Software for B2

[PMB]

Hi All,

Martin has added an 'Experimental Software' section - left hand column of the Latest Software page - link - where he has posted software with some minor changes. The idea being that owners can try out the changes before he does a general release.

You can load these via a USB stick using SW Upgrade - Maintenance menu - and you can revert to the current software by doing a Web Upgrade.

This version - B2B Dec 3 2021 - is for B2B only and includes -

Fix for the rename issue

Sonos update for owners with lots of speakers

Increased Track name memory.

I have tried the software and it appears to run OK.

All feedback welcome.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[PMB]

Hi All,

Apologies I made a typo.

The Experimental software is B2B Dec 15 2021, not B2 Dec 3 2021 as previously stated.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Raik]

Hi Paul,

thanks a lot. Will check it out.

I want to use this opportunity to ask, if it would be possible for you to provide a working image for Raspberry Pi 3b+?

See this post please: https://groups.google.com/g/brennanb2/c/u0uvO4F8T9M/m/NbCwLS-7CwAJ

Kind regards

Raik

[JFBUK]

Hi Raik,

When you buy a Brennan device you are not buying just a software solution.

You are buying a music streamer solution which has a hardware components and a software component designed and engineered to those hardware components.

Its much the same as Samsung, Sony etc. selling you a smart TV with their proprietary software.

As far as I am aware Brennan don't sell their software separately.

If you are looking for an alternative RPi based solution that you can load your choice of software on then there are plenty around e.g. Volumio 

John

[Raik]

Hi John,

thanks for your reply. I'm totally aware of this as I own a B2 and love it.

Yet I'd like to upgrade it's Raspberry Pi, for faster compression and better IO, if possible.

Regards

Raik

[MURALI SITARAM]

I tried downloading the experimental software and attempted to upgrade with a USB stick. The USB stick has the tar.gz file and nothing else. On SW Upgrade through the Maintenance menu, the software says "Loading", finishes and returns back to the clock, but does not reboot (which is what I would expect). In any case, after a reboot, the B2 shows that the version is from Oct 22, 2021, not Dec 15th. 

Am I doing something wrong to upgrade to this experimental version? I want to see if the expanded list of Sonos speakers fixes some of the problems I am seeing from the B2 to Sonos.

Thanks!

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Sitara...,

Fout things to check are:

1.  Is your B2 software showing as 'B2B Oct 22 2021' and not 'B2 Oct 22 2021'?

2.  The USB stick is plugged into the USB C port.

3.  The file on the USB stick must be named 'b2b.tar.gz' and must be in the root (top) directory on the stick.

4.  The USB stick is not a cheap stick bought from eBay or Amazon.  Many of these are fake hacked sticks and cause many problems in the forum. 

Regards,

Peter.

[MURALI SITARAM]

Thanks for the quick response:

1. Here is what I see: 

Software Version B2B Oct 22 2021 12:29:15

12054 tracks in 1308 albums 687 artists

0 WAV 12054 FLAC 0 MP3 0 AAC

Capacity 2000.00G Used 425.88Gb

USB 0 tracks in 0 albums 0 artists

0 Youtubes

2. Yes the USB is plugged into USB C

3. The file is b2b.tar.gz is at the root level

4. Not sure where I got the USB, but it seems legit and can be read on multiple Windows 11 PCs. 

Do I need to format the USB? I will try wiping the USB clean, then downloading the tar ball again and attempt it from scratch.

Thank you so much!

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Sitara...,

I forgot a fifth check which is that the USB stick MUST be formatted as FAT32, otherwise the B2 will not be able to read it.

Most USB sticks are formatted as exFAT, or sometimes NTFS and the B2 cannot read sticks which are using these formats.

Regards,

Peter.

[fred.w....@gmail.com]

Hi Sitara...

And if Peter's reply above is correct in your case, then get the B2 to format the USB stick before you download the file onto it.

See

Fred

[MURALI SITARAM]

Thank you Peter for your excellent check list. The last one did the trick, the USB wasn't formatted FAT32 and when formatted thus, everything worked. 

In addition, now all the Sonos connectivity issues are a thing of the past. I guess I had more Sonos speakers than the previous version supported. Now I can see all the Sonos speakers consistently and can pipe my Brennan through them.

So here is what I did in the end:

1. Format USB FAT32, using Settings->Maintenance->Format USB C
2. Copy the experimental tar ball to the USB. Note that Windows squawks at the format. If you ignore the warnings, you can drop the tar ball on to the USB stick
3. SW Upgrade from USB C then worked as expected
4. ALL Sonos speakers on my network can be seen now on the Sonos list and doesn't act flaky as with the previous version. I believe the previous version was non-deterministically picking a subset of the Sonos speakers and it changed on you all the time.

One minor flaw on the Android app (which may not be related) is that the Brennan app loses the cover art and says that the Sonos is "paused" when you background the app. On foregrounding the app, the current Sonos state is lost. You have to go back to the Change Speaker and pick the speaker that is playing and it returns to its consistent state. The music plays through all this, so its just a minor annoyance on the Android app.

Thank you for all your assistance!

Murali

[PMB]

Hi Murali,

Thank you for the useful feedback - I'll let Martin B know. 

Paul

Brennan Support.