XMOS-based Asynchronous USB to I2S interface

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orangeart

Member
Joined 2010
kjfaudio.co.uk
Hi Lorien, If you want a more detailed report for Thesycon, then let me know and I'll write it up a bit better. It might be worth trying the XMOS driver pack, you never know I guess.

I can't go back to the driver that worked unfortunately. When I first installed windows 8.1 it was as an upgrade to windows 7 which at the time had the 1.67 version of the driver installed and that worked just fine, then I changed to one of the 2.** drivers that were the proper windows 8 drivers, none of these have worked properly, giving a burst of white noise on boot up or when changing audio stream (even within the same app). I tried going back to the 1.67 version but it reports that it doesn't work on my system and won't install.

One other thought is that I've got the driver set up incorrectly? What is the best way to have the windows audio device control panel and the control panel that comes with the driver set?

Thanks for your help so far.

Stefan
 
F

fmak

Member
Joined 2001
orangeart said:
Hi Lorien, If you want a more detailed report for Thesycon, then let me know and I'll write it up a bit better. It might be worth trying the XMOS driver pack, you never know I guess.

I can't go back to the driver that worked unfortunately. When I first installed windows 8.1 it was as an upgrade to windows 7 which at the time had the 1.67 version of the driver installed and that worked just fine, then I changed to one of the 2.** drivers that were the proper windows 8 drivers, none of these have worked properly, giving a burst of white noise on boot up or when changing audio stream (even within the same app). I tried going back to the 1.67 version but it reports that it doesn't work on my system and won't install.

One other thought is that I've got the driver set up incorrectly? What is the best way to have the windows audio device control panel and the control panel that comes with the driver set?

Thanks for your help so far.

Stefan
Click to expand...

I have 8.1 32 and 64 and have no issues with any one of Lorien's drivers.
The only problem I have is that, in order to use non Lucien XMOS devices,
I have to uninstall Lorien's drivers.

A 'uncustomised' 1.62 Thyscon driver works with everything else but not the WaveIO.

I don't know if Lorien is allowed by XMOS not to customise before release, or whether the uncustomised package will work on the WaveIO and other XMOS packages.

May be Lorien will be prepared to let me try out the Thyscon d.19 driver as is.
 
L

Lorien

Member
Joined 2007
luckit.biz
This was related to old times but now XMOS doesn't have to allow me anything since my driver deal is now strictly tied to Thesycon. This company is the single source of drivers' pack used to build WaveIO ones and, by saying "build" I'm referring to 'adjust' all the values that are related to WaveIO product before releasing, especially USB VID and PID inputs. This process is called customization. I cannot release even a single driver that works with WaveIO without passing through all this process. I guess this could be the main reason for which WaveIO drivers are not working (or should not work) with other XMOS-based products...
As for the customization pack itself, I cannot release it regardless of the version I have just because it's a part of the license deal which I just signed... not to mention that I pay for each future releases they can offer and the price are not so easy to ignore for me :(
Kind regards,
L
 
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Ryelands

Member
Joined 2007
jrling said:
. . . I am getting very good results using a 12,000 maH external mobile phone charger battery pack from EasyAcc with my WaveIO
Click to expand...

Following Jonathon's suggestion, I too have just bought one of those EasyAcc battery charger thingies to drive my WaveIO. It is childishly easy to fit and sounds at least as good as and almost certainly better than than the awfully-jolly-expensive mains PSU I've been using hitherto. It also takes up less space and comes in a much sexier shade of black. Recommendation endorsed!
 
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jrling

Member
Joined 2010
Ryelands said:
Following Jonathon's suggestion, I too have just bought one of those EasyAcc battery charger thingies to drive my WaveIO. It is childishly easy to fit and sounds at least as good as and almost certainly better than than the awfully-jolly-expensive mains PSU I've been using hitherto. It also takes up less space and comes in a much sexier shade of black. Recommendation endorsed!
Click to expand...

Pleased to hear that, Dave.

Of course also you don't have to build a case for it!
 
C

Crom

Member
Joined 2012
Somewhat OT but good to know that these battery packs are gaining some traction. I've been using an Anker E3 on mine. It has a 1.5A max supply but this one looks like it goes up to 2.1A. I've had great results with the Anker (although slightly bettered if I use 2 x lifepo but it is a lot more hassle so i gave up). I'm wondering whether it's worth 25 quid to play the EasyAcc against the Anker and whether that extra headroom may have any benefit? I've also debated whether to take an Anker apart to see whether it's possible to replace the cells with lifepos.

The plug and forget nature of these is just great - I leave mine connected to 5v supplies so that they're charging and running the waveio (and my SSDs and my USB PCI card etc) at the same time. Some users have reported that they shutdown because the current draw of, say, the SSDs is so small that the batteries switch off. Not sure whether the ones I have have a different firmware but as long as I have them plugged into 5v they stay on and it doesn't affect the sound.
 
