Thank you Phillippe and the whole community for creating this device and the forum to get it going and take it in so many directions. I offer this note in the hope that the good documentation can be made even better to head off some issues I had as a first-time user.
It took me a while to get my new Mn Cast up and running.
I went to the page: https://raspiaudio.com/produit/mncast seeking the “front door” to documentation.
It sent me to the Installation Guide at:
Mn Cast installation guide
Seeing the update:
Update 29/12/2022 : You will need to go thru that update with the web updater because with the pre-loaded firmware it seems like there is a bug where wifi credentials are not recorded.
I followed the instructions, which wiped the SqueezeLite software, and installed the generic recovery image. Only after reading forum post:
did I learn that I REALLY needed to go to:
apps.raspiaudio.com
to get the Squeezelite image that would actually work.
Along the way I had several instances where I got the “Failed to initialize” error. The instructions: “…push the button, turn off the power switch and turn it on ( don’t release the button when you turn on/off the power supply). Then try again the previous step.” which did not work at all.
The instructions to retry while holding down the button did work, and I finally got back to a squeezelite that worked.
Getting the network configured was also challenging. (Although I have extensive networking experience, I’d never configured a device by signing onto its DHCP server before.)
192.168.4.1 was not the address my router assigned.
Using the log output did not show me an assigned network address. It showed me line after line saying the wifi was in discovery mode.
What DID work for me was going to my ipad, and connecting to the wifi network “squeezelite-esp32” and from THAT display, choosing my home network, and specifying the password.
I have a couple suggestions that might “file off these rough edges”:
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Point to the apps.raspiaudio.com from the Mn Cast installation guide installation guide document. That installer is clearer on which device, and which image to install.
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Replace the instruction, “To do so push the button, turn off the power switch and turn it on ( don’t release the button when you turn on/off the power supply). Then try again the previous step.” with “To do so. push and hold the button, while you click and retry the install step. You may release the button as soon as you see that Erase has successfully started.”
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Make some formatting changes in the Installation Guide to make it clearer that there are separate sections for separate activities. I suggest a horizontal line between each major section, and maybe adding table of contents links to the major sections. This will avoid confusion when, after configuring the network, one has to think whether or not loading an NVS file is needed.
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Perhaps change the wording in the wifi configuration section from, “Then, select your WiFi and enter your home WiFi credentials to connect.” to, “The page opens with ‘manual add’ selected. Click on your home network and you will be prompted for credentials.”