How many php workers are "OK"?

[ovizii]

My hardware is listed in my signature. I am listening to a song from my Android phone via UPnP and a

Code:

modeutl -m

shows high CPU usage and 27 PHP workers. Does that sound right?

Code:

pi@moody:~ $ moodeutl -m
CPU: 1.0 GHz, LOAD: 32% 48C | MEM: 37% used | DISK: 39% used, 4.1G free | PHP: 20 workers C

It has gone slightly down since I checked.

[the_bertrum]

My hardware is listed in my signature. I am listening to a song from my Android phone via UPnP and a

Code:

modeutl -m

shows high CPU usage and 27 PHP workers. Does that sound right?

Code:

pi@moody:~ $ moodeutl -m
CPU: 1.0 GHz, LOAD: 32% 48C | MEM: 37% used | DISK: 39% used, 4.1G free | PHP: 20 workers C

It has gone slightly down since I checked.

Seems like a lot of PHP workers, but the CPU load isn't high when compared to my Pi zero playing an internet radio stream.

Code:

CPU: 1.0 GHz, LOAD: 39% 36C | MEM: 35% used | DISK: 10% used, 25G free | PHP: 6 workers

[the_bertrum]

Hi @ovizii,

I notice that in this and other threads the possibility of your Zero W being too underpowered is being suggested.  I'll not nay-say those messages, but I do urge you to persevere with your Zero because in my experience it is adequate.  I stream radio to mine all day most days, I connect to it via Bluetooth a lot, Spotify connect a lot, and I'm currently sending music via UPnP from BubbleUPnP on my Android phone as an experiment.
   
You can see, it is far from idle, but it isn't struggling in any way.  My Zero is inside the wood and leather case of a Roberts Revival radio, along with all the original radio electronics.  The radio itself is in a different room to the wireless access point it connects to, with a wall, several pieces of furniture and 4 metres between them.  I have my music library on a NAS and it is mounted into the moOde player over SMB.  It works a lot better using the moOde UI and the mounted library than it does streaming the same files via UPnP.

So, firstly make sure your power supply is good, that causes all sorts of strange behaviour.  Check that you have a decent SD card, also the cause of much oddness.  Then consider where your Library is, could you mount it rather than sending it over UPnP?  Also, a simple re-flash of moOde and starting a fresh is worth trying when a player seems to be misbehaving.

I won't pretend it will ever by a super fast player that can handle DSP while streaming huge files over a terrible connection, but it can be a solid player for a casual listening device.

[ovizii]

@the_bertrum thanks for the encouraging words. I'm still giving it a chance, if all fails I see 2 options:



- Replace it with a RPI zero 2 w which is a drop-in replacement, fits in the same case, they are just not available right now
- install Raspbian lite, install  Gmedia Renderer 

I am trying to remove/disable everything I don't need. All I need is UPnP so I can stream from my phone. I definitely have a good enough power source but as you said, I need to double-check the SD card (this one came with the device, so I am sure it's the cheapest one available).

I might move away from moOde and look for something more minimal. I gave picoreplayer a go, but that is based on tinycorelinux which I am completely unfamiliar with. MoOde is great and I'll stick with it if I replace the RPI with a zero 2 W. 

We'll see. Let me replace the SD card and check whether that changes anything.

[ovizii]

I would like to let you know that I can now agree with you: the RPI zero is perfectly suited for moode. I can't tell you exactly what fixed my issues, but it was definitely one of these:

- tested a few different power supplies for the zero until I found one without any issues
- tested a few different SD cards (I was still working with the default one that my RPI zero was supplied with – obviously a very cheap one)
- turned off the onboard bluetooth

[the_bertrum]

Glad it's working for you.
I'm running with the onboard Bluetooth turned on without issue, but I guess if you don't need it, keeping it off won't hurt