EtherREGEN: Installation, Usage, Difficulty, Questions thread

[Dutch]

@BigAlMc, I’d also contact Piero to ask how to remove the bridge configuration to see if that helps.

[BigAlMc]

8 minutes ago, LowMidHigh said:

 

Maybe for starters have only one device connected to the A side? It will certainly help to pinpoint the issue. 

 

That's not possible. I need internet from my router in, and access to my server. Unless you are saying ditch the endpoint and just do server connected to B side?

[BigAlMc]

8 minutes ago, Dutch said:

@BigAlMc, I’d also contact Piero to ask how to remove the bridge configuration to see if that helps.

 

Yeah, I haven't upgraded my AL for quite a while now and see that 2.1 is out.

 

Might be worth ruining my Saturday morning 😓 and reinstalling AL on both devices to get the latest greatest version.

[LowMidHigh]

9 minutes ago, BigAlMc said:

 

That's not possible. I need internet from my router in, and access to my server. Unless you are saying ditch the endpoint and just do server connected to B side?

I suggest you get your network signal for the device that doesn't go across the moat from your router . Run a CAT6 cable and bypass the ER.

 

Now you should have only one device on the A side. It's going to be the one that passes its signal directly to the device on the B side. 

 

Next, test for dropouts. 

[dctom]

17 hours ago, Superdad said:

 

Looks completely normal. But you say that your AL/NUC endpoint is not getting an IP address at all?  What LEDs do you see above the 'B'-side RJ45?

 

Let's test A>B data flow across your EtherREGEN by eliminating your NUC from the equation.  Please attach some other normal computer--a laptop perhaps--to the 'B' side.  Does it get assigned an IP address and can you access the internet with it?

 

 

OK got the connection going again last night. However this morning had to restart etherRegen and unplug/replug ethernet cables several times to get Ip address on laptop, have now got ip on  on both server and endpoint - took a while to settle down, the ip address kept disappearing seems fine at the moment

[lmitche]

1 hour ago, BigAlMc said:

 

Yeah, I haven't upgraded my AL for quite a while now and see that 2.1 is out.

 

Might be worth ruining my Saturday morning 😓 and reinstalling AL on both devices to get the latest greatest version.

Hey BigAlMac,

 

Have you tried to set the NUC side ethernet port to 100mbps in the AL menu? The NUC should autonegotiate the connection speed, but the autonegotiate feature may be disabled in software. Your problem may have something to do with this. From the command line running ethtool against the nic will show all the current settings.

 

Larry

[BigAlMc]

32 minutes ago, lmitche said:

Hey BigAlMac,

 

Have you tried to set the NUC side ethernet port to 100mbps in the AL menu? The NUC should autonegotiate the connection speed, but the autonegotiate feature may be disabled in software. Your problem may have something to do with this. From the command line running ethtool against the nic will show all the current settings.

 

Larry

 

Hi Larry,

 

Just tried that and set to 100 for the Server NUC.

 

Interesting (tho I may be stretching the definition of 'interesting' here) data point. When I try to connect to the NUC on Putty it's unavailable and I get a network error. Despite music playing. Power cycle the ER and then Putty connects fine.

 

Will report back on whether this helped or not.

 

Cheers,

Alan

[dminches]

Just another data point.

 

Here is my setup:

 

What I have been noticing is that I am periodically losing a connection on my IOS app with the Roon Server.  This isn't happening when music is playing, only when I have paused the music or when the playlist or album has ended.  The connection is eventually re-established within 10 seconds or so.

 

I am not saying this is due to the ER but I don't recall this happening before I added the ER.  

 

[Ultrarunner]

23 hours ago, ogs said:

 

This sounds like a handshake problem between the B side of the ER and the opticalModule. The B port on the ER is 100BaseT max and the copper port on the opticalModule is maybe attempting to negotiate Gigabit which the ER does not understand on the B side.

So this means the ER won’t be able to feed an opticalModule from the B side?

 

If so, I guess my only option will be to use the ER in “reverse”, with the router connected to the B side and the A side optical port connecting to my opticalRendu. 

[ogs]

I do not think it necessarily means that. First of all Uptone will most likely find and fix any problems.

If it turns out to be a handshake problem an ethernet cable with just the two pairs necessary for 100BaseT may be worth a try. The orange and green pairs are used for 100BaseT so one can omit  blue and brown. I do not own a ER (yet) so I can not test this, but a similar arrangement works on the gigabit ethernet port of my Devialet 250 amp that will handshake 100FDX when only the two pairs are present.

[Superdad]

4 hours ago, BigAlMc said:

Ethernet from Router into A side of ER, A side connected to NUC (Audiolinux) Roon Server, B side connected to NUC (Audiolinux) Roon Endpoint which then connects via USB to my DAC.

 

I'd configured the NUCs to use 100MB and they were bridged in Audiolinux. Not sure if that's a factor or not.

 

Hi Alan:

Happy to hear that you got an EtherREGEN from Martin at AudioStore.

