Pogoplug Music Server for $30

EDIT
Feb 24
Deleted network setup because it is not required
Added info for creating a backup usb stick image
Added info for using LMS 7.8

Feb 2
I gave up trying to run Logitech Music Server and a USB DAC from the same Pogo.
I am trying to run separately for now, and see if that works OK.
Sometimes it would work OK, and sometimes LMS would not come up.

Jan 29, I was having problems, but it turned out to be a problem with the USB hard drive.
I think the instructions are OK now.


OK, its a little more than $30, depends on what you already have.

But, you get a little box that can be a music server running Logictech Music Server, and it can also drive a USB DAC, you just need to add the DAC.


The Pogoplug is $25 shipped from here
http://astore.amazon.com/vort-20/detail/B0044CL1N0

It needs to be the E02 model, I bought from this link, and got a pink E02, so it was good for me.

Buy a USB memory stick
Directions call out for a 4GB stick, I bought an 8GB, and it worked fine.
Another $8, so now you are at $30.

Instructions for setting up the Pogoplug to be able to act as a music player are here
http://vortexbox.org/content/150-Building-the-VAMP
But, I tried to follow the directins here, and I couldn't get it to work (they deleted some steps, I'm not sure why).

go to
my.pogoplug.com
and register you pogoplug there

Select "Settings" in the upper right
then select "Security" on the left

Check box by
"Enable SSH access for this Pogoplug device"

It will ask for a password, enter one.

Find the ipaddress for the Pogoplug

If you have trouble figuring out the IP address of the pogoplug, the easist way (at least for me) is if you can log in to your router, and have it display a list of the IP addresses on the network.

Otherwise, there are free IP scanners on the internet.
For windows, I used the Colasoft MAC Scanner

Someone had problems when he plugged in the Ethernet through a couple of switches between the Pogo and the router, so I would recommend plugging the Pogo directly into the router, especially when you first set it up, until you have it working like you want.  Once it is working, and you make sure it works after a long power down, then you can try adding switches to see if it makes a difference.
At the end of this page, I talk about adding a wireless device, so you don't need a hard ethernet connection.

Install Colasoft, and have it scan your net.
Read the ID from the bottom of the Pogo, and find it in the list from Colasoft.
Here is my Pogo.  The number on the right is on the bottom of the pogo, the number on the left  is your IP address

Now you can use Putty to log in, but it is kind of basic.
I used extraputty because you can add scripts to it.

Use "root" for user name.

It will ask for the password, use password that you entered when you turned on ssh access.

If you are using a max, you can use terminal instead of putty.

On putty, type the following (or cut and paste, use right click to paste into putty screen)

cd /tmp
wget http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/uboot/install_uboot_mtd0.sh
chmod +x install_uboot_mtd0.sh
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin:/sbin
./install_uboot_mtd0.sh
After install instruction, type "yes" because it will ask you to.

type "yes" again to disable pogoplug services.

Type
fw_setenv arcNumber
fw_setenv machid dd6

Put the USB key into the front port on the PogoPlug and type reboot in your ssh window.

The PogoPlug should go dark then come back up with an orange LED instead of the green one.

You can now SSH to your VAMP. The user is root and the password is nosoup4u

Make sure you can log in and everything is working. Then connect your USB DAC and reboot again.

From terminal in OSX, the 2nd time you log in (step 12), terminal won't let you log in because the ID changed from before.
You need to go to the root of the hard drive, then go to Users\username\.ssh
Delete the known_hosts file

use the same format as before:
"ssh root@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the pogoplug.It will ask for the password, use password nosoup4u here, and from now on.

If you add a USB DAC to a “VAMP”, then you will basically have a device that connects through Ethernet, and lets you play music from the USB DAC.

If you type
http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the VAMP address, you should get this

You can stop here, but I didn’t.

At this point, you should have the USB DAC connected, and the USB memory stick.  You should not have the USB hard drive connected yet, you will connect during the music server setup.  If it is connected, just shutdown, and disconnect, then power up again.

You shutdown by typing "shutdown now" in putty.

Adding the Music Server Software
Initially, I tried a different method, but later I found an easier way to do this.

Connect to the Pogo with whatever “putty” type SSH terminal program you used to set it up with the vortexbox instructions that were used previously.

Type “Setup” at the prompt, and the following screen will be displayed.

Select "Library Music-Library Configuration" and OK

Select OK

Connect the USB hard drive now.

Select "USB USB drive" then OK

This is what I got for my drive. I just selected "Yes"

Select "Yes" and let it reboot.

Wait a couple of minutes


NOTE: at this point, if you are having trouble, it could be a problem with the hard drive. I had this problem, and Pogo stopped coming up, either on the internet browser or on Putty. Removing the USB hard drive got it to come up again.

