rooDial a Wireless Volume Knob for Roon with Microsoft Surface Dial

For those following this thread, I incorrectly thought that the license key was associated to the operating system on the SD card, but it actually creates an association to the Raspberry Pi hardware being used. While troubleshooting during the set up process, I inadvertently moved the SD card to another Zero 2w device and that created the licensing issue I was having.

4 Likes

Another helpful suggestion - if you have a mesh network set up with multiple satellites (or nodes), try connecting your Raspberry Pi device to the ethernet connection on a nearby satellite (assuming there is one). This will increase the responsiveness of RooDial and create a more consistent connection to the Surface Dial.

One important note: this suggestion assumes you followed the original instructions to set up RooDial and have it working correctly over a wireless connection.

1 Like

New Long Range Bluetooth Adapters

Hi rooDial users,
recently I got a complaint from a rooDial user that he bought the Long Range Double Antenna Bluetooth Adapter from ZEXMTE and it did not work :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

I could not believe so I bought these two currently available adapters for debugging purposes:

I found out that both of them did NOT work. Further work showed, that they both need an updated firmware.

I built a patch that I will include in the next rooExtend release. This makes these adapters work like charm. :+1: :grinning: :grinning:

So if you like to bridge a longer distance between your Pi and the Surface Dial you can get one of these adapters now and ask me for the patch.

I also ordered this adapter which has a single antenna only to give it a try:


Don’t buy it!
This gadget did not work at all and probably never will. It has a completely different hardware inside that is not supported by Linux.

Best DrCWO

1 Like

And, as the complaining user, a big thank you to @DrCWO for fixing this :grinning: Seems to be working well so far.

2 Likes

Hey DrCWO -
I have a lifetime licence- Used for years - but currently not working (happens from time-2-time) -
The license field is now empty for some reason - but entering my license code doesn’t work and isn’t accepted -

How can fix?

• Roon settings show L / R when dial moved - so its sensing movement
• I have 2 “definiteAudio GmbH” listed in Roon / Extensions - code doesn’t work in either
• I have 5 items listed inside ‘Extension authorizations’

  • definiteAudio GmbH rooDial x 3
  • definiteAudio GmbH roo6D x 2

Hope you can help - friends coming over for a music night, nice if this working

In your screenshot you show the authorizations. They have nothing to do with the running Roon Extensions. What do you see if you open Roon Settings/Extensions. There should be only ONE definiteAudio GmbH entry!

If there are many of them after a reboot something is completely wrong and you should start with a fresh SD-Card image.

Please send me the Screenshot of Roon Settings/Extensions and a screenshot of the Settings of the rooExtend License Manager. Here the beginning and the end of the dialog.

Please also send your License Key to info@definiteaudio.de.

Best DrCWO

Email sent

You got a reply from me :+1:

Hello Dr. Oehlrich,
Would a Pi 5 work ok with RooDial?
Thanks

Pi5 is not yet supported by rooExtend and therefore no Pi5 for rooDial!
Will come this year with a new Linux Linux release under the hood.

Best DrCWO

Hi Dr. CWO,

Please can I ask for your assistance.

I have had RooDial working for about 1.5 years with no issues, using Pi-W.

My RooDial recently wasn’t being recognised - status Sleeping.

I replaced the RooDial batteries, but this did not fix the problem.

I re-imaged the Pi-W micro-SD, removed and reapplied my perpetual license for rooDial.

Set up RooExtend on the Pi-W again, this is seen in Roon.

Re-paired the Surface Dial but the status would not change from sleeping.

To prove that the Surface Dial was working, I paired it to my Win11 laptop, and movement of the dial can scroll pages etc, so I am certain it is not broken. I then removed the surface dial from my Win11 client.

Roon extensions > rooDial reports that the Dial is Unpaired (as expected). When I attempt to re-pair with the button on the dial, nothing happens. Is pairing a one-time action when the RooExtend is run for the first time after installation? Do I have to re-image the SD-card and start all over again to get into pairing mode?

Many thanks