The Grace Digital Mondo

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Rob Gray, who shares the following tips:

Reciva Gateway not responding: More Info, possible workarounds.

Reading the comments in the SWLing Post blog, it sounds like many people are receiving the dreaded “Reciva Gateway not responding” message and at a loss how to proceed from there. I’m assuming that for every person that writes a comment, there are many experiencing the message and not writing. Hopefully, the following information will save some internet radios from becoming e-waste and ending up in a landfill.

As background, I’m only familiar with the CCrane WiFi1 radio, this one.:

The CC Wifi

There is a way on these radios to at least recover use of the stations stored in the presets (you did enter on the presets, didn’t you?). The material is repeated in the comments of this webpage. I suspect that many people won’t wade through the 100+ comments, therefore a separate blog posting is offered.

On to the important stuff…

Here’s what works for me as of October, 2021

During startup, the radio displays:

Message: Finding Gateway

Message: Network Error Reciva Gateway not responding

For the message “Network Error Reciva Gateway not responding”, press the BACK button (which then shows Select network). Then press the BACK button AGAIN. The display shows Preset x Stopped. At that point, select a preset from the remote or radio, and it should lock in and play your station preset (assuming the info entered to the preset is valid)!

I’ve been doing this for weeks and it seems to consistently work!

Some other possible options

Depending upon the internet radio (and I have personal experience with only two, both from CCrane), there may be some other possible solutions.

Sharpfin

I’ve looked into the Sharpfin project and it looks very interesting. With the demise of Reciva, there’s activity again with getting the radios functioning with this software. Do an internet search for the latest information and/or these links are a starting point of what’s involved:

https://github.com/jisotalo/reciva-radio-patching/blob/main/README.md

http://www.megapico.co.uk/sharpfin/mediaserver.html

Serviio

I’ve had success with my CCrane WiFi2 radio, which is TuneIn-based, using Serviio and the UPnP utility built into the wifi radio. I was NOT able to get Serviio to work with my CCrane WiFi1 (Reciva) radio for streaming live audio, but could access audio files stored on the main computer hard-drive (with tinkering). There may be other similar options usable with UPnP, but I haven’t investigated much beyond Serviio.

Rotel

It’s possible that Rotel is shut down, but the motivated can explore that option. There’s discussion of the topic on this webpage in the comments section, do a find for “Rotel.”

Summary

That’s all that I have on the topic for now. However, DON’T discard your radios yet. There are some talented and motivated people trying to figure out ways to keep these internet radios running. Keep checking back on the SWLing Post blog comments as people continue to post new information. Tinker around with them, you might get them running again! If you do decide to discard your radio, I’d urge you to find a responsible method of disposal, donate in general, donate to a gifted and motivated hacker, etc. Good luck to all that have been affected by this unfortunate and unnecessary decision to shut Reciva down.

Spread the radio love

Many thanks to a number of SWLing Post readers who’ve informed me that their Reciva-based WiFi radios may be on their last legs.

I’ve gotten a number of messages from WiFi radio owners who note that when they try to tune to a WiFi radio station, their radio now displays the following message:

“Reciva Gateway not responding”

Reciva originally announced that their services would close permanently on January 31, 2021. That date was then pushed out to April 30, 2021, after pressure from WiFi radio manufactures like C.Crane and Grace Audio.

April 30th came and went, though, and there was no change. Many here have been commenting since that date feeling pretty happy their radios were still working.

It appears that at some point on September 13th or 14th, 2021, the service finally shut down.

Many WiFi radio owners performed a hack on their radios which essentially circumventing the Reciva aggregator before the announced closure on April 30, 2021. Later, we learned that radios with Reciva chips might require a periodic token refresh to keep the radio functioning properly. Contacts within the industry confirmed the use of a token system, however no one verified that it would effectively brick-up a radio post-Reciva.

SWLing Post contributor, Mark, wrote this morning noting that he had not completed the Reciva server workaround and had received the “Reciva Gateway not responding” message. He added:

After playing around with my CCWiFi2 I’m noticing odd behavior now that the Reciva Gateway is down.

The volume control is much slower to respond to volume setting changes as compared to normal. Additionally, and more importantly, it seems the presets might re-assign themselves to different buttons; I have lost two of them already.

I think it wise to operate the radio slowly and carefully. It might be best to avoid making quick preset selections and wait for the preset to load completely until another preset is selected.

Generally, the radio seems to be operating slower than normal; that’s the feeling I am having with mine.

Thanks for the feedback, Mark.

Reciva radio owners: please share your experience here in the comments section.

We’re particularly interested if those who performed the Reciva server workaround are still able to use their radios moving forward.

Spread the radio love