Soundtouch Issues. AiMESH related?

[Hammas]

I have an issue with my Bose Soundtouch setup that is really tricky to pinpoint the source of.

The problem is that the Soundtouch app (iPhone, iPad and Mac) sometimes doesn't see all speakers. Normally there's one or maybe two speaker that isn't found and which isn't found alters in pairs. Meaning that either one speaker is found and the others aren't or the other way around. Sometimes all speakers pop up after a while and sometimes a hard reboot (pulling the plug) solves it, but most oftenly not.

I have a feeling that the issue depends on what node each speaker is connected to relative to the device that is trying to control them (oftenly my iPhone 7 running latest iOS version, currently 12.1.2) but my troubleshooting hasn't resulted in any concrete proof. To be honest I don't know what tools to use so basically my troubleshooting is based on moving from room to room and turning different nodes on and off. Maybe something shows up in logs but I don't know how to read them and what to look for so they aren't of much use for me.

My wifi is an ASUS AiMESH setup consisting of 1 RT-AC5300 (Main) and 3 RT-AC86U as nodes (The core of my house is made of a massive brick chimney that i need to get around) and the speakers are 2 ST10, 1 ST20 and 1 ST30. The ST20 is connected by wire to one of the nodes.

It doesn't seem to matter if speakers are wired or not. I set up my wifi with smart connect and it seem to work fine for all other connected devices but Bose support recommended me to turn it of and split up my network. I did this a week ago but it hasn't made much difference. All speakers are connected to the 5 GHz network.

My feeling that this depends on what node the speakers are connected to relative the controlling device is based on that the speaker that is hardest to find is the ST10 which is located closest to the main router (AC5300) while the others are most likely communicating with one of the nodes. I know the AC5300 is a bit older than AC86U so I've been thinking this older architecture has something to do with it or that it somehow manages to connect to the haul back band.

I've been struggling with this issue since I got the AiMESH setup. My previous setup was an ASUS RT-AC66 with Devolo powerline adaptors. I don't remember if this issue was present in that setup but it's not unlikely since that setup had dodgy coverage.

If anyone here have a similar issue or know what to look for, settings to change or what have you it would be very appreciated if you could help pointing me in the right direction.

 

[OzarkEdge]

I have an issue with my Bose Soundtouch setup that is really tricky to pinpoint the source of.

The problem is that the Soundtouch app (iPhone, iPad and Mac) sometimes doesn't see all speakers. Normally there's one or maybe two speaker that isn't found and which isn't found alters in pairs. Meaning that either one speaker is found and the others aren't or the other way around. Sometimes all speakers pop up after a while and sometimes a hard reboot (pulling the plug) solves it, but most oftenly not.

I have a feeling that the issue depends on what node each speaker is connected to relative to the device that is trying to control them (oftenly my iPhone 7 running latest iOS version, currently 12.1.2) but my troubleshooting hasn't resulted in any concrete proof. To be honest I don't know what tools to use so basically my troubleshooting is based on moving from room to room and turning different nodes on and off. Maybe something shows up in logs but I don't know how to read them and what to look for so they aren't of much use for me.

My wifi is an ASUS AiMESH setup consisting of 1 RT-AC5300 (Main) and 3 RT-AC86U as nodes (The core of my house is made of a massive brick chimney that i need to get around) and the speakers are 2 ST10, 1 ST20 and 1 ST30. The ST20 is connected by wire to one of the nodes.

It doesn't seem to matter if speakers are wired or not. I set up my wifi with smart connect and it seem to work fine for all other connected devices but Bose support recommended me to turn it of and split up my network. I did this a week ago but it hasn't made much difference. All speakers are connected to the 5 GHz network.

My feeling that this depends on what node the speakers are connected to relative the controlling device is based on that the speaker that is hardest to find is the ST10 which is located closest to the main router (AC5300) while the others are most likely communicating with one of the nodes. I know the AC5300 is a bit older than AC86U so I've been thinking this older architecture has something to do with it or that it somehow manages to connect to the haul back band.

