Community Build Radio Firmware

[xrad]

In any event, the Radio (increasingly sticky knobs and all) keeps chugging along on its onboard wireless, even entering 2023. So it can be done.

Sorry of the OT follow-up: I recently wiped the knobs of one of my radios using generous amounts of methylated spirit and they now absolutely touch as if they were new out of the box. Highly recommend that treatment.

[sgmlaw]

Interesting. With with an ASUS RX-AT55 and PX-AT56, I had different results. Turning on Wifi6 in the 2.4 GHz band would cause my radios to drop very quickly. Turing Wifi6 off helped. I have not done a more recent test with newer ASUS firmware as I have to move all my equipment to a location that does not exhibit interference problems. In my case, I suspect it is a neighbor using WiFi6 which causes random interference with the Radios.

You can read my experience here:

https://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?114996-ASUS-RT-AX55-Mesh-Router%92s-Compatibility-with-SB-Radios&highlight=ASUS

Your experience is good news if newer chipsets/firmware is not causing problem with older equipment.

Paul

Distance of neighboring wireless networks is likely a factor in our environment. We have a large property (hence the need for a wireless mesh), and it is unlikely that neighboring 5 and 6 Ghz wireless networks (not including cellular protocols, of course) are intruding too deeply. I can imagine in a congested townhouse or condominium setting, that would not be the case. I routinely conduct network surveys to see who is about us, and there are always at least 3-5 other wireless networks in range, but I suspect they are all legacy 2.4 Ghz of one form or another.

But that's the helpful paradox of the newer wireless standards. As the standards improve, the frequencies increase, from 5 Ghz, and now slowly into 6 Ghz ranges, and the transmission range naturally declines with most consumer equipment (due to the amplifier constraints).

So I hope all our neighboring properties migrate to 6 Ghz Wi-Fi 6E and eventually Wi-Fi 7, as quickly as possible.

And I suspect that the chip designers are increasingly not further advancing the 2.4 Ghz band (other than as a fallback limp home mode in auto band switching environments), as there is insufficient bandwidth available there to support the latest and coming standards. As long as they don't remove it from the SoC altogether, the Radio and other 2.4 Ghz legacy clients will still have a home.

I was experiencing the dropouts that many here were reporting when allowing the Radio to roam our mesh network. That was likely because of dissimilar chipset and AP standards among the nodes complicating the handoffs. The nodes here are tri-band Asus XT8 models. Binding it to the core router prevented those handoffs, and the drops. Of note is that our core routers have been dual band only (as we run Ethernet backhauls). So the RF architecture that the Radio faces is also less complicated than other clients.

Whatever the reasons, the bottom line is that the Radio works in it.

…

Another wireless networking tip, especially for Asus users, is visiting the smallnetbuilder forum. At least for the North American market, there are sufficient conversations there where the finer technical attributes of the various models are discussed (such as chipset and AP architecture). And that, in combination with some further research, can help differentiate things in determining what may work, and what doesn’t work, with certain environments and clients.

[sgmlaw]

Sorry of the OT follow-up: I recently wiped the knobs of one of my radios using generous amounts of methylated spirit and they now absolutely touch as if they were new out of the box. Highly recommend that treatment.

Thank you. I will look into this. Up to now, we have been using the baby powder treatment, which can get dusty.

[slurmsmckenzie]

Distance of neighboring wireless networks is likely a factor in our environment.

Another wireless networking tip, especially for Asus users, is visiting the smallnetbuilder forum. At least for the North American market, there are sufficient conversations there where the finer technical attributes of the various models are discussed (such as chipset and AP architecture). And that, in combination with some further research, can help differentiate things in determining what may work, and what doesn’t work, with certain environments and clients.

I'd second that advice for Asus users, between smallnetbuilder and this forum I was able to have my Asus AiMesh working fine with my SB radios for several weeks which was great. Unfortunately though I could do nothing about a close neighbour getting a Netgear Orbi which has brought the issues to our three radios

[THildebrandt]

Thank you. I will look into this. Up to now, we have been using the baby powder treatment, which can get dusty.

Used rubbing alcohol on several radios with sticky knobs - solved problem.
As i understand it, the radio knobs were covered with a rubber (?) compund to make them feel softer when used??? and this compound apparently have a limited lifespan...

[Redrum]

Used rubbing alcohol on several radios with sticky knobs - solved problem.
As i understand it, the radio knobs were covered with a rubber (?) compund to make them feel softer when used??? and this compound apparently have a limited lifespan...

