Ping

BearNecessity · March 29, 2018, 01:28:54 PM

Whenever I press play for the next song I'm getting a loud "ping" out of the BT speaker. The sound does't sound like a disturbance but a signaled "ping". I checked and if i'm directly in iPhone/Apple "Music" it doesn't occur. Any ideas? It's a Ecoxgear EcoBoulder.

UpAllnite Software · March 29, 2018, 01:49:54 PM

I have tested and just retested with a blue tooth speaker and I don't get any ping.

Could you give me some detail on the version of the app, version of iOS?

When you say directly in iPhone/Apple "music" do you mean the iOS music app?

BearNecessity · March 30, 2018, 07:22:58 AM

I'm on version 11.2.6.
Yes the iOS Music app.

I do see iOS 11.3 is out there.

UpAllnite Software · March 30, 2018, 07:35:38 AM

Well... for sure don't upgrade to iOS 11.3 yet. Apple messed up a bunch of stuff for the app in 11.3 and I had to write 10 or so workarounds to deal with the new odd behaviors. I do have a new version in review with Apple as of the wee hours of last night, but I suspect it may take a little longer than their usual slowness to get the update in the store since they probably broke many 3rd party apps as they usually do.

Now on to debugging the ping...

Do you use Apple Music subscription songs, individually purchased songs, or a combination of both?

The app uses different operating system players for those two types, so could you tell which type of file is generating the ping?

BearNecessity · March 30, 2018, 08:02:29 AM

All Apple Music subscription songs.

UpAllnite Software · March 30, 2018, 09:45:06 AM

hmmm... this ought to be fun to debug. :-\

First, can you record the sound you are hearing from the speaker? That will give me a better idea of what the source might be. Email that to the address in my user profile here.

Can you try a test with an mp3 or m4a file playing in the app through that speaker? That will help confirm if it is the Apple Music player and accessories that contains the source.

If you can't find an mp3, I can email you one to the email in your user profile.

BearNecessity · March 30, 2018, 10:35:57 AM

I'm not at home now but I saw some threads on notifications and "ping" sounds. Said to try Do Not Disturb and if it goes away, it could be a random notification. For instance I see where my Amazon music app has an unscripted sound associated with it. Maybe it's playing a notification when another music program is taking over.....thoughts.

UpAllnite Software · March 30, 2018, 10:47:55 AM

Sounds plausible.... definately try do not disturb and perhaps close all other apps that could be using bluetooth. If that works, then track down the notification sound and see if you can find what is using it in the ios settings.

BearNecessity · March 31, 2018, 08:58:49 AM

Sent the ping to you

It

UpAllnite Software · March 31, 2018, 09:37:13 AM

I dont see an email with the ping sound and your post got truncated... turn off smart punctuation on your device. The forum doesn't like the smart apostrophe.

BearNecessity · April 02, 2018, 07:19:20 AM

I was doing everything from a phone so it was a bit wonky. It send to info@upallnitesoftware.com on Saturday morning.

What I determined is it only pinged when i cut the songs down. So if the app if the song is uncut, no ping. Cut the song and ping.

UpAllnite Software · April 02, 2018, 07:58:27 AM

Ok, got the sound sample... thanks for reminding me about that email address. I thought I changed that forum contact email and it turns out there were 7 unread emails in there :(

Anyway... You are right, that sound seems intentional by some piece of hardware and your observation seems to indicate that it is occuring when the app fade starts for the cut songs. With purchased songs, I can fade start things by manipulating the raw audio sample data. With Apple Music songs, I cannot access the raw data and must manipulate the volume of the entire device. I suspect that sound is warning you that the volume has been turned down to zero. Perhaps that warning could be turned off in the settings for the exogear device or the Apple device.

If you can't find anyway to disable it, I might be able to change the fade logic to go close to, but not all the way to zero. You could test that theory by manually running your volume down to zero and see if it makes the tone and then try close to but not quite zero.

BearNecessity · April 03, 2018, 07:07:13 AM

The problem was apple music subscription, when I switch to iTunes purchase, it stopped.

UpAllnite Software · April 03, 2018, 10:30:40 AM

The problem is that Apple requires the app to use the system volume to fade Apple Music subscription songs combined with the fact that your bluetooth speaker chimes when the volume is changed.

Using iTunes purchase songs is a good solution as then the app can fade the raw audio samples and avoid touching the volume control.

Thanks for working through the problem with me as I'm sure others may encounter the issue and now I will know what to tell them!

onychopagist · March 22, 2019, 01:16:02 PM

Noticed this problem a few weekends ago. Loud ping before and after each walk up song and inning break songs. OK so we have the same speaker, I connected to my Bose speaker and there was no ping. I didn't notice last year because I just started apple music and had already purchase all the walk-up songs. I couldn't figure out how to export import change files by tomorrow. So I got an aux cord and plugged it in went through all of it and no ping! It's the big bad loud speaker, which I have yet to find any help on that end. I have a temporary fix until I can contact them anyway. The girls didn't even notice the ping! ;D