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[Foxman50]

Hi all

I'm thinking of putting together a system to feed my DAC but have a few questions if someone could answer before buying the hardware.

Configuration will be mac mini running jriver, sole use as music server, and connected to DAC via usb cable. Music will be stored on a NAS drive (which i already have running) upstairs. JRemote on ipad to select music.

I'm pretty sure that the library in jriver can be set to look at the NAS drive and then pull the files from it to play. However i don't want either the mac mini disk drive or the NAS drives constantly spinning. Basically when I'm not playing music i want the mini to let the NAS spin down and the mini to go into a sleep mode and then be woken by the ipad when i open jremote. this in turn would start up the NAS drive.

Is this possible and easy to set up or will the mini keep the NAS running constantly. Any advice would be appreciated.

Graeme

[MartinG]

Hi Graeme.
Generally this should be no problem. But you do not get the MACmini awaken by an iPad command via JRemote. That means, before you can control JRiver you'll have to wake up the MAC mini manually, e.g. mouse move or keyboard strike. At least this is my experience.

[Foxman50]

Many thanks for the reply Martin

Thats encouraging but i intend to run the mini headless so don't know how i would get this to work unless i leave a mouse attached. looking at JRemote on the app store it states the following.

"Wake-On-LAN I supported if you provide your machines MAC address. (Automatic when adding a server by access key)"

is there a setting within jremote to add the MAC address of the mini. What is the last bit referring too "server key" ?

Graeme

[speeddeacon]

Why not just leave the Mac on all the time?  Electricity use is negligible.  That's what I do, but I did have an SSD installed.

[Foxman50]

Hi Speed

To be fair if i had an SSD i may well be inclined to do so, but its the NAS im more concerned with. I really don't want that running the disks 24/7, nothing to do with electricity.

I would imagine that unless the mini goes to sleep then the NAS wont either

Graeme

[MartinG]

Hi Graeme.
Thanks for this information. I will check this out. But as far as I do remember I connected the JRemote exactly like this and it does NOT wake up. But I will check it again.

[Foxman50]

Martin, that would be great if you could.

Graeme

[glynor]

To be fair if i had an SSD i may well be inclined to do so, but its the NAS im more concerned with. I really don't want that running the disks 24/7, nothing to do with electricity.

That's generally not how it works.

Spinning disks up and down == difficult.
Keeping disks already spinning == easy.

For electricity conservation purposes, and to prevent head crashes on laptops and other portable devices (that might get dropped at any moment), it makes sense to spin them down when idle.  For longevity purposes, the best thing is to keep them spinning always, unless they'll be unused for a LONG time (cold storage).

I would imagine that unless the mini goes to sleep then the NAS wont either

I'm not sure how your NAS works, but this is also very unlikely to be true.  The NAS should be able to park disks regardless of the state of any connected network device.

[MartinG]

That fits to my experience.

[Foxman50]

At present im using a Naim NDX with nstream for ipad app. When the NDX stops playing music the NAS, Synology 212j, shuts down into sleep mode. When i start nstream and select an album to play, the NAS kicks into life and music plays.

Im after a similar operation with the mac running jriver.

Graeme

[speeddeacon]

Hi Speed

To be fair if i had an SSD i may well be inclined to do so, but its the NAS im more concerned with. I really don't want that running the disks 24/7, nothing to do with electricity.

I would imagine that unless the mini goes to sleep then the NAS wont either

Graeme

Gotcha.  I upgraded my NAS to WD Reds which are supposedly designed for NAS devices when one of my Seagates died after just one year.  I leave my NAS on 24/7 as it is not dedicated just for music files.

What you need is wake on LAN enabled for your NAS, if it has the ability.

[Ian M]

Hi Graeme.
Generally this should be no problem. But you do not get the MACmini awaken by an iPad command via JRemote. That means, before you can control JRiver you'll have to wake up the MAC mini manually, e.g. mouse move or keyboard strike. At least this is my experience.

I can always wake up my mac mini from my iPad using VNC Viewer. I often do this before using jremote. I don't have any problems.

[mvilla]

I can always wake up my mac mini from my iPad using VNC Viewer. I often do this before using jremote. I don't have any problems.

Hi,
I'm using VNC Viewer as well. What if Mac Mini is in stand-by (light blinking) ? I have to go to the MAC and press the power button  ...    Are you able to wake it up via VNC ?
Many thanks for your help,
Massimo