[BFitz]

Thanks for the help, got it working as a VAMP. Turned out the USB image was fine, but I had it connected to the network behind 2 switches - that was the problem. Works great, and POGO powers up into VAMP mode from cold start when I pull the power cord. But it needs a direct connection to my router.

The odd thing was it worked fine behind the 2 LAN switches in post POGO mode (after step 6, with green front light) but NOT after reboot with USB image in place (Colasoft would see it before, but not after step 10 reboot).   

Now it shows up in the LMS and plays music through the humble HiFimeDIY USB DAC documented on another thread here in C and C.
And with that DAC, Alsamixer comes up (v1.0.23) with an old school color graphic display in the putty terminal. I was able to adjust volume using up arrow down arrow keys, and save the settings w/ "alsactl store". That one may be DAC dependent. 

On making the USB image - most important thing, per the developers FAQ, is the restore is done in "device mode". I also right clicked, "run as", "run" and used current user, but unclicked box "protect my computer". My normal login already has admin privileges, so it made sense this worked OK. This is on XP SP3.
Next, on to make a server.
Bob

[crooner]

The Griffin Powermate can be programmed to replicate keyboard keystrokes, so if the Dragonfly has keyboard commands that can control its analog volume, the Powermate should be able to control that.

Steve

Hi Steve:
That is correct. The volume on the dragonfly is digitally controlled but in the analog domain. It is designed to replace the standard windows main volume control. With my netbook, it does this effectively and with the Griffin Powermate windows driver, I am able to control volume on the DAC and thus preserving full digital resolution.

The Griffin comes in handy if you are driving a power amp directly. It can also be used with a preamplifier if you preset the preamp's volume at a given setting and use the Griffin instead. I do this to preserve the expensive carbon volume control on my Marantz 7.

The Griffin is a large knob that has a very nice weighed feel. Better than operating buttons on a laptop.

[randytsuch]

Next, on to make a server.
Bob

I am having problems getting the server to work reliably at this time, maybe you will have better luck than me.

I hope to find a way to get it reliable, and then I will update my instructions.

The way I have posted seems to work the first time, but if you turn it off, I am having trouble reconnecting.  If you install, and leave the pogo on 24/7, you may not have any problems.

Randy

[BFitz]

OK, got it working as a server first time per your instructions. It was relatively easy compared to the previous steps.
Works nice, just the ticket for a low power, on all the time music server. For testing I'm using a USB stick as the disk drive, playing great right now to an older slim devices SB classic.

With USB memory, this thing draws almost nothing compared to a PC. Been looking for a slimmed down low cost SB server for a long, thanks to all who made this thing work. Will test the reboot later. I think on the network side it is sensitive to network timing, and that may be the bugaboo. Perhaps it needs a perfect connection, or it will be flaky.

But, now I'm afraid to turn it off...

[randytsuch]

With USB memory, this thing draws almost nothing compared to a PC. Been looking for a slimmed down low cost SB server for a long, thanks to all who made this thing work. Will test the reboot later. I think on the network side it is sensitive to network timing, and that may be the bugaboo. Perhaps it needs a perfect connection, or it will be flaky.

But, now I'm afraid to turn it off...

That might be a very good point about the network timing, I have my Pogo connected to my router through a switch, didn't even consider that it might mess things up.

I will change my wires to make it a direct connection, easy enough to try.

Glad you got it and running with no problems.

Randy

[BFitz]

That might be a very good point about the network timing, I have my Pogo connected to my router through a switch, didn't even consider that it might mess things up.
I will change my wires to make it a direct connection, easy enough to try.

It was odd, when it was behind 2 switches, if I reset the router, I could see when logged into the router the POGO VAMP MAC address, and that it was assigned a new DHCP IP address. But it had no text in the name area, unlike the other devices - if they had no name, it read "unknown" there.

And I could not Putty log into it, nor did Colasoft see it. But it was there like a ghost on the network, and the network LED light next to the connector on the back of the POGO was blinking like crazy.

Anyway, just did a gentle shutdown via putty, "shutdown now". Then pulled the plug, waited 30 seconds, plugged it back in. Back it came, LMS server and all, no problems.

Again, via direct connect to one of the 4 ports on my ancient D Link DI-624 router. It's the only device I've ever seen with this problem, and it's no problem in native unmodded POGO mode. So I assume it's a software / OS / timing or interrupt issue. I have 10 other devices on the network, including wireless ones. 

[mcgsxr]

I am still watching with interest.

I intend to setup a wired network exclusively for the 2 plugs I have purchased.  Dedicated router, and all wired.

Still working through the basement project though, so months away for me.

[randytsuch]

So I think I finally figured it out, somehow my USB hard drive got messed up, and when I was connecting it, seems like it stopped the Pogo from working.

I setup with a different drive, and things are working again.

I would recommend putting as much of you music on your HD when starting this, and then you can add music using winscp, that's what I used to do with my old linux server.  It's a little slow (at least it was), but since you're at home you can just start a transfer and go do something else.
I have a feeling if I didn't try using the hard drive for something else this wouldn't have happened.


