Grand Maestro

investigating the Sub and Surround connection

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I'm going to try to figure out the Sonos connections to surrounds.

I'm starting with my main Rooms powered up and updated. I also have a Home Theater Room that has been powered down for a month or so which is what I'll be working with first. It has a Beam gen 1, Sub gen 2 and two One SLs.

Initially the Room and speakers aren't visible in the Android app, main Room lists or the About page, they have been powered down long enough to be removed.

Powering up just the surrounds, they are still not visible in any app lists, but if I do an update check I am told one is needed. I do not have the 2.4 gHz Sonosnet enabled here and the Beam is powered down so they must be connecting to my home Wi-Fi on my 5 gHz band in order for the app to see the update status. The AP access log confirms this connection and shows it became active soon after I powered the surrounds up. The log also shows they are communicating using the link.

Running the update, both One SLs go through the update/reboot LED patterns. At the end of the process the AP logs show the names are no longer the DHCP assigned/reserved ones, instead both show as "Sonos ZP" but still using the DHCP reserved addresses. The MAC addresses appear to be correct in both DHCP and AP logs.

The One SLs still do not appear anywhere in the app.

Power cycling the One SLs causes the AP logs to return the DHCP assigned names. They still do not appear in the app.

Rechecking the update status shows all are updated.

Next, powering up the Beam and Sub. The AP logs show the surrounds disappearing soon after the Beam appeared. The Sub briefly appeared in the AP logs but did not pass any data, I did not see if it used the default name originally but I do show two sessions, one before and the other after the update.

So two interesting things here, the non-HT connection for updates and the DHCP/DNS oddness on update.

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AjTrek1

It would have been even more interesting if you could have checked the WiFi signal strength for the surrounds which by all accounts you shouldn’t have been able to do so.

My speculation is that the One SL’s being down for so long were released back to your home WiFi as you indicated. However, as far the App was concerned they were still surround speakers and only visible when the Beam’s (upon power-up) hidden 5Ghz channel is active.

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.

Airgetlam

To my knowledge, surrounds always connect on 5 GHz, one of the reasons Sonos had to release the ‘workaround’ for using the version 1 CONNECT:AMP, which never had a 5Ghz system in it.

Bruce

AjTrek1

To my knowledge, surrounds always connect on 5 GHz, one of the reasons Sonos had to release the ‘workaround’ for using the version 1 CONNECT:AMP, which never had a 5Ghz system in it.

I think @Stanley_4 was commenting that the update for the speakers used as surrounds even though they were not shown in the app was still applied. Assuming I’m understanding the post correctly.

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.

buzz

Grand Maestro

Is the surround system, with SUB, now working?

Stanley_4Author

Grand Maestro

In reverse order…

The Room has never had any issues working.

Yes, the App saw that the surrounds needed an update and performed it, even though the Beam and Sub were powered down.

As the App did not show the surrounds in the Room or About lists I couldn't check the signal there, from the AP logs it was good, don't recall the exact number. They are two sheetrock walls and 15 feet from my AP. I do not believe the time that they were powered down had any impact on the network, only on the app listing them as present.

The Room devices are all powered down now and showing as "not connected" on the About list and not shown on the Room lists. I'm going to power the surrounds back up to see how the app reacts while they are still listed, and as soon as they booted the App removed them from the Room lists, the Beam and Sub appear to still be listed.

At this point all I am sure of is that there is some surround speaker communication with the App and update server with the main device (Beam) powered down.

buzz

Grand Maestro

But aren’t the surrounds and SUB waiting for their BEAM?

Stanley_4Author

Grand Maestro

The surrounds don't seem to be waiting for anything, they appear to be fully booted and operational, otherwise how would they first tell the app they need an update when queried and then when told to, download the update?

Once the App sees the Beam the lists return to normal.

I think most of the oddness is in the app, not the firmware.

buzz

Grand Maestro

Unless you un-bond the surrounds. I expect that the Controller, BEAM, Surrounds, and SUB are waiting for all to power up.

Stanley_4Author

Grand Maestro

As I said above the surrounds are able to communicate with the app to request and apply an update so they are communicating with the app and Internet without waiting for the Beam to become available.

The Beam powers up and is fully operational with the surrounds and Sub powered down so it isn't waiting on them.

Once Sub and surrounds are powered up the Beam adds them to the Room, but that isn’t related to my original discovery of them communicating with the Wi-Fi directly and not through the 5 gHz Sonosnet from the Beam when it isn't avaliable.

Note that I didn't test the Sub in this trial, it is on the same switch the Beam is on and I'm not able to get to the power connections to change that.

N

nahzd

Contributor I

@Stanley_4 - you might have a guest SSID too if its not connecting properly like my post Product not connected…

I just think something in the updates crapped up something which was working perfectly before the recent updates 🤷‍♀️

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