Support for Botic Linux driver

Russ White · 2015-01-05 11:11 pm

Q181699 said:
@Miero: Please measure voltage on P9 pin 3 or 4 (VDD_3V3EXP) or put a LED on it. This line is still on after BBB shutdown with active BAT unless you disconnect the BAT line.

It would be better to actually measure the current draw on the battery itself.

Russ White · 2015-01-05 11:24 pm

Problem solved. The battery I am using already has an under voltage shutoff.

It cannot be overdrained. So as long as you shutdown on AC failure you should be just fine.

Russ White · 2015-01-05 11:52 pm

These are the type which I am using - this type of battery (with onboard protection) is very easy to source.

New 2 Polymer 3 7V 500 mAh Battery Li Po for MP3 Tablet PC DVD 062535 0026589 | eBay

giulio · 2015-01-06 9:08 pm

Sorry for the late reply, I have been travelling. In fact, I will not be able to devote any time to that before the 17th.

miero said:
It works fine with Buffalo 3 for me, so there must be another catch. Can you post photos? Do you have oscilloscope to check if there is signal on I2S output pins from BBB.

i do not have a scope I am afraid. I can post photos after the 17th.

The hw_params file in the /proc/asound/... should contain "closed" when audio channel is not used. Otherwise there is audio format specified.

No, it contains 'No Setup' even in the absence of any connection. I do think it is a software problem.

Also I assume for I2S playback you are using Botic image for BBB and not Voyage MPD, right?

Yes, Botic is on the eMMC and the sd card with voyage mpd is removed.

giulio

Russ White · 2015-01-07 2:22 pm

For power supply and battery backup - if you are looking to go beyond the simple - you could always use something like this:

BeagleBone Power Cape - AndiceLabs

nautibuoy · 2015-01-09 8:10 am

Hi miero.

Your BBB distribution is clearly finding lots of adopters outside of the original scope of the, now defunct, TP Botic. I think it will soon find it's way into Rune Audio's BBB software and it is being used with non-ESS DACs; I know of a couple of DDAC users for example. This speaks volumes about the openness of the work your doing on our behalf. :worship:

Given the seemingly increasingly use of your distribution with non-ESS DACs, which don't have built-in 'lossless' digital volume control, such a feature would, in my opinion, be the icing on the cake if it could be included in your software. I believe this would require a suitable volume control plug-in. Does such a plugin already exist or could one be developed?

By 'lossless' digital volume I'm envisaging something like the ESS approach;

http://www.esstech.com/PDF/digital-vs-analog-volume-control.pdf

I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.

Thanks

Ray

miero · 2015-01-09 8:19 am

nautibuoy: I've not tried this, but uncommenting or adding following line in the /etc/mpd.conf should enable software volume mixer in MPD.

mixer_type "software"

nautibuoy · 2015-01-09 8:46 am

miero said:
nautibuoy: I've not tried this, but uncommenting or adding following line in the /etc/mpd.conf should enable software volume mixer in MPD.

Thanks miero.

I presume that will be the standard mpd volume control plug-in, which I believe is only 16bit so loses resolution with increasing attenuation?

Ray

miero · 2015-01-09 9:04 am

nautibuoy: Why are you so pesimistic?

)

The MPD seems to implements this properly for each sample format.

You can check it at the end of this file: master/mpd.git -

So the quality depends on the current output format (can be forced in mpd.conf).

nautibuoy · 2015-01-09 9:26 am

miero said:
nautibuoy: Why are you so pesimistic? )

The MPD seems to implements this properly for each sample format.

You can check it at the end of this file: master/mpd.git -

So the quality depends on the current output format (can be forced in mpd.conf).

Thanks, I'll check the link when I get home this evening; it's blocked here at work.

Ray

Russ White · 2015-01-09 12:48 pm

nautibuoy said:
now defunct, TP Botic.

Ray - only the name is defunct

The Hermes-BBB boards will be shipping to us next week. I only changed the name to make sure credit goes where credit belongs. I didn't want to co-opt the Botic name from the driver/distro.

Hermes - BBB is the Cape which will support Botic.

Also there is good reason this thread is here on our forum - this idea was very much a collaborative effort between Miero and I - but he deserves all the credit for the Linux work. He and I have been working through hardware details since the start.

Cheers!
Russ

lintweaker · 2015-01-09 1:42 pm

Russ White said:
The Hermes-BBB boards will be shipping to us next week.

