Topic: Music and Microwaves

First: I've had Chumby for less than two days, and find myself liking it even more than I expected to.  Nice work.

The music option in Beta Control Panel is great.  I've set up slimserver on one of my home systems, and it's working beautifully... except when the microwave comes on.  The Chumby widgets recover from Wifi Interruptus once the microwave is off, but Music never does (where "never" means "at least 15 minutes").  I have to Control Panel -> Music -> Stop, then re-select a source and Play.

I don't currently have a way to tcpdump what's happening (laptop being repaired), but I might be able to late next week.  Is there any other information I can provide to help diagnose this?

Re: Music and Microwaves

Unlike the widget system, the music subsystem will not automatically reconnect on a disconnect.

The primary reason the widget system recovers is that it's not maintaining an continuous open connection to our servers - they're simply periodic fetches.

Disconnects on stream can happen for several reasons besides your microwave interfering with the wifi - SHOUTcast stations will often disconnect users that have been listening for a while to give others a chance to connect, and sometimes the stations simply go offline.  It's not obvious whether or not we should attempt to automatically reconnect.

The behavior you described would also happen on a regular computer streaming audio - very few music players will automatically reconnect on a network failure.

Re: Music and Microwaves

That pretty much eliminates the possibility of using Chumby as an audio player... but that's OK, it does other stuff well.

Thanks for your prompt response.  I appreciate it, even if it isn't the answer I wished.

Re: Music and Microwaves

You could make reconnection an option for local SlimServer streams.

That said, mine's been pretty solid. It'll occasionally break-up. But I have had it actually quit on me. (And I've left it playing all day.)

Re: Music and Microwaves

I've noticed the microwave oven interfere with other wi-fi devices I have.  It gives me the creeps.

What does that say about microwave leakage from the oven?  I mean not to be overly paranoid - I love technology, and I'm not anti-microwave oven - but I remember in the 80's microwave leak detectors were sort of popular.  I haven't seen or heard of those in a very long time.

I think we should go back to calling them radaranges - at least that was a cool name for them.

Re: Music and Microwaves

MeinLein wrote:

..What does that say about microwave leakage from the oven?

Doesn't it say that microwaves are putting out emitting RF signals similar to those that are put out by your WIFI access point, Chumby, laptops, 2.4 Ghz cordless phones...

7 (edited by huckfinn 2007-12-14 15:20:33)

Re: Music and Microwaves

I also had this same problem at home. I would lose all wireless connections whenever the wife turned on the microwave. I had my router set to channel 1, so I experimented with different channels and found that channel 11 was much more immune to microwave interferrence.

Now before you just go change to channel 11, you will want to do a quick survey to see what other access points you can pick up. So say your neighbor is using channel 6, you would want to stay away from them by at least two channels as WiFi channels overlap. If you can find an unused area, you will be much better off. The 2.4 GHz band is really cluttered with all sorts of equipement - WiFi, Bluetooth, cordless phones, microwaves, wireless dsl, some baby monitors, etc. 

Good luck and I hope this helps.

-HuckFinn

Re: Music and Microwaves

bds42 - I'd agree with your statement - also sorry gang for the slightly off topic (chumby topic) post  smile