Tom's Diary

2010-02-12: Day One

08:07 AM: So, I’ve completely recharged my 1 week-old iPod Touch, 64 GB portable player, and I want to see how long it will play an Internet radio station through wifi on a single battery charge. 

08:08 AM: During the test, I will not activate the screen more than absolutely necessary to keep it playing; it will just sit here on the counter, playing in screen-lock mode.  Thus, the play time we get on the Touch  might be longer in this “bench test” than one would get under actual usage conditions. 

08:10 AM: On your mark, get set, go!  I just started the iPod Touch  playing KYW News Radio, and we’ll see how long it runs before going dead.  KYW is a 64 kbps AAC stream, and I’m running the Touch in the same room as my wifi access point for the most reliable wifi connection. Stand by…

08:40 AM: The Touch just stopped playing, apparently due to a small interruption in the Internet connection between it, and KYW.  So I had to activate the screen to press the play button again.  It’s playing once again without difficulty.  The test continues…

09:13 AM: Another momentary interruption that required manual intervention to correct.  I noticed that the battery indicator still says that it’s fully charged.  An hour and three minutes into the test now…

09:50 AM: Another interruption.  Restarted.  Battery indicator still says FULL.

10:25 AM: Another drop-out.  Restarted.  Battery indicator still says FULL.

10:25 AM: Another drop-out.  Restarted the KYW station play.  Battery indicator has started to drop; there’s now a thin black line at the right edge of the picture of a battery at the top right corner of the screen.  Looks though like it’s still around 90 percent full. 

11:55 AM: Another drop-out.  Restarted.  Battery indicator still says roughly 80 percent.

12:30 PM: Another drop-out.  Restarted.  Battery indicator still says roughly 80 percent.

12:30 PM: Another drop-out.  Restarted.  Battery indicator still says roughly 70 percent.

02:25 PM: Several stoppages occurred over the past couple hours and I restarted play, probably within ten minutes of each incident.  But the iPod Touch is still playing and the battery still has approximately 60 percent charge left. 

04:10 PM: Well, the iPod Touch is still going.  Batttery level is now around 40 percent, and we’ve been running this test for eight hours now. 

08:10 PM: It’s still playing.  The battery looks to still have around 30 percent charge.  However, over the past four hours, I’ve had to restart play numerous times.  Not sure if it’s that station, the Internet, my network components here, the software, or the iPod Touch itself.  These all-too-frequent cut-outs surprised me.  Perhaps I’ll try the all-day-play test from a laptop running Winamp and see if it stops at all like the iPod Touch did today. 

09:44 PM: A low-battery warning dialog box just appeared on the iPod Touch screen.  The battery is now at 20 percent.

11:10 PM: The iPod Touch is still playing and the battery indicator shows about 20 percent charge still left.  So far on the current charge, it’s played for 15 hours.  However, I’ve run out of steam before the iPod did to night.  So I’m turning it off now and I’ll run it out the rest of the way tomorrow.  See those details below, in this same post.  I’ll add them as they become available. 

2010-02-13: Day Two

10:00 AM: Turned the iPod Touch back on again and resumed play of KYW News Radio.  I did not charge the battery overnight.  So far on this charge, the Touch has played for fifteen hours and zero minutes.  We’ll add to that today. 

11:00 AM: Well, the iPod Touch finally went dead.  Thus, the battery lasted 16.0 hours on a charge.  Pretty good, particularly since I ran wifi on it, which consumes extra energy above what’s used when just playing local music files.  I’ll add a summary of the test to this post a little later.

11:05 AM: Now, I’m plugging the iPod Touch into the charger; I’m curious how long it will take to completely recharge this dead battery.  Stand by…

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• iPod Touch Play Time Per Charge Time
• iPod Touch Recharge Times
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-12

I purchased the 64 GB WiFi version of the iPod touch last week.  I’m quite pleased with the fidelity and versatility of this little media computer, and I especially being able to go anywhere in the house with the thing in my back pocket and the ear buds inserted, and listen to Internet radio. 

I’m running a Bountiful WiFi BWRG1000, which is a full-power access point (AP) (1 watt), and this gives tremendous coverage throughout the house and several hundred feet surrounding the house, at least, when I’m surfing the web on a laptop.  However, the WiFi range appears to be much shorter with the iPod Touch. 