Funny this is brought up again. I have never had any luck with "rubbing alcohol" but here is the US Isopropyl is common. I am told that Ethyl is more effective, but I have not tried it. Myself, for radio knobs, I pull them off and sand them, then paint matte black. It doesn't have that "tactile" feel but it's fine for me.

There is a long discussion of alot of options including where @chill sourced the "tactile" finish: https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...ky-front-panel

Jim

[THildebrandt]

Funny this is brought up again. I have never had any luck with "rubbing alcohol" but here is the US Isopropyl is common. I am told that Ethyl is more effective, but I have not tried it. Myself, for radio knobs, I pull them off and sand them, then paint matte black. It doesn't have that "tactile" feel but it's fine for me.

There is a long discussion of alot of options including where @chill sourced the "tactile" finish: https://forums.slimdevices.com/showt...ky-front-panel

Jim

Ethanol (70% solution) + elbow grease worked for me - and the result was very nice...

[bengaldave]

What does the new mono feature do?

So in the release notes there is this:
>>Add both channels mono output channel mode support.

Is this related to the server settings/player>audio?
Both channels stereo
Both channels mono

So for the radio is “both channels stereo” different than “both channels mono?”

In both cases the radio only has one speaker

[ralphy]

So in the release notes there is this:
>>Add both channels mono output channel mode support.

Is this related to the server settings/player>audio?
Both channels stereo
Both channels mono

So for the radio is “both channels stereo” different than “both channels mono?”

In both cases the radio only has one speaker

Yes for the radio's internal speakers both are pretty much the same. You can plug in stereo headphones to the radio or connect the hp jack to a stereo.

[bengaldave]

Thanks but still do not understand, what is the effect of “both channels mono” in contrast to “both channels stereo?”
Thanks

[Redrum]

Thanks but still do not understand, what is the effect of “both channels mono” in contrast to “both channels stereo?”
Thanks

I have not played with these settings so this is a guess. The radio speakers are mixed stereo, pseudo mono. The headphone jack is true stereo. The setting affects the jack, but really does not affect what you hear from the speaker.

give it a listen yourself, see what you think. Listen to old beatles where they had instruments in one channel and vocals in the other

Jim

[P Nelson]

Ralphy,

Can you please confirm my understanding of the "Output Channel Mode" settings for an SB Radio

Both Channels (Stereo) = Stereo output to the headphone jack. Effectively a mono output to the single speaker.
Left Channel = Left Channel to the speaker. What is the output of the headphone jack?
Right Channel = Right Channel to the speaker. What is the output of the headphone jack?
Both Channels (Mono) = Mono output to speaker and headphone jack.

The information dialog on the setting in LMS could use an update.


For the speaker output, does the Both Channels Stereo or Mono have the same result, or is there actually a sonic difference? The reason I ask does combining a right and left signal result to the same speaker result in a canceling or enhancing an audio signal?

[bengaldave]

Okay I am guessing, both channels mono, mixes the 2 channels together and then sends that mixed audio to both physical channels?

[mrw]

For the speaker output, does the Both Channels Stereo or Mono have the same result, or is there actually a sonic difference? The reason I ask does combining a right and left signal result to the same speaker result in a canceling or enhancing an audio signal?

Not @ralphy, but I would expect the same result. As I recall it, “Both Channels (Mono)” pushes (L+R)÷2 (i.e. Mid ÷ 2) into each of the L & R components. The Radio speaker’s DSP mixer simply combines L & R components with L+R, i.e. it makes Mid. Either way, we get the same result, there’s no tinkering around with Side.

Of course, if the source L & R has been mixed with some phase cancelling/enhancement/effects stuff then Mid could be made to sound odd, or just plain silent. I would suppose that such a source could hardly be a good candidate for monaural reproduction.

The Radio headphone’s DSP mixer does nothing, i.e. it is a pass through.

I’m too far from my Radio to actually physically test…

[rdeckard]

Ethanol (70% solution) + elbow grease worked for me - and the result was very nice...

Just my 2 cents here, as it seems whilst the stickiness of the Radio knobs (any many other products with similar coatings) can be resolved with isopropyl/denatured alcohol, this does not work so well with the Boom knobs/buttons/faceplate.
Instead of removing the coating, I thought why not somehow try to restore it, which got me thinking of Armor All, or something with a petroleum base to "condition" the rubber coating.
Turns out I had some low gloss Armor All in my garage, which actually worked out quite well.

As for the WiFi issues, after having gone through this myself, and ultimately mitigated it with a WiFi-Ethernet bridge (plus completely disabling WLAN in the Radio), I am extremely grateful to everyone here who continues to support the Squeezebox ecosystem!