Quick question @iancanada , or anyone else. I'm back to having my 'No Input' ghost lurking around my system again. Sigh. 
I haven't changed anything. That is still on the new daughter board with the RPi attached on top of it.(physically). Could there be power issue on the RPi side of the StationPi and enough to power my Amanero board, the ConditionerPi and the RPi 4? The reason I ask is, I don't see a visible LED glowing on the ConditionerPi. I'm powering the RPi side with one of your LinearPi PSU set to 5V. I've checked and rechecked both of my stacks and everything has power and looks visibly normal. At the moment, I'm just testing the RPi input (I2S) and not the 4D display, or controller. I'll do more checking and revisit the manuals for something that may have come loose or is a bad connection later tonight. What's the best HAT overlay to use with Ropieee. In the past, and just recently been using the Pi I2S.
I haven't changed anything. That is still on the new daughter board with the RPi attached on top of it.(physically). Could there be power issue on the RPi side of the StationPi and enough to power my Amanero board, the ConditionerPi and the RPi 4? The reason I ask is, I don't see a visible LED glowing on the ConditionerPi. I'm powering the RPi side with one of your LinearPi PSU set to 5V. I've checked and rechecked both of my stacks and everything has power and looks visibly normal. At the moment, I'm just testing the RPi input (I2S) and not the 4D display, or controller. I'll do more checking and revisit the manuals for something that may have come loose or is a bad connection later tonight. What's the best HAT overlay to use with Ropieee. In the past, and just recently been using the Pi I2S.Update: I've checked all input and output voltages on the 3 PSU boards (LinearPis) and they measure correctly. All the input voltages to the StationPi Pro are measuring correctly, as well as the 3.3v (optional LDO) output on my ConditionerPI is accurate. This is the line feeding my FiFoPiQ3 board. On the FiFoPiQ3 the clean power LED (green) is lite, input status LED (I2S) is not lite, and for the FiFo status the empty LED is lite. @iancanada I did go back and re-read some old posts when I was having some issues with the initial V2 build. You mentioned at the time that if the FiFoPiQ3 LEDs are not on when they should be, it usually indicates an RPi issue. So, while not conclusive, it brings me to suspect the RPi, specifically the DAC HAT overlay used.
In all of the process above, I upgraded to the latest build of Ropieee since roon is what I use for digital playback. This was a major release and reconfiguring your end-point was required. I had been using the Raspberry Pi DAC (I2S) overlay and it worked fine, but now it's not. I've tried a couple I had used in the past they were s no go. What is the best HAT overlay to use with the Ian DAC system. It may or may be the issue, but I would like to try one that can be confirmed by others that it works. If I still can't get an I2S signal, at least Ican rule out the overlay. I will also post over on the roon community forum and see what others use with the latest Ropieee version and Ian's boards. I'm at loss here, and can't understand why ome minute it works and another minute it doesn't. Sigh.
Edit: Is there some setting I could have possibly changed unwittingly? I was playing with the remote a few days ago.
In all of the process above, I upgraded to the latest build of Ropieee since roon is what I use for digital playback. This was a major release and reconfiguring your end-point was required. I had been using the Raspberry Pi DAC (I2S) overlay and it worked fine, but now it's not. I've tried a couple I had used in the past they were s no go. What is the best HAT overlay to use with the Ian DAC system. It may or may be the issue, but I would like to try one that can be confirmed by others that it works. If I still can't get an I2S signal, at least Ican rule out the overlay. I will also post over on the roon community forum and see what others use with the latest Ropieee version and Ian's boards. I'm at loss here, and can't understand why ome minute it works and another minute it doesn't. Sigh.
Edit: Is there some setting I could have possibly changed unwittingly? I was playing with the remote a few days ago.
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Back again....
Question: Is it possible to interrupt the playback momentarily if you lightly touch in the area around the MCLK connection? I noticed this yesterday when I had it working normally. But, it would recover and play fine. Ponder that thought a moment....
So, in my frustration of wanting to get this thing playing, I started more troubleshooting. Just not a scientific approach. I started out testing after each change, but that can be a lengthy process. So, I configured some Ropieee options that I knew worked yesterday despite the upgrade to the latest. At this point I was (admittedly) just grasping at straws. So, I dismantle my DAC side of the StationPi. I removed every board and tested with each removal. Still nothing. I then put everything back together again and presto. It started playing! And I had the requisite LED glowing as they should. Hallelujah. I have no idea what fixed it. But here's something noteworthy. See all the green LEDs glowing so nicely in the pics below.
