Time Machine Quick Reference

The Spertilo Live Music Time Machine is a great little device, with a delightful interface. It streams live shows from archive.org and phish.in, especially Grateful Dead for 1966–1995.

I use it frequently but I infrequently need to comb their site/FAQ/etc to find button combinations for some Micro edition features. Here's a quick reference:

Micro model reference only. No Bluetooth. No Experience Mode.

Setup

• Audio: analog out via 1/8" headphone jack. Plug into powered speakers, an amp, or earphones.
• Power: USB cable, lower right corner.
• WiFi (first boot, or after a failed connection):
  • Turn Year to scroll network names; red name with ">" is the candidate. Press Select to choose.
  • Hidden network: choose HIDDEN_WIFI and enter the name manually.
  • Passkey entry: turn Year to move the cursor, Day to jump 10 characters, Select to enter a character, DEL to erase, Stop to finish.
  • Credentials persist until the network changes.

Play a Show

1. Stage a date with the Month, Day, Year knobs. Venue appears if a tape exists; no venue, no show.
2. Press Select. The best tape plays.
3. Play/Pause, Stop, Rewind, FFwd behave as expected.

• Hold Select: cycle through every tape on the staged date; release to play the one displayed. White id = soundboard, red id = audience.
• Rew / FFwd: previous / next track.
• Stop: halt playback, return play head to start of show.
• Staged and selected dates are independent: browse while listening.
• Set break: 10 minutes of silence between sets. FFwd skips it.

Knob Presses

Knob	Press
Month	Dim the screen
Day	Jump to next date with a tape
Year	Today-in-history for staged year; press again to cycle years with tapes

Volume: dim the screen (press Month), then Rewind lowers and FFwd raises volume. Turn any knob to wake the screen.

Screen

• Top: staged date, MM-DD-YY.
• Below: venue/city/state, alternating with tape id (scrolls if long).
• Middle: current and next track, red text.
• Bottom: selected date, MM-DD-YYYY. Bottom right: playstate.
• Screen sleeps after 30 minutes idle. Any knob or button wakes it.

Menu — Hold Power

Hold Power until the menu appears. The site says 3 seconds in one place, 5 in another; hold until you see it.
A short Power press stops playback and dims the screen.

• Collections: add artists. Spell the collection name with the Day and Year knobs; once under 30 matches, pick from the list, choose Finished. Device restarts.
• WiFi: force reconnection to a different network.
• Update Code: wait ~1 minute for the "Press Select Button" prompt, then press Select. No prompt, no update.
• Update Firmware: runs on its own. Update encouraged; pre-update units skip tracks since archive.org went https-only (March 2024).
• Factory Reset: restore shipped software.

Current versions as of April 2024: software 2.1.3, firmware 1.23.0 20240408.

Troubleshooting

• Dead on arrival: reseat both ends of the power cable, plug in, wait 10 seconds, unplug, plug back in.
• Connected but silent: check the audio connection.
• Phish silent: run Update Code.
• Tape choice: default ranks soundboard first, then favored taper, downloads, track count, named tracks, rating. Hold Select to override.