 

I am puzzled at user reports of dropouts or disconnects with AudioLinux set ups as I myself run an AL Roon Core Server (Mac mini/JS-2) on ‘A’ side and an AL NUC as Roon Bridge endpoint on the ‘B’ side.  It has been rock solid for months—with never a hiccup. And @lmitche, an AudioLinux maven similarly set up, was an EtherREGEN beta tester.

 

The only two thoughts that come to mind at the moment (besides wanting a cup of coffee—it’s early here!) are:

 

a) Someone else who had a “bridged” Ethernet AL configuration reported similar issues, so that’s one place to look;

 

b) When I first installed my EtherREGEN beta unit I had also been running HQ Player Embedded on the Roon server machine, and at the time that AL server had been set to 100Mbps instead of Gigabit. I freaked out because I was getting lots of dropouts at the beginning of tracks—and sometimes throughout (my music files are not on the server, they are on some shared drives elsewhere on the network). As soon as we set the server to Gigabit the problem went away.

 

So please check the LEDs on your ‘A’ side ports to confirm that you have Gigabit connections there.  And look into the bridging as mentioned above.

Let us know what you discover.

Thanks,

—Alex C.

[BigAlMc]

Hi Alex,

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

Yup, I'll play around with the settings. I feel it's probably software rather than hardware. These things usually are. Worst case I'll install AL from scratch on both NUCs as I'm several versions / months behind anyway. That way I can hopefully get it stable before I start tinkering with things like bridging or limiting the speed.

 

Meantime the workaround is select lots of music, listen, enjoy 😄 and restart the ER next you need to talk to Roon! Not the greatest long term plan but will suffice for now. First world problems and all that....

 

Cheers,

Alan

 

 

[k27R]

I was having the same drop out issues with my system last night and it was a little frustrating. 

My system consists of:

ubquiti edge router->copper->EtherREGEN->copper->pinkfaun (uses a version AudioLinux)

 

I tried a bunch of different configurations including optical and speeds on both server and router ends.  what ended up finally working was switching the Regen around to go B to A ports, and using the stock power supply.  For whatever reason, the linear ps I was originally using lead to dropouts and going A to B gave dropouts (no matter what speed settings were used on both ends) as well.

 

its been playing all night without dropping out so far.  I’ll have to play with it more today to see how stable it is with normal use.

 

 

 

[Nenon]

2 hours ago, dminches said:

Just another data point.

 

Here is my setup:

 

What I have been noticing is that I am periodically losing a connection on my IOS app with the Roon Server.  This isn't happening when music is playing, only when I have paused the music or when the playlist or album has ended.  The connection is eventually re-established within 10 seconds or so.

 

I am not saying this is due to the ER but I don't recall this happening before I added the ER.  

 

 

Is it possible that your Roon server is going on standby/sleep when not playing, and it takes a few seconds after it gets a network signal to "wake up"? That is certainly how my Synology behaves. 

[Nenon]

1 hour ago, Superdad said:

When I first installed my EtherREGEN beta unit I had also been running HQ Player Embedded on the Roon server machine, and at the time that AL server had been set to 100Mbps instead of Gigabit. I freaked out because I was getting lots of dropouts at the beginning of tracks—and sometimes throughout (my music files are not on the server, they are on some shared drives elsewhere on the network). As soon as we set the server to Gigabit the problem went away.

 

Out of curiosity - why switching the NIC on the sender from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps fixed the drop out issues if the receiver is running at 100 Mbps. I might get it after another cup of coffee too, but at this point I can't get the logic why:

- when the sender and receiver are running at 100 Mbps (i.e. 100 Mbps --> 100 Mbps) you had issues; but

- when you had server @ 1 Gbps --> receiver @ 100 Mbps the issues stopped...

Unless of course your server negotiated at 100 Mbps half duplex somehow.

[dminches]

13 minutes ago, Nenon said:

 

Is it possible that your Roon server is going on standby/sleep when not playing, and it takes a few seconds after it gets a network signal to "wake up"? That is certainly how my Synology behaves. 

 

No. It wouldn't go to sleep a minute after finishing an album. Plus, then the DAC is off and it is no longer attached to the end point following the ER it does not occur.

 

As I mentioned, I don't recall it happening before inserting the ER.

 

[Iving]

1 hour ago, Superdad said:

b) When I first installed my EtherREGEN beta unit I had also been running HQ Player Embedded on the Roon server machine, and at the time that AL server had been set to 100Mbps instead of Gigabit. I freaked out because I was getting lots of dropouts at the beginning of tracks—and sometimes throughout (my music files are not on the server, they are on some shared drives elsewhere on the network). As soon as we set the server to Gigabit the problem went away.

 

14 minutes ago, Nenon said:

Out of curiosity - why switching the NIC on the sender from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps fixed the drop out issues if the receiver is running at 100 Mbps. I might get it after another cup of coffee too, but at this point I can't get the logic why:

- when the sender and receiver are running at 100 Mbps (i.e. 100 Mbps --> 100 Mbps) you had issues; but

- when you had server @ 1 Gbps --> receiver @ 100 Mbps the issues stopped...

