no. I think boss2 uses RPI4. So it would be microhdmi. I have RPI4 and I use micro-hdmi here.
ALLO BOSS 2 PLAYER
- Thread starter Sean de Silva
- Start date
Sean de Silva
Well-Known Member
You're right, Boss 2 has the RPI4. Thank you for the clarification on the correct cable to be used. I'm fairly new to all of this streaming/network stuff coming from old-fashioned CDs/LPs
@rajivaryan1984 tagging you here since you have purcased a BOSS2. One of the things that you need is a hdmi to micro hdmi cable to connect your boss2 to a display. This is not normally needed, but is a very usefull thing to have in case something goes wrong.
Audio_Freek
Well-Known Member
RPi just stops the power to the USB powered HDD once we initiate shutdown. So the HDD would just stop spinning abruptly which could cause the head to freeze. Once we again power the HDD the head takes the command and resume.
RPi has no solution or option to spin down the HDD before the Shutdown.
On other hand SDD works on memory cell, so doesnt have any mechanical interruption to create damage during the powerdown.
I am just sharing my experience, as once my HDD corrupted when i disconnected sometimes while disk was spinning ( connected to Laptop)
RPI4 has a bug where it doesn't shutdown the power to the USB3.0 ports when shutdown. So a disk connnected to USB3.0 will always remain on. If the disk is self powered than OK. But if it is being powered by RPI and you disconnect the power cable after shutdown, the hard disk may crash. This is a hardware design flaw in RPI4. What I have done is use a utility named uhubctl to get called during shutdown to switch off the power to the usb3.0. This causes my externally powered seagate disk to spin down and power off when it sees no power on the usb cable.
Yes. The only problem with SSD is capacity. In my case it would be prohibitively expensive to have 4Tb of SSD.
Yes. The this can happen especially when a write is happening and you remove power to the hard disk. The head will crash on the platter and cause definite damage, data corruption and in worse case, the hard disk will become unusable.
This is what I do for ensuring the hard disk spins down after power off of raspberry pi
1) Download and compile uhubctl
2. Create the following systemd usb-shutdown service in /usr/lib/systemd/system/usb-shutdown.service
3. Enable usb-shutdown.service
4. Create the following script to shutdown usb port on shutdown in /home/pi/bin/usb_shutdown
5. Set the executable bit for /home/pi/bin/usb_shutdown
1) Download and compile uhubctl
2. Create the following systemd usb-shutdown service in /usr/lib/systemd/system/usb-shutdown.service
3. Enable usb-shutdown.service
4. Create the following script to shutdown usb port on shutdown in /home/pi/bin/usb_shutdown
5. Set the executable bit for /home/pi/bin/usb_shutdown
Audio_Freek
Well-Known Member
Does this utility spin-down the HDD? Before the RPi gets shoutdown? or Just a powerdown happens to the HDD
It just powers off the 5v from the usb port. Most disks power off after a period of inactivity when they no longer see power on the usb cable. If you don't use uhubctl on RPI4, the hard disk connected to usb3 port forever remains on.
EDIT
This problem will not be faced if you connect the hard disk to usb 2.0 port or RPI3 and below.
How to turn USB port power on and off in Raspberry PI 4
On a Raspberry PI 3B+, it's simple to turn power on its four USB ports off and on. Simply write a "0" to /sys/devices/platform/soc/3f980000.usb/buspower to turn power off and a "1" to turn power on...
Someone is using almost the same method that I use for powering off the usb. He additionally uses hdparm to spin down the disk
External USB 3.0 HDD Spin down and power off when powering off or rebooting the Raspberry Pi 4B
An external USB 3.0 HDD Seagate Expantion Drive 1TB is connected to my Raspberry Pi 4B on the Raspbian Buster. The hard drive rarely works, so the first thing I would like it to shut down during idle
Audio_Freek
Well-Known Member
Thanks a Lot let me try to connect HDD in USB 2.0 and see the difference. Also try the scripts too
rajivaryan1984
Active Member
Already purcahsed from Amazon today - https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B089GLZFB2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Sean de Silva
Well-Known Member
Sharing my recent experience so that other Allo Boss 2 users do not make the same mistake...
Right from day one until last evening, I have been merrily connecting to / controlling the Boss from Android despite a wrong connection between my home router and Boss which I'll explain below. Murphy's law caught up yesterday. Android suddenly wouldn't connect to MoOde and neither would the desktop, both stubbornly showing the same error screen.
