[PROBLEM] MPD and Spotify errors: any connection/explanation?

[GastAlf]

Hi everybody, first of all thanks a lot to Tim and all developers for the great job with Moode. 

I am experiencing some problems with my Collybia Mambo player (described here: https://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/mambo_player_e.html) and I have not found a solution by searching around. 

My mambo is connected to a Ifipower PSU (https://ifi-audio.com/products/ipower/) and worked fine for some years then I upgraded to a new version of MA (6.7.1) a couple of years ago and soon after I started to have crashes and difficulties in playing my music saved on a 1Tb HDD (with its independent PSU) directly connected to the mambo player (that is based on a Pi-3B 1Gb v1.2). 

Changed the HDD and everything was fine for one year then it started again with occasional crashes so a couple of months back I started a Spotify premium to mitigate HDD problems (when HDD has problems I switch to Spotify). 

Some days ago a new problem started to appear: MPD error "failed to decode" type when I play from HDD and in correspondance with this problem also the Spotify is not able to stream to the mambo anymore: the mambo is still one of the options but as soon as you start playing the spotify app loses capacity to play regardless of the person that tries to connect to moode. Spotify connect works fine with other devices. 

After restarting the mambo occasionally the MPD error goes away but the problem with Spotify remains totally stuck. I hope someone would be able to advise . I am not an advanced user of linux/moode but I hope I should be able to follow your instructions. 

Thanks in advance!

[Tim Curtis]

The crashing Spotify failures, and other errors suggest something external to moOde software for example a hardware issue, network issue, bad SD Card, 3rd party software, etc.

I'd suggest contacting Collybia support to see if they can help out but I see that there website appears to be "under maintenance..."

[DRONE7]

My mambo is connected to a Ifipower PSU

Try another PSU.
Your symptoms would appear to be a classic PSU failure.

[GastAlf]

My mambo is connected to a Ifipower PSU

Try another PSU.
Your symptoms would appear to be a classic PSU failure.

Thanks for replying. I asked support from Collybia but I got no answer yet. I have now connected another PSU 3,5A. At the moment I can read from HDD and I have not experienced any MPD error up to now but Spotify is still unable to connect to Moode. Is there something else I can try?

[DRONE7]

My mambo is connected to a Ifipower PSU

Try another PSU.
Your symptoms would appear to be a classic PSU failure.

Thanks for replying. I asked support from Collybia but I got no answer yet. I have now connected another PSU 3,5A. At the moment I can read from HDD and I have not experienced any MPD error up to now but Spotify is still unable to connect to Moode. Is there something else I can try?

From your original post it appears you are running an older version of MoOde ?
If you have a spare SD-card then download and flash the latest version and swap the SD-card into your Pi. This has several iterative improvements for Spotify useage.

[Tim Curtis]

The Spotify issue appears to be something on their end having to do with Spotify access points.
https://github.com/librespot-org/librespot/issues/972

The other issues the OP is having suggest hardware or maybe a bad SD Card but since the OP's system is custom OEM product from Collybia they are responsible for supporting it.

[GastAlf]

My mambo is connected to a Ifipower PSU

Try another PSU.
Your symptoms would appear to be a classic PSU failure.

Thanks for replying. I asked support from Collybia but I got no answer yet. I have now connected another PSU 3,5A. At the moment I can read from HDD and I have not experienced any MPD error up to now but Spotify is still unable to connect to Moode. Is there something else I can try?

From your original post it appears you are running an older version of MoOde ?
If you have a spare SD-card then download and flash the latest version and swap the SD-card into your Pi. This has several iterative improvements for Spotify useage.

Thank you DRONE7, this is probably something I should do in any case. I am not sure if my player needs a special OS as Tim is suggesting: is there any other Collybia user that can help on this, because they are not responding to my emails since June and I am wondering whether they are still an operating Company as Emilios has always been super supportive and now also the site is not available.

[GastAlf]

My mambo is connected to a Ifipower PSU

Try another PSU.
Your symptoms would appear to be a classic PSU failure.

Thanks for replying. I asked support from Collybia but I got no answer yet. I have now connected another PSU 3,5A. At the moment I can read from HDD and I have not experienced any MPD error up to now but Spotify is still unable to connect to Moode. Is there something else I can try?

From your original post it appears you are running an older version of MoOde ?
If you have a spare SD-card then download and flash the latest version and swap the SD-card into your Pi. This has several iterative improvements for Spotify useage.

Thank you DRONE7, this is probably something I should do in any case. I am not sure if my player needs a special OS as Tim is suggesting: is there any other Collybia user that can help on this, because they are not responding to my emails since June and I am wondering whether they are still an operating Company as Emilios has always been super supportive and now also the site is not available.

In the meantime Emilios has come back to me and apparently I can update the moode software as DRONE7 suggested losing only the display and led from the player. This sounds feasible so I just purchased a new sd card and I downloaded the updated software from the moode website. Now I have a .zip file and a sd card. Could you guide me in installing it? I tried to read the guides but probably I would need something simpler. I guarantee I will try to understand your instructions as I am an old IT man (graduated in 1987) with no current (last 35 years) experience.

[Tim Curtis]

1. Download and install the Raspberry Pi Imager
https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/

2. Insert SDCard into your PC or Mac SD Card reader

3. Launch the imager
a) Click "Choose OS"
b) Scroll down to the bottom and click "Use custom"
c) Navigate to the moOde zip file and click "Open"
d) Click "Choose storage"
e) Select the SD Card reader. It will have a descriptive name that should clearly identify it.
f) Click "Write"
g) Enter a password (your PC or Mac login password) if prompted

3. Wait for the write to complete

4. Connect Ethernet cable to Pi
5. Insert SD Card into Pi
6. Power up
7. Open a Web Browser
8. Enter http://moode or http://moode.local (whichever works on your network)

[GastAlf]

1. Download and install the Raspberry Pi Imager
https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/

2. Insert SDCard into your PC or Mac SD Card reader

3. Launch the imager
a) Click "Choose OS"
b) Scroll down to the bottom and click "Use custom"
c) Navigate to the moOde zip file and click "Open"
d) Click "Choose storage"
e) Select the SD Card reader. It will have a descriptive name that should clearly identify it.
f) Click "Write"
g) Enter a password (your PC or Mac login password) if prompted

3. Wait for the write to complete

4. Connect Ethernet cable to Pi
5. Insert SD Card into Pi
6. Power up
7. Open a Web Browser
8. Enter http://moode or http://moode.local (whichever works on your network)

Thanks Tim. Followed instructions and new software was successfully installed this morning! As of now I am able to play my HDD collection and most of the radios available. It remains an MPD error for some radios but for a 403 access denied error. Not material for me.

As for the Spotify the behaviour changed from before: now the stream seem to be actually playing (before it was starting for a fraction of second and then no stream and block) but no sound is produced. Do you think I can try to add a line to the file as was suggested? If someone explains me how I will try and report.

Thanks again to everyone