Pi2 Design Idiot-Proof Ready-To-Go RPi/AES Streamer

As shown the manual you need to remove the jumper next to the GPIO header

 

Did that solve it?

 

Looking forward to hearing impressions over the coming weeks and months.

I've loved my original Pi2AES, and am curious about the potential improvements with the 2.0.

Aside from the PSU and power filtering, are there any notable improvements in the 2.0 version wrt the coax output in particular?

 

Hi everyone,

Please let me first say that I am very much enjoying my Mercury Stream V2. All thanks to the team at Pi2 Design for their effort in putting together this product.

Now, I do have a questions which I was hoping that fellow Mercury user could help me with?

I have added an SSD in the Mercury and copied into my music library.
Presently, I am using the streamer with Moode Audio (updated version).

To add the SSD and the get the music recognized, I have connected to the streamer using SSH and run the below commands:

1 Confirm SSD location: /dev/nvme0n1p1 ==> SSD
2 mkdir /dev/nvme0n1p1 ==> creating mount point
3 mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/SSD ==> Mounting the SSD
5 Add the following line to "/etc/fstab" /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/Samsung ext4 auto,user,rw 0 0
=> Mount automatically the SSD at boot
4 To add as a source from MPD software: sudo ln -s /mnt/SSD /var/lib/mpd/music/SSD

Doing the above, I can get the music listed in library and and play the music.
When playing the title, I can even see the album art.

However, when I do browse my library, I get the below...
No album art is showing...

I understand this is being managed by the thumbnail generator but:
It seems the OS has access rights to arts as they are visible during play.
Maybe there is the mount point to add to some configuration file?

Moode audio forum seems to not allow new registration at the moment...that is why I am trying here with my fellow Mercury users.

Many thanks in advance!

 

I think you’re supposed to email Tim to have him set up an account for you as some kind of spam prevention measure idk.

Anywho the various album art thumbnails are batch generated and stored on the microsd card, these are generally lower res (aka faster loading) versions. The now playing artwork is the original one contained within the file or the cover.jpg file or whatever.

What does your browser console show for those missing images?

 

If this was to me... yes! Thank you

 

Thank you @haywood for your kind reply!
Yes, I will check to mail moode site and ask an account to see if I can post my question there too.

In the browser, I see the screenshot I posted in my post ealier:
We can see broken pictures icon...
Please let me know if you either mean something else or if you are not able to see the picture below.

<Picture Here>

<Picture Here end>

Would you know where is the thumbnail generator batch? Maybe I need to add the SSD location there?

Let me know your thoughts when you have a moment.
Thank you!

 

The console log would tell you where the browser expects to find the images which might point you in the right direction. I’m not sure where moode stores the thumbnail caches anymore, I don’t have a current version of the software.

 

Hi @haywood , thanks again for the follow up.
Thanks to you, I could create an account on the moode forum and I am checking there for my issue. If I do get the solution, I will post it here too in case someone else is having similar setup than mine.
I am also checking something else...I can hear distortion from time to time and looking to see what may explain this.
I keep you all posted.

 

Hi everyone,

As promised, I am getting back to you now that we found with Tim on the Moode forum the solution.
The problem was caused by the fact that the default script in Moode for thumbnail generation only scan some predetermined folders on the MNT folder.

Here is the addition line I had to add to " /var/www/util/list-songfiles.sh"

# Search pre-defined subdirectories under /mnt
find /mnt/NAS -depth -mindepth 1 -type f -iregex ".*\.${TYPES_REGEX}" -printf "file: "NAS/"%P\n"
find /mnt/SDCARD -depth -mindepth 1 -type f -iregex ".*\.${TYPES_REGEX}" -printf "file: "SDCARD/"%P\n"
#Addition for SSD drive to be searched by the thumbnail generator
find /mnt/SSD -depth -mindepth 1 -type f -iregex ".*\.${TYPES_REGEX}" -printf "file: "SSD/"%P\n"

Please note that here "/mnt/SSD" is the name I chose for my SSD but please set the name you chose as a mount point.

I hope this will help another Mercury fellow user in case chosing Moode.
I think Tim may update the script in the future to check the "mnt" folder rather than hard coded folder like today.

 

Due to long term CM4 module issues we are looking to move our existing Mercury inventory (less than 20 units). To that end we are now offering a 25% discount to SBAF users and friends. Coupon code is SBAF. Note that we are supporting Mercury long term (heck we still support the 502DAC and 502HTA boards). We just don't know when we will be able to commit to more production.

 

Hi Micheal. The Pi2AES 2.0 arrived in Sydney 72 hours after ordering. Welldone UPS and your despatch people.
I have it running on a Pi4 dual powered by a Shanti linear supply.
I am using piCorePlayer and Squeezelite.
The Pi2 AES was found as soon as I chose HiFiBerry Digi+ Pro in the Audio output device settings of Suueezelight.
I am outputting opt to an RME ADI2 DAC FS.
It all works, and does not need the Pi2 AES to be powered on first for PiCorePlayer to find it.
Initial listening is very pleasing with voices sounding more natural.
Thanks Michael for a great product.
More listening results soonish.

 

Hi Michael, I own an Aqua La Scala dac that has only a RJ45 i2s input.
I know ist a special type of i2s (CMOS or LVCMOS) but I cannot figure out based on what I have found searching on internet if it's compatible with the RJ45 output of the Mercury V2.
Could you please help me?

 

The mercury RJ 45 output should be compatible. But I don’t know the pin out that your DAC uses, we conform to the Metrum pinout. Our pin out is documented in the hardware reference manual that is on the website.

 

Some people said Mercury can’t do DSD 64 on l2S, I just bought Ferrum Wandla Dac … confirmed it can play DSD 64 without any issue.

 

Is this using Roon/Ropieee?

 

HQPlayer / RopieeXL

 

Just checked out the Mercury streamer discount, awesome deal for someone, my streaming needs are already more than covered by the Pi2AES and I'm still tempted.

 

M

I suspect than that HQplayer is transcoding the file from DSD into PCM before sending it to the pi. This is how ROON does it with Ropeee.

 

Any news on an updated Volumio image to the current version for Mercury v2? Would be much appreciated.