Options for controlling LMS

[monkeyboy72]

Hi, firstly thank you wiim for supporting squeezelite I've finally managed to play my music library without having to use Chromecast and the awful non gapless play back.
I have LMS installed on my nas since wiim started supporting it and have been using my phone to choose music to play but was looking for different options to do this, I would like a display of some sort like an echo show to pick music then have album art etc showing whilst listening to the music, is this possible, thanks

 

[Brantome]

Yes, use the Material skin plugin from a browser on your phone, Pc or tablet

 

[monkeyboy72]

Thanks im currently using that on my phone, so I guess any device that has a browser i.e silk browser on echo show should work, I may get one and try can always send it back if it doesn't work.

 

[Brantome]

I wouldn’t bother with a Show tbh, the Silk browser tends to timeout. I’d go for a cheap tablet instead

 

[shinedou]

Thanks im currently using that on my phone, so I guess any device that has a browser i.e silk browser on echo show should work, I may get one and try can always send it back if it doesn't work.

I use a Lenovo tablet that has it's own docking station but I'm not sure they make them anymore with the docking. I run material skin on it and it works beautifully. Material skin also has a screensaver function that displays a clock when nothing is playing.

So any cheap Android tablet would work, you will just need to find a way to have it upright. It stays on 24/7. When I'm not playing anything then I can see the time

 

[rccarguy]

Yeah I recommend Material Skin, works well for LMS. You'll need to enable it in LMS plug ins, then choose interface, install f droid, LMS app

 

[d6jg]

Late to this but there is another good option. A repurposed O2 Joggler. There are loads of threads about using them on LMS forums.
The Joggler is a lovely robust touch screen device

 

[d6jg]

 

[AlanB]

I am a long term LMS user(since 2010) who has just replaced his WiiM Mini with a Pro to take advantage of the built in Squeezelite.

My music is on a laptop and streams nicely to the Pro using its built in Squeezelite.

However the default interface is a bit clunky on the WiiM app, so I decided to try using Material Skin. I have ticked the Material Skin plug-in and unticked all DNLS)/UpN pplug-ins, and pressed "apply".

Using my Android Pixel 4a phone I enter the LMS IP address into my browser (I have tried Chrome and the recommended Kiwi one) and get a message saying the site can't be reached (see photo).

What am I doing wrong?

 

[d6jg]

I am a long term LMS user(since 2010) who has just replaced his WiiM Mini with a Pro to take advantage of the built in Squeezelite.

My music is on a laptop and streams nicely to the Pro using its built in Squeezelite.

However the default interface is a bit clunky on the WiiM app, so I decided to try using Material Skin. I have ticked the Material Skin plug-in and unticked all DNLS)/UpN pplug-ins, and pressed "apply".

Using my Android Pixel 4a phone I enter the LMS IP address into my browser (I have tried Chrome and the recommended Kiwi one) and get a message saying the site can't be reached (see photo).

What am I doing wrong?

You are typing the wrong IP address - 127.0.0.1 means "this computer" so you can only use that on the computer running LMS.

On your laptop bring up a command prompt and type ipconfig press enter - look for ipv4 address

Then on mobile http://theipaddress:9000/material

 

[AlanB]

You are typing the wrong IP address - 127.0.0.1 means "this computer" so you can only use that on the computer running LMS.

On your laptop bring up a command prompt and type ipconfig press enter - look for ipv4 address

Then on mobile http://theipaddress:9000/material

Thanks , I have finally got it working.

 

[AlanB]

Thanks , I have finally got it working.

Looks like I spoke to soon.

Yesterday I typed the ip address into the recommended Kiwi browser and material skin appeared on my phone, so I wrongly assumed it was working, without checking what was happening in the WiiM Home app.

Today I checked in the WiiM Home app and it couldn't find my music under Home Music Share.

Reticking the IpNP/DNLA plug-in allowed the WiiM Home app to see my LMS music.

