I am using the Russound RIO integration and it is working flawlessly with my two MCA-88 units. However, the MBX PRE is not working at all.
It is not recognized when the integration is loaded. When I try to manually “ADD ENTRY” , I enter the IP Address and Port number and I just get an “Unknown error occurred”.
I know the IP and port numbers are correct (I am using them in another integration that works).
I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling as well as restarting.
Not sure where to go next. Any assistance would be appreciated.
We currently don’t support the MBX-PRE when configured to Source Mode (typical when paired with an MCA-series device). It is only supported in Zone Mode. There is no current timeline for supporting source mode, but we keep track of the status and necessary steps in the linked github issue.
I am confused because what good is control of a russound MCA-C6 or other whole home audio controller, if you can’t change sources, or the content of those sources? What am I missing here?
TL:DR You can change sources of the whole home audio controller. You can kind-of change the content of the source depending on what the source is (albeit very restricted by Russound).
You can absolutely change sources and volume on the whole home audio controller. There is no limitation there. If there is some issue with that then please open it as a bug
The API provided by Russound is extremely limited regarding their streaming system which is what this issue is about. If by content of these sources, you mean selecting a streaming source (like Spotify, Sirius XM, Airplay, etc), then that is a limitation of the RIO API.
The issue here is that MBX-PRE streamers from Russound can be configured in source mode which means it isn’t meant to be used independently, but rather as a source for a Russound controller only. When one of the Russound zones is set to use that source in Home Assistant, all of the normal controls for the streamer are exposed to Home Assistant so it really isn’t that big of a restriction.
If an MBX streamer is set to zone mode (so you can use it independently), it works as expected with the RIO Integration in HA.
Ok sounds like by nature of the russound API i can’t use this system. I am using their entire ecosystem and it works great in the app - but I would have loved to have some automation in certain places. I can’t seem to change sources for each zone and I don’t know if we are talking about the same thing but I can’t turn a zone on and off and change volume. But picking its source doesn’t appear to be an entity in the integration. Not being able to control the sources and pick a station with some app is a big limitation as well. If I put the unit in source mode then what does that integration look like?
What hardware do you have exactly? You wrote MCA-C6 which isn’t an option. Is it an MCA-C5 or MCA-66? And you are using the Russound RIO integration and not the RNET integration correct?
If it is just one of the multi-zone controllers (MCA-C3, MCA-C5, MCA-66, MCA-88, or MCA-88X) then there is no such thing as source mode so no need to worry about that.
The limitations I mentioned are regarding the streamer units not the multizone audio controllers. It just sounds like the integration isn’t working at all here. All of the things you want to achieve are definitely possible.
yes sorry I have 2 - mca-66 with 2 MBX-PRE as the the sources. I keep getting unavailable on this intergration and have to reload it in order to have control anyway so there is a bigger issue - but if I can’t do what I want the disconnection isn’t really that important.
Also the whole issue with it disconnecting randomly and requiring a reload is an issue with the Russound hardware although it’s much less common on the MCA-66 and MCA-88 so I’m a bit surprised. We can look into that more later to resolve that but I want to confirm the functionality in the last post before proceeding just to make sure we are aligned.
You should see your two MBX-PREs as sources in the dropdown at a minimum and additional sources if you have any.
