ALLO USBridge Signature

[dkskl]

7 hours ago, uniquesnowflake said:

For those who have a spare low power computer lying around (extra RPi will do), I strongly recommend the minimal Picoreplayer. With some simple optimization, the SQ performance is a noticeable step up from Dietpi IME. I currently use the settings as recommmended by audio blog “audio@vise”.

Why two devices? Can't PiCorePlayer be used as OS on the USBridge Sig?

[dkskl]

18 hours ago, uniquesnowflake said:

To minimize the load. IME that usually affects SQ, YMMV.

It certainly can't hurt 🙂

 

Sniffed around Soundcheck's blog. Interesting stuff… My preferred Rasp OS is actually PiCorePlayer w/ LMS.

 

It isn't clear to me if your suggestion is to use an extra mini computer / RPI as server and let the USBridge handle the PCP OS or if you will only use the USBridge as an isolator and let the extra computer do all the hard work..?

[dkskl]

3 hours ago, uniquesnowflake said:

 

I'm currently using an extra low power computer as server, and Digione Sig/RPi as the "endpoint". I'll probably stick to this configuration except swapping RPi for the Audiophile Pi/USBridge Sig.

Thanks. Could just be the way to go.

My Pi/Digione Sig is a damn good player though...

[dkskl]

Hi Allo / all!

 

A little on the fence here.

I am really tempted to hit the buy button, but I have a couple of questions to the experts first.

 

My plan is to use a WLAN Raspberry Pi 4 as a LMS server and connect it to a PiCorePlayer driven USBridge Sig / Digione Sig with a short ethernet cable.

 

So:

 

• Is PiCorePlayer OS fully integrated with the USBridge Sig?

 

• Is it possible to reach the PCP OS through the Rpi/LMS/ethernet cable?

  Wired connection is not a possibility for me as of now.

 

Thanks in advance.

[dkskl]

35 minutes ago, allo.com said:

Yes

Thank you.

Do you happen to have an answer for my second question as well? :-)

[dkskl]

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Posted October 23

Reposting my question from a couple of months ago, hoping someone will be able to answer 🙂

 

 

Hi all!

 

A little on the fence here.

I am really tempted to hit the buy button, but I have a question to you experts first.

 

My plan is to use a WLAN Raspberry Pi 4 as a LMS server and connect it to a PiCorePlayer driven USBridge Sig / Digione Sig with a short ethernet cable.

 

So. Is it possible to reach the PCP OS through the Rpi/LMS/ethernet cable?

Wired connection is not a possibility for me as of now.

 

Thanks in advance.

[dkskl]

22 minutes ago, Richard Dale said:

I'm not clear what you question is. You say you would like to reach PCP running on an Allo Signature via an ethernet cable from LMS running on a Rasberry Pi via ethernet cable. But then you say "Wired connection is not a possibility for me as of now". Do you mean you want to connect the machines via WiFi? If so there is a USB slot in the front of the Allo that you could use for a WiFi dongle.

Yes. I want to connect the RPI/LMS via WIFI and then connect the RPI to the USBridge via ethernet cable.

My only concern is, if I will be able to reach the PCP OS insalled on the USBridge for setting/updates, if I connect the devices like this 🙂

 

[dkskl]

3 minutes ago, Judelow said:

Why could not you? 

Sorry?? 🙂

[dkskl]

3 minutes ago, Richard Dale said:

You would need to give the LMS Pi and PCP Pi static addresses of something like 10.0.0.1 and 10.0.0.2 with a netmask of 255.255.255.0 and it should just work. But you wouldn't be able to access the internet from the USBridge Pi. If it is only for occasional OS updates, it might be easiest to temporarily move the USBridge near your router and connect with an ethernet cable to do the updates. Alternatively, you could use a WiFi USB dongle on the front USB port to connect to the internet. You would need to run Samba or NFS with the ethernet cable IP address of the LMS of '10.0.0.1' on the USBridge.

 

 

Thanks Richard, but you lost me there 😄

I know next to nothing about handling IP addresses and all things related.

 

But you're right, I could just move the USBridge and connect it to my router for the occasional update.

 

I do run Samba on my present Allo Digione Signature.

[dkskl]

1 hour ago, Richard Dale said:

I would personally just try running the USBridge with a WiFi dongle so it would be on the same LAN as your router and LMS machine, and not bother with the ethernet cable. The Volumio team believe that a WiFi connection sounds better than wired ethernet AFAIK, and so the sound may even be better with a WiFi connection or at least the same as wired.

Hmm. I'm quite sure Allo do not recommend wireless when using the USBridge as an endpoint if best possible sound quality is wanted. Hence my "alternative" set up wish, where network connection is only needed to control LMS (and updating PCP).

 

I believed it would be pretty much plug and play. But if it's not, I guess I'll have to put a purchase on stand by and find time to run some in-wall ethernet cables. Sadly it won't be in the near future though.

 

See if I can find some info about wifi dongles an sound quality further back in the thread..

 

Thanks Richard.

[dkskl]

31 minutes ago, zackthedog said:

Another possibility would be to get a wireless bridge and a network switch.  Connect the switch to the bridge, then connect the LMS server and the Digione to the switch.  That way they will share a wired connection but both will also have access to your home internet.

Could just be the solution.

Thanks ztd

[dkskl]

26 minutes ago, Richard Dale said:

You can connect the LMS and USBridge with a wired ethernet connection use it just for Samba access to the files on the LMS using IP address 10.0.0.1. Then have a WiFi dongle on the USBridge that is just used to access the MPD or Squeezelite player in the USBridge to control which tracks you want to play via an ordinary address on your LAN such as 192.168.1.23. That way the LMS server would work like it was a local hard disk, although over Samba while the WiFi connection over the dongle controlled what was being played.

That would be way to complicated for me 😉 My skills are not even rudimentary.

[dkskl]

15 hours ago, Richard Dale said:

It’s not complicated, only that I might not have explained it in a clear enough manner. I see no reason to hold off buying a USBridge if the only problem is doing what I just suggested - there are a large number of people who can help with setting up Raspberry Pis and help you get the configuration going.

Oh, I'm sure you have explained very well. It's just that it is almost like chinese algebra to me, to paraphrase Tom Waits.

 

Yes. People here really are very helpful! And it seems there are several ways to make it work

I'll place the order and return to the forum, when I have received the goods. Thanks.

[dkskl]

14 hours ago, zackthedog said:

 

The TOTOLINK N300 even has four ethernet ports so you could dispense with the switch.  There are other similar devices, that one gets pretty good reviews.  Of course, it's probably not an "audiophile" quality switch, if you care about that. 😉.   Either way, that's probably the easiest solution.

I have googled the TotoLink N300, but I can only see one ethernet port on the unit...

Do you by any chance have a link..? 

[dkskl]

12 hours ago, nbpf said:

This works fine but you have to setup the RPi that runs LMS to act as an access point for the USBridge. Just search for "RPi access point" and you will find a lot of documentation. I have used this one  https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=191453 to set up an RPi as a wireless access point. You will have to do that the other way round, provide wired access and reroute the packages that come from the wired USBridge to the wireless interface. It is pretty much straightforward.

Interesting. So it should be doable without connecting extra hardware...

 

Just had a deeper look at the PCP user interface. And lo and behold, there is an option to set it up as a WAP, just by clicking a button.

Could it be that easy..?