Small project for family member (for Spotify Connect)

[GioF_71]

Hello, I recently prepared a Moode installation on a Pi3 with a Hifiberry DAC Plus for my father-in-law.
He will probably never use MPD, UPnP, webradios, or any other of these things, but for sure he enjoys using the Spotify Connect feature with his premium account and, as a second option, the Bluetooth receiver should he want to listen to something from his phone. I also activated the AirPlay renderer should he switch to Apple devices.
Before this change, he was using his stereo system through a rca cable running from the analog out of his tv, using chromecast on some android box coming from his tv provider. Needless to say the cable was way too long (there were interferences altough not severe as I was expecting) and now the sound quality is improved considerably, and most importantly, he does not need to turn on the tv just to stream Spotify.

Two issues I have encountered:

1) Bluetooth was stuttering
I ended up disabling the onboard bluetooth receiver and added an already owned usb Bluetooth adapter from ASUS. The onboard adapter was working properly when using wired ethernet, but was stuttering when using wifi.
This isse was solved directly at my house before installation in my relative's house.

2) Wifi Setup change
Everything was working properly at home, and I expected to be able to just reconfigure the /boot/firmware/wpa_supplicant.conf file once I acquired the wifi credentials and be good to go. Probably I was missing some country setting (we live in different countries), but I had to temporarily connect the box to an ethernet cable, then I could make the required changes.
This objectively did not take too long. A complicated SSID including the trailing string " 2.4GHz" further complicated things but I eventually could sort things out.

My father-in-law couldn't be happier for the result and he is enjoying his new toy.

Thank you @Tim Curtis @TheOldPresbyope and all the contributors for the great work.

[TheOldPresbyope]

@GioF_71 

Nice to hear moOde is working well for your father-in-law's use case. All props to @Tim Curtis and other technical contributors listed in the docs and github repo for their code contributions. My role has been minor in comparison, more a matter of trying to make sure the "i"s were dotted and the "t"'s were crossed and the result works.

Two minor technical points:

1) if you look through the Raspberry Pi Forum you'll see that issues with Bluetooth/WiFi mutual interference with the Pi 3 were being discussed as early as 2016. The easy solution was to add either a USB/WiFi adapter or a USB/BT adapter as you did.

2) The Bookworm edition of Raspberry Pi OS uses NetworkManager which has its own configuration files (look in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections). The wpa_supplicant.conf file isn't used in normal circumstances.



Regards,
Kent

[GioF_71]

1) if you look through the Raspberry Pi Forum you'll see that issues with Bluetooth/WiFi mutual interference with the Pi 3 were being discussed as early as 2016. The easy solution was to add either a USB/WiFi adapter or a USB/BT adapter as you did.

Yes, infact I was expecting the issue although hoping the additional dongle would not be needed. Luckily the dongle was laying around expecting a new purpose :-)

2) The Bookworm edition of Raspberry Pi OS uses NetworkManager which has its own configuration files (look in /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections). The wpa_supplicant.conf file isn't used in normal circumstances.

Thank you! I infact noticed that the wpa_supplicant.conf file was not used in that circumstance. The advantage of that old file is that it resides on the fat partition, so editable from a windows laptop, while the other would require a linux pc to mount the ext partition, or to have a running moOde box with ethernet connection. Anyway it's solved now.
The wifi issue might present again in the future e.g. in case of a router replacement (with the inevitable password change). Problem is that most likely I won't be here to fix the problem when it happens. An ethernet connection would have been the best solution but alas it's not currently possible.


p.s.: let's see if I can remember to style the moOde name correctly from now on :-)

[TheOldPresbyope]

@GioF_71 

And then you said

The wifi issue might present again in the future e.g. in case of a router replacement (with the inevitable password change). Problem is that most likely I won't be here to fix the problem when it happens. An ethernet connection would have been the best solution but alas it's not currently possible.

How comfortable is your father-in-law with exploring the configuration options in moOde's WebUI?

Once a password has been entered and saved for moOde's Hotspot function, you/he should be proof against a change in the router SSID and/or password. 

When moOde is booted, it will activate its Hotspot after a long-ish wait while it tries and fails to connect to the router with the old settings. Then you can connect to the Hotspot, enter 172.24.1.1 in your browser to open the WebUI, update and save the Wireless settings as needed, and reboot to let moOde connect to the new router.

Regards,
Kent

[GioF_71]

@GioF_71 

How comfortable is your father-in-law with exploring the configuration options in moOde's WebUI?

Hello, I did everything by myself and alone, he has seen nothing about moOde's webUI, he's 83, I can't really ask him to do that. Not his thing :-)
But know that you bring this to my attention, well I will probably instruct my nephew instead (she's 22 and for sure will be able to do that!)