IMPORTANT NOTE: Your device will have a different unique identifier than it might have had when running the stock "firmware". This is because we're using the raw unique identifier burned into each CPU during manufacturing. I have been unable to figure out how the stock firmware transformed this ID to generate their unique identifier, so ours doesn't match theirs. Before you begin, you might as well right click on the device icon in the SC app that represents your stock device, and delete it to avoid confusion in the future.
Make certain that SimpleCenter is running on your desktop. Wait about a minute after booting your device. It needs time to announce its presence to the SC server, and see the SC server's announcement. Enter the Configuration menu, and go to "Synchronization" near the bottom of the menu. Select "Synchronization", and select "Set sync server". If all is well on your network, your server (or servers, if you have more than one) should be listed. If it's not listed, wait another minute or so, and try selecting "Synchronization" again. Select your desktop/server from the list. Openfi will "register" with your SimpleCenter and then you should have additional items in the Synchronization menu such as "Sync Now" and "Nightly music sync". These menu items are only shown _if_ networking is up, and it has "seen" your SC server on the network. Use these menu items to configure nightly syncs and when they should occur.
You'll know that Openfi successfully "registered" with your SC server if your Openfi device is now listed under "Devices" in the SC app. You'll know it's your Openfi device if the Manufacturer listed for the device is "Openfi Project".
Alternatively, you can instead eject the disk after booting up Openfi for the first time (when it will write it's unique ID to the disk), connect it to your desktop, and your Openfi device should show up in the SC app as a new "Openfi Project" manufactured device after a few moments.
If you have a large music collection, the first synchronization will go much faster if you eject the disk, connect it to your desktop, and use the app to do a local sync straight to the disk. The SC app should recognize the disk as your Openfi device.
Obviously, you can select "Sync now" in the "Synchronization" menu to force an immediate sync.
Nightly syncs run at the scheduled time on DMS1's, and DMP1's will awaken on the timer for the scheduled syncs.
For DMP1 scheduled sync, it tries very hard to avoid running your battery down. It has a budget of 3 hours per wakeup, and will not awaken more than 48 hours from the last time it saw the ignition on. It will avoid scheduling a wake-up later than that, and if it does somehow get scheduled, it should shut back down again immediately if it's past the "battery deadline". This deadline can be changed by adjusting ScSyncBatteryHours in the app config file. The sync budget of 3 hours (180 minutes) can be changed by adjusting ScSyncBudget in the config file.
During an automatic sync attempt, status is displayed on the LCD even though the DMP1 LCD backlight is disabled. You can read the display if there is sufficient ambient light, or if you shine a flashlight on the display. :-)
If you are having difficulty with your SC server not showing up in the menu, or if you do not have UPnP access from your Openfi device (e.g. you're connecting to your network over a VPN), there is another (more difficult) way to configure your SC sync server. You can attach your disk to your desktop and manually edit the openfi/.openfi_app_config file to change ScServerName to be something like this:
ScServerName=andydeskIt will look up this name in your DNS to try to find the SC sync server. Obviously this name has to be in your DNS. If this turns out to be useful for lots of poeple, I'll make it easier to do one day.