn’t even exist.
Also then plugged directly into the modem to go around the switch. Same.
It would seem logical that if the Bluesound apps can’t find its own products, Roon’s not going to do any better.
Can’t find anything about such an issue in the Bluesound support pages.
Hi @dcw96161,
Thanks for reaching out and thank you to everyone who contributed so far on the thread, there is some excellent information here.
The database lives on the NUC, so this is the most important aspect to have plugged into the UPS. The router and Node can usually be rebooted properly after a power loss, but if Roon was performing database-related activity when the power outage occurred, then corruption may occur. I would also keep regular Backups of your database.
Yes, if you are unable to find the Node via BluOS app then it sounds like there might be an issue with the Node itself.
I would try to perform a full factory-reset of the device, this might help.
If this doesn’t your next step would be to reach out to Bluesound Support and see if they can take a look at the logs from the device:
Please do let us know if either of those suggestions help, thanks!
Add to the crazy stories, my house is brick and plaster with a solid roof very common design in South Africa. WiFi doesn’t get though brick too well.
I had the 18:00 blues when neighbors come home and start using WiFi, I’m retired and mostly at home in the day,
Even the position of the (Faraday) parrot cage has an impact
There are so many things that get in the way, @Craig_Palmer has mentioned most.
Some users say WiFi is great others don’t , it’s relatively easy to eliminate with a long Ethernet cable for a test maybe not so for permanent
I have 4 wi fi repeaters serving very specific areas but all serious stuff is wired
Good luck
Thank you.
Progress report. So I didn’t look closely, but my Node is a 2i. No big deal but I didn’t notice that the instruction you provided was for gen 1 until after I’d tried unsuccessfully to reset it about 5x. No worries.
So anyhow, I did find the right instruction, and even then it took 3 tries for it to happen. My conclusion: This thing is more finicky than Morris the Cat. I’m not thrilled. Higher maintenance than any gf I ever had that’s for sure.
Do you have any theories about why this went off the rails? Common causes maybe? Frequent Power failures? Covid? Brexit? Hemlines too short? Because I do not have the patience or interest in having to go thru this fire drill on even a semi-annual basis. It’s like the thing just forgot what its ONLY job was.
So, okay…I got it far enough to at least have the thing visible in BluOS, but Roon isn’t finding it even though it’s is less than 5 inches away from the Google mesh router extender gizmo. And I mean 5 inches. Which makes little sense given that when it was 10’ away from the mesh router that is hardwired to the modem, it works fine.
So all this does is take me back to where I was (or where I thought I was) before I factory reset it.
Taking two steps back… the NUC, all endpoints, and all remotes must be on the same subnet, whether wired or WiFi. If I’m understanding your configuration correctly, you are mostly using a Google mesh; is the modem also providing a separate network? Where is the NUC connected?
What happens if you hard wire the Node to the Google base unit?
So this morning. I let a Roon radio signal run all night just to see if everything stayed going without incident. We’re now at 24 hours of the NUC doing it’s thing seemingly okay.
But we’re back to stuttering. Nano-second break in sound every 3 to 5 seconds. Then it will play with no stutter for a minute or two, then back to stutter.
Modem. No. It does not broadcast a wifi signal. Arris SB8200 modem, out to an unmanaged 8 port switch. Switch out to Google mesh. Two Mesh expanders in different parts of the house. Bluesound Node located literally 2” from one of those. See photo. I had wondered if the mesh was splitting the signal between 2.4 and 5, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
I ran a “mesh test” in the Google wifi app, and the result was “everything looks great and your connection is strong.”
Conjecture based on everyone’s input—for which thanks all! you’ve kept me from going hang-gliding without a kite which I was on the verge of!—I’m back to experiencing the (apparently) deficient wifi performance of the Node.
It’s not practical to hardwire from switch to Node. At least not in the winter. The run would have to go outside and there’s too much snow for anyone to be screwing around on ladders. So I’m willing to try a bridge or getting another google mesh point with an RS45 output.
I think the point I’m hearing is to bypass the wifi guts of the Node and just get the signal coming in from wire. I guess garbage in/garbage out isn’t an issue, so it won’t matter of the point where the Ethernet cable comes from is itself receiving a wifi signal.
But I’m confused.
Wouldn’t a bridge just be yet another wifi point that the Node would have to deal with? Is there a brand of bridge that anyone recommends? The google device is $175 and would leave me with another unused mesh point that I already bought.
Which model is the primary mesh unit?
H2D. That’s all it or the app says.
Yeah. Not my first rodeo.
Buy and build another computer, install and learn new software, so I can program the new computer to attach to a wifi point to receive a signal from another wifi point that attaches to a switch that attaches to another computer (NUC) that I had to buy and install new software on so it can access music from a SSD (that I loaded up with a lot of data that I paid a lot of money for) using a third computer (iMac) attached to another wifi point so I can then plug the whole kit and caboodle into a finicky Bluesound Node (that cost $500) plugged into an integrated amp so I can listen to the radio. Oh…And the best part? The subscription that allows me to have all this fun costs $120/year.
This all has the feeling of the old children’s nursery rhyme “The House that Jack Built.”
I have zero confidence that, after I get the Rpi I won’t then have to go buy, install and learn some other thing because “as everyone knows X won’t work with Y unless you get a Z” bah, blah, blah…
I think the H2D has two RJ45 sockets. You might try connecting the WAN socket directly to the Arris modem, and the 8-port switch to the LAN socket of the H2D, then - test only, not suggesting final configuration - plug the Bluesound into the switch. Everything should then be on the same subnet, and should work. If not, time for a rethink…
I guess I’m assuming you don’t have anything set up with a fixed IP address.
Where is the NUC connected?
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So why a “FLIRC case?” What does that add that one of the pre-made “kit” versions doesn’t include? If I do this it’s going in or behind a cabinet, never to be seen or heard from again until doing so is unavoidable. I don’t care if it’s “attractive aluminum,” gold, platinum, silver or whatever. Down, dirty, cheap, invisible and rock solid reliable. Those are my top 5 criteria.
Stick with it a bit longer. It should all work fine; and if it doesn’t, the key to fixing it without throwing money at the problem is working out what’s ‘broken’… and as my boss was fond of saying, ‘the devil is in the detail’…
Up to a limit. At some point I’m going to be done spending, fiddling and screwing around. I am very, very close to that.
And I saw that you pulled your post Jim. No offense taken. Very fair question that you asked. I keep asking myself the same thing.
Here’s the sequence.
Modem has 2x outputs.
Modem->Switch->NUC
Modem->H2D
One obviously has to go to the switch, and the H2d needs love too. My thought–could be wrong, often am–is that the H2D probably wants the most direct signal from the modem, other than going thru the switch.
No static IP.
Would it be cleaner if everything came thru the switch so that they’re all in the same “room?”