BETA: piCorePlayer6.0.0 - PI4 support

[chill]

Thanks for this beta. Just back from a weekend away so I've been giving it a try. I've installed it on a 4GB RPi4, and it all seems to be working very nicely. It's running LMS, with my music on an SSD, and it's also running three players: a USB DAC (via a user command on the tweaks page), a Bluetooth speaker (via the main Squeezelite tab), and an Airplay speaker via Philippe's Airplay Bridge. The first thing I've noticed is that the sync between these three players is excellent, even without any adjustment. Only time will tell whether this is consistent, but with my 3B+ running the same setup I found I had variable sync issues with the bluetooth speaker - it often had to be tweaked by 100-250ms or so. I'd be surprised if those sync issues were due to the 3B+ not being powerful enough, so I suspect this is just 'beginners luck' with the RPi4.

The pCP web interface and the LMS interface both seem to be noticeably snappier than on the 3B+.

I have a very small heatsink on the RPi4, and I noticed the temperature nudge over 70 degrees while I was installing plugins and scanning my music library, but most of the time it's sitting around 60 degrees. That's without a case but with a hat-type PCB severely limiting airflow around the heatsink.

I had a few mis-steps, I think caused by leaving my 3B+ running so that I had an easy reference to set up the RPi4. This meant that both RPis were creating players with the same names and I had two instances of LMS on my network. Since sorting all of that out I haven't spotted anything that doesn't work, but I haven't tried all my normal plugins yet, and I haven't tried LIRC yet. So far so good though.

[garym]

I have a very small heatsink on the RPi4, and I noticed the temperature nudge over 70 degrees while I was installing plugins and scanning my music library, but most of the time it's sitting around 60 degrees. That's without a case but with a hat-type PCB severely limiting airflow around the heatsink.

Where in the piCorePlayer webGUI do I find the temperature information? I've looked everywhere, but I'm missing it. Maybe it requires an extension installation?

[chill]

Where in the piCorePlayer webGUI do I find the temperature information?

Main Page -> 'Diagnostics' button -> 'Raspberry Pi' tab

[garym]

Main Page -> 'Diagnostics' button -> 'Raspberry Pi' tab

Duh! Right in front of me. Thanks!
p.s. my 3B+ with a digi hat, all enclosed in a metal case is 61 degrees while just streaming music with no other activity.

[Greg Erskine]

There is also a CPU Temperature graph page:

[Main Page] in [Beta] mode > [Extras] > [CPU Temp]. Press [Start].

This will start a process to record the CPU temp every minute. Page will refresh automatically.

[garym]

There is also a CPU Temperature graph page:

[Main Page] in [Beta] mode > [Extras] > [CPU Temp]. Press [Start].

This will start a process to record the CPU temp every minute. Page will refresh automatically.

nice. Thanks!

[Greg Erskine]

I had a few mis-steps, I think caused by leaving my 3B+ running so that I had an easy reference to set up the RPi4. This meant that both RPis were creating players with the same names and I had two instances of LMS on my network. Since sorting all of that out I haven't spotted anything that doesn't work, but I haven't tried all my normal plugins yet, and I haven't tried LIRC yet. So far so good though.

Hi Chill,

Thanks for testing.

Players with the same name is OK its just confusing. But with multiple LMS's you are never sure which LMS pCP will autodetect when squeezelite starts. If you continue with multiple LMS then you need set [Squeezelite Settings] > "Change Squeezelite settings" > "LMS IP".

There is also an option on [Main Page] in [Beta] mode > [Extras] > [LMS CLI] > "Select LMS". (This command never made it out of testing mode to a more logical location.)

regards
Greg

[Greg Erskine]

Also, when you visit various pCP pages, especially diagnostics pages, a log is generated.

These logs are viewable thru [Main Page] > [Diagnostics] > [Logs]. This makes it easier to cut and paste. If you are in [Beta] mode, you will also get a [Pastebin] button, for uploading to pastebin.

We have added things like "favorites list" log which have recently been requested.

[chill]

Thanks for the tips Greg. The temperature graphing option looks useful - I'll try that while stressing the RPi4. The logging options look useful too. I stopped playing once I'd got the basic setup working this evening, but will come back to it. I was having a bit of trouble with the speaker that's connected via the Airplay Bridge - this might in fact have been the source of the problems that I'd attributed to multiple LMSs and duplicate player names. Or perhaps that's what caused my Airplay problems. Not sure yet whether it's a pCP6-specific issue, so will play some more and look for clues in the logs.

Certainly, part of the problem I had when I recreated my players on the pCP6 device is that I simply copy-and-pasted the user command from the 3B+, and that user command specified the player's MAC address (necessary when running more than one Squeezelite instance). So I had two players with the same name and the same MAC address. That's been corrected, and I've also turned off the 3B+ now, so that problem has gone away.

[drmatt]

If you can watch the CPU clock speed that will give you an idea of when the CPU is throttled too.


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