Randy

[mbohupa]

Hello everyone!!! I've just bought a Grey Pogoplug + 4 Gb Sandisk Cruzer Fit from Vortexbox Store (Adorama/Amazon). Can't wait to try VAMP!!

[randytsuch]

I tried it again this morning, after powering it off overnight, and it came up and worked no problem.
So I am pretty sure all of my problems were because of my USB hard drive, coupled with me playing around the things, and moving things around.

Based on my previous experience with building a headless linux server, they are pretty reliable once you get them up and running. If you are better at linux than I am (I hardly use it) then you would probably know tricks to make it easier to figure things out.

That's the only hard part about setting up the Pogo, if it doesn't work (especially if you can't get to the point to log in with putty), then you don't have much to work with.
Fortunately, the setup is pretty easy, and there are only a few pieces, so not much to go wrong.

So, if things don't work, try disconnecting the USB hard drive, and see if it comes up then.
After I did that, I moved the hard drive to my PC, and my PC said there was a problem with the drive.

I copied all the info off the drive last night, tonight I am going to reformat the drive (not the quick kind, but a full format which takes a while), and then I will copy and files back and cross my fingers.

Also, I have made another page
http://randytsuch-musicserver.blogspot.com/2013/01/using-your-pogoplug-with-lms.html

I was going to try to add info on this page that will help people in day to day use of the pogo as a USB audio device and music server.

Randy

[BFitz]

Randy;
Thanks for posting the new links, I already downloaded both iphone apps, they work great, and are quite convenient. Especially since it's probably a good idea to always shutdown the POGO based server via SSH, versus just pulling the plug.
Maybe someone else can comment on this, my experience is Linux file systems don't like that. But maybe they can tolerate it better these days, I'm no expert. My experience goes back to early 90's HP-UX systems, so been a while.

I bought the IPeng IPhone app (10.) a couple years ago, and it's certainly more evolved - been through many revs, so has more capability than the basic free Logitech one. For an upgrade it also let's you play music from your server on the Iphone itself. But's it's nice to have both.   No further problems here, ordered another unit from the Vortex store. 

[randytsuch]

Randy;
Thanks for posting the new links, I already downloaded both iphone apps, they work great, and are quite convenient. Especially since it's probably a good idea to always shutdown the POGO based server via SSH, versus just pulling the plug.
Maybe someone else can comment on this, my experience is Linux file systems don't like that. But maybe they can tolerate it better these days, I'm no expert. My experience goes back to early 90's HP-UX systems, so been a while.

I bought the IPeng IPhone app (10.) a couple years ago, and it's certainly more evolved - been through many revs, so has more capability than the basic free Logitech one. For an upgrade it also let's you play music from your server on the Iphone itself. But's it's nice to have both.   No further problems here, ordered another unit from the Vortex store. 

So how does the IPeng user interface compare?
I like the Logitech iPhone app quite a bit, I think it is going to retire my duet controller.  I had expected to like the controller more.

Also, we use Linux at work (not me, the sw guys), and from my understanding is the boot loader loads linux into Ram, and it runs out of ram.  The point is that if this is true, you probably won't mess up the flash image even if you don't shutdown now all the time.

I think the greater risk is the usb hard drive.  I don't know what I did to my drive, because I used it to help bring up a 2nd pogo, may have messed it up there, or by pulling power and not doing a shutdown.

Randy

[randytsuch]

One problem with being an early adopter for things, there is a new version out

http://vortexbox.org/threads/4577-Logitech-SqueezeBox-replacement-for-under-30?p=29916&viewfull=1#post29916

The green light when things are up and running will be nice, it will be easier to tell if the pogo is up.

Randy

[BFitz]

So how does the IPeng user interface compare?
I like the Logitech iPhone app quite a bit, I think it is going to retire my duet controller.  I had expected to like the controller more.

The problem I have with the Logitech Iphone app is this - when selecting songs from the music folder, it wipes out the existing playlist, and adds the whole album. Maybe there is an option for this somewhere that I didn't find yet.
I the IPeng lets you add a song onto the bottom of the playlist, or all permutations of that, like the web based interface. There is a toggle on the upper right of the song list screen that goes between +, >, and >|, allowing add to end, play now, and play next respectively. There's more, too, the interface to me is slicker, but it's best to view their website and get their info on it
http://penguinlovesmusic.de/
 
Other than that, the Logitech app seems pretty good, not many other complaints. But for me, the one above is a fatal flaw.  I do like that it lets you fast forward through a song manually, unlike the web based interface. This is a basic feature, don't know why it's missing in other controllers - i.e. not there in the IPeng.

[randytsuch]

The problem I have with the Logitech Iphone app is this - when selecting songs from the music folder, it wipes out the existing playlist, and adds the whole album. Maybe there is an option for this somewhere that I didn't find yet.
I the IPeng lets you add a song onto the bottom of the playlist, or all permutations of that, like the web based interface. There is a toggle on the upper right of the song list screen that goes between +, >, and >|, allowing add to end, play now, and play next respectively. There's more, too, the interface to me is slicker, but it's best to view their website and get their info on it
http://penguinlovesmusic.de/
 
Other than that, the Logitech app seems pretty good, not many other complaints. But for me, the one above is a fatal flaw.  I do like that it lets you fast forward through a song manually, unlike the web based interface. This is a basic feature, don't know why it's missing in other controllers - i.e. not there in the IPeng.

