Hermes-BBB/Botic cape for BeagleBone Black

[janho12345]

I'm thinking of presenting the dam an external dummy Si570 so the internal si570 is deactivated, LVDS (of dam) is input, and I'll just feed it with the MCLK from an translator driven by cronus MCLK out


Do you think the effort is with it? Anyway I'll have to deal with some buffer for a balanced connection between the two dams, so...

 

[miero]

I don't dare to guess if it would be worth of the effort...

Maybe you could use two TPA Teleporters to split Cronus MCLK to 2 LVDS signals Dam-s.

 

[OhmegaMike]

Anyone have any suggestions?

I have now spent 2 days trying to get BBB/hermes/cronus/Buffalo2 working. I suspect my problem may be software. I am using Volumio for BBB latest release. Is there anything that has to be done to the BBB, or software to get this working? The only options for playback device are botic in Volumio.

Fairly confident in my hardware assembly, although some instructions would have been nice... I have a 200mhz fluke scope, haven't seen any clock signals on any of the boards, no DAC lock, EN led on hermes does light up.

P.S. - This is not my first time playing with SBCs and my buffalo 2. Right now the DAC is being fed I2S, via a Kali reclocker, with an Odroid2. I've also used PIs, etc...

I would certainly like to try some more troubleshooting before sending the boards back, or re-ordering... I hope this is just a software setting I need to change!?

Thanks!
Mike

Also, I'm using a usb drive for my music files, and Volumio will show tracks playing, but after a song or two, the track time, and or track selection stops working...

 

[miero]

Mike, clocks on Cronus are powered from the DAC side - there should be clock signal even if Hermes-BBB is disconnected.

Here is a schematics Hermes-BBB -- GitHub - twistedpearaudio/Hermes-BBB

Check that ENABLE signal on Hermes-BBB is active. If yes, then a clock signal from Cronus is missing.

Please report...

 

[OhmegaMike]

Thanks for the reply Miero, I will start with the cronus! I wasn't sure if the clocks would run on the cronus without the other boards attached.

One thing I forgot to mention, but probably not an issue. When I first powered up all of the components, I was running my BII DAC and the cronus off my placid/DAC supply. But, my placid is not the HD, and didn't have the current to run both boards (was outputting about 1.8v). I wouldn't think this would hurt anything.

I then switched to a lab/bench type HP power supply. The DAC is still fine, and is running off the placid now.

I'm going to dig into the cronus now, and see what I can come up with. Any schematic for it available?

 

[OhmegaMike]

The "dirty/BBB side" of hermes is powered by the BBB. So, I connect the BBB and hermes and cronus, and I have the enable LED lit on hermes. 3.37v on pin 2 QA1.

 

[OhmegaMike]

Still not working. Found R4 missing on hermes, so installed a 33ohm. Re-flowed solder on most of the ICs on both boards. Still don't know 100% which jumpers should be used. I see that the 1:1 jumper enables a pin between the hermes and BBB, so I have it installed. And read somewhere that the 1:2 jumper was needed for the BBB clock. I've seen photos of people with the disable jumper installed. No idea what this disables? With no documentation, this project is like a guessing game...

 

[francolargo]

There is quite a bit of information online, though somewhat distributed. Google pulled this right up: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/twisted-pear/272007-cronus-time-14.html#post4318130

I would personally troubleshoot hardware using the simple botic distribution. When confirmed working, then go to the desired player. http://bbb.ieero.com/

 

[OhmegaMike]

Thank you francolargo. I have read every post in Cronus it's about time, and also this thread. Copied several pages of worthwhile snippets from both into a document for my own reference. I did just find 242 pages of "Support for Botic Linux driver", so I have something new to help me fall asleep on my keyboard!

If there's an alternate, simple, image file, I can put onto the SD that would eliminate some confusion as to what is to blame for my failure, I'm game...

Right now, I'm gonna call it a day... Thanks! -Mike

 

[miero]

you can try the "botic4" image: http://bbb.ieero.com/index4.shtml - this one is not based on volumio, just plain mpd with simple ympd web interface

you can print current botic configuration from the command line:
for i in /sys/module/snd_soc_botic/parameters/*; do echo "* $i"; cat $i; done

 

[linuxfan]

read somewhere that the 1:2 jumper was needed for the BBB clock. I've seen photos of people with the disable jumper installed. No idea what this disables?

Correct jumper config depends on what clocks you are running;
for 45/49Mhz clocks, jumper "1:2".
for 22/24Mhz clocks, jumper "1:1" which bypasses the divider, and "disable" to power down the divider.

 

[Russ White]

The "Disable" jumper position disables the master clock divider for cases where you only ever need 1:1 clock. This is not a common use case.

 

[OhmegaMike]

you can try the "botic4" image: http://bbb.ieero.com/index4.shtml - this one is not based on volumio, just plain mpd with simple ympd web interface

you can print current botic configuration from the command line:
for i in /sys/module/snd_soc_botic/parameters/*; do echo "* $i"; cat $i; done

Is there a quick and easy way for a linux challenged person to throw a few songs on the SD card for playback? I could spend hours or days figuring out how to use a network drive or probably even a USB drive! Thanks!

 

[miero]

there is a preloaded MP3 song and some test signals on the image

 

[francolargo]

For merely testing if I2S is making it to the DAC, you don’t even need music. The Linux command ‘speaker-test’, executed from the command line, will send channel-specific output to confirm the ALSA configuration and hardware downstream of the BBB. Here is link to some of the command options:

Ubuntu Manpage:

speaker-test - command-line speaker test tone generator for ALSA

 

[janho12345]

Is it possible to get Volumio 2 on a BeagleBone Black Wireless working?

 

[miero]

It should be possible, but it is not done currently.

I've been doing some experiments with USB Wifi earlier and close distance of Wifi antena had a negative impact on measured audio performance. And thus I do not recommend it...

 

[OhmegaMike]

Taking a few steps backward... Will speaker-test output I2S on the beagleboard header with nothing else connected? No Hermes/Cronus? Also, is there anything more I need to add other than "speaker-test -c 2" to get two channels of pink noise out of the BBB? I'm seeing nothing on the output pins...

 

[miero]

botic/hermes-bbb requires a clock signal ... if you want to test without cronus you should enable internal clock that works with 48k frequencies:

edit the uEnv.txt and update masterclock settings to 0
snd_soc_botic.ext_masterclk=0

and set it back to 3 before using the cronus

 

[OhmegaMike]

Thanks Miero! I saw I2S come out of the BBB today! And, since my Hermes was missing R4 which is on the MCLK line, it would explain why I was getting no I2S from BBB.

This afternoon, I will be putting the pieces back together, and see if I can listen to some pink noise!