I've been struggling with this issue since I got the AiMESH setup. My previous setup was an ASUS RT-AC66 with Devolo powerline adaptors. I don't remember if this issue was present in that setup but it's not unlikely since that setup had dodgy coverage.

If anyone here have a similar issue or know what to look for, settings to change or what have you it would be very appreciated if you could help pointing me in the right direction.

Have you disabled router Airtime Fairness for all bands?

With 4 capable nodes cranking out WiFi in a presumably smaller than respective area to get around the masonry obstacle, maybe there is too much coverage/RF reflections(?) at some speakers, causing them to repeatedly disconnect and reconnect. Have you inspected the router log for this MAC activity?

OE

 

[CaptainSTX]

Some of the problems probably resides with the speakers themselves and or the Soundtouch software. I have a Bose speaker connected to my LAN using Ethernet and even from my PC which is also connected using Ethernet has problems connecting to the speaker when I try to use Soundtouch on my desktop though the speaker is still able to play music using Pandora.

It is just easier for me to walk over to the Bose speaker and push one of the presets than get Soundtouch working and communicating with the speaker. I only make the effort when I want to change one of the presets. It is a shame because the sound quality is excellent but I often end up playing music on my Amazon Echo because it works when I tell it to play something. The downside the sound quality isn't as good as the Bose. I have also tried using the Echo control the Bose but it is still easier and less frustrating to just walk over to the speaker and turn it on.

 

[Hammas]

Have you disabled router Airtime Fairness for all bands?

With 4 capable nodes cranking out WiFi in a presumably smaller than respective area to get around the masonry obstacle, maybe there is too much coverage/RF reflections(?) at some speakers, causing them to repeatedly disconnect and reconnect. Have you inspected the router log for this MAC activity?

OE

Thank you for the tip! I will look into this and see if it makes any difference.

 

[Hammas]

Some of the problems probably resides with the speakers themselves and or the Soundtouch software. I have a Bose speaker connected to my LAN using Ethernet and even from my PC which is also connected using Ethernet has problems connecting to the speaker when I try to use Soundtouch on my desktop though the speaker is still able to play music using Pandora.

It is just easier for me to walk over to the Bose speaker and push one of the presets than get Soundtouch working and communicating with the speaker. I only make the effort when I want to change one of the presets. It is a shame because the sound quality is excellent but I often end up playing music on my Amazon Echo because it works when I tell it to play something. The downside the sound quality isn't as good as the Bose. I have also tried using the Echo control the Bose but it is still easier and less frustrating to just walk over to the speaker and turn it on.

This is my assumption. But Bose has been unable to help me, and other customers judging from their forum. It could also be an issue with the mesh setup that they’re not able to fix because of some fundamental design flaw of the Soundtouch architecture.

I also reside to manually playing one of the presets. This is enough for my everyday use eventhough it kills the whole point of buying multi room products. However when having dinner or any other social activity and not wanting to blast music from one room the multi room is necessary. In these cases I want to use at least two of the speakers and then the app is the only way to get synced music.

I’m praying for Bose to fix it but until then maybe the knownledge in this forum can be of help.

 

[Hammas]

I found the solution! Did some more investigation on the Airtime Fairness and found another thread on Bose forum where a solution was presented.

You can find the solution here. Basically it's turning of Airtime Fairness and rebooting everything.

Happy new year!

 

[HuskyHerder]

@Hammas

You had a space in the beginning of your link, you may wish to edit the url.

In case anyone needs it, here it is again.

https://community.bose.com/t5/SoundTouch-Archive/Soundtouch-PlayAll-Group-Asus-AiMesh/td-p/152868

 

[Hammas]

Thank you!

It was that there was a prefilled http:// before my paste. It’s been corrected now.

