Help with Duet - randomly stops playing

[nickg1977]

Hi all

I have had my Duet 3 days now, and I'm very impressed with it generally. However, there is one thing that is really annoying me!
It seems to randomly stop playing music. I am using FLAC files streaming from my PC, but the problem also happened when listening to internet radio when the PC was off.
Trouble is, the symptoms of the problem vary. In the last half hour, 3 tracks have got part way through a song, and then start again from the beginning with no explanation. Another one got to the end, and reported another 1:59 to go and kept counting a second or two and then going back to 1:59 remaining again even though the song had finished. Looking at the properties for the track it is reporting the correct length. Stop song and choose it again from the menu and it plays fine.
Is there a problem with playing FLAC files? I have had no problems with playing them on PC in mediamonkey. Did a controller software update this morning (one it found itself, not one I tried to do myslef, so probably an official update) which took about 10 minutes, but problem is still there! Anyone got any advice?

[nickg1977]

No-one with similar experiences?
I noticed today that when this happened the white light changed to blue for a few seconds. Very frustrating as I guess it is losing signal, which is a bit disapopinting considering it is in the same room as the wireless router, only 5 metres away.
Might it be worth trying to change the channel it is operating on? If so, how do I do it?
Many thanks in advance for any help

Nick

[Siduhe]

Defintely sounds like wireless interference to me.

Alternatively, could be a bandwidth issue - FLAC can be pretty intensive - I assume you're not doing anything like downloading torrents or checking email on a laptop with a wireless connection at the same time as the dropouts? May be worth checking what other programs accessed the internet wirelessly at the same time as the drop outs.

Try the Network Test plugin to see how well your network is performing (see links below)

There's a good guide in the wiki to ways of improving wireless connection (see second link below) - the most obvious is to wire one of your hops (i.e. PC to router, or router to Duet). This will normally substantially improve the performance of the remaining wireless hop.

However, if that's not an option: Download netstumbler (or equivilent) and check out the other wireless networks near you. What channels are they on? You want to find the least overlapping channel - the only totally non-overlapping channels are 1,6 and 11. 12 and 13 are also available in the UK. So if everyone is on 1 and 6, try 11. To change the channel, go into your router setup pages, there will be an option there.

Also, if your Duet is surrounded by a lot of other equipment (metal / electrical) try raising it up a bit. The signal may be getting shielded by other bits of kit.

Finally, the dropouts don't occur when you are using a cordless phone or microwave do they? These can both interfere with a wireless signal quite dramatically if they're in the same room.

HTH

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cg...formanceIssues

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cg...formanceIssues

[PLynas]

It definitely looks like it is losing signal. The problem is not with the FLAC files themselves. There are 3 things you can try (that I can think of).

1. In Squeezecenter, click on settings and then on Status to see the signal strength of your Duet. Check this a few times and see if it fluctuates as well. Ideally this should be a high, stable figure, especially if it is close to your router.

2. Sometimes moving your router just a small distance can make a big difference. Ideally it should be away from walls (and particularly corners) and the higher the better. But moving it just 50cm can have a massive impact (check the status as in 1).

3. How you change your channel depends upon your router. If you state which router you have hopefully somebody will be able to help you. And you are right, changing this can make a huge difference sometimes.

[nickg1977]

Thanks both of you for your quick and detailed responses. I will work through the suggestions at the weekend.

For info, this is the current report from the Squeezecenter help

Signal Strength
< 10 : 0 : 0%
< 20 : 0 : 0%
< 30 : 0 : 0%
< 40 : 0 : 0%
< 50 : 7 : 0%
< 60 : 64 : 2% #
< 70 : 690 : 26% #############
< 80 : 1833 : 70% ###################################
< 90 : 22 : 1%
< 100 : 0 : 0%
>=100 : 0 : 0%
max : 81.000000
min : 44.000000
avg : 70.069954

Doesn't look too good to me! There are no other wireless devices on the network - occasionally a laptop when my girlfriend comes over, but that works fine, and the problem occurs when she isn't here anyway.
Cordless phone or microwave not in use at the time either. I would guess something must be intefering though for there to be such a variation in the strength, or is that not necessarily the case?

Router is about 40cm off the floor in a corner of the room next to a desk, and the duet receiver (not controller - that seems to work fine) is on top of the hi-fi in the opposite diagonal corner of the room. Hope that makes sense. I will try and relocate the router on the desk instead of "boxed" into the corner near the floor.

Thanks again
Nick

[Siduhe]

Signal strength is one aspect - yours isn't great but not bad either - but FLAC requires a good and constant signal. Lifting the router up will help with the signal strength, but won't deal with interference from other wireless networks.

Defintely check for other wireless networks in your area - you may have more wireless neighbours than you think!

[PLynas]

I had problems (in the past) until I changed my channel to 11, then everything worked fine. I definitely have another wireless network nearby because I can see it when trying to connect, so there must have been some interference there for me.

[consciouspnm]

I posted about the same issues yesterday but no one replied. Try disabling all the plugins you don't need as I think it's more down to SC7 than the network.

[ds2021]

I had problems (in the past) until I changed my channel to 11, then everything worked fine. I definitely have another wireless network nearby because I can see it when trying to connect, so there must have been some interference there for me.

This was a major problem for me at one point. Due to interference from a neighbour's wireless signal, I had to move from a G to a pre-N wireless router, which made an enormous difference. No dropouts since.