Sounds promising! Are these production boards?
Can't wait to get my hands on one of these

Russ White · 2015-01-09 1:53 pm

lintweaker said:
Sounds promising! Are these production boards?
Can't wait to get my hands on one of these

Yes - assuming they test out fine.

I ordered a large enough batch that if they test out okay then we can start offering them right away.

I had an earlier prototype which while it worked - it was not really good enough yet - it just did not make sense to offer to the public.

nautibuoy · 2015-01-09 8:15 pm

Russ White said:
Ray - only the name is defunct The Hermes-BBB boards will be shipping to us next week. I only changed the name to make sure credit goes where credit belongs. I didn't want to co-opt the Botic name from the driver/distro.

Russ, I was only making the point that miero's distribution has come a long way and found a lot of applications since it's inception as a means of partnering the original Botic cape with a BBB; I understand the original Botic has now been discarded (i.e. defunct) in favour of the redesigned boards that are the Hermes and Chronos.

Russ White said:
Also there is good reason this thread is here on our forum - this idea was very much a collaborative effort between Miero and I - but he deserves all the credit for the Linux work. He and I have been working through hardware details since the start.

The topic is where it is, which is fine, and I appreciate that this kicked off as a result of your own initiative to develop an open embedded audio appliance, without which miero's wonderful opensource distribution might not have happened.

Ray

nautibuoy · 2015-01-09 8:19 pm

miero said:
You can check it at the end of this file: master/mpd.git -

Phew! I'll have to put my thinking head on to work through that! (unless there is a crib sheet, such as a logical design document). Looks like I have some weekend homework.

Ray

giulio · 2015-01-09 9:54 pm

giulio said:
No, it contains 'No Setup' even in the absence of any connection. I do think it is a software problem.

Aha, it was indeed a software/operator

problem. All that was while trying to play music using squeezelite! I assumed I could just install it and be ready to go. It turns out that's not the case.

If I play a local file using play everything works as it should. The Buffalo plays music. Sorry for the confusion.

Now if only somebody could help me making squeezelite work under the botic installation I would be a happy camper..

TIA
Giulio

ChrisMmm · 2015-01-09 10:47 pm

giulio said:
Aha, it was indeed a software/operator problem. All that was while trying to play music using squeezelite! I assumed I could just install it and be ready to go. It turns out that's not the case.

If I play a local file using play everything works as it should. The Buffalo plays music. Sorry for the confusion.

Now if only somebody could help me making squeezelite work under the botic installation I would be a happy camper..

TIA
Giulio

I use Squeezelite with the Botic drivers - no problems. What is it that does not work?

I have a cheat-sheet I use (in case I forget) for the whole install/set-up if you want. BTW there are some specific startup parms for squeezelite using the Botic drivers that need to be used.

Here is my startup string, -u and -r parms only used if upsampling:

squeezelite -o hw:CARD=BOTICAudio -n Botic96 -a 16384:1024:: -u mIX -r 96000 -z

Russ White · 2015-01-10 1:33 am

nautibuoy said:
Russ, I was only making the point that miero's distribution has come a long way and found a lot of applications since it's inception as a means of partnering the original Botic cape...

Thanks Ray - I was only trying to clarify in case someone though I had given up on the idea.

Cheers!
Russ

giulio · 2015-01-10 6:59 am

ChrisMmm said:
I use Squeezelite with the Botic drivers - no problems. What is it that does not work?

squeezelite -o hw:CARD=BOTICAudio -n Botic96 -a 16384:1024:: -u mIX -r 96000 -z

The dac does not lock and the content of /cat/proc/../hw_parameters is

"No setup"

Other than the resampling option and the -a parameters, that are not compulsory my squeezelite command is the same as yours. Are you using squeezelite with the botic install on miero's website or have you compiled the driver into some other distro?

I have the impression I am missing some dependency or some alsa configuration file. But this is not necessary with other distros when using a USB dac.

ChrisMmm · 2015-01-10 8:05 am

giulio said:
The dac does not lock and the content of /cat/proc/../hw_parameters is

"No setup"

Other than the resampling option and the -a parameters, that are not compulsory my squeezelite command is the same as yours. Are you using squeezelite with the botic install on miero's website or have you compiled the driver into some other distro?

I have the impression I am missing some dependency or some alsa configuration file. But this is not necessary with other distros when using a USB dac.

Actually I found after some discussion with Triode and Miero that the -a parm I am using is necessary with Miero's drivers. I was getting some strange alsa messages from squeezelite to do with buffer sizes I think.

I simply load miero's distro onto the SD card and boot up. Then install squeezelite - no extras required.

Support for Botic Linux driver

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