Non USB DAC for Raspberry Pi

[SammyJ]

OOOOK, so I got it to work by using a Windows 7 PC.  Seems like its an issue with OS X I guess?  Oh well

[Zimmer64]

PI filler did it for me on Maverick: http://ivanx.com/raspberrypi/

[SammyJ]

Thanks Zimmer, I'll check that out next time there's an update. 

Volumio uses shairport, which I've heard adds a decent bit of distortion.  I don't have my music in a NAS setup just yet, but will likely have to do that soon.

[SammyJ]

Just an update, Pi Filler worked well with Mountain Lion.  I'll have to check out the source and see what its doing differently than the listed instructions at some point.  Thanks Zimmer

[John EH]

Just an update, Pi Filler worked well with Mountain Lion.  I'll have to check out the source and see what its doing differently than the listed instructions at some point.  Thanks Zimmer

I never had luck with Pi Filler or Pi Copier.  I just use dd commands in Mac.  Granted a little slower but never fails.

if you use

dd if=/path/to/image.img of=/dev/rdiskx bs=1m

it will work like a champ.  In Mac you can type

dd if=
and then drag and drop your file in the terminal and it will complete the path.

[SammyJ]

FYI, finally got my Hifiberry in the mail.  Soldering to the RPI was dead simple.  Doing an a/b test using airplay results in a NIGHT and DAY difference.  Sound is clear, crisp, beautiful.  VERY detailed.  I'm so incredibly impressed by a <$100 setup.

I'll post pictures of the setup soon, right now, the RCA jacks are e-taped to the line-out.  Need to do a bit more soldering and plastic drilling for the final product.

[SammyJ]

OK, here are the pics.  I didn't have to drill, i co-opted one of the existing ports in the case.  Soldered the Red, Green, Black wires to the lineout on the board, then just twisted them onto the solder points/grounds on the RCA plugs.  Just using some cheap gold plated RCA plugs from Radio Shack, but seems good enough.  Everything fits into the case quite nicely. 

Seriously, this thing sounds fantastic.  Great weekend project.

[Natural Sound]

SammyJ are you using Volumio and if so did you have to edit /etc/modules ?
# snd_soc_rpi_pcm5102a
snd_soc_hifiberry_dac

I had to on mine. I received my kit last week but was unable to work on it until today. I have mine connected to my NAS (Also RaspberryPi powered.) I'm streaming some 24 bit, 192 kHz hires through it right now. It sounded great right out of the box but seems to be going through a break-in period. I like what I hear so far. This is going to be feeding my Crack headphone amp after I break it in a bit.

[SammyJ]

NS,
I did have to edit /etc/modules.  After that, it worked like a charm on Volumio Beta 1.1.  In case anyone is having trouble, here's my config:

root@volumio:~# more /etc/modules
snd_soc_bcm2708
snd_soc_bcm2708_i2s
bcm2708_dmaengine
snd_soc_pcm5102a
snd_soc_rpi_pcm5102a
snd_soc_hifiberry_dac
snd_soc_rpi_dac

I think mine is going through a bit of a break-in as well, but really does sound great out-of-box.

[BNAL]

This information sounds great. I have a Pi and have been thinking about getting the HiFiBerry Digital SPIDI/F device and wanted to know how well this combination handles high resolution music? I have heard that there are issues with the Pi and USB output, even with firmware updates on high resolution files, and the HiFiBerry looks like it could be the trick and allow the Pi to be used as a dedicated source for digital music. 

[Natural Sound]

This information sounds great. I have a Pi and have been thinking about getting the HiFiBerry Digital SPIDI/F device and wanted to know how well this combination handles high resolution music? I have heard that there are issues with the Pi and USB output, even with firmware updates on high resolution files, and the HiFiBerry looks like it could be the trick and allow the Pi to be used as a dedicated source for digital music.

Yes, the Raspberry Pi is a great little $35 computer. But to keeps costs down the USB and LAN share resources. That puts some limits when using the USB for high speed data streams. The HeFiBerry takes care of that by bypassing the USB and connecting directly to the I2S bus on the Broadcom chip. It works extremely well. IMHO you cant go wrong for

[SammyJ]

Couldn't agree more with NS.  RPi is a really neat little device with applications well beyond just being a phenomenal music player. 

FYI, if anyone is interested in the build, I used this board and case: http://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Basic-Starter-Wireless-Adapter/dp/B00D2CN730/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1391369229&sr=1-5&keywords=raspberry+pi

I got the basic kit because I had plenty of USB power supplies lying around, but you may opt for the deluxe.  I can say though, that the wifi adapter include seems pretty crappy.  I'll likely replace with the one from Adafruit.  This one is dropping connection constantly if I don't play anything for a while.  Almost like it goes to sleep or something.

The case and board are all top notch quality.  The board itself was made in the UK. 

[SammyJ]

Just FYI, I did some more research and I seem to have fixed the wifi issue.  Seems like there's a default power-saving mode that needs to be disabled.  I cross posted the fix on the Volumio forum, but seems like it might be useful to anyone here using an RPi based system, so here it is:

So I was experiencing dropped Wifi connectivity every so often after inactivity.  At first, I thought it was my wifi adapter but seems like I found the software fix.  From the Adafruit learning system:

Fixing WiFI Dropout Issues
If you find your module 'drops out' from time to time, you can fix it fairly easily with a command line fix (thanks perseus286!)

Create and edit a new file in /etc/modprobe.d/8192cu.conf

Code: [Select]

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/8192cu.confand paste the following in

Code: [Select]

# Disable power saving
options 8192cu rtw_power_mgnt=0 rtw_enusbss=1 rtw_ips_mode=1Then reboot with

Code: [Select]

sudo reboot
orignal link: http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-3-network-setup/test-and-configure

[Natural Sound]

For those of you that use Squeezebox there is a Raspberry Pi client that supports I2S right out of the box.
https://sites.google.com/site/picoreplayer/home

[John EH]

Just FYI, I did some more research and I seem to have fixed the wifi issue.  Seems like there's a default power-saving mode that needs to be disabled.  I cross posted the fix on the Volumio forum, but seems like it might be useful to anyone here using an RPi based system, so here it is:

So I was experiencing dropped Wifi connectivity every so often after inactivity.  At first, I thought it was my wifi adapter but seems like I found the software fix.  From the Adafruit learning system:

Fixing WiFI Dropout Issues
If you find your module 'drops out' from time to time, you can fix it fairly easily with a command line fix (thanks perseus286!)

Create and edit a new file in /etc/modprobe.d/8192cu.conf

Code: [Select]

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/8192cu.confand paste the following in

Code: [Select]

# Disable power saving
options 8192cu rtw_power_mgnt=0 rtw_enusbss=1 rtw_ips_mode=1Then reboot with

Code: [Select]

sudo reboot
orignal link: http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruits-raspberry-pi-lesson-3-network-setup/test-and-configure

I used to have to do that but haven't noticed that issue for a while.  There is a new Wheezy and a new kernel to boot.   Also there is now a version 7 of Squeezeplug, which is the music software I run.  So easy to set up and no hardware issues I'm aware of.  Running it on 2 Pi's at home.