BB1 - Mystery Interference/blips on 256GB upgraded machine

[Graham Stephen]

I got a new BB1 a couple of months ago. On playback I heard what sounds like random radar blips/sound clicks. It happened on music files that I knew were ok, and on radio channels - through the unit speaker and on bluetooth or headphones. Resetting the wifi seemed to resolve it temporarily. The machine has so many permutations that it was difficult to work out exactly what combination of functions might be the cause. My suspicion was something to do with the wifi but during a week away in a cottage with no wifi signal the noises still appeared.

Support were a great help and when the fault persisted they replaced the unit - new machine/new SD card.

At first the replacement was perfect but after a day the noises reappeared. Resetting the wifi again sorted it out but as I test through the various functions it occasionally resurfaced. I'm still thinking it is wifi related. Today I noticed that anything played to Sonos is perfect, including radio.I will continue trying to isolate what sets it off.

It's frustrating because the BB1 is such a fantastic adaptable unit, and I don't want to give up on it. I'm hoping there's a fix - it may be that I've already found a work around by switching off wifi or using Sonos but I'd really like to solve the mystery. I'm sure the support guys would too. 

I wondered if anyone else has come across this?  Any ideas are welcome.

Graham

[Daniel Taylor]

I have a similar situation with my BB1.  With mine, the noise is a small tick sound that coincides with the seconds counting off from the clock.  Very annoying - to the point where I've stopped using my BB1 altogether.  I've reported the problem to Brennan, but I've not heard of anything being done to address the issue.

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

To eliminate Wifi turn the wifi off (reset it) and see if playing it from stored music still has the problem.

[JFBUK]

Hi Graham,

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi can cross interfere as they both use the 2.4Ghz frequency.

If disabling Wi-Fi stops the problem then switching the channel your Wi-Fi uses may cure it.

John

[Graham Stephen]

Hi Guys
Thanks for the ideas. 

Fred, I have tried resetting the wifi and that does work, but only until I reconnect.

John, that's an interesting thought, I'll try switching channels to see if it makes any difference. My instinct is that it's some kind of interference but working out the source might be tricky. Do you know if reseting bluetooth switches it off?

Daniel, my noise is not related to the clock, or the screen display, it seems random and the intensity varies. I must add that in my experience the support guys have been really helpful and responsive.

Best

Graham

[JFBUK]

Hi Graham,

Resetting Bluetooth may help but probably not consistently.

Bluetooth is designed to Chanel hop In order to get round  interference  from the physical environment like walls and to maintain signal strength.

So a lot depends on the physical location of the paired devices.

The usual advice is to choose a wifi channel of  1, 6 or 11.to avoid Bluetooth interference.

John

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

The fact that it works ok without wifi does indicate that the issue is with the Wifi environment (which is not in the control of your brennan). The solution is to look at your home's router settings. I agree that moving channels may help!

Fred

[Graham Stephen]

Fred/John -Thanks I'm inclined agree with you, thanks for the channel tips. As I mentioned originally I spent a week in a cottage with no wifi and the glitch appeared there too. But if I remember correctly it happened after I tested out the hotspot function, that seems to be a factor. Does it have any effect of bluetooth?  I'm going to keep experimenting to see if I can isolate the cause. 

But as there's so much the BB1 can do it may take a while. 

Graham

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Guys,

I have two BB1s both of which I have upgraded to 256GB microSD cards.  I have travelled extensively with the older unit, transatlantic flights, road trips in USA, stays in hotels, and so on and these have behaved perfectly at all times (in pre-COVID days).

@Graham, when you went to the cottage did you take any other electrical or other electronic equipment with you?  It sounds like your BB1 could be picking up external interference.  Are you running on betteries or mains power and if it is mains power can you use another power source, such as your phone charger and see if this helps the problem.

@Daniel, the ticking sound is also strange.  Even though you have reported the problem to Brennan, they probably aren't experiencing the problem so they won't be able to do anything about it.  A Brennan that is working properly does not exhibit this behaviour.  Do it do this when running on batteries only?  Or if you take the BB1 for a drive (just for a change of area) do it still suffer from the ticks?

If you cannot locate the source of the issue can you return the BB1 for testing and repair?

Regards,

Peter.

[Brian R]

Hi Graham

To confirm that the interference is external you could try the following.

 1.   Ensure the BB1 is running on batteries with no external cables connected and the interference showing

 2.   Fully wrap the BB1 in aluminium kitchen foil (this will act as a sort of Faraday cage)

If the interference is still present then the source is within the machine.

If it disappears then this proves that you are picking up a signal from somewhere else in the vicinity. Remove the temporary wrapping and try turning off mains fuses one at a time. All sorts of things can produce electrical interference, even simple things like light bulbs. Don't forget battery powered things like 'Phones.

Hope this helps.

Brian

[Graham Stephen]

Hi Guys

Thanks for all the tips. After a lot of experimenting I think I may have found the culprit - Librespot. I uninstalled it on the new machine this afternoon and the fault has gone, at least for now. I'll have to wait and see if it's permanent but having tried everything else I have a feeling it might be the cause.

Thanks to all of you for your support

Graham

[PMB]

Hi Graham,

Please let us know if the noise returns or not.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Graham Stephen]

Hi Paul

I will, but so far there's no sign of it. In fact the sound is much clearer especially on radio, I realise now that as well as the clicks and blips there was a delay/repeat effect going in which I was putting down to poor signal quality.

I see that there's a new version of Librespot. At some point I might install that to see what happens.

Thanks again to everyone who pitched in.

Graham

[Jon Brooke]

I have a similar problem that I tried to sort out some time ago - and failed. There's a thread here somewhere.

How do I get rid of Librespot?

I'm not a techie, but I can follow instructions.

Thanks,

Jon

[JFBUK]

Hi Jon,

this forum is no longer active.

The new one can be found here so its where to post in future

https://www.thebrennanforum.com/

To answer your question:

Using the Brennan menu

>SETTINGS>MAINTENANCE>ADVANCED>Remove Librespot

John