As I continued to let it play I still had it open and the inside exposed, so I gently touched the MCLK area with my finger, and the sound stopped, and restarted. Is that clock area that sensitive to a slight touch? I guess I never tried it before. But here's something else. Now, I would not normally do this with any live gear, low voltage or not. I had not put the top 2.5mm screws on the last board to secure it, so I very carefully started to put in the the 4 screw for the output PCB. When I started to put in the last screw, as I was slightly tightening it down the sound stopped. I quickly backed off the screw and the sound came back. So, I very finely put the last little turn and it stayed playing. BTW, I didn't drop any of the screws onto any open contacts.
So which is it? A very sensitive open/short on the DAC or Output boards, or was I unwittingly interrupting the clock signal by tightening the screw down? Frankly, I'm not going to find out! It's playing fine as I write this and I'm going to leave well-enough alone. For now at least.
Anyway, isn't it fun trouble-shooting these pesky little issues that make you want to start drinking early in the day. But I though I had a duty to let everyone else know, even though this thread has been a conversation with myself.
Question: Is it possible to interrupt the playback momentarily if you lightly touch in the area around the MCLK connection? I noticed this yesterday when I had it working normally. But, it would recover and play fine. Ponder that thought a moment....
So, in my frustration of wanting to get this thing playing, I started more troubleshooting. Just not a scientific approach. I started out testing after each change, but that can be a lengthy process. So, I configured some Ropieee options that I knew worked yesterday despite the upgrade to the latest. At this point I was (admittedly) just grasping at straws. So, I dismantle my DAC side of the StationPi. I removed every board and tested with each removal. Still nothing. I then put everything back together again and presto. It started playing! And I had the requisite LED glowing as they should. Hallelujah. I have no idea what fixed it. But here's something noteworthy. See all the green LEDs glowing so nicely in the pics below.
As I continued to let it play I still had it open and the inside exposed, so I gently touched the MCLK area with my finger, and the sound stopped, and restarted. Is that clock area that sensitive to a slight touch? I guess I never tried it before. But here's something else. Now, I would not normally do this with any live gear, low voltage or not. I had not put the top 2.5mm screws on the last board to secure it, so I very carefully started to put in the the 4 screw for the output PCB. When I started to put in the last screw, as I was slightly tightening it down the sound stopped. I quickly backed off the screw and the sound came back. So, I very finely put the last little turn and it stayed playing. BTW, I didn't drop any of the screws onto any open contacts.
So which is it? A very sensitive open/short on the DAC or Output boards, or was I unwittingly interrupting the clock signal by tightening the screw down? Frankly, I'm not going to find out!
It's playing fine as I write this and I'm going to leave well-enough alone. For now at least.Anyway, isn't it fun trouble-shooting these pesky little issues that make you want to start drinking early in the day. But I though I had a duty to let everyone else know, even though this thread has been a conversation with myself.
Is it possible that the clock socket is loose? If the clock is not connected the playback will stop. If this happens again, try playing a track that uses the alternate frequency. If it works and the other does not maybe you have found your problem. A little bend in the clock pins could snug up the contact.
@wlowes Thanks for offering your ideas. You must be the only one following this thread. After the incident today, I'm almost certain this was the same issue I experienced when I was testing this same build(basically) except for the new StationPi Pro PCB about a year ago. At that time, it was intermittent as well, just not in real time like I discovered today. So it does appear to be some issue with DAC and/or the FiFoPiQ3. I still have to dismantle it one more time to add back in the ReceiverPi board which I had removed earlier - to no affect. I'll check the clocks seating to make sure they're solid. I even had replaced the little u.fl cable between the FiFoPiQ3 and the DAC earlier as well - to no affect. This was when I started drinking! I will also remove the DAC board and give it a good inspection under my big lighted magnifier. I might see something suspect.
I will also remove the DAC board and give it a good inspection under my big lighted magnifier. I might see something suspect.
More hunting: Late last night, I did more trouble-shooting and discovered(believed) I found the real cause. I first dismantle the offending 'stack' checking each board visually. Did find and that looked electrically suspect. I re-assembled the stack, taking care to make sure all the pics and headers lined up and secured each in place with proper stand-offs, and 2.5mm screws on the last PCB (Output board). Turned it on and the dreaded 'No Input' was displayed. I decided to go to bed.
