TOPIC:

Hi, first post. Really enjoying the nanoAVR HDA as a streamlined (but much more capable) pre/processor! I also really like the spirit and professionalism of MiniDSP and the community......so here goes.....

I've had the unit for coming up 1 year. It's been in my system since day one (Mac Mini>nanoAVR>5CH PWR AMP/Epson wireless projector), but I finally sat down last week to sort out a proper installation.

The issues I have are:
[unit is networked by ethernet cable]
1) Using the control APP (iPhone), the connection gets lost once the phone's auto lock activates ("index.html Connection Closed")
2) Trying to connect to the board from within nanoAVR_BM plug-in [Macbook Air] I get the 3 times "retry" message and then I have to unplug and reconnect the ethernet cable to establish a connection. The router is set to DHCP, and the IP address is always the same.

and finally I was thinking of updating the firmware (v1.7 to 1.8) to see if this would solve the problems (1 & 2), but I didn't notice anything relevant in the descriptions, and nothing about the upgrade in the community forum....3) the issue here is.....can I only install the firmware upgrade using a PC to run the .exe file? As I don't have a PC, can I simply download everything from within the nanoAVR_BM plug-in?

Apologies for the long list. I'd be grateful for any insight into any of these issue.

Um,,.. if you don't mind my saying, it would make most sense to update the firmware first. There's no way to make progress otherwise.

Thank-you for the quick reply. Yes I figured that but didn't want to go ahead if it wasn't necessary, and/or might cause another issue. Plus I'm not sure I can without a PC.

It's late here, so I'll look into this in more detail tomorrow. Thx again for confirming.

I have no idea of it might cause another issue, but no company in their right mind is going to support outdated firmware.

OK, I've managed to update the plug-in to v1.8 using the Mac files from the .zip file, from the user downloads link.
So far no solution for the 2 issues.

Also I get this message after trying to update the firmware from the plug-in [Restore/Upgrade Firmware]..."Sorry this tool is temporarily not available on this OS", so clearly I need a PC to update the firmware. I will have to borrow one.

That's weird, I thought I had used the mac to update my nanoAVR.

But:

"2) Trying to connect to the board from within nanoAVR_BM plug-in [Macbook Air] I get the 3 times "retry" message and then I have to unplug and reconnect the ethernet cable to establish a connection. The router is set to DHCP, and the IP address is always the same."

You are using Ethernet to to do this? What happens if you connect by USB?

Thanks for the reply, although I think I might have caused some confusion...

There are a couple of issues with the "normal" use of my nanoAVR set-up. 1) not being able to connect (over Wifi) to the "board" via the plug-in (nanoAVR_BM), when I want to make live changes...the only way I can is to physically disconnect then reconnect the ethernet network cable. 2) the control APP connection drops when my iPhone screen locks.

I also have an HDMI handshake issue which comes and goes, but I will leave that for another day!

So I thought it was logical to first update the firmware, which might deliver a solution. I downloaded from MiniDSP website a .zip file containing a mac version of new plug-in software v1.8, which I was able to install, and a folder labeled Firmware. According to the manual the firmware can only be installed using a PC. However I did just try updating the firmware from within the plug-in without success.

I haven't tried a USB cable as the files and instructions relate to a procedure using a PC.

I hope this makes it a bit clearer as to the issues and what I've tried so far.

cgchellew wrote:

Thanks for the reply, although I think I might have caused some confusion...

I think I may have confused myself...

1) not being able to connect (over Wifi) to the "board" via the plug-in (nanoAVR_BM), when I want to make live changes...the only way I can is to physically disconnect then reconnect the ethernet network cable.

Actually,as I recall, that is what happens - the device is recognized only when it connects to the network (and the plugin is already running). I don't have the latest firmware either, as it turns out, but will update when I do.

2) the control APP connection drops when my iPhone screen locks.

I'm sorry but I don't have any experience with that.

I haven't tried a USB cable as the files and instructions relate to a procedure using a PC.

I've conflated my nanoAVRs, the DL has Mac firmware update, the HD doesn't (not documented anyway). I will try the latter when I get a chance anyway.

I've updated the firmware with Windows, the behavior on network connection (with Mac plugin) is the same

Many thanks for your efforts.

In any case I'll update the firmware when I can get access to windows. It may be I need to open a ticket with minidsp.

OK, I've managed to update the firmware and it hasn't solved the issues.

So I've opened a ticket with Mini DSP, and will update back with any progress.

@ cgchellew

Sounds like you've got a tech support ticket opened already so I'm sure that the team will get back to you soon enough.
- The discovery might be related to how the device is advertising itself on the network. I think that the engineers are looking into it and had it on their todo list to improve on this for an upcoming upgrade.
- The app disconnecting isn't something we've seen here before so we'll have to investigate. We're now in the process of pushing an update to Apple so we'll see if we can include that bug fix..

No timeline for both but we'll look into it.

DevTeam

Thanks for the reply, and good to know you are aware of the network issue.

I look forward to hearing back from the team regarding the control APP issue in due course, as it's not clear if this is down to my set-up.

Maybe this will help: I've found that if you manually type the ip address for the nanoAVR into the host name/ ip address window at the top of the nanoAVR_BM plugin (click in it first to get a cursor) and then click the connect icon, you should be able to gain control without having to disconnect/reconnect the ethernet cable. Also, adding an easily remembered ip reservation in your router for the nanoAVR makes the process more convenient.

Brilliant that worked, thank-you!....and reserving an IP address, I never knew what the benefit was, but it has helped with another device. We have lots of power outages in our building!

Presumably this still allows functionality to synchronise/restore config....I didn't see the dialogue box when connecting. I'll do some more testing in the next few days when I set up some new configurations.