Allo USBRIDGE SIGNATURE Player - Owners Thread

[wannarock2]

Recently purchased the usbridge signature along with the allo shanti power supply as a streaming solution for my setup. There has been an appreciable bump in sonics, most notable of which is the clean and dark background.

Although this was bought with streaming services in mind, I would also like the usbrige to play my music collection stored in a windows PC over the network. Any pointers on setting up a local streaming solution would be greatly appreciated. Currently running volumio on my usbridge.

Once you discover/mount your PC network/drive/music Volumio is the app which will stream it all to your USBridge.
http://3.230.113.73:9011/Allocom/USBridgeSig/Player-Manuals/USBridgeSig-volumio-player.pdf

 

[catalyst360]

Once you discover/mount your PC network/drive/music Volumio is the app which will stream it all to your USBridge.
http://3.230.113.73:9011/Allocom/USBridgeSig/Player-Manuals/USBridgeSig-volumio-player.pdf

Volumio fails to read the files in my Windows shared folder. I am trying to figure out what I am doing wrong.

 

[wannarock2]

Volumio fails to read the files in my Windows shared folder. I am trying to figure out what I am doing wrong.

For the initial PC/NAS drive set-up I would try using a hard-wired ethernet cable between the PC and the USBridge. After mounting your music disc/drive and connecting your wifi you can then ditch the ethernet cable and control your USBridge in accessing your PC music folder via wifi through the Volumio app.
http://3.230.113.73:9011/Allocom/USBridgeSig/Player-Manuals/USBridgeSig-volumio-player.pdf

 

[Beast_of_burden]

I tried something different yesterday as the router is far away from my current stereo setup. The Usbridge doesn’t have onboard WiFi and using dongle is quite fiddly. I used a standard raspberry Pi3 with Moode and using it as a streamer into the Revolution DaC. Pretty good sound into the average mid fi system. The Revolution DAC is a smooth operator as always. For folks getting into streaming, try with a raspberry pi4 with Moode before buying LPS or the Usbridge. You might not feel the need to upgrade.

 

[Yogesh]

I tried something different yesterday as the router is far away from my current stereo setup. The Usbridge doesn’t have onboard WiFi and using dongle is quite fiddly. I used a standard raspberry Pi3 with Moode and using it as a streamer into the Revolution DaC. Pretty good sound into the average mid fi system. The Revolution DAC is a smooth operator as always. For folks getting into streaming, try with a raspberry pi4 with Moode before buying LPS or the Usbridge. You might not feel the need to upgrade.

They have Boss 2 now as an one stop solution. Player+DAC running Moode.

 

[Beast_of_burden]

They have Boss 2 now as an one stop solution. Player+DAC running Moode.

This has WiFi too, it’s a really good solution.

 

[sanjivnayak]

They have Boss 2 now as an one stop solution. Player+DAC running Moode.

Volumio is as good as Moode or is there any big difference

 

[drkrack]

I tried something different yesterday as the router is far away from my current stereo setup. The Usbridge doesn’t have onboard WiFi and using dongle is quite fiddly. I used a standard raspberry Pi3 with Moode and using it as a streamer into the Revolution DaC. Pretty good sound into the average mid fi system. The Revolution DAC is a smooth operator as always. For folks getting into streaming, try with a raspberry pi4 with Moode before buying LPS or the Usbridge. You might not feel the need to upgrade.

Did you try USB bridge signature as a HAT on Rpi 3? Instead of the supplied custom Rpi Version with USB bridge signature?

And does the usb bridge signature work as a HAT over other Rpi versions like, Rpi 3b or 4? That'll be a leap in performance technically...

 

[shyamv]

Did you try USB bridge signature as a HAT on Rpi 3? Instead of the supplied custom Rpi Version with USB bridge signature?

And does the usb bridge signature work as a HAT over other Rpi versions like, Rpi 3b or 4? That'll be a leap in performance technically...

USBridge Signature is not a typical HAT implementation like other Allo products. It uses a scaled-down RPi compute module as a base platform, but eliminates unnecessary interfaces like Wifi, BLE, HDMI and also moves USB and Ethernet interfaces to a significant cleaner external implementation. This makes it a superior design over the noisy onboard USB in RPi3 or RPi4, although RPI4's USB implementation is half-decent.

 

[Beast_of_burden]

Did you try USB bridge signature as a HAT on Rpi 3? Instead of the supplied custom Rpi Version with USB bridge signature?

And does the usb bridge signature work as a HAT over other Rpi versions like, Rpi 3b or 4? That'll be a leap in performance technically...

