[SOLVED] Volume fluctuates on speaker2

[Zeable]

Trying to figure out where I went wrong. I have a two speaker multiroom setup and one speaker is called speaker1 and the other speaker2. (I know, very creative) I am using a Raspberry PI 5 for the sender and originally had both receivers using Raspberry Pi 3's. However, during troubleshooting, I have since replaced speaker2 with a Raspberry PI 4. All OS's have been fully updated. The speakers are cheap USB stereo speakers plugged into the Raspberry PIs.

The issue I am having is the second speaker set volume is fluctuating a LOT and is basically unusable. The speaker1 set seems to work flawlessly. Changing volume level, via touch display on PI5, works perfectly on speaker1 but not speaker2 continues to fluctuate wildly. Volume on speaker2 goes form what appears to be maxed to very quiet several times every few seconds.


Things tried
built the multiroom setup using this guide https://github.com/moode-player/moode/bl...tiroom.txt[url=https://github.com/moode-player/moode/blob/develop/www/setup_multiroom.txt][/url]
adjusted the individual speaker1 and speaker2 volumes in the gui and set them both to the same number (20) and later (30)
swapped speakers between the two receivers and problem stayed with speaker2
swapped usb cable on speaker two and issue remained same
swapped power supplied between the two receivers and problem stayed with speaker2
replaced raspberry PI 3 with 4 on speaker2 but problem remained - this also involved a complete OS reimage with PI imager
rebuilt both speaker1 and speaker2, using imager, and configured them identically with the exception of the name and problem remains with speaker2


I am forced to assume problem is most likely with sender but thought it just multicasts to 239.0.0.1 so there shouldn't be an issue with the actual audio stream. You can control the two speaker volumes from the sender but not sure why it would constantly be telling speaker2 to fluctuate.

[Tim Curtis]

Very odd. The sender only uses multicast for the audio stream. Command and control is via HTTP. Volume commands for example are sent to each receiver only once by the sender after clicking the knob or an individual volume for a receiver.

You should check whats happening to ALSA volume on the speaker2 receiver via the command below. USB audio devices are prolly going to be on card 2. The startup log (moodeutl -l) will list the card number in the Audio configuration section. 

Code:

alsamixer -c CARD_NUMBER

If you see the level changing in the alsamixer display then something other than the sender is changing it and this would be very strange. If the level remains constant but the actual output volume is changing then it would suggest something in the audio device itself. Try turning off the receiver and playing the stereo test track to it.

[Zeable]

Very odd. The sender only uses multicast for the audio stream. Command and control is via HTTP. Volume commands for example are sent to each receiver only once by the sender after clicking the knob or an individual volume for a receiver.

You should check whats happening to ALSA volume on the speaker2 receiver via the command below. USB audio devices are prolly going to be on card 2. The startup log (moodeutl -l) will list the card number in the Audio configuration section. 

Code:

alsamixer -c CARD_NUMBER

If you see the level changing in the alsamixer display then something other than the sender is changing it and this would be very strange. If the level remains constant but the actual output volume is changing then it would suggest something in the audio device itself. Try turning off the receiver and playing the stereo test track to it.

Thank you for the quick reply and got some very interesting results. For reference, and something I found out while performing your steps, speaker1 (PI3) was on card 1 while speaker2 (PI4) was on card 0.

That being said, I did not see any volume fluctuation in alsamixer but the volume was just all over the place.
I turned off the receiver and had it play the same Internet station, plus a few others for verification, and it played perfectly. 

So now the question is, how the heck is the volume all over the place when using multicast. It just doesn't make sense???

[Zeable]

Very odd. The sender only uses multicast for the audio stream. Command and control is via HTTP. Volume commands for example are sent to each receiver only once by the sender after clicking the knob or an individual volume for a receiver.

You should check whats happening to ALSA volume on the speaker2 receiver via the command below. USB audio devices are prolly going to be on card 2. The startup log (moodeutl -l) will list the card number in the Audio configuration section. 

Code:

alsamixer -c CARD_NUMBER

If you see the level changing in the alsamixer display then something other than the sender is changing it and this would be very strange. If the level remains constant but the actual output volume is changing then it would suggest something in the audio device itself. Try turning off the receiver and playing the stereo test track to it.

Thank you for the quick reply and got some very interesting results. For reference, and something I found out while performing your steps, speaker1 (PI3) was on card 1 while speaker2 (PI4) was on card 0.

That being said, I did not see any volume fluctuation in alsamixer but the volume was just all over the place.
I turned off the receiver and had it play the same Internet station, plus a few others for verification, and it played perfectly. 

So now the question is, how the heck is the volume all over the place when using multicast. It just doesn't make sense???