Poking and Prodding: This morning I starting doing a little easy poking on the board with my finger, and even a little sideways pressure here and there. I found when I put some sideways pressure on the 2-pin Phoenix power connector it would start playing. Remove the pressure and wit would stop. I could do this at will and routinely and get the same results. I put a little tug on the cable for that connector and the results were the same. It would start and stop playing accordingly. OK, now I think I've found the culprit! I had just assumed the board was getting the 3.3v power, because the empty light would light.
Solution: I removed the cable from the connector, snipped off .5" from the end, stripped and re-tinned the wires and connected it back up. Started a track and Eureka. Music was playing! I stood there (while it was playing) with my fingers lightly poking and prodding around the connector, applying pressure and tugging on the wires. No cutouts occurred. It's been playing fine as I write this - as it should. I believe l can conclusively say this fix will stay working.
BTW, between the original version of this build (V2) and this new build (V3), I re-used all cable harnesses. The StationPi Pro is the exact same footprint as the original StationPi. So I didn't need to physically move anything around other than configure my PCBs to use with the SPP and daughter PCB. It was basically drop-in replacement. If you only knew how many times I had attached/reattached the cables between both builds you'd understand the stress put on all the power wires. It appears only the FiFoPiQ3 board was affected and got damaged in the process. I'm just glad I found it. I even got a needed upgrade to Ropieee (roon bridge). Actually, it was a complete rewrite. Thanks to Harry over at roon.
Thanks to @wlowes and @hires for offering their ideas, but more importantly support to my quest. Now it's onto laying out the new front panel to incorporate the new, bigger display and remote IR sensor.
And, a big thank you to @iancanada for designing and engineering these awesome boards. They definitely bring to the audio DIY'er a completely different (better) level of music quality. They are basically plug-n-play and simply work. You can mix and match boards to just about any configuration and desired implementation you want achieve.
Poking and Prodding: This morning I starting doing a little easy poking on the board with my finger, and even a little sideways pressure here and there. I found when I put some sideways pressure on the 2-pin Phoenix power connector it would start playing. Remove the pressure and wit would stop. I could do this at will and routinely and get the same results. I put a little tug on the cable for that connector and the results were the same. It would start and stop playing accordingly. OK, now I think I've found the culprit! I had just assumed the board was getting the 3.3v power, because the empty light would light.
Solution: I removed the cable from the connector, snipped off .5" from the end, stripped and re-tinned the wires and connected it back up. Started a track and Eureka. Music was playing! I stood there (while it was playing) with my fingers lightly poking and prodding around the connector, applying pressure and tugging on the wires. No cutouts occurred. It's been playing fine as I write this - as it should. I believe l can conclusively say this fix will stay working.
BTW, between the original version of this build (V2) and this new build (V3), I re-used all cable harnesses. The StationPi Pro is the exact same footprint as the original StationPi. So I didn't need to physically move anything around other than configure my PCBs to use with the SPP and daughter PCB. It was basically drop-in replacement. If you only knew how many times I had attached/reattached the cables between both builds you'd understand the stress put on all the power wires. It appears only the FiFoPiQ3 board was affected and got damaged in the process. I'm just glad I found it. I even got a needed upgrade to Ropieee (roon bridge). Actually, it was a complete rewrite. Thanks to Harry over at roon.
Thanks to @wlowes and @hires for offering their ideas, but more importantly support to my quest. Now it's onto laying out the new front panel to incorporate the new, bigger display and remote IR sensor.
And, a big thank you to @iancanada for designing and engineering these awesome boards. They definitely bring to the audio DIY'er a completely different (better) level of music quality. They are basically plug-n-play and simply work. You can mix and match boards to just about any configuration and desired implementation you want achieve.
I created a couple YouTube videos of my Ultracapacitors Dac build, based on Ian's great parts and innovations and Ivan's IV Transformers. Hard to find visual info out there so I thought to share my Journey. The project is still in progress
So far sounds great. If anyone has any good constructive suggestions it will be appreciated.
Part2
Part1
So far sounds great. If anyone has any good constructive suggestions it will be appreciated.