The other night, while shoveling snow, I noticed that the Internet radio stations repeatedly cut out as I moved away from the house; reception became erratic at a distance of 80 to 100 feet.  Occasionally, they’d return on their own as I moved back into a strong signal pocket.  But mostly, once they dropped, they’d stay out for good, until I pulled the Touch out and pressed the play button to restart them. Then, they’d drop again a few seconds later. 

Part of the difficulty may be that the AOL Radio app I’m playing the stations on does not recover from momentarily dropped WiFi signals very well.  I’ve got the current version of this app as of 2010-02-05.  Indeed, when the stations go silent, pressing the play button usually makes them resume when I’m standing still, unless I’m 200 feet or more away.  At that distance, they might not play again until I walk closer to the AP.  So while I may be on the inner fringes of WiFi reception at 90 feet from the house, there still appears to be plenty of strong signal around; my laptop reads signal in the “very good” strength range at 200 feet distance. 

So given these strong but admittedly sporadic signal conditions (conditions that one would likely encounter in a residential wifi installation), I’d think that a well-designed app for the iPod Touch would retry every second or two when the signal is lost; particularly on a device so portable as the Touch.  People using the Touch will likely be moving around with it, just as I was while shoveling.  So an iron-clad error detection and correction design is mandatory for such a player and the software that it hosts.  However, I realize that this would deaden the battery faster, and it could be that the app designers may have been searching for that ideal balance between good battery life and robust recovery from wifi signal loss. 

Still though, even if the designers had implemented the perfect app, the problem remains that the iPod touch does not put out a very strong wifi signal.  Why?  A couple of reasons: The wifi antenna is housed inside its metal-clad shell; indeed there’s just a little plastic area on the top edge, near the left corner (a “hole” in the metal case if you will), where wifi signals enter and exit the unit.  Internal antennas like this don’t work as well as the full-length external “duck” aerials found on many of the better wifi network cards and less portable devices such as desktop Internet radios.  I suspect that the antenna in the Touch is not full-length.

Further, Apple limits the wifi transmit power in the Touch to increase battery life per charge.  In fact, my Handi-Cassette II tape recorder in play mode, with the volume adjusted to maximum, makes a pretty good wifi field strength tester, and I used it to verify this hypothesis.  Indeed, when positioned near the antennas on my AP, I clearly hear the “woodpecker” sound of the wifi packet transmissions.  However, I do not hear them when I put the iPod Touch near the HandiCassette II while the Touch plays an Internet radio station.  The Touch is definitely transmitting ACK packets back to the AP during radio station play.  So I suspect that its power output to be very much less than my wireless G access point.  I doubt it even outputs a hundred milliwatts.  

When I purchased the iPod Touch with WiFi, I thought I’d be able to enjoy it throughout the entire two acres of property here, especially while cutting the grass, burning brush out back, and so on.  While that’s still possible if I move my AP to the attic and invest in outdoor antennas and cabling, I was nonetheless saddened to learn that the Touch doesn’t work well nearly as far away as my laptop.  While I get great wifi connections on the laptop as far away as my pavilion, which is 220 feet or so down into the back yard, the iPod Touch only works well to about half-way there before sporadically cutting out.  Now it does work at the pavilion as long as you don’t walk around with it too much, because the further away from the AP you get, the more sensitive to movement the Touch becomes.  Move around too much, and you lose your stations.  So though I invested in a full-power AP, the low wifi output of the Touch coupled with its low sensitivity (which is how well it can hear nearby APs) seems to severely limit the usable distance available. 

Don’t misunderstand.  I still think the iPod Touch with WiFi is a great device; mine works very well all throughout the house and the connected porches outside.  But as with most other things, there’s definitely room for improvements for the next generation of iPod Touch.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Improving iPod Touch WiFi
• Improving Pavilion WiFi; Attempt #1
• Improving Pavilion WiFi; Attempt #2
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-11

Please note that the following comments about the IRIS WiFi WebRadio pertain to the radio’s firmware version: SOLRAD V2.1.464, and NutOS version: V3.9.7.1

I sent the followup letter to representatives of Solutions Radio; the vendor from whom I purchased the IRIS WiFi WebRadio. I never did get a response to my letter on Friday, January 22nd, 2010.  So I sent that to them again today.  Hopefully, they’ll answer this time around.

