Sonicorbiter - The Operating System

[vortecjr]

I was finally able to reproduce the issue here last night and can effectively repeat it. I have a call into Andrew at SGC to discuss the issue. If your unit is stopping on pressing the upgrade button remove power, wait a while and connect power again. If the unit boots don't update again until further notice.     

[vortecjr]

7 hours ago, brightonjel said:

Is it OK to update Sonicorbiter from 2.7 to 2.8 before loading the 2.8 build on the SD card for uRendu?  My card is on order (but not yet arrived) but I see that uRendu Software Manager app is reporting that 2.8 is now the latest.  Is it better to wait and update everything at once or can I get that bit done first?

 

The 2.8 you are seeing just means a new version is available, but you can't update to it from 2.7 or earlier version.

[Axiom05]

12 hours ago, vortecjr said:

I'm not sure then.

More info: I just moved my ultraRendu to a different room. After restarting the unit, confirming that it was online and that my DAC was visible in DAC Diagnostics, Rigelian once again indicates no albums present. It's as if the MPD database is only being stored in memory and not written to the micro SD card. If this is what is happening, then 2.8 is not a lot of use for MPD users.

[johnwilk]

Thanks for the update re unit stopping! I hadn't been able to get back to my system after posting about the problem, and it's welcome news that it's being addressed.

[Matias]

I am still on 2.7 and every now and then my DAC vanishes from DAC Diagnostics. Rebooting usually works. Then JRiver cannot send audio to the ultraRendu. This interface is quite unstable for me. I was hoping 2.8 fixed this, well... I am not so sure now. Let's see when my card arrives.

[barrows]

7 minutes ago, Matias said:

I am still on 2.7 and every now and then my DAC vanishes from DAC Diagnostics. Rebooting usually works. Then JRiver cannot send audio to the ultraRendu. This interface is quite unstable for me. I was hoping 2.8 fixed this, well... I am not so sure now. Let's see when my card arrives.

Do you mean the Rendu loses connection with the DAC and will not play music, or???  What happens when you remove the ISO Regen?

[Matias]

1 hour ago, barrows said:

Do you mean the Rendu loses connection with the DAC and will not play music, or???  What happens when you remove the ISO Regen?

Yes, does not play music. And hitting play on the JRemote the song shows playing a few seconds and then stops.

With or without ISO Regen no difference. And happens with 3 different DACs and 3 different USB cables I have tried.

[barrows]

34 minutes ago, Matias said:

Yes, does not play music. And hitting play on the JRemote the song shows playing a few seconds and then stops.

With or without ISO Regen no difference. And happens with 3 different DACs and 3 different USB cables I have tried.

Yeah, that is very odd behavior indeed.  I work from home, and my system is playing most of the day and evening, and I never seem to have problems of with Rendu device (microRendu, ultraRendu, or Signature Rendu SEoptical) loosing connection with the DAC.  Maybe it happens a couple of times a year...  Do you have any weird sources of static discharge?  Or it is possible you have some odd AC power issues?  As this happens with different DACs I am looking for problems which are outside the system, and common to all set ups.  Anything weird in your Network, or Ethernet cabling?  I would recommend occasional re-booting of the Network gear, maybe once a month or something like that.

[Matias]

31 minutes ago, barrows said:

Yeah, that is very odd behavior indeed.  I work from home, and my system is playing most of the day and evening, and I never seem to have problems of with Rendu device (microRendu, ultraRendu, or Signature Rendu SEoptical) loosing connection with the DAC.  Maybe it happens a couple of times a year...  Do you have any weird sources of static discharge?  Or it is possible you have some odd AC power issues?  As this happens with different DACs I am looking for problems which are outside the system, and common to all set ups.  Anything weird in your Network, or Ethernet cabling?  I would recommend occasional re-booting of the Network gear, maybe once a month or something like that.

Nothing on my network seems wrong. HTPC works fine, no disconnects. Sonic Orbiter is accessible, never goes offline. I never reboot my network gear (Asus router and switch), although I tried bypassing the switch and connecting the ultraRendu directly to the router and dropouts still occur. I tried another software (Roon trial), same. Lately tried shunting the DC output of the Sonore LPS (connecting the outer side of the plug to my SR Grounding Block), same.

I really wished that it was a "set and forget" unit, but unfortunately it has not been the case. Let's see if 2.8 solves this.