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I watched your video from July 21 where your prototype became a real looking DAC/Streamer. I've been working with Ian's modules for about 4 yrs now and have nothing but praise. For the great products they are individually, and the level of integration you do with them collectively to make just about any streamer to suit your needs. I haven't adopted the battery route yet, and may not. Got too many DACs and projects as it is. I thought your finished streamer turn our great. You included in your build many separate, other modules that you needed (for the batteries), that I did not have to. I'm presently retrofitting my V2 build to and Ian's new StationPi Pro PCB and the daughter card that will become V3. I had a few issues (as noted in my posts above), but none related to the product's quality, or failure. Just a rouge end of a wiring harness used on the FiFoPi board. Once I found and repaired that, I'm back to enjoying the music. I'm in the process of laying out my front panel. Once I get that done I'll post with some new pictures. These system are great fun to build and learn from, and the level of music has been a real eye-opener for me. The two complete systems I've built with Ian's board's have been exceptional performers, with the music being smooth and dynamic.
I've been working with Ian's modules for about 4 yrs now and have nothing but praise. For the great products they are individually, and the level of integration you do with them collectively to make just about any streamer to suit your needs. I haven't adopted the battery route yet, and may not. Got too many DACs and projects as it is. I thought your finished streamer turn our great. You included in your build many separate, other modules that you needed (for the batteries), that I did not have to. I'm presently retrofitting my V2 build to and Ian's new StationPi Pro PCB and the daughter card that will become V3. I had a few issues (as noted in my posts above), but none related to the product's quality, or failure. Just a rouge end of a wiring harness used on the FiFoPi board. Once I found and repaired that, I'm back to enjoying the music. I'm in the process of laying out my front panel. Once I get that done I'll post with some new pictures. These system are great fun to build and learn from, and the level of music has been a real eye-opener for me. The two complete systems I've built with Ian's board's have been exceptional performers, with the music being smooth and dynamic.Hello.
I have one UcConditioner 5v that I wanted to use yesterday. Mounted some ultracaps on it and left it to charge. After few minutes D3 was lit (over voltage for CAP H). Took the DMM and measured the ultracaps. One of them had 3.3v (CAP H) and the other measured 0v (CAP L).
Is there something specific that I could check/do in order to get it working?
I have one UcConditioner 5v that I wanted to use yesterday. Mounted some ultracaps on it and left it to charge. After few minutes D3 was lit (over voltage for CAP H). Took the DMM and measured the ultracaps. One of them had 3.3v (CAP H) and the other measured 0v (CAP L).
Is there something specific that I could check/do in order to get it working?
Greetings. Looking for a little help to clear up my confusion. I have a music server with Roon Rock (lifetime subscription) and a 6TB music drive controlled by laptop. The server outputs via USB to my DIY TP BIIISE Pro 9038 DAC.
Currently I have an older Sonore Audiobyte USB to I2S card, feeding DAC in snych mode. It shows up as unrecognized I2S device in Roon, so Roon doesn’t offer a Native DSD option. I selected DoP, DSD over PCM. As I understand it RPi will do DoP but not native DSD anyway.
I have enabled Sample Rate Conversion in the DSP. Max sample rate I can select is DSD128. Sounds great, but always looking for more. I was thinking of getting an RPi4 and adding Ian’s FifoPi Q3 to feed my DAC in synch. The other reason for RPi is possibly implementing I2C control of DAC.
I read that some folks use RoPieee and Rpi as bridge to Roon server and RPi USB to DAC, but RPi has to be connected via ethernet. Will RPi4 with RoPieee and Ian’s Fifo Q3 feeding DAC, connected to music server via USB allow higher DSD conversion rates in Roon?
Appreciate any guidance!
Currently I have an older Sonore Audiobyte USB to I2S card, feeding DAC in snych mode. It shows up as unrecognized I2S device in Roon, so Roon doesn’t offer a Native DSD option. I selected DoP, DSD over PCM. As I understand it RPi will do DoP but not native DSD anyway.
I have enabled Sample Rate Conversion in the DSP. Max sample rate I can select is DSD128. Sounds great, but always looking for more. I was thinking of getting an RPi4 and adding Ian’s FifoPi Q3 to feed my DAC in synch. The other reason for RPi is possibly implementing I2C control of DAC.
I read that some folks use RoPieee and Rpi as bridge to Roon server and RPi USB to DAC, but RPi has to be connected via ethernet. Will RPi4 with RoPieee and Ian’s Fifo Q3 feeding DAC, connected to music server via USB allow higher DSD conversion rates in Roon?
Appreciate any guidance!
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@iancanada, I'm still having issues with my latest upgrade of my DAC stack to V3, using some existing boards integrated with the new StationPi Pro. It's just a mystery to me why I can't seem to get the same results having changed nothing. Therein lies my frustration. Even after my last fix, that I thought fixed it permanently, did not. I can turn it all on and it will work, come back a day later - still on my bench power it up and nothing. Question: is the ConditionerPi board fitted with a 3.3v LDO, suitable for powering the FiFoPi Q3 board? Is there enough power provided?