——-

Do you have any suggestions for resolving the issues I’ve raised below?  The WiFi connection on this radio appears to be highly erratic and unreliable.  Often, it does not connect when turned on and to get it to work, I must power down the radio, wait a few seconds, then turn it back on.  Even then, it sometimes fails.  Sometimes, I must power-cycle it several times before it connects, and that’s when I’m in the same room as my access point. 

Tom Hesley

—–Original Message—–
From:Thomas J. Hesley
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2010 10:47 PM
To:W Haan Solutions Radio BV
Subject:RE: iris webradio

Yes, your colleagues were most helpful, and with their assistance, I was able to get the WebRadio to connect to my WiFi network.  However, I’m still experiencing a few issues:

DHCP Issue

I could not get the WebRadio to connect to my network via WiFi, with DHCP set to active.  My network indeed supports DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol), and it does work with other network devices that get their IP addresses from my NetGear router.  Indeed, the WebRadio correctly connects with DHCP through the Ethernet port.  But when I try with WiFi, the WebRadio never gets past the   Connecting…   screen unless I disable DHCP. 

So, to get around this, I disabled DHCP on the WebRadio, and then configured my router to reserve an IP address for my WebRadio.  Then, I programmed that address (192.168.0.5 in my case) into the radio.

WPA Authentication Protocol Did Not Work

Originally, my Bountiful WiFi access point was set for WPA PSK Personal.  But the WebRadio refused to connect with this configuration.  I found however, that I could get the radio to connect if I changed this to  WPA / WPA2 PSK Personal. 

Sporadic Connecting

Now that I’ve got the WebRadio working through WiFi, I noticed that it does not reliably connect to the network upon power up.  More often than not, it fails and the error light blinks.  But, if I power it off and back on one to three more times, it does connect eventually. 

So at least I can get it to work, but not as easily as I’d hoped.

Thoughts? 

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• IRIS Internet Radio Received
• IRIS WebRadio Firmware Upgrades
• IRIS WebRadio WiFi Setup
• Projects Page
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-10
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-11
• Wrong IRIS WebRadio?

From audio journal episode:  AJE-2010-02-05-15-52.

In the last episode (click   here   to see that), I unpacked the   iPod Touch, charged it a little, plugged it into the computer, and started syncing some of my playlists to it. 

Now, while this   iPod Touch   is syncing, I’m going to talk about what I found in the box it came in.  In my box, I retrieved the following items:

• A small start-up guide. 
• Some Apple logo stickers.
• A product information guide, which sports extremely small print.  It looks quite meaty, as it comprises several pages of this single-point-looking lettering. 
• The   iPod Touch   itself along with its plastic stand-off holder.
• A set of ear buds that have the built-in microphone and volume UP (+) and DOWN (-) controls. Their jack has four conductors (three rings and a tip) instead of the three that I’m used to seeing with a stereo 3.5mm connector.  Hmmm, I wonder if more traditional ear buds work on the   iPod Touch   (the ones that employ just two rings on their jacks)?   
• A white USB data and charge cable, a few feet in length, for connecting the   iPod Touch   to a computer or charger.  I have several of these now, but can always use more, as these contain  rather proprietary iPod-style docking connector.
• A white slotted plastic piece (perhaps a dock or a clip).  I don’t know what this is for. 

Now, I’m off to read the documentation for a bit.  So stand by. 

Well, the documentation does provide a web site that offers a guided tour for the   Touch, along with an online users guide, that appears very nice and complete, along with instructions and safety information.  They also supply warnings to listen responsibly; in other words, don’t play it so loud that you destroy your hearing, or cannot hear what’s going on around you. 

You can buy games for this handy device, directly from the iTunes store via the   iPod Touch   itself as long as you’re connected to the Internet via WiFi.  I’ll look into how to establish a WiFi connection once my syncing finishes. 