[jcn3]

2 hours ago, Matias said:

Nothing on my network seems wrong. HTPC works fine, no disconnects. Sonic Orbiter is accessible, never goes offline. I never reboot my network gear (Asus router and switch), although I tried bypassing the switch and connecting the ultraRendu directly to the router and dropouts still occur. I tried another software (Roon trial), same. Lately tried shunting the DC output of the Sonore LPS (connecting the outer side of the plug to my SR Grounding Block), same.

I really wished that it was a "set and forget" unit, but unfortunately it has not been the case. Let's see if 2.8 solves this.

 

Which LPS are you using for your rendu? Did you try another one? If you're using an LPS-1, then you're potentially not getting enough power to the rendu. 

[Matias]

3 minutes ago, jcn3 said:

 

Which LPS are you using for your rendu? Did you try another one? If you're using an LPS-1, then you're potentially not getting enough power to the rendu. 

Tried Uptone LPS-1 and LPS-1.2, MeanWell SMPS and currently Sonore's own LPS (by barrows).

[Mike Rubin]

Matias, I periodically have disconnects like this, with music appearing to be playing but with no sound. (I don't know which app you use for your music, but I have this issue with LMS and UPnP.)  I find that it helps for me to close all controller apps on the phone or tablet and then go into the software settings in Sonic Orbiter. There, I hit "save."  When the settings indicate that the app has saved, I restart the controller app.  Then, if the Rendu is available as a player in the control software on the phone or tablet, I re-select it and try to play.  Usually, that is enough to get things going. 

 

Worst case, I remove power from both Rendu and DAC.  Then, I almost always can get things back to normal, until they aren't.

[Matias]

7 minutes ago, Mike Rubin said:

Matias, I periodically have disconnects like this, with music appearing to be playing but with no sound. (I don't know which app you use for your music, but I have this issue with LMS and UPnP.)  I find that it helps for me to close all controller apps on the phone or tablet and then go into the software settings in Sonic Orbiter. There, I hit "save."  When the settings indicate that the app has saved, I restart the controller app.  Then, if the Rendu is available as a player in the control software on the phone or tablet, I re-select it and try to play.  Usually, that is enough to get things going. 

 

Worst case, I remove power from both Rendu and DAC.  Then, I almost always can get things back to normal, until they aren't.

Yes, these tips help here too, but it is a pain...

[Mike Rubin]

6 minutes ago, Matias said:

Yes, these tips help here too, but it is a pain...

Yeo.  The days of pressing "play" and just hearing music from a CD seem forever ago.  The sacrifices we make for the superior sound quality we get with these products!

[vortecjr]

7 hours ago, Matias said:

I am still on 2.7 and every now and then my DAC vanishes from DAC Diagnostics. Rebooting usually works. Then JRiver cannot send audio to the ultraRendu. This interface is quite unstable for me. I was hoping 2.8 fixed this, well... I am not so sure now. Let's see when my card arrives.

If DAC Diagnostics does not see your DAC then your DAC can't be streamed to.

 

How does your Rendu hook up to the network? Direct to a router, direct to a switch, direct to a server, any wifi bridges/meshes, etc.   

[vortecjr]

2 hours ago, Matias said:

Tried Uptone LPS-1 and LPS-1.2, MeanWell SMPS and currently Sonore's own LPS (by barrows).

These should all work fine.

[vortecjr]

9 hours ago, Axiom05 said:

More info: I just moved my ultraRendu to a different room. After restarting the unit, confirming that it was online and that my DAC was visible in DAC Diagnostics, Rigelian once again indicates no albums present. It's as if the MPD database is only being stored in memory and not written to the micro SD card. If this is what is happening, then 2.8 is not a lot of use for MPD users.

I looked into this and did not find anything out of the ordinary...yet. 

[vortecjr]

Some general information about units running Sonic Orbiter 2.8.

 

We are going to change the update process so it looks at the Rendu's internal temp and checks if the unit is 

either playing music or beyond a certain temperature. If either case is met you will have to shut off playback and let the unit cool down before updating. The update process is CPU intensive and the update should not be interrupted. This should help with the reported issues with updates. When this specific update is available you have to following the rule of thumb on your own. After this specific update the software will prompt you accordingly from then on. I'll let you know when this specific update is available.