 

[Hammas]

So as it turns out I was a bit early in calling the victory. Turning of Airtime Fairness improved functionality but didn't solve the issue completely. I have now turned off one of the bands in the AC5300 to make sure all routers are working in the same channel. I also turned off the roaming assistant on the suggestion from Bose but it hasn't helped much. There's still one or two speakers that isn't found by the soundtouch app. A new behaviour is that sometimes the app sees all speakers but when adding speakers to play it they don't start playing. When looking in the app on a different device the speaker that has been added is not discovered. However it is possible to start playing in the undiscovered speaker but when adding speakers to it they aren't playing.

Feels like I've tested everything.

To summarise I've:
- Turned off Airtime Fairness
- Made sure that there's only one channel in my 5GHz network by turning off the 5GHz-1 band of my AC5300.
- Turned off Roaming assistant

Btw. Does anyone know if it's possible to force the 5GHz-1 band to operate at the same channel as the 5GHz-2 band? I understand why they've splitt the channel range between the 1 and 2 bands but it would be nice to have 5GHz coverage in the basement.

All input is appreciated!

 

[OzarkEdge]

So as it turns out I was a bit early in calling the victory. Turning of Airtime Fairness improved functionality but didn't solve the issue completely. I have now turned off one of the bands in the AC5300 to make sure all routers are working in the same channel. I also turned off the roaming assistant on the suggestion from Bose but it hasn't helped much. There's still one or two speakers that isn't found by the soundtouch app. A new behaviour is that sometimes the app sees all speakers but when adding speakers to play it they don't start playing. When looking in the app on a different device the speaker that has been added is not discovered. However it is possible to start playing in the undiscovered speaker but when adding speakers to it they aren't playing.

Feels like I've tested everything.

To summarise I've:
- Turned off Airtime Fairness
- Made sure that there's only one channel in my 5GHz network by turning off the 5GHz-1 band of my AC5300.
- Turned off Roaming assistant

Btw. Does anyone know if it's possible to force the 5GHz-1 band to operate at the same channel as the 5GHz-2 band? I understand why they've splitt the channel range between the 1 and 2 bands but it would be nice to have 5GHz coverage in the basement.

All input is appreciated!

Without a diagnosis to guide me... which is not uncommon... I would unplug the 5300 and setup a 3x86U AiMesh from scratch.

OE

 

[Hammas]

Ok... Is the AC5300 known for causing troubles?

 

[Grisu]

So as it turns out I was a bit early in calling the victory. Turning of Airtime Fairness improved functionality but didn't solve the issue completely. I have now turned off one of the bands in the AC5300 to make sure all routers are working in the same channel. I also turned off the roaming assistant on the suggestion from Bose but it hasn't helped much. There's still one or two speakers that isn't found by the soundtouch app. A new behaviour is that sometimes the app sees all speakers but when adding speakers to play it they don't start playing. When looking in the app on a different device the speaker that has been added is not discovered. However it is possible to start playing in the undiscovered speaker but when adding speakers to it they aren't playing.

Feels like I've tested everything.

To summarise I've:
- Turned off Airtime Fairness
- Made sure that there's only one channel in my 5GHz network by turning off the 5GHz-1 band of my AC5300.
- Turned off Roaming assistant

Btw. Does anyone know if it's possible to force the 5GHz-1 band to operate at the same channel as the 5GHz-2 band? I understand why they've splitt the channel range between the 1 and 2 bands but it would be nice to have 5GHz coverage in the basement.

All input is appreciated!

5G-1 will operate in ch. 36-64 and 5G-2 in 100-165, its your decision which one you want to use (or turn off the other) to have your prefered channel open.
I think its a bad decision to have them all on same channel, so your clients may see more routers on same channel with similar power and cannot connect or differentiate between them.
Set everyone on a different channel and I lets hope things are going better.
If you got more routers than channels use same channel on farthermost router. 1-6-11 for 2G/20MHz and 36-52-100-116-(132 only 40MHz)-151 for 5G/80MHz.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Ok... Is the AC5300 known for causing troubles?