I ended up reformatting the drive (not a quick format, maybe overkill) to fix the drive.
 
Then, you can go to putty, log in and type "setup" again.

Select “Media-Server Install a Media-Server”, then OK

Select “Squeezebox Install a Squeezebox-Server (free)” then OK

Select "Install Install SqueezeBox on this device" then OK

Select OK

Accept the license, then you will get this:

Select OK, and then installation will start
At some points, screen will stop scrolling for a while, but just be patient.
EDIT Feb 24
I started to used a newer version of LMS, can be found here
LMS Ver 7.8


You need to type this in on the blank line
http://downloads.slimdevices.com/nightly/7.8/sc/2e3000d/logitechmediaserver_7.8.0~1353679004_all.deb

Or just hit OK with the line blank and ver 7.7 will be installed.

For some reason, 7.8 failed to install a couple times, so I uninstalled it, and installed again, and it eventually worked OK.


It took about 10 mins for my installation.

This screen will pop up.

Select OK, then Quit until you get back to the main menu screen.

EDIT Feb 24, 2013  

Deleted Network Configuration stuff, it is not required.

Wait a few minutes, for the light on the front to turn green, then you should be able to open your internet program and
Type "http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:9000"


The Logitech Media Server will open

Login to your account, and then you will get this.





Click on the + by "Music", and you should see the contents of your USB hard drive.

Pick you music directory, then pick your playlist directory.

Go to "Settings" (lower right corner), then "Basic Settings" then pick "English" (or whatever), and then you should be able to see your music.

You can now setup the options however you want.

It should now work as a music server.


Wireless Option
Wired Ethernet is not convenient for me, I wanted to add wireless to it.
I bought one of these since I work by Frys, and it is pretty inexpensive, $20
http://www.frys.com/product/6980167?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
This is a TP Link model TL-WR702N.

Any router that supports client mode, and the security you use for wireless (ie WEP, WPA, WPA2) will work. I had some old routers that only support WEP, and when I upgraded my security to WPA2 these routers no longer work for me.

Set the the Nano Router to client mode, following the instructions included with it. The router I used doesn't have a switch to set the modes, so you have to do it in software, but it's pretty simple once you connect to it.

I basically just followed the instructions, connected it to my Pogoplug instead of the Ethernet interface, and it worked.

Usually the hardest part about setting up routers is that you might have to change the IP address of the PC you use to set it up. Just remember to revert your settings after you finish setting up the router. I forgot for a while, and had some troubles until I remembered to go back to what it was.

As a bonus, the Nano router is powered via USB, and you can use one of the Pogoplug USB ports to power the router.

It's a very small little box, and now you have a wireless USB DAC.

Cost is up to $50, plus the cost of the DAC.

After I had wireless working, I wanted to assign the IP address in DNS so the address won't change.  Names don't work for me, so I just use addresses.

For me, I need to log into my wireless router, and go to the Ethernet setup page, and I can assign a mac address to a IP address, and name it so I remember what machine it is.

The only wierd thing is on a status page, for the Pogo IP address, I see the mac address for the router, and on the Ethernet setup page, I see the mac address for the Pogo.  But it seems to work OK.

Backup USB stick image
At some point, my USB stick image somehow got corrupted.
I decided to buy an extra 4gb stick, all my other sticks a 8gb because the price difference is small.
I setup the 4gb stick per the instructions above, installing vamp then LMS on the stick.
I setup LMS, scanned my music library, and stopped the plugins I don't use.

After that, I started a putty session, then "shutdown now" to shutdown the Pogo.

Pulled power, and removed the stick.

Put the stick into the PC where you ran the USB Image tool to put the VAMP image on it.
Start the USB Image tool, and then select the stick, and select backup.  It asks for a name, give it a name you'll recognize, I called it something like LMS_v7.8.
It will backup the stick to a new image file.

Now you can create a new stick with this image, and it will be ready to run.
You should just be able to plug it in, and it should just start LMS.
You don't need to install anything, or even setup LMS again.


Observations
I had a problem last night where it was very slow in responding.
But, I had been tweaking the options in my wireless router, and had messed with things when I was setting up a 2nd pogo.

I elected to reinstall everything, I reimaged the USB stick to the VAMP image and then reinstalled LMS.  At this point, my network didn't show the Pogo anywhere, so I did it one more time, and it worked fine.

I'll use it for a few days, without making any changes, and see if thinks are stable.

I also have this page, for hints to make it easier to use such as iPhone apps that I am using and other programs
http://randytsuch-musicserver.blogspot.com/2013/01/using-your-pogoplug-with-lms.html