The   iPod Touch   supports email, through communication with POP3 and IMAP mail servers.  For all the bigger this thing is, it really packs quite a bit of functionality. 

My synchronizations are finished.  Now to the WiFi setup.

Okay, getting the WiFi going was pretty intuitive.  There’s an iTunes icon on the   iPod Touch’s   main screen, which brings up the iTunes store.  Upon pressing that, it found my WiFi network, and then asked if I wanted to join that network.  When I said yes, it asked me for the password, and then displayed a virtual, touch-triggered keyboard on the screen for me to enter the code. 

Once connected, I browsed around the store, and then pressed the HOME button (this is one of the few controls on this unit that’s not virtual; you actually press a real button).  You exit the current application with the HOME button, and doing so takes you back to the desktop. 

Now, I’m playing the built-in music app (this came pre-installed) to listen to AC DC’s TNT song.  So far, getting this   iPod Touch   up and running has been quite easy, intuitive, and straight forward.  Apple has done an excellent job on developing a simple-to-understand yet very powerful user interface; you can access almost the entire array of the  Touch’s   built-in capabilities with just a few button presses or screen touches, and I’m highly impressed.  WiFi on the iPod Touch was far less complicated to set up than it was on the   IRIS WiFi Internet WebRadio   I purchased last month. 

The  Touch  also comes bundled with the Apple Safari web browser; I just pulled up Google on that. 

I just downloaded the user’s guide, onto the  Touch  itself for future, offline reference, which I am referencing with excitement right now. 

At the moment, I’m reading about VoiceOver; setting that up on the   iPod Touch.  The manual says that if you’re visually impaired, VoiceOver (available only on the fall, 2009 iPods or later, having 3GB or more of memory) can be used to configure the   iPod Touch   without sighted assistance.  So now, I’ll read that. 

I just used the Safari browser to pull up this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog on this   iPod Touch.  The post text is quite small, but you can enlarge it by tapping the screen (if you’ve previously enabled the zoom feature). 

I then figured out how to activate VoiceOver.  You can do this either in iTunes or on the   Touch   itself.  When turned on, VoiceOver speaks through the ear buds things on the screen when you touch them.  So if you tap an area of the screen where text is displaying, the Samantha voice (in my configuration) reads that text. 

I played with the screen lock feature.  You can set up a pass code that the   Touch   prompts for, when anyone attempts to gain access to any screen-based feature. It took a little time to get used to the very small keys on that virtual keyboard.  So I had a little trouble entering the correct password to get back into the  iPod Touch  once I’d locked it.  No doubt, it’ll just take a little practice to become proficient at entering data on this thing. 

Okay, I figured out how to get back in.  When in VoiceOver mode, you must press each key on the virtual keyboard twice (once to select that key, and the second time to actuate it).  So if you want to enter pass code 1234, you actually must key in  11223344.  However, this is not the case when VoiceOver is off.  When VoiceOver is deactivated, the virtual keyboard requires just one press to, both select and registers a key; just like a traditional physical keyboard would. So to get a single tap, the VoiceOver gesture is a double tap.  The documentation reveals numerous other gestures as well, that appear to make all the iPod Touch  functions accessible to the physically handicapped.  It takes practice to learn them to second nature.  But I applaud Apple for making the effort to provide a learnable, accessible interface for its flagship player.  Because of that, accessibility should only get better over time so long as Apple and other portable player vendors remain committed to improving it. 

More later.

Tom Hesley     

Related Posts

• IRIS Internet WebRadio WiFi Problems
• New 64GB iPod Touch, Part One
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-05
• Today’s Business: 2010-04-06

Now, I’m going to work on getting the wireless access going, as this ability was why I paid an additional $50 for the radio.  I sent a request to their tech support team asking about where to find the manual, how to configure WiFi access, and the URL for the support web site, which they claim, allows you to program the radio’s station list.

Within ten minutes I received a response, that contained the web site info.  Then, I was able to log into the site and customize the radio’s station list. 

However, I suspect that the radio I received today might not be the WiFi version .  Why?  Because of two things:

1. The IRIS WebRadio web site says that the WiFi version of the radio cannot use telephone lines to access the Internet.  Yet the radio I received has two RJ-11 (telephone line) connectors on the back
2. Plus, my radio does not display a Network menu item on its menu.    