I had another Rpi3 which was used as a Squeeze box server earlier. For kicks I inserted the SD card from the US bridge into the Rpi3 and converted it to a streamer. DAC is the Allo Revolution with el cheapo power supply. I have the Usbridge + Shanti LPS, it’s not a leap relative to the basic RPI. Maybe the improvement in noise floor and jitter isn’t obvious enough to me.

USBridge Signature is not a typical HAT implementation like other Allo products. It uses a scaled-down RPi compute module as a base platform, but eliminates unnecessary interfaces like Wifi, BLE, HDMI and also moves USB and Ethernet interfaces to a significant cleaner external implementation. This makes it a superior design over the noisy onboard USB in RPi3 or RPi4, although RPI4's USB implementation is half-decent.

If there is any noise I cannot hear it, to be perfectly honest. The RPI in general is lower noise compared to the typical PC and secondly Moode OS is also lightweight. As I mentioned, into a mid-fi system this streamer is plenty good.

 

[navin advani]

USBridge Signature is not a typical HAT implementation like other Allo products. It uses a scaled-down RPi compute module as a base platform, but eliminates unnecessary interfaces like Wifi, BLE, HDMI and also moves USB and Ethernet interfaces to a significant cleaner external implementation. This makes it a superior design over the noisy onboard USB in RPi3 or RPi4, although RPI4's USB implementation is half-decent.

Hi,

Have you or anyone tried to add a small 2 line display or any screen to the Allo USBridge Signature? It doesn't have to be a touch screen or anything fancy just a small screen that can display the artist's name and song being played.

Of course, a small colour screen that can display album art would be fantastic too.

Thanks.

 

[mbhangui]

Hi,

Have you or anyone tried to add a small 2 line display or any screen to the Allo USBridge Signature? It doesn't have to be a touch screen or anything fancy just a small screen that can display the artist's name and song being played.

Of course, a small colour screen that can display album art would be fantastic too.

I have done this in 2014 when building a hardware based music player for a US based client, using Banana PI. I used the Hitachi HD44780 LCD controller. These LCDs are very cheap.


The raspberry PIs have GPIO pins that can be acccessed and controlled. I used the wiringpi library from here and wrote a complete package in C called lcdaemon and a utility named pilcd. pilcd can be called on the command line and display any string you want on row 1, 2, 3 or 4 (depending on whether you have a 2 or 4 line lcd display). If anyone wants the source, I can give it under GPL open source license and email a tar.gz file. Here is the man page for pilcd command below.



Now usbridge runs mpd (music player daemon) to play songs on the dac connected to the usbridge. One can write any script/program to connect to mpd port 6600. It is a very simple protocol. e.g. on my usbridge I'm playing a song by Lobo. I connected to port 6600 and issued the command 'currentsong' and mpd daemon has replied with details of the song playing. Now If I parse the output and call the pilcd command, i will be able to display the song on lcd. This is exactly what I did for the music hardware that I made for one of my US client.

telnet 0 6600
Trying 0.0.0.0...
Connected to 0.
Escape character is '^]'.
OK MPD 0.23.4
currentsong
file: Lobo 1971-2006 (flac)/1973 - Calumet - Rhino/01 - How Can I Tell Her.flac
Last-Modified: 2021-04-26T02:58:15Z
Format: 44100:16:2
Artist: Lobo
Album: Calumet
Genre: Rock
Date: 1973
Title: How Can I Tell Her
AlbumArtist: Lobo
Track: 1
Disc: 1
Disc: 1
Time: 263
duration: 262.693
Pos: 0
Id: 1
OK

I also have a project on github named mpdev here. There is one user who is using this package to display song, album and other information. Using mpdev one can execute any custom command when a song is played, stopped, paused, when the song changes, etc.

I know this post can sound complicated, but anyone who knows a bit about shell programming and compiling can pick up things in this post and build something. Also if one wants to use the above hitachi lcd controller with allo usbridge, the unit will have to be opened a few wires connected to the GPIO pins. It can be done, but it would be ugly.

There is another easy thing you can do. The allo usbridge has HDMI out. So you can connect it to any LCD display that has HDMI input and get the Raspbian OS displayed. Connect a keyboard, mouse to the usb port. Install a music player like cantata (apt-get install cantata) and execute that to play your music and get it displayed on screen. No programming knowledge required here.

 

[navin advani]

I have done this in 2014 when building a hardware based music player for a US based client, using Banana PI. I used the Hitachi HD44780 LCD controller. These LCDs are very cheap.

The raspberry PIs have GPIO pins that can be acccessed and controlled.

There is another easy thing you can do. The allo usbridge has HDMI out. So you can connect it to any LCD display that has HDMI input and get the Raspbian OS displayed. Connect a keyboard, mouse to the usb port. Install a music player like cantata (apt-get install cantata) and execute that to play your music and get it displayed on screen. No programming knowledge required here.