Thanks for the info.
I pryed open my wallet, and spent the $6 for iPeng. 

Randy

[randytsuch]

I upgraded to Vamp version 0.3 last night

You ust need to install this new image on a stick and then power up the pogo with the stick, log in and then type in the two lines from the link I had

fw_setenv arcNumber
fw_setenv machid dd6

Worked with no problem, and then I reinstalled LMS yet again, and I have a LMS/Vamp 0.3 Pogo running now.

All seems to be solid and I am very happy with this setup.

It is nice that you see a blinking yellow light when it is coming up, and then a solid green light when it is up and running.

Randy

[krikor]

Question(s): Is everyone here using the Pogoplug to run LMS and as the audio output device (not sure my terminology is correct)? I am wondering how the Pogoplug might perform running LMS and serving up the music to several Squeezebox devices, but not used as an output device itself? Enough processing power, stable, etc.?

I'm thinking of replacing the loud, power hungry server I've got in the basement with one of these and a large USB drive streaming to a Touch, Duet, SB Radio and a couple SB3.

Also, can USB hard drive attached to the Pogoplug be accessed via LAN? In other words, use it like a NAS.

Thanks! I might have to get one just to play around with.

[randytsuch]

Question(s): Is everyone here using the Pogoplug to run LMS and as the audio output device (not sure my terminology is correct)? I am wondering how the Pogoplug might perform running LMS and serving up the music to several Squeezebox devices, but not used as an output device itself? Enough processing power, stable, etc.?

I'm thinking of replacing the loud, power hungry server I've got in the basement with one of these and a large USB drive streaming to a Touch, Duet, SB Radio and a couple SB3.

Also, can USB hard drive attached to the Pogoplug be accessed via LAN? In other words, use it like a NAS.

Thanks! I might have to get one just to play around with.

If you just want to use it as a squeezebox server, I would probably follow these instructions
http://rustybytes.com/2011/02/16/setup-your-pogoplug-as-a-squeezebox-server/

If you search for pogoplug and squeezebox server, or squeezeserver or similar you can find other instructions like this.

So far I have just used if as a combined player/server, but it is very responsive in that mode, I have no complaints about it there.

For a NAS, it won't be as convenient as in it's original form, as the Pogo was really designed to do that, but you can use something like winscp to read and write files to it as a NAS.  Winscp is pretty easy to use BTW.

Final advice, it's only $22 shipped, what are you waiting for? 

Randy

[BFitz]

Question(s): Is everyone here using the Pogoplug to run LMS and as the audio output device (not sure my terminology is correct)? I am wondering how the Pogoplug might perform running LMS and serving up the music to several Squeezebox devices, but not used as an output device itself? Enough processing power, stable, etc.?

I'm thinking of replacing the loud, power hungry server I've got in the basement with one of these and a large USB drive streaming to a Touch, Duet, SB Radio and a couple SB3.

Go for it. The hardest part is the technical setup stuff, which some people may not be familiar with. Anyone who is used to working with LINUX or old PC DOS circa 1983 will have few problems though, IMO.

I'm running V2 and the LMS on top. I've run it almost always as a sever only so far, right now it's in the basement. I've noticed that when playing FLAC music files, the response from a PC to a web based interface can be slow, i.e. selecting files, start, stop, etc. If no music is playing, response is much better.
But the music never falters or misses a beat. On the other hand, controlling using the SB classic hand held remote is instant, so that works great. Also control from my Iphone seems better using IPend of the Logitech app.
I'm really happy, and dumbfounded  these POGO things sell for so cheap. The packaging suggests it must have originally cost much more. I would love to open it up, but have no clue how to do that without breaking something. Anyone have the secret?

UPDATE to info above -
I just loaded V3 of VAMP, and wow, it works much better now. No delays or problems when running the server software, even with FLAC music files playing. Strongly recommend everyone update. This thing really rocks now. 

[lcrim]

I spent last night getting VAMP.03 running on both my Pogoplugs but I've kept my LMS just as it was on Windows because I use it as a print  server and connect to it w/ VNC and the html interface to control the LMS.  I know enough linux to realize what a pain in the ass it would be to get all that functionality into linux.  I run backups there as well to be certain that I don't lose any music.  I expect that the functionality can be done in linux and I'll migrate there eventually.  But where you put the server is really a matter of your internal architecture. 
The thing that really stunned me w/ this device is the stunning quality of the playback.  I've been convinced that ethernet is the medium for great digital playback and when coupled w/ an asynchronous USB DAC the results are terrific.  I told Mark from Canada and Randy that I was a bit pissed off  actually when I first heard the quality of the sound this thing produces.  I've been playing with the Squeezebox for years but the quality here is a game changer for me.  I  don't know why it sounds so damn good and its so cheap in comparison.  I was worried  that once others heard the sound, the devices would become scarce because everyone would want one.
Larry