Unless of course your server negotiated at 100 Mbps half duplex somehow.

 

I'm planning PC > Cisco switch > EtherREGEN > DAC. Surely the EtherREGEN won't baulk at 100 Mbps input? I've made custom cables, shelves, etc, etc ...

 

[dctom]

1 hour ago, Superdad said:

 

So please check the LEDs on your ‘A’ side ports to confirm that you have Gigabit connections there.  And look into the bridging as mentioned above.

Let us know what you discover.

Thanks,

—Alex C.

 

Probably a dumb question - but what should I be looking for in respect of the LEDs?

[Nenon]

11 minutes ago, Iving said:

Surely the EtherREGEN won't baulk at 100 Mbps input?

No one is saying 100 Mbps is a problem. It's more than adequate for streaming. Don't get my message the wrong way. I was just curious about what the root cause was of a problem Superad explained. 

 

One thing that I have not seen suggested here is using ping. Run a continuous ping from a device on your network and check what happens - do you see drops ,or significant latency increase, or something else. The ping tool is your friend when it comes to troubleshooting simple network issues. And there are apps that can be used for your phone... I use a program called Fing on my iPhone. It can scan my network and run various tests including ping.

 

[Superdad]

8 minutes ago, dctom said:

Probably a dumb question - but what should I be looking for in respect of the LEDs?

 

From page 6 of the User Guide:

 

EtherREGEN LEDs:

The green LED at left of the EtherREGEN’s DC input jack indicates that the switch is receiving power. There are two small LED indicators above each of the unit’s RJ45 Ethernet ports. The meaning of the colors and activity with cable connections are different for the four Gigabit-capable ‘A’-side ports than for the lone 100Mbps ‘B’-side port, as follows:

‘A’ Side
Flashing yellow = Gigabit link with network activity
Flashing green = 100Mbps link with network activity
Solid LED (yellow or green) = Link established but no network activity

‘B’ Side (100Mbps only)
Solid or Flashing green = Network activity
Solid yellow = Network link established (should stay on all the time when a ‘B’-side connection is made)

[Morph]

Hello
A quick question. The power chord I intend to use for the ER has a 15 amp fuse in the plug. Is 15a ok or should I swap it out for a lower amp fuse?

Thanks 

Morph

[BigAlMc]

1 hour ago, k27R said:

For whatever reason, the linear ps I was originally using lead to dropouts and going A to B gave dropouts (no matter what speed settings were used on both ends) as well.

 

Interesting. One more thing to try I guess.

 

But as my Server NUC only has one LAN port I guess I'd need to change from:

 

Router to A side of ER, Server to A side of ER, B side of ER to EndPoint

 

To:

 

Router to previous AQVOX switch, AQVOX to Server, AQVOX to A side of ER, B side of ER to EndPoint?

 

Addition of an extra switch in the chain seems counter intuitive to resolving network issues. But might be worth a go.

 

Cheers,

Alan

[lmitche]

2 hours ago, BigAlMc said:

 

Interesting. One more thing to try I guess.

 

But as my Server NUC only has one LAN port I guess I'd need to change from:

 

Router to A side of ER, Server to A side of ER, B side of ER to EndPoint

 

To:

 

Router to previous AQVOX switch, AQVOX to Server, AQVOX to A side of ER, B side of ER to EndPoint?

 

Addition of an extra switch in the chain seems counter intuitive to resolving network issues. But might be worth a go.

 

Cheers,

Alan

I'd make sure you NUC endpoint is set at 100mbps and the server to 1000mbps. Plug the endpoint in the B side of the ER, and the server into the A side along with your router connection. This way you don't need any autonegotiation.

[JohnSwenson]

17 hours ago, Ultrarunner said:

So this means the ER won’t be able to feed an opticalModule from the B side?

 

If so, I guess my only option will be to use the ER in “reverse”, with the router connected to the B side and the A side optical port connecting to my opticalRendu. 

Yes, you cannot connect the RJ45 jack of the opticalModule to the RJ45 "B" jack on the EtherREGEN. The oM RJ45 jack just runs at gigabit and the RJ45 B jack on the EtherREGEN only runs at 100Mb. The EtherREGEN was specifically designed so you can run it "backwards" when driving a device such as the opticalRendu.

[JohnSwenson]

16 hours ago, k27R said:

I was having the same drop out issues with my system last night and it was a little frustrating. 

My system consists of:

ubquiti edge router->copper->EtherREGEN->copper->pinkfaun (uses a version AudioLinux)

 

I tried a bunch of different configurations including optical and speeds on both server and router ends.  what ended up finally working was switching the Regen around to go B to A ports, and using the stock power supply.  For whatever reason, the linear ps I was originally using lead to dropouts and going A to B gave dropouts (no matter what speed settings were used on both ends) as well.

 

its been playing all night without dropping out so far.  I’ll have to play with it more today to see how stable it is with normal use.

 

 

 

Did you try using the supplied SMPS powering the EtherREGEN when going router->A B->DAC? Are your Ethernet cables shielded using metal connectors? This is actually sounding like ground loops.

 

John S.