[PROBLEM] Audio dropouts Moode 9.0.4 on Pi4 + USB DAC + FLAC library

[ptrkln]

Hi,

New to the forum so forgive me if this problem has already been discussed.
I've been using Moode on a Pi4 with USB DAC and USB SSD containing a FLAC library of around 1200 albums.

Since Moode 9 I've been experiencing serious audio dropouts with the exact same hardware setup I had running with Moode 8.3.
At first I noticed random dropouts lasting only fractions of seconds.
But more recently entire albums won't play at all rendering Moode completely unresponsive after which a hard reboot is the only solution.
After swapping cables, sd-card, hard drive and even Pi's I finally gave up on Moode 9 and went back to the flawless performance of Moode 8.3.

To me the problem quite obviously lies in Moode 9.
Has a similar problem with a similar setup been reported here before?
And what would be the best way to tackle or at least expose the cause?

[Tim Curtis]

Very odd. The symptoms suggest something external to moode software.

To start troubleshooting boot up your moOde 9 system and then post the contents of the startup log.

The log can be viewed via the SSH command moodeutl -l or downloaded via the Logs section in System Config, or via Menu, System info from any of the Config screens. The startup log will be at the end of System info output.

[ptrkln]

Very odd. The symptoms suggest something external to moode software.

To start troubleshooting boot up your moOde 9 system and then post the contents of the startup log.

The log can be viewed via the SSH command moodeutl -l or downloaded via the Logs section in System Config, or via Menu, System info from  any of the Config screens. The startup log will be at the end of System info output.

Thanks for the quick reply Tim but why do you think the symptoms suggest something external to the software when Moode 8.3 works perfectly in my setup?

[TheOldPresbyope]

Hi, @ptrkln 

I agree with Tim. I have no trouble playing tracks from a USB SSD (1 GB Samsung M.2 NVMe SSD in a USB3.0 adapter) with moOde 9.0.4 on either a Pi 4B or a Pi 5.

Do you experience these dropouts when you play Internet radio stations? When you play tracks from the SDCARD or a simple USB thumbdrive?

Regards,
Kent

[ptrkln]

Hi Kent,

Internet streams don't produce dropouts so it's definitely the streaming from a usb device causing problems.
I too have a Samsung SSD with USB 3.0 adapter which I also swapped for a different adapter thinking that it could be the culprit.

I forgot to mention that specific albums on my SSD caused Moode 9.0.4 to hang so far.
I found 2 albums of which I'm sure but there could be more.
Playing those same albums from my SSD on my Linux pc gave no such problems.
And as I mentioned before the SSD works flawlessly on Moode 8.3.9.

So most likely Moode 9 has problems with my SSD because internet streams work perfectly and the DAC (which is a SMSL D6S btw) works perfectly on my pc using USB.
But why Moode 8.3.9 doesn't have this problem with EXACTLY the same hardware is a mystery to me.

If the problem is external to Moode 9 then clearly Moode 8 ignores this 'problem'.
The only other thing I can think of is a different setting in Moode 9 somehow, but as far as I can tell it's set up the exact same way as Moode 8.

[the_bertrum]

USB DAC plus USB SSD makes me suspect power maybe the culprit. What power supply are you using?

[ptrkln]

Original Pi4 3A power supply and USB DAC has it's own internal power supply.

But again, with the exact same hardware setup, Moode 8.3.9 works flawlessly

[TheOldPresbyope]

Original Pi4 3A power supply and USB DAC has it's own internal power supply.

But again, with the exact same hardware setup, Moode 8.3.9 works flawlessly

Agree it's still a bit of a puzzlement but let's not forget moOde 9 is built on a newer version of the Raspberry Pi OS so its posslble code has changed in the USB subsystem external to moOde itself. May sound like grasping at straws but we're still in the "suspect everything" mode. Think like Sherlock Holmes or my hero the American physicist Richard Feynman.


Regards,
Kent

[ptrkln]

When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

[Tim Curtis]

Very odd. The symptoms suggest something external to moode software.

To start troubleshooting boot up your moOde 9 system and then post the contents of the startup log.

The log can be viewed via the SSH command moodeutl -l or downloaded via the Logs section in System Config, or via Menu, System info from  any of the Config screens. The startup log will be at the end of System info output.

Thanks for the quick reply Tim but why do you think the symptoms suggest something external to the software when Moode 8.3 works perfectly in my setup?

The phrase "external to moode software" means external to moode application software. Typically this means the issue is prolly being caused by something in hardware, connectors, power supply, network, media, Linux kernel, RaspiOS, MPD,  song files etc.

Moode 8 and 9 are significantly different application softwares and run on different Linux kernel and RaspiOS builds. A success case on one is of almost no use in troubleshooting an issue on the other. Whats most important is a dev being able to reproduce the issue so it can potentially be debugged.

Post the startup log and I'll have a look.