No problem, I thought, I've probably used the wrong ipv4 address.

So I deleted the home screen short cut on my phone, googled the correct ipv4 address (gateway ipv4) and typed the new ipv4 address into the Kiwi browser.

Whereas last night when I did this the search took me straight into Material Skin, today it takes me to a series of search results on how to change settings in my browser. The same happens if I use the Chrome browser on my phone.

So again I ask what am I doing wrong?

 

[d6jg]

What are you doing wrong. Lots!

Is it a Pro, Pro Plus or Mini?

 

[Brantome]

If you’re using LMS, focus on using the Material skin and ignore the WiiM home app, Home Music Share and the unsupported upnp/DLNA Media server plugin. If you do that, you should simply use the Material skin to browse your media and play that to the WiiM Pro Squeezelite client. You might use the WiiM home app now playing screen to view what’s being played and pause it, but that‘s really the extent to what you should be doing with it if you have decided to use LMS.

 

[Brantome]

What are you doing wrong. Lots!

Is it a Pro, Pro Plus or Mini?

I think he said he replaced his Mini with a Pro so he could use the latter’s Squeezelite client.

 

[Balthazar B]

I don't believe the WHA can be used as a controller for an LMS. You'll need to use something like the Material skin on a mobile device or workstation. In terms of the LMS ecosystem, the WiiM devices are merely Sqeezelite endpoints, and targeted by the LMS.

Another way to look at this is that Material on your phone is used to control LMS (find/play music, etc.), which in turn sends its output to WiiM endpoints.

On the other hand, WHA interacts directly with WiiM devices. While it can use APIs from, say, streaming services to enable sending content from those services to WiiM devices, WHA has no way to control core LMS functions in the same way as Material. But it can communicate with LMS addons like UPNP, which is very different.

 

[Brantome]

@Balthazar B Yeah, there is an LMS plugin which makes it look like an UPNP server but it’s ten years old and unsupported, so arguably you could use the Wiim home app to access LMS over upnp but I’d put that in the “very bad idea” class
If you want to use the Wiim home app as a control point, you wouldn’t set up LMS in my opinion, you’d use MinimServer or Asset UPNP.
The problem here is that two almost conflicting setups are being used together.

 

[d6jg]

The IP address you are interested in is the ipv4 address that is associated with your laptop not the gateway.

Command prompt - ipconfig

The gateway is the internal address of your router. That’s not what you need.

The laptop IP may change quite frequently which is why it is recommended to give a “reserved Ip” in the dhcp settings in your router.

The Squeezelite client on Pro will appear in Material skin at top left. Control the music from here and forget about WiiM app for this purpose m.

You do not need either of the LMS UPnP plugins

 

[AlanB]

The IP address you are interested in is the ipv4 address that is associated with your laptop not the gateway.

Command prompt - ipconfig

The gateway is the internal address of your router. That’s not what you need.

The laptop IP may change quite frequently which is why it is recommended to give a “reserved Ip” in the dhcp settings in your router.

The Squeezelite client on Pro will appear in Material skin at top left. Control the music from here and forget about WiiM app for this purpose m.

You do not need either of the LMS UPnP plugins

Thanks, I'll try again, however I'm busy up to and over the weekend so it will probably be next week.

I think the IP address I need is marked ethernet ipv4, is this correct as the only other one under ipconfig is mobile ipv4.

Any ideas why the browsers are returning searches related to IP addresses, whereas yesterday (using the mobile ipv4 ip address) it found material skin straightaway?

 

[d6jg]

Because you are not typing the full URL in and the browser thinks you are searching

You must type http://ipaddres:9000/material into the browser.

After you have reserved the Ip address - you will need to access your routers DHCP settings - and re-connected to Material you should bookmark the address.

As you are using an Android you could use the Material apk (app) which you will find at Fdroid. This interface to Material makes full use of your screen. Only install this once the IP is reserved though.