WM8805 upgrade board (cs8414 pins) - dissapointed

[KlipschKid]

Hi,

Well what can I say ? I live in this part of the world so I'm very used to poor standards that would never be tolerated in Europe. Even my lovely Klipsch speakers had been assembled badly (in China...) and I had to fix them. Fair play to Klipsch though - they seemed genuinely interested in fixing QC problems.

I also have the delightful "limited warranty" rubbish here. I used to joke that you get a one-yard guarantee in Hong Kong, but Nokia don't even give this unless you buy their phone from one of only six registered retailers here. Sick eh ?

So I'm hopeful but equally prepared to be disappointed... and to need to fix it myself.

What would make me return it would be a fake chip.

I checked with the Taobao seller, and the clock is 3.3V but it is 12Mhz, and I really wanted 24Mhz or 27Mhz. Is it possible to switch without re-programming ?

Also do you know anywhere I can get a well designed WM8805 receiver board ?

Cheers,

Tom

[paul_peraic]

Originally Posted by KlipschKid

Also do you know anywhere I can get a well designed WM8805 receiver board ?

Cheers,

Tom

I am also currently still searching for a well designed board

[KlipschKid]

So there's demand there ... come on someone ! ;-) Let us all know if you do find one.

Any idea about changing the clock freq ? I don't understand the datasheet well enough to know if the WM8805 can simply accept any clock at start up, or if it has to be set to accept a particular one ?

Thanks

[gfiandy]

How much are you prepared to pay for a well designed solution? I used to work in audio design and have done a few SPDIF recievers, however I coulnt put anything together that I would be happy with for less than $100 possibly more.

I can't see how you could put this together for $36 in low volume make some profit and use real parts. So whilst there is no excuse for shoddy design I am amazed you can get anything at all.

Regards,
Andy

[KlipschKid]

Hi,

How ? Wages in China is the answer. It's shocking how hard people work and how little they get for it.

If you can do a board with an i2s input, 4 isolated bnc, toslink, adp151 regs or better, low jitter clock like Crystek CCHD-957... then yeah, tell me your Paypal ;-)

Is anyone else interested ? Group buy coming on ? :-)

[mfrimu]

Agreed with paul_periac.

Besides the circuit is the same, just different PCB's.

The WM won't lock, loose lock or never get to 24/96

[mfrimu]

I checked with the Taobao seller, and the clock is 3.3V but it is 12Mhz, and I really wanted 24Mhz or 27Mhz. Is it possible to switch without re-programming ?

The answer is no, as you need to set registers (software mode). In hardware mode clock is default at 12MHz also.

[mfrimu]

How much are you prepared to pay for a well designed solution? I used to work in audio design and have done a few SPDIF recievers, however I coulnt put anything together that I would be happy with for less than $100 possibly more.

I'm in at 100$

[gfiandy]

I couldn't even buy the parts in the uk, never mind wages. However I have noticed parts are easier to buy at high volume prices even in lower volumes in the Chinese markets.

If you are really interested I could do a rough costing to see what it's likely to come out at buying parts from Uk low volume distribution.

Andy

[KlipschKid]

Originally Posted by mfrimu

The answer is no, as you need to set registers (software mode). In hardware mode clock is default at 12MHz also.

Thanks. I guessed not but it is good to know.

I ordered one from Taobao and it should arrive in a few days, so I'll let you know if it is equally bad.

I noticed there is no buffer on the output (74VHC04 for example) so I think keeping the i2s connections as short and direct as possible will be very important.

An clean master clock seems to be critical too so I'm encouraged that this board isn't using an HC49 crystal, but something a little better, and will be easily upgraded.