Using a Node 2i in a cupboard

Answered
Ian Shepherd
I'm considering buying a used Node 2i for our conservatory. In that conservatory, on top of a wooden cupboard, I have a lovely-sounding 2-unit Teac stack flanked by a pair of Q Acoustics Concept 20 speakers. There's no room up there for a Node 2i, however, so I'm wondering how the Node would do inside the cupboard. My guess is that heat won't be an issue since there's plenty of space and there's no valves or class A circuitry involved, but will wood affect the wifi signal? FYI, I'm sat within two feet of the cupboard and the wifi signal on my iPad is at maximum strength.
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  • Official comment
    Seppi Evans

    I have a POWERNODE EDGE in an IKEA Besta cupboard, gets warm but nothing I would be concerned about so the Node should be absolutely fine.

    WiFi is degraded by pretty much anything, people, wooden doors, foil lined plasterboard, bricks, fish tanks etc etc. if you can get the Router or AP up as high as possible it will help if you have a signal issue. I ran Ethernet to the cupboard where the EDGE lives but it worked without issue playing hires on 5Ghz connecting to a UniFi AP several doors / walls away.

  • Ian Shepherd

    Many thanks for this.

    When we went full fibre last year, the router was moved from the middle of the house on the first floor landing to the rear of the house at the back of bedroom 2, which is also on the first floor and which overlooks the garden AND the conservatory. This has vastly improved the signal to the conservatory, and it should be very adequate for the Node, although time will be the real teller.

    Another aspect is that my Vault 2, which is intended as the primary source of music for the Node, is currently connected to the router via a Powerline set-up, and the reliability of that arrangement will also be on trial. It seems to work fine when I back up the Vault onto a portable HDD via my wifi-connected laptop but, as yet, it's never been used for streaming music to another Bluesound device.

    A big bonus of moving the router to its new site is that it's now connected to the British Telecom service directly through the same outside wall as the Vault 2 backs onto. This means that if I do need a better network connection to the Vault 2 then I can run a new Ethernet cable from the router down this outside wall and into the Vault 2, which would give it the best router connectivity possible.

    It's actually the repositioning of the router that's made me seriously consider for the first time entering the previous decade's modern world with a real two-box Bluesound network as the new router's position will allow me to enhance connectivity to the Vault 2 as well as present a better WiFi signal to the conservatory.

    The Node 2i is now expected later this week and I'll let you know how it all goes.

    2018 here I come!

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  • Ian Shepherd
    • Edited

    The Node 2i arrived today and I was surprised by how small it is compared to my Vault 2.

    I did a factory reset plus some upgrades and then had a go.

    In short, it works very well with one exception.

    Streaming from the internet is fine. Playing tracks from the Vault is fine.

    But... it seems to have a problem with USB memory sticks. I insert the memory stick and it tells me that it's re-indexing it, asks me if I want to share the content with other Bluesound devices, but then seems to do nothing else. The process seems to disappear into the ether and USB never appears as a music source.

    This contrasts with the Vault 2, which happily indexes the 28,000-ish tracks on the stick, offers it up as a music source and allows me to play any track that I wish. (The stick does get hot, however, presumably from the indexing activity.)

    Am I looking at one of the documented limitations of the use of memory sticks?  Am I also better off either using the Vault 2 as the primary player for USB sticks or even in the main not bothering at all since I'm unlikely to use my own memory sticks because my Vault 2 already has all of my digital music on it?

    (The only real-life scenario for me would actually be if a friend brought some tracks over on their own memory stick. And that's unlikely to contain anywhere near 28,000 tracks!)

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  • Ian Shepherd

    UPDATE

    I tried with a memory stick with only 20 albums on it and everything worked. So it seems that I'm facing a documented limitation.

    One thing is that, even though I've removed the memory stick, tracks on it still pop up in some search results. Is it correct that after removing the stick I must also re-index my library in order for the memory stick's contents to be forgotten?

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  • Ian Shepherd

    I now have two invisible posts above that are suspended.

    Sheesh!

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  • Seppi Evans

    Depends on which USB mode you are using, in server mode BluOS expects to the files to still be available. With it disabled the index is thrown away when the USB drive is removed.

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  • Ian Shepherd

    Many thanks for this.

    I'll keep Server Mode off as it's not needed. My memory sticks only contain MP3s of what's on the Vault, anyway.

    If a friend brings a memory stick, I'll just plug it into the appropriate player for the room that we're in.

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