I’ve sent email to the company, asking for further clarification and verification that they did in fact send me the WiFi version.  Stand by for further updates…

2010-01-22-09-17: Talked with representatives from the company just now.  They verified that I do in fact, have the WiFi version of the radio.  They also gave me further clarifications on the instructions supplied yesterday, on how to configure the radio for WiFi.

Tom

Related Posts

• IRIS Internet WebRadio Received
• IRIS WebRadio WiFi Problems
• Today’s Business: 2010-01-21

On the WiFi setup of the IRIS Internet WebRadio: The instructions I received this morning said to do the following in order to configure WiFi.  Please note that the radio does not speak the menus described below.  So you’ll likely need sighted assistance during initial radio setup.

These instructions pertain to Firmware version SOLRAD V2.1.464, that shipped with my WebRadio.

WiFi Setup Instructions

1. Disconnect the Ethernet cable and power down.
2. After several seconds, press and hold down the OK button, and while doing that, press the power button to turn the unit on.  The unit emits three short beeps in ascending pitch.  Then, the LCD screen displays the Audio menu item.
3. Press the UP arrow key once.  This takes you to the Network menu item.
4. Press the OK button to enter the Network menu.  The Ethernet menu item appears.
5. Use the UP and DOWN arrow keys or the volume knob to move around in the current menu until you see the  Wireless  menu item.
6. Press the OK button to select the Wireless item.
7. A message appears that the radio is scanning for networks.  This scanning for WiFi networks that are within range of the radio can take between 30 and 60 seconds.  When it finishes, a list of the networks that it found appears on the LCD screen. 
8. Use the UP and DOWN arrow keys or the volume knob to scroll through this list, to find the network to which you wish to connect.
9. Once that network’s name (SID) appears, press the OK button to confirm.    
10. For secured WiFi networks, the radio will ask for the security key.   
11. By turning the volume knob, you can pick different characters to enter for each character of the key.  When the character you want appears, press the OK button to add it. 
12. After you’ve entered the last character of the key as described, you then have to enter the  RETURN  symbol.  This is located at the end of the list of characters and numbers.  To get to the end of the symbol list, rotate the volume knob to the right, until different symbols stop appearing in the LCD display.
13. Find this, then press OK to confirm.  A  Saving  message appears, then is quickly replaced by an   Activating   message.  This message displays for a couple seconds, and then the radio turns itself off, and
14. Within a second or so, the WebRadio comes back on again, and then attempts to connect to the network you configured.
15. You’ll hear a series of beeps as it moves through the various stages of connection and authentication on the network. 
16. When the WebRadio begins speaking the  Station List, then you’ve successfully configured your WebRadio for WiFi access. 

Problems Encountered 

DHCP Issue

I could not get the WebRadio to connect to my network via WiFi, with DHCP set to active.  My network indeed supports DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol), and it does work because I have several other network devices that get their IP addresses from my NetGear router.  Indeed, the WebRadio correctly connects with DHCP as long as I’m using Ethernet.  But when I try with WiFi, the WebRadio never gets past the   Connecting…   screen. 

To get around this, I disabled DHCP on the WebRadio, and then configured my router to reserve an IP address for my WebRadio.  Then, I programmed that address (192.168.0.5 in my case) into the radio. 

WPA Authentication Protocol Did Not Work

Originally, my Bountiful WiFi access point was set for WPA PSK Personal.  To get the radio to connect, I changed this to  WPA / WPA2 PSK Personal. 

Sporadic Connecting

Now that I’ve got the WebRadio working through WiFi, I noticed that it does not reliably connect to the network upon power up.  More often than not, when you power it up, it fails to connect, and the error light blinks.  However, if I power it off and back on one to three more times, it does connect eventually. 

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• IRIS Internet Radio Received
• Today’s Business: 2010-01-21

I received the wireless (WiFi) version of the IRIS Internet radio by Solutions Radio today. This is supposed to provide a highly accessible solution to the blind and physically handicapped, for Internet radio listening.  Well, let’s see what it actually provides…

What’s In The Box

They packed the thing very well; perhaps too well in fact.  They used fibrous shipping tape, which my dull scissors could not easily cut.  But a sharp utility knife worked much better.