[Dazed and Confused]

Just tried to update my microrendu from 2.7 to 2.8, without appreciating I needed to buy a new card. Unfortunately after going through the updating & rebooting process, microrendu no longer shows in Mconnect as a Upnp device. Any suggestions? Thanks

[vortecjr]

7 hours ago, Dazed and Confused said:

Just tried to update my microrendu from 2.7 to 2.8, without appreciating I needed to buy a new card. Unfortunately after going through the updating & rebooting process, microrendu no longer shows in Mconnect as a Upnp device. Any suggestions? Thanks

Just go to Settings / MPD DLNA and press Save.

[Dazed and Confused]

2 hours ago, vortecjr said:

Just go to Settings / MPD DLNA and press Save.

Many thanks.

 

is the 2.8 card being made available through your UK dealer, or only direct via yourselves?

[jma2]

18 hours ago, Matias said:

I am still on 2.7 and every now and then my DAC vanishes from DAC Diagnostics. Rebooting usually works. Then JRiver cannot send audio to the ultraRendu. This interface is quite unstable for me. I was hoping 2.8 fixed this, well... I am not so sure now. Let's see when my card arrives.

 

Dear Matias,

I recognize this behavior with 2.7 very well. I also struggled a long time with random unexplainable connection-loss with my DAC (Ayre QB9) and sometimes hickups during playback. I use Squeezelite client with LMS on my NAS and in the beginning I had also random connectivity problems where Squeezelite on my oR would not connect to my LMS server on the NAS. I ran for a while the LMS server on the oR, but connectivity issues with my DAC remained and I became very fluent with rebooting the oR.

 

Then I did something after which my 2.7 system became very stable (no more playback hickups, no more loss of DAC connectivity, no more need to reboot). What I did is in the Software management I removed all playback applications which I didn't use (e.g. Roon, Spotify, etc), I also removed the LMS server from the oR and only left the Squeezelite and MPD client (which I don't use, but know quite well from other playback systems and sort of trust). Since then not a single glitch. Maybe uninstalling all irrelevant/unused clients also works for you, I sincerely hope so.

[vortecjr]

2 hours ago, Dazed and Confused said:

Many thanks.

 

is the 2.8 card being made available through your UK dealer, or only direct via yourselves?

If he doesn’t have then he can make them via the image. 

[Matias]

2 hours ago, jma2 said:

 

Dear Matias,

I recognize this behavior with 2.7 very well. I also struggled a long time with random unexplainable connection-loss with my DAC (Ayre QB9) and sometimes hickups during playback. I use Squeezelite client with LMS on my NAS and in the beginning I had also random connectivity problems where Squeezelite on my oR would not connect to my LMS server on the NAS. I ran for a while the LMS server on the oR, but connectivity issues with my DAC remained and I became very fluent with rebooting the oR.

 

Then I did something after which my 2.7 system became very stable (no more playback hickups, no more loss of DAC connectivity, no more need to reboot). What I did is in the Software management I removed all playback applications which I didn't use (e.g. Roon, Spotify, etc), I also removed the LMS server from the oR and only left the Squeezelite and MPD client (which I don't use, but know quite well from other playback systems and sort of trust). Since then not a single glitch. Maybe uninstalling all irrelevant/unused clients also works for you, I sincerely hope so.

I tried this, let's see if it improves. So far nothing. Very strange and frustrating.

[quark]

21 hours ago, Matias said:

I am still on 2.7 and every now and then my DAC vanishes from DAC Diagnostics. Rebooting usually works. Then JRiver cannot send audio to the ultraRendu. This interface is quite unstable for me. I was hoping 2.8 fixed this, well... I am not so sure now. Let's see when my card arrives.

Hi,

I had the exact same Problem.

Using Roon it would suddenly lose connection to OpticalRendu, but when checking DAC diagnostics in sonicorbiter  my DAC had disappeared.

I managed to make things a lot more stable by purchasing bluejeans Ethernet cables, which when you see them you can tell are very well made. 

Apparently a lot of ethernet cables are made in such a mass that often connection is not that good.

However to put your mind at rest, since getting sonicorbiter 2.8 I have had  perfect connection to my DAC every time. 

In 2.7 my DAC would be shown in DAC diagnostic but would have different readings randomly, and I’d have to restart the opticalrendu several times to get it to connect properly. 

But since version 2.8 my DAC has connected perfectly every single time.

So if I was you definitely upgrade to version 2.8