So I turned off/on the router hoping that would help but to no avail. Desperate to have music last night as we were celebrating my aunt's 72nd birthday, I called w2h tech support. We started troubleshooting by pinging the IP address ( which was functional earlier) from desktop cmd prompt. Thankfully ping went through with no packet loss hence the bewilderment. We discovered the culprit - the comfast wifi dongle AND the LAN were both simultaneously connected to the Boss! I disconnected the wifi dongle and retained the LAN connection. Proceeding to check DHCP clients listing in the router homepage, MoOde now showed up as a distinct client with an assigned IP address besides the other client devices which are all on the same network. He explained that earlier, the router had assigned 2 different IP addresses i.e. one for the wifi dongle and the other for the LAN connection and hence this had caused a conflict thus resulting in a connection breakdown via android and desktop. This seems to make perfect sense as iirc when I had checked the DHCP client listing prior to last evening, MoOde did not show up distinctly as a client but under a garbled alphanumeric title with the assigned earlier functional IP address. Not that it rang any alarm bells back then. I now understand that the wifi dongle is to be used only in those situations where it is not possible to physically connect the router to the Boss via the LAN which obviously implies that the wifi connection between router/Boss becomes the only solution. If the router can be physically connected to the Boss via the LAN, then that is the only way the connection should be made. The wifi dongle should not be simultaneously connected. Anyways...we are back to Allo music land ! 
Right from day one until last evening, I have been merrily connecting to / controlling the Boss from Android despite a wrong connection between my home router and Boss which I'll explain below. Murphy's law caught up yesterday. Android suddenly wouldn't connect to MoOde and neither would the desktop, both stubbornly showing the same error screen.
So I turned off/on the router hoping that would help but to no avail. Desperate to have music last night as we were celebrating my aunt's 72nd birthday, I called w2h tech support. We started troubleshooting by pinging the IP address ( which was functional earlier) from desktop cmd prompt. Thankfully ping went through with no packet loss hence the bewilderment. We discovered the culprit - the comfast wifi dongle AND the LAN were both simultaneously connected to the Boss! I disconnected the wifi dongle and retained the LAN connection. Proceeding to check DHCP clients listing in the router homepage, MoOde now showed up as a distinct client with an assigned IP address besides the other client devices which are all on the same network. He explained that earlier, the router had assigned 2 different IP addresses i.e. one for the wifi dongle and the other for the LAN connection and hence this had caused a conflict thus resulting in a connection breakdown via android and desktop. This seems to make perfect sense as iirc when I had checked the DHCP client listing prior to last evening, MoOde did not show up distinctly as a client but under a garbled alphanumeric title with the assigned earlier functional IP address. Not that it rang any alarm bells back then. I now understand that the wifi dongle is to be used only in those situations where it is not possible to physically connect the router to the Boss via the LAN which obviously implies that the wifi connection between router/Boss becomes the only solution. If the router can be physically connected to the Boss via the LAN, then that is the only way the connection should be made. The wifi dongle should not be simultaneously connected. Anyways...we are back to Allo music land ! Has anyone had success with Spotify connect on Moode? It works fine on my Boss 2 thru airplay but if I use Spotify connect I don't get any sound output. Have tried all the usual hacks - restart renderer, software update, etc.
ajuvignesh
Well-Known Member
Try increasing the volume from your mobile's volume rocker. The default volume is 0.
Thanks, iirc digital volume was set to 100% but I'll try again and report back
Yes connecting via Lan is the better way to hook any streamer in the chain. An additional step that you can do in your router is to Assign a Fixed IP to your streamer, so that in the future if for some reason the router or the streamer is restarted, it gets the same IP. It is easy to connect to your main components too. I have fixed IPs for my computer, Digione, and my mobile. Just makes life easy when I have to connect to any of them using the IP.Sharing my recent experience so that other Allo Boss 2 users do not make the same mistake...
Right from day one until last evening, I have been merrily connecting to / controlling the Boss from Android despite a wrong connection between my home router and Boss which I'll explain below. Murphy's law caught up yesterday. Android suddenly wouldn't connect to MoOde and neither would the desktop, both stubbornly showing the same error screen.
View attachment 65718 I now understand that the wifi dongle is to be used only in those situations where it is not possible to physically connect the router to the Boss via the LAN which obviously implies that the wifi connection between router/Boss becomes the only solution. If the router can be physically connected to the Boss via the LAN, then that is the only way the connection should be made. The wifi dongle should not be simultaneously connected. Anyways...we are back to Allo music land !
MaSh
Sean de Silva
Well-Known Member
Thanks @MaSh Expectedly, the router assigned a new IP address and the earlier one obviously wouldn't work. IMO this isn't a big deal as instead of remembering IP addresses everytime
to start MoOde, the easy workaround is to simply enter http://moode.local and that opens the MoOde home screen.
Oh yes, if you have the hostname working, then you are sorted. But there will be times when you would want to connect to the device to make some changes to a file or something, then you don't want to be hunting for the IP. Same goes for a NAS device too, a fixed IP helps.
MaSh
Sean de Silva
Well-Known Member
The MoOde spotify android volume slider is set to min by default. I had to slide it to the right to begin playing an album.
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