I can't say that. I'm just saying I would try something different to see how a tricky problem responds. ASUS is trying to integrate different routers into one AiMesh system, so there's a chance it's not perfect. Given you have 3 newer capable dual-band 86Us and one older different tri-band... I figure why not try it since you've tested everything else. Just an idea...

OE

 

[Hammas]

Ah, yes. A resonable idea. I have now tried it and it didn't make much difference.

One thing that did change is that all speakers are now visible to the app but when playing in multiple rooms some speakers aren't playing even though the app says they are.

These are initial results, I made the change 3 hours ago. I will run my network in this config for another week or so and see if things works better.

 

[Hammas]

5G-1 will operate in ch. 36-64 and 5G-2 in 100-165, its your decision which one you want to use (or turn off the other) to have your prefered channel open.
I think its a bad decision to have them all on same channel, so your clients may see more routers on same channel with similar power and cannot connect or differentiate between them.
Set everyone on a different channel and I lets hope things are going better.
If you got more routers than channels use same channel on farthermost router. 1-6-11 for 2G/20MHz and 36-52-100-116-(132 only 40MHz)-151 for 5G/80MHz.

Well... I've been told by Bose that all nodes should be on the same channel and I have no option in AiMESH to have the nodes run on different channels, which is logical since they're all talking to each other which would be difficult if they would be on different channels. It's only the 5GHz-1 band that can run on a different channel, if I have it activated which isn't recommended by Bose.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Ah, yes. A resonable idea. I have now tried it and it didn't make much difference.

One thing that did change is that all speakers are now visible to the app but when playing in multiple rooms some speakers aren't playing even though the app says they are.

These are initial results, I made the change 3 hours ago. I will run my network in this config for another week or so and see if things works better.

Cycle power on the speakers(?)

I have not been following your saga... did the speakers work on a previous network?

OE

 

[Grisu]

Well... I've been told by Bose that all nodes should be on the same channel and I have no option in AiMESH to have the nodes run on different channels, which is logical since they're all talking to each other which would be difficult if they would be on different channels. It's only the 5GHz-1 band that can run on a different channel, if I have it activated which isn't recommended by Bose.

Just another possibility you could test if it will help to get better results, sure you have to change to AP (LAN-backhaul) or repeater (WiFi) mode.
Professional mesh will use different channels as well, not possible with WiFi-backhaul but thats all the time only 2nd choice.

 

[Hammas]

Cycle power on the speakers(?)

I have not been following your saga... did the speakers work on a previous network?

OE

Well... I had a dodgy network solution before I bought into the AiMESH system. I decided for this since my house doesn't allow for ethernet cabling, at least not with the tools and knowledge I have at my hands. I would have gone with cabled APs if it would have been possible. AiMESH seemed like a good solution.

And yes, cycling power of the speakers was the first thing I tried. Second thing was to remove and reconnect them to my network.

I don't remember how things worked before I went into AiMESH. As I said network was dodgy in general so I can't imagine it was working.

 

[Hammas]

Just another possibility you could test if it will help to get better results, sure you have to change to AP (LAN-backhaul) or repeater (WiFi) mode.
Professional mesh will use different channels as well, not possible with WiFi-backhaul but thats all the time only 2nd choice.

Sorry, house doesn't allow for ethernet cabling. That would have been my first option otherwise.

 

[OzarkEdge]

Well... I had a dodgy network solution before I bought into the AiMESH system. I decided for this since my house doesn't allow for ethernet cabling, at least not with the tools and knowledge I have at my hands. I would have gone with cabled APs if it would have been possible. AiMESH seemed like a good solution.

And yes, cycling power of the speakers was the first thing I tried. Second thing was to remove and reconnect them to my network.

I don't remember how things worked before I went into AiMESH. As I said network was dodgy in general so I can't imagine it was working.

That leaves open the possibility that the speakers themselves have trouble.

OE