They shipped the radio in its own box, and that box, they put inside another box and surrounded it with bubble rap. 

Upon opening the inner carton, I noticed the following:

• A remote control and batteries for it.
• A power cord.
• An Ethernet cable.
• A dual RCA to RCA audio cable, for playing the radio through a component stereo system.
• The radio itself, which was wrapped in a soft bubble wrap, that had those very little bubbles.

I did not find the following:

• No users manual was included.  I would have liked to have seen at least a printed ‘Getting Started’ guide.  Their web site says that there is a manual however. 

Trying Out The WebRadio

I was eager to plug it in and go.  So as soon as it warmed up a little, I turned it on.  It beeped repeatedly as it attempted to connect to my security-enabled wireless network.  It failed to connect however, as I have not yet configured it with my network password.  It’s not clear at this point how to do this.  Hopefully, the radio supports WEP or WPA networks. 

After a minute, an error appeared on its green backlit LCD display: No DHCP, or something to that effect.  So I turned it off.  By the way, when the radio cannot find a network to which to connect, it beeps rapidly and shuts itself off in fifteen seconds.  You can stop the auto shutdown by pressing one of the arrow keys. 

The Spoken Menus

The male-voice speech was clear and speaks with accurate inflections, though it resembles no speech I’ve ever heard before.  You can mute the voice by pressing the volume control; a round, prominent black knob located on the right side of the control panel. 

The Control Panel

All controls are located on the top and front panel of the radio and consist of the following: 

• The backlit LCD display, found on the left front area of the control panel.
• The UP and DOWN arrow buttons, immediately to the right of the LCD display.
• The OK button, just beneath and to the right of the arrow keys.
• The volume knob, just to the right of the arrow keys, and above the OK and BACK buttons.
• The BACK button, just below the volume knob.
• The power button, found in the lower right-hand corner of the control panel. 
• Power light, immediately to the left of the power button.
• Line Light, immediately above the power button.  Lights when the radio has successfully connected to the Internet.
• Error Light, immediately above the line light.

The Connections

I found all jacks and other connectors on the back of the WebRadio.  These include the following, in order, from left to right as the back of the radio faces you:

• Two RJ11 telephone connectors, for when you’re listening to the radio via a dialup connection.
• One 3.5mm stereo headphone female connector, into which you can plug a set of headphones.
• Two RCA line-out connectors, 
• One RJ45 Ethernet connector, for when you want to run the radio over your local Ethernet.
• The mains power connector

The Pre-Programmed Stations List

You can scroll through the stations list with the UP and DOWN arrow keys, located in the center of the control panel, just to the right of the LCD display.  Each press of these buttons triggers the unit to speak the next or previous station in the list.  It tells you the stations call letters, if any, a description of the content that the station carries, and the format (such as spoken-word, music, talk, Etc.).

When it speaks a station you want to listen to, just press the okay button, located at the bottom center of the control panel, just below and to the right of the arrow keys.  If you do not press an arrow key within three seconds after it finishes announcing the station, the radio begins the connection process.  It beeps with 1-second interval pulses while it’s connecting.  It usually connects to a station within five to ten seconds.

If you’re bored listening to the current station, you can go back to the stations list by pressing either of the arrow keys.  It starts you off at the position in the list of the station you were just playing. 

How It Sounds

The radio has a good, fairly full-range tone; tabletop radio quality.  It’s built-in speaker has a crisp high-end and a surprising amount of bass for its small size. You get stereo sound when listening through headphones that sounds incredibly good; particularly when you’re listening to a high bit-rate station. 

However, I found no bass, treble, or other sound equalization controls. 

Setting Your Favorite Stations

My radio did not come with the web site URL.  However, the URL they gave me in email is:

http://www.stationlist.net/

You’ll need your radio’s serial number and an assigned password, which the vendor also supplied me in this morning’s email exchange.  For other sites relevant to operation of this radio, click   here.

Setting Up The WiFi

The instructions I received for configuring this radio’s WiFi access can be viewed   here.  I experienced some difficulty with getting the WiFi working. But after some email and telephone help from the WebRadio’s manufacturer, it’s working now.

