rooExtend – The easy start with Roon Extensions

Audio Gear Talk rooExtend
406

Hopefully a simple question about moving to a new core installation.

I may move my core over to a NUC. I have four rooExtend instances each with licenses applied. I’ve got the new core up and running. I see the rooExtend boxes showing up in the new core with a “Pair” button next to each.

Is moving to the new core as simple as clicking Pair for each? Will doing this retain the license and unpair each rooExtend instance from the old core? Or should I revoke license before I play around with pairing?

Thanks!

407

I just got another dial. Can you let me know how I can unpair the old dial and pair my Pi Zero W with this new one?

Update: had to factory reset. Got it working. Will see if the new dial fixes the sleep issue.

1 Like
408

So far so good. Resetting the pi and connecting a new dial has ended the sleep/connection issue.

I did purchase the BT Antenna from ZEXMTE to make sure BT signal doesn’t cause problems.

A couple of questions:

  1. Is it plug-and-play? I believe this is an actual BT module and not just an antenna.
  2. Will I need to reset the pi and repair like I did with the new dial? Or will it automatically pair to ZEXMTE?

Thanks again for the help.

409

I am happy that the Dail was the reason why :+1:

The Antenna is Plug-And-Play. Insert, power on the Pi and you should be fine.
And yes, you have to reset to clear the pairing after first start with antenna.

Best DrCWO

410

I bought the by Dr. CWO recommend usb bt antenna stick.
It solved my connection issues

1 Like
411

— IMPORTANT — IMPORTANT — IMPORTANT — IMPORTANT —

Hi everybody,
in the past you found my website at https://rooExtend.com. Now this domain will be redirected to the ATR Shopify-Page for my new rooExtend-Box.

For sure I will continue supporting the DIY community and my Raspberry DIY page :+1: :slight_smile:
You will find it here diy.rooExtend.com

Best DrCWO

— IMPORTANT — IMPORTANT — IMPORTANT — IMPORTANT —

1 Like
412

Hey doc,

Any update about an eta?

413

It is up and running here on my desktop :+1:
Today I plan to do last tests and create the v3.0.2 image.
Probably publish tomorrow if no issues will come up at the last mile…

4 Likes
414

WOW! Great Product and Design for the new rooExtend Box. Not cheap, but complements and transports the Roon-Philospophie and design perfectly IMHO. I guess my Pi4 has to go soon for this one. :clap:

Will License-Transfer with the Pi-USB-Stick to the new Box work? What Hardware is this Box based on? Thanks in advance and congrats on the release of this great product. Even the comprehensive manual is of top quality. A good manual is a must for a product as complex as rooExtend. Love it. :heart_eyes:

415

Thank you so :smiling_face:
It was a lot of work to get there but now it is out and ATR has are enough devices in stock :+1:
As far as I can say I expect we won’t have any supply chain problems like Raspberry is currently experiencing.

At the moment the shop is in German for the German market only.
In about two weeks ATR will provide an English and French version too for international sales.

Transfer of licenses should be no problem. I never tested but as the file format is the same there should be no issue. If all else fails, you can revoke the licenses and re-enter the keys manually.

The unit is based on an ARMv8 quad core from Rockchip. Regarding it’s computing power it is half way between Pi3 and Pi4.

I already opened the support forum for the rooExtend-Box.

Best DrCWO

416

Will 3.0.2 include the ability to upgrade in-place going forward (post 3.0.2)
or is it still a reflash upgrade model?

417

No more reflash update. It is automatic OTA update in the night between 2 an a AM :+1:

2 Likes
418

Many of you are waiting for v3.0.2 here an update.

I had to learn that the migration from Raspbian to DietPi was not as easy as I thought. I decided to use DietPi as it is also available for the rooExten-Box and I liked to have the same operating system for both platforms.

Adapting the rooExtend-Box was relatively easy as there is no WiFi and BT is done with ZEXMTE antenna only.

This week I had to find out that DietPi has some issues with Nuimo if using an external BT USB stick. But this is a must for v3.0.2 on the Pi. Here I still have no solution and will try to solve it next week.

Next issue is WiFi and the preparation of the Access-Point to be able to connect rooExtend to the local WiFi network. The script I used did not work anymore and I had to adapt and partly rewrite it. I worked on this issue during the last week with some success. Hope I can close the issue today.

Got frustrated a bit of all that DietPi issues. So I decided to give me some positive vibrations and started implementing rooHead :+1: Looks good so far and I still hope to be able to offer this X-mas present in time :smile:

Best DrCWO

419

As suggested earlier please feel free to put out a beta without the wifi.

3 Likes
420

@DrCWO I would certainly be up for trying that when you have fixed the BT issues as both mine have external BT.

I also bought the new recommended BT to try as well with the new version.

421

I bought rooWatch over a month ago.

Since rooExtend keeps losing its license key, your app has been unusable for me.

422

So I have a new Zero inbound today, and a dial coming later this week. Should I just hold off until 3.0.X comes out soon, or get started with 2.3.2? I’m reluctant to get started with a major upgrade cycle right away and key associations etc if I can avoid it. Thanks.

423

The loosing license issue is fixed in V.2.3.3 Beta 5.

Please download it via the supplied link and try. I also recommended it to some few other users that also complained about that issue. As I did not get any feedback from them any more I believe they are happy with this fix.

Best DrCWO

424

You can start with the release v2.3.3 Beta 5 I recommended above. Is really stabe and available now. You can go to v3.0.2 if it got released.

425

My two cents.

There’s no real reason to install anything until you’ve got your dial in hand. If it were me, I’d wait until I had the dial in case DrCWO releases 3.x in the interim. If your dial shows up before 3.x releases, you might want to go ahead with the install. Manual updates are straightforward - thumb drive for storing settings, re-flash with Balena Etcher, restore from thumb drive. Worse case, you re-pair your dial which is trivial.

Hope you enjoy this setup!

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