Dummies Guide to Pi2AES! Throw away your PC or laptop.

That's kind of weird. Fing always identifies as Raspberry Pi or Volumio or whatever other OS I'm using and (sometimes) the name I give to the device. Maybe yours is not connecting to the network?

 

The “Moode” I was talking about was a wireless access point just to see if it was up and running.

Moode is usually on the bleeding edge with regard to the latest releases of the various components which is good and bad. Good that bugs are fixed but new software usually means new bugs and ever the cycle goes on. I don’t use ethernet so can’t say if it still just works or not but my version is 7.4.1 and it works fine on wifi. A lot of the recent development has been integrating and supporting CamillaDSP which isn’t anything I’m too interested in but a lot of my listening has been via tidal connect since it came out so I don’t directly interface with anything but the tidal app all that much anymore.

 

Nice, so I guess I am covered.

Anyway moving on, I am a bit confused about i2s. I may just ditch it all together, even though I am interested in trying it. I dont get what an i2s cable is, is it a specific cable? I see there are some compatibility issues as well, I do not understand what's what. My DAC is the topping D70S, I think that unit itself is configurable for i2s input in the settings. So I am guessing compatibility wise I should be covered there.

But my question pertains to the i2s on the Pi2AES, does any i2s cable work or what do I choose? These really i2s cables are priced crazy high.

Does it even matter? just use regular hdmi? I think I see from my research that it's basically a cat cable with HDMI ends for i2s. Maybe completely off, but I do not know what I need or if it even matters.

Would appreciate feedback, this topic is probably by far the most confusing with no definite answer, anywhere I've searched.

I did find a cheap i2s cable and it's a 15 pin configuration I guess, but it says 19+1

 

HDMI cable's all you need. The only variable is the fact that I2S is not standardized so the pinout on the Topping may be different from the Pi2AES. You'll have to check. Or just use AES/coax and don't worry about it.

 

Sounds good, I do see that on user manual it does say 15 pin default for dsd. Not sure if that applies to any signal coming in. But probably all hdmi cables are 15 pin, I do not know.

 

What matters is, which pins the signal is on - that's the part that's not standardized. Pi2AES list this info in the manual - don't know if Topping does.

 

No kidding. Even ignoring the IT department, I am pretty skeptical of VPN offerings re security, and those Roon hacks seem very fragile. I switch between two locations and I just carry my Roon core server between them. But now I'm about to spend considerable time at a 3rd location that I fly to, and carrying the server through TSA is more than I care to deal with.

 

I just can't see myself carrying the server to and from work everyday. Even if it was a little Intel Nuc... seems like such a hassle...although, moode/bubbleupnp had to get restarted 3x today (even rebooting the android phone).

At one point I was using Musicbee to listen to my synology server at home... I could go back to that, but that doesn't get me qobuz...

 

I hear you. Pre-COVID, my WFW (work-from-work) setup used a standalone, no network moOde Pi+screen server with a SSD USB drive that I'd update at home from my master library now and then. No streaming at work, which wasn't much of an issue because the SSD had plenty of good tunes to get me through the no-meeting parts of my WFW days. But I've not commuted to work since March 7, 2020 and it doesn't look like I'll be returning to that anytime soon. Instead, I've been working from different locations (home_1, home_2, ...) weeks at a time, so carrying the server is not such a hassle: one of these with a 4TB SATA SSD, carried in a nice Pelikan case.

 

That's been very very close to my last year and a half (March 13, 2020 in my case). I was also using a moode+screen machine with an SSD with my library on it. I have that at home now, but it's running RoPieee since I don't need to have local files any more. But for travel, instead of moving the server around I've found peace with using a decent DAP with my entire local library and a couple good pairs of IEMs (WM1A, Andromeda, FDX1). I've considered doing more but even when working a month at a time from Phoenix or Iowa I've been pretty happy with just the portable rig. Only a couple of my friends have speakers anyways; most people don't give a crap and one of those awful voice assistants is "enough".

 

Yea it does, it says it on the user manual. Unable to link it cause it's a zipfile. Let me see, apos has it too in manuals.

this is going to fairly tough cause I am not really able to break this down.

it's not popping up as an image.
未命名 -1 (shopify.com)
CMA102 Motherboard (pi2design.com)

I believe that's the correct manual for pi2aes. sec 8.2 p4 8.3 as well seems like it will work, possibly

After looking through it, 7 and 9 are in reverse on the D70S vs the Pi2, does that make it not compatible?

 

I *think* those may be left and right reversed but I'm not 100% sure. If they are, you just need to swap L and R out of the DAC.

 

Oopsy Poopsy.. just double checked, I made a mistake. What I was just explaining to you Pancakes was the pin setup with the phase inverted on the D70s options, should be no issue at all.

My bad, I just went back and looked and they were the same, got so confused how I made that mistake earlier. I was looking at the pin diagram inverted phase. Sorry, they're right next to each other, side by side. Everything should be good to go, they're compatible.

 

Am I using Fing incorrectly or something? Here's a screenshot of what mine looks like when I click "can for deices" and I'm connected to my local wireless network. Fit also shows my computer, my iPhone, my Samsung S10e and my other Pi2AES ' ba the name I've given it, but I don't know if I should show that info here or not. the rest are just "generic"

I've erased and flashed a new download of Moode twice now, and none of the generic IP''s load Moode with ethernet connected. I know the ethernet works, I just had a mini meet here recently and we setup @loadexfa 's Pi2AES with ethernet first, the same ethernet cable.

Here's a screenshot

 

For reference, Fing shows me a bunch of generics along with "printer", the name of my phone, the name of various computers in the house, "Apple TV", and for Pi2AES it shows two different ones with their unique names that I gave them and also "Volumio" next to their names.

 

I don't remember if you already said this but have you tried hitting each of those "Generic" IP addresses from a web browser? One of them should be MoOde.

 

Yep, I've entered every generic IP and none of them load anything.

It's so crazy how this RPI/UPNP thing works fine one moment then just completely doesn't work anymore. I've gone without my speakers for a week now! Not cool. There are times I need to curl up in a ball and listen to speakers and can't use headphones.

 

What about before you name them in Volumio? Before you setup wifi? My Pi2AES that I've named in moose shows up with the name, but I have't setup wifi or named this one yet since re flashing the SD card.

 

1 Try a new sdcard
2 reboot your modem
3 reset your modem

All 3 options are my own observations.

 

Even a newly flashed OS will have the name set. For me fing seems to cache and retain the first name for a particular IP. My Ropieee system still shows up as Volumio in fing even though I switched the device months ago. It is odd that fing doesn't show names for you. I don't know if this could be caused by your router, we're getting beyond my LAN knowledge.

I'd do 2 or 3 on the router instead of modem, but yeah, power cycling it could help. A reset may be more hassle than it's worth (could require re-configuring the router for your network/internet access).