Usability And Other Problems

Poor Handling of Lost Connections

When the connection to the current station being played is lost, the radio takes you back to the station list menu.  To re connect, the user must again find the station in that list and press OK to resume listening to it.  This gets rather tedious during periods of high Internet traffic, which tends to cause dropped connections to happen frequently.  Each drop requires user intervention to fix. 

I’d prefer that the radio try re establishing connection repeatedly, until either it regains the connection, or the user presses the arrow keys to get back to the stations list. 

The Configuration Menus Are Inaccessible

The radio does not appear to speak any of its menus until it’s actually connected to a network, and it never speaks the configuration menus.  However if you’re using ethernet, you may not need to adjust these anyhow if you’re network has a fairly standard configuration.

Unreliable WiFi Operation

When using the radio in WiFi mode, I get much more frequent dropped connections.  This is true regardless of how far away I position the radio from the WiFi access point.  It works much better when employing its Ethernet interface.

Also, I get significantly more failed connection attempts when first turning on the radio, when using its built-in WiFi capability.  On average, I must power down the radio and then turn it on again, two out of every three times I sit down to listen, before I get a usable WiFi connection.  It appears that, at least the WiFi section of this unit, is not quite ready for prime time yet.  Hopefully, they’ll come out with firmware revisions that address these difficulties. 

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• IRIS Internet Radio Received
• IRIS Internet WebRadio WiFi Setup
• IRIS WebRadio Web Sites
• IRIS WebRadio WiFi Problems
• IRIS WiFi WebRadio?  Not Quite!
• Today’s Business: 2010-01-21
• Wrong IRIS WebRadio?

This morning, I ordered the following from Solutions Radio RV:

• IRIS WebRadio (WiFi Version)

Total cost: $358.95

Hopefully, this radio is accessible enough for   [Emmy].  If not, we’ll return it.

Then, I ordered the following items from Amazon:

• Marpac SleepMate 980A Electro-Mechanical Sound Conditioner (3)

 Total cost:  $149.85

Grand Total: $508.80

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-01-16

07:55 PM: I’m now posting from sister Christine’s computer, at her house.  Currently working a puzzling networking problem.   They have Verizon DSL here, Westell modem, with WiFi capability.  In fact, I’m accessing the blog through the wireless connection, and from all the computers that normally connect through this network, connectivity is fine. 

However, nephew Trey brought his computer tonight, hoping to connect to the Internet through sister Christine’s network.  He is able to connect, but only with limited connectivity; he cannot access the Internet, even though he has successfully logged into the Westell access point.  Diagnostics on Trey’s computer say that the network to which he’s logged into, does not have a valid IP configuration. 

At this, I speculated that the firewall on the Westell was only allowing Internet access to authorized computers, and that Trey’s machine is not authorized.  Thus, I logged into Christine’s router (http://192.168.1.1/) to inspect the firewall settings.  I discovered that she’s got the firewall turned off (no security setting).  So, a blocking firewall is probably not the problem.  Christine did say that her son, Garrett experienced similar difficulty, when he first connected his new laptop, and had to call Verizon to get the connection going.  We may have to do likewise here; but not tonight.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2009-12-25

03:00 AM: On my way to bed, I turned on my Sangean Internet radio to listen to KYW News Radio in Philadelphia.  However, getting the list of stations to choose from returned an obscure internal error.  To recover from that, I had to unplug the radio from power, wait a minute, and plug it back in.  Even then, I could not connect.  Then, I used the “Scan for Networks” feature to see if the radio was “seeing” my wireless network.  It was not, and said, “No networks found.” 

So then, I pulled out a wireless laptop, and encountered the same problem.  Now, I suspected the access point — it’s a Bountiful WiFi router.

Inspection of the router revealed that the lights on it looked dimmer than normal.  So on a hunch, I replaced the power supply adapter; I have three spares around.  That brightened up the lights again to normal levels, and restored wireless access. 

Since I keep my computers and equipment up and running all the time, I guess things do wear out after a while.    At least this time however, the router itself was okay.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Projects Page
• Today’s Business: 2009-12-12