OK... Problem solved. I did some tracing for the multicast and discovered I had separate routes for speaker1 vs speaker2. I am playing with a new AP on my network and forgot to block it from allowing the speakers to connect. Now that they are once again going through the same AP, it seems to be working. Not really sure what the other AP is doing to the stream but at this point, it is working when all go through same AP.

[Tim Curtis]

Very odd. The sender only uses multicast for the audio stream. Command and control is via HTTP. Volume commands for example are sent to each receiver only once by the sender after clicking the knob or an individual volume for a receiver.

You should check whats happening to ALSA volume on the speaker2 receiver via the command below. USB audio devices are prolly going to be on card 2. The startup log (moodeutl -l) will list the card number in the Audio configuration section. 

Code:

alsamixer -c CARD_NUMBER

If you see the level changing in the alsamixer display then something other than the sender is changing it and this would be very strange. If the level remains constant but the actual output volume is changing then it would suggest something in the audio device itself. Try turning off the receiver and playing the stereo test track to it.

Thank you for the quick reply and got some very interesting results. For reference, and something I found out while performing your steps, speaker1 (PI3) was on card 1 while speaker2 (PI4) was on card 0.

That being said, I did not see any volume fluctuation in alsamixer but the volume was just all over the place.
I turned off the receiver and had it play the same Internet station, plus a few others for verification, and it played perfectly. 

So now the question is, how the heck is the volume all over the place when using multicast. It just doesn't make sense???

OK... Problem solved. I did some tracing for the multicast and discovered I had separate routes for speaker1 vs speaker2. I am playing with a new AP on my network and forgot to block it from allowing the speakers to connect. Now that they are once again going through the same AP, it seems to be working. Not really sure what the other AP is doing to the stream but at this point, it is working when all go through same AP.

Thats a pretty strange network effect. What model AP?

[Zeable]

Very odd. The sender only uses multicast for the audio stream. Command and control is via HTTP. Volume commands for example are sent to each receiver only once by the sender after clicking the knob or an individual volume for a receiver.

You should check whats happening to ALSA volume on the speaker2 receiver via the command below. USB audio devices are prolly going to be on card 2. The startup log (moodeutl -l) will list the card number in the Audio configuration section. 

Code:

alsamixer -c CARD_NUMBER

If you see the level changing in the alsamixer display then something other than the sender is changing it and this would be very strange. If the level remains constant but the actual output volume is changing then it would suggest something in the audio device itself. Try turning off the receiver and playing the stereo test track to it.

Thank you for the quick reply and got some very interesting results. For reference, and something I found out while performing your steps, speaker1 (PI3) was on card 1 while speaker2 (PI4) was on card 0.

That being said, I did not see any volume fluctuation in alsamixer but the volume was just all over the place.
I turned off the receiver and had it play the same Internet station, plus a few others for verification, and it played perfectly. 

So now the question is, how the heck is the volume all over the place when using multicast. It just doesn't make sense???

OK... Problem solved. I did some tracing for the multicast and discovered I had separate routes for speaker1 vs speaker2. I am playing with a new AP on my network and forgot to block it from allowing the speakers to connect. Now that they are once again going through the same AP, it seems to be working. Not really sure what the other AP is doing to the stream but at this point, it is working when all go through same AP.

Thats a pretty strange network effect. What model AP?

My primary AP is a Nighthawk RAX120. However, I also have a GL Technologies AXT1800 configured as an AP, a Sophos AP100C converted to openwrt, and a D-link DAP-2695-A1 that was also converted to openwrt. All are going through a Cisco 3850 POE switch.


I have been playing with openwrt and really love how I can get multiple APs to work with one another, with the exception of the RAX120, which is still factory OS. At the time of the issue, speaker2 was going through a GL Technologies, Inc. AXT1800. This is a great little pocket router I use for traveling and wanted to see how it behaves on my network. 

Right now, only the RAX120 will allow the multiroom sender and receivers to connect so all are on the same AP now. I will be doing some more multicast testing to see why the other AP doesn't play nicely but that will come later. 

[Tim Curtis]

The RAX looks like a military steath drone, lol

Are u running the stock firmware on the RAX? I'm looking to test a new Router that has solid stock firmware and can reliably support 2.4 and 5G bands.

[Zeable]

The RAX looks like a military steath drone, lol

Are u running the stock firmware on the RAX? I'm looking to test a new Router that has solid stock firmware and can reliably support 2.4 and 5G bands.

The RAX120 is running stock and has been rock solid. The speed is very impressive if your end device supports it. I am running it with two bonded interfaces into my switch as I currently don't have any interfaces supporting 2.5G. On a good day, I can transfer through it from my laptop at just over 900Mbps and usually averaging about 800Mbps. The only complaint I have is there is no support for 802.11k, 802.11r, or 802.11v.