Thanks. The Rpi4 seems to have the ability to send data to a display via the GPIO. I understand the Allo USBridge does not have the option to add a display via the GPIO. I suspect HDMI out is the only option.

I intend to use Volumio or Moode with the USBridge.

 

[mbhangui]

Thanks. The Rpi4 seems to have the ability to send data to a display via the GPIO. I understand the Allo USBridge does not have the option to add a display via the GPIO. I suspect HDMI out is the only option.

I intend to use Volumio or Moode with the USBridge.

You have another very simple option where you don't have to use the HDMI out.

What laptop do you use? Windows or Mac.

I use mac and have installed cantata. Cantata is available for WIndows too i think. Just install it. In the settings just give the IP address of the usbridge and you are done. It will show you your entire collection with albumard. e.g. right now I'm playing Herbie Hancock, maiden voyage album on my dac connected to usbridge


and here is the preferences screen where I have added usbridge player.

 

[mbhangui]

Thanks. The Rpi4 seems to have the ability to send data to a display via the GPIO. I understand the Allo USBridge does not have the option to add a display via the GPIO. I suspect HDMI out is the only option.

I intend to use Volumio or Moode with the USBridge.

If you have an android phone, you can install mpdroid app and control your usbridge using that. mpdroid will also display albumart. If you have an IOS device (iphone, ipad) then you can install maximum mpd. I think that too has option to display album art.

If you install volumio, volumio does something crazy. It controls mpd playlist and because of that any external app will display just one song. But all other distributions (moode, dietpi, etc) are OK.

 

[navin advani]

You have another very simple option where you don't have to use the HDMI out.

What laptop do you use? Windows or Mac.


and here is the preferences screen where I have added usbridge player.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad and have an iPhone 12.

The object was to have a standalone media player that operates much like a CD player, Apple TV or Tata Sky box would. It would connect to a local hard disk (using a router with a USB port as a basic NAS) or to the internet (Spotify, Amazon Music, Tidal, etc) and play music from either of these 2 sources.

I was ok dedicating an old iPad as the player's "remote control" and the object of having the display on the player is so that I don't have to reach for the iPad to know what's happening.

I am leaning towards Max2Play or Moode because they are paid services and hence will have someone responsible I can ask questions from.

 

[awedeophile]

Hi all,
I am trying to setup the Allo Digione Signature for a friend. I understand it is similar to the USBridge.
We have connnected a 4TB drive to it but Volmuio fails to complete the scan and hangs. On reboot it starts the scan process again and then fails.
Is there another software with a similar UI/App as Volumio that we can use?
Alternatively, if I connect the 4TB drive to a NAS (raspberry pi), will volumio be able to scan, catalogue and read the drive properly?
Is anyone doing it this way?

Thanks in advance.

 

[mbhangui]

Hi all,
I am trying to setup the Allo Digione Signature for a friend. I understand it is similar to the USBridge.
We have connnected a 4TB drive to it but Volmuio fails to complete the scan and hangs. On reboot it starts the scan process again and then fails.
Is there another software with a similar UI/App as Volumio that we can use?
Alternatively, if I connect the 4TB drive to a NAS (raspberry pi), will volumio be able to scan, catalogue and read the drive properly?
Is anyone doing it this way?

Thanks in advance.

Not sure what problem you are facing. What filesystem are you using for the 4TB drive? You can try moodeaudio. Both direct attached and through the NAS should be possible.

EDIT:
I think your definition of scan is volumio is taking time to create it's own datasase of the music files metadata and things like album art. If your hard disk has plenty of data, it will take time because of the time involved in getting the album art and other data.

 

[awedeophile]

Not sure what problem you are facing. What filesystem are you using for the 4TB drive? You can try moodeaudio. Both direct attached and through the NAS should be possible.

EDIT:
I think your definition of scan is volumio is taking time to create it's own datasase of the music files metadata and things like album art. If your hard disk has plenty of data, it will take time because of the time involved in getting the album art and other data.

Hi,
It hangs midway through the scan and when I restart Volumio, it starts the process again, only to stop again.
I put some files on a USB drive and that works fine.
My question was - if I use a NAS instead of connecting the drive directly, will that work? I dont have a NAS and will hence have to get one for this.

Edit: Moodeaudio worked but I dont like the interface.

 

[mbhangui]

Hi,
It hangs midway through the scan and when I restart Volumio, it starts the process again, only to stop again.
I put some files on a USB drive and that works fine.
My question was - if I use a NAS instead of connecting the drive directly, will that work? I dont have a NAS and will hence have to get one for this.

Edit: Moodeaudio worked but I dont like the interface.

Does the 4TB drive have files in it? Or is it hanging without any files in the 4Tb drive?