My option of last resort is to strip it down completely (again) and start from scratch. But I feel that if I getting working again, it just may decide to stop on its own for no reason!
My option of last resort is to strip it down completely (again) and start from scratch. But I feel that if I getting working again, it just may decide to stop on its own for no reason!
.... – a working asynchronous I2S FIFO. .... Looks like a big challenge even if one has the FPGA skills.
I2S is new to me. I was just reading about it today. Since your device is receiving and sending I2S would it be limited by the GIGO, garbage-in-garbage-out problem.
Aside that, ArduinoSound has an I2S library for SAMD51 MCUs. Apparently, special coding and DMA is involved.
Hmmm. Looks like I entered this thread at the wrong place and got confused.
I2S is new to me. I was just reading about it today. Since your device is receiving and sending I2S would it be limited by the GIGO, garbage-in-garbage-out problem.
Aside that, ArduinoSound has an I2S library for SAMD51 MCUs. Apparently, special coding and DMA is involved.
Hmmm. Looks like I entered this thread at the wrong place and got confused.
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My latest upgrade to my DAC stack and trying to discover a 'ghost' of an issue led me to basically fall back on my basic troubleshooting skills. So, based on findings after my testing, led to an upgrade of the PSU I was using for the FiFoPi PCB. I had been using the optional LDO you could add to the ConditionerPi to get a 3.3V source. Although this arrangement seemed to work at first when I was using my original version of this build (last year), some of the intermittent symptoms around both the connection from the CondPi and FiFoPi led me to suspect it.@iancanada, I'm still having issues with my latest upgrade of my DAC stack to V3, using some existing boards integrated with the new StationPi Pro. It's just a mystery to me why I can't seem to get the same results having changed nothing. Therein lies my frustration. Even after my last fix, that I thought fixed it permanently, did not. I can turn it all on and it will work, come back a day later - still on my bench power it up and nothing. Question: is the ConditionerPi board fitted with a 3.3v LDO, suitable for powering the FiFoPi Q3 board? Is there enough power provided?
My option of last resort is to strip it down completely (again) and start from scratch. But I feel that if I getting working again, it just may decide to stop on its own for no reason!
After removing the ConditionPi entirely from the stack chain and substituting another 3.3V LinearPi module, everything continued to work as expected. After adding the CondPi back in the RPI stack, and w/o using the LDO output to power the FiFoPi, I still had music. So, I can only conclude that there was some issue with the LDO, possibly not being able to provide enough power to the FiFoPi. With the addition of another LinearPi it now seems to be working reliably. I've re-assembled the DAC using the StationPi Pro and I still have music playing. I'm still going to leave it opened up on the bench and continue to test it daily just to make sure the ghost doesn't reappear. With the addition of the LinearPi PSU, I'll have to re-arrange my layout a bit to get everything to fit. Hopefully, that will be the easy part.
Anyway, all good news for now.
DoP for all intents and purposes is essentially DSD. Not familiar with your DAC, but the hardware has to support .dsf files first. Secondly, I believe native DSD Files are supported over USB from a computer using ASIO driver. My Topping E30 DAC supports DSD files when playback from my computer is using the ASIO driver only. The configuration in roon allows you to select Native in that case. The WASAPI driver doesn't provide native playback in roon.
Indeed. It is just basically a package or wrapper around the DSD bits that allows the DSD data to be transported, bit perfect, over a non-DSD-aware chain. The bits going to the actual DAC are exactly the same as with "native" DSD.
If you're using the Ian Jin FiFoPi Q3; when playing back a DSD track, a blue LED will be lite on the FiFoPi board too - whether or not the DSD Playback option in roon is set to Native, or DoP. It will sound great either way.
I might add... to test an exceptional DSD produced CD, you can do no better than Michael Jackson's Thriller. I guarantee you will hear more of the music. Other tracks worthy of this DSD quality status is Steely Dan's Gaucho. Most of their stuff is excellently produced as well - although not DSD. BTW, there are plenty of DSD naysayers too, so don't get distracted on what you want to try. If you want to experiment with Hi-Res files, try this site. Free stuff, but a lot is classical.
The site has some really well recorded tracks. Their samples are free to download and sound great. They have a variety of formats. I use 16bit 44.1. Not hires but hi quality.