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jrling

Member
Joined 2010
Crom said:
Somewhat OT but good to know that these battery packs are gaining some traction. I've been using an Anker E3 on mine. It has a 1.5A max supply but this one looks like it goes up to 2.1A. I've had great results with the Anker (although slightly bettered if I use 2 x lifepo but it is a lot more hassle so i gave up). I'm wondering whether it's worth 25 quid to play the EasyAcc against the Anker and whether that extra headroom may have any benefit? I've also debated whether to take an Anker apart to see whether it's possible to replace the cells with lifepos.

The plug and forget nature of these is just great - I leave mine connected to 5v supplies so that they're charging and running the waveio (and my SSDs and my USB PCI card etc) at the same time. Some users have reported that they shutdown because the current draw of, say, the SSDs is so small that the batteries switch off. Not sure whether the ones I have have a different firmware but as long as I have them plugged into 5v they stay on and it doesn't affect the sound.
Click to expand...

Good to hear they are gaining traction as you say. They are so convenient and neat and do seem to give good results. Even despite the fact that there must be some form of DC-DC conversion going on inside to get the exact 5V output voltage.

Would be interested if you do dissect one, although have to say that I think I have more important things that I could spend the time on to improve SQ.
The WaveIO only draws 350-500ma we are told, so it rather depends what other stuff you are driving with a single EasyAcc contemporaneously as to 2.1A headroom. It has 4 ports with different rating BTW.
 
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Lorien

Member
Joined 2007
luckit.biz
Hello! From what I know, WaveIO is the first XMOS-based interface that used NZ2520SD oscillators. These parts are kept until today as default oscillators in more than two years of assembly process. I'm sorry that the pictures on WaveIO's site does not reflect that but I do have in mind to change those pics somewhere in the future.
Kind regards,
L
 
S

s666foto

Member
Joined 2011
Hi Lucian,

I currently use the waveio in a test system: Intel celeron NUC > Waveio > DDDAC 1794. The NUC runs on Daphile, a linux based audio player integrated into my Logitech Squeezebox environment. Works flawless and sounds great, except for one thing: With daphile as player the waveio board is unable to show the bitrate of the incoming signal. Only the host and stream led burn, the rest of the leds stay off, no matter what bitrate is being played. Any idea why this happens?

Thanks,

Sander
 
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Lorien

Member
Joined 2007
luckit.biz
@ Sander: I'm not a Linux user still it's not hard for me to see that there are high chances for your issue to be tied only to the software you're using. Sadly for me, time and experience does not allow to dig into the Linux world and test all possible distros & players & hardware combinations out there... which BTW are plenty of them. If this issue troubles you, a solution might come with the daughter board where the sample rates could be read independently.
On another hand I want to take the advice of my friend Doede thus I kindly want to ask four of five of you guys who own DSD capable DACs to run few experiments with my latest firmware developments for WaveIO. Lately I was fully devoted to this firmware development (besides fighting with emptied stocks for various parts needed for WaveIO but this is another story :eek:) and I might have few firmware versions that needs to be tested.
All of you interested please PM me, my only wish is to continue our comms through PMs until I have a stable/final version of the firmware.
Kind regards,
L
 
S

s666foto

Member
Joined 2011
Fully understood Lucian, i don't expect you to know every piece of software around :)) I've also asked the same question to the developer of the software.

About the daughter board: any specs or info what it is and/or does? And info on planning / availability? I've added my name to the GB page..

Thanks!

Sander
 
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Lorien

Member
Joined 2007
luckit.biz
DB: my goal is to make it small and easy to install. It will be plugged into the J6 (isolated I2S pin-header) so can be removed easily if needed! J6 port will provide isolation from the rest of the USB board which is good. It will also make retiming to those I2S signals referenced to an external clock. Unfortunately, actual WaveIO layout does not offer the option for slaving to external clocks so I'm forced to stick with on-board oscillators. Thus, the clocks needed for the DB to work will be taken from the miniBNC connector - I do not use the isolator in this case even if there's a pin available for that which simply provides me what I need. Instead, I decided to use a LVDS bridge to make the isolation between the DB and WaveIO.
Besides reclocking, I guess DB will be able to handle Left-Justified, Right-Justified and other digital audio formats that are possible to support with that hardware.
I dropped the I2S differential output idea since it's directly tied to a HDMI connector - which will end up wrongly placed on the DB PCB regardless of chosen position.
Cheers,
L
 
J

jrling

Member
Joined 2010
New Thesycon Driver

I have successfully updated the driver. But I have Windows Server 2012 R2 which has the same kernel as Windows 8.1.

I do this:
  1. Uninstall the old driver using their uninstall utility
  2. Reboot
  3. Switch on the WaveIO
  4. Run new driver install package.
  5. It will tell you if it has detected the WaveIO.
  6. If it has not, switch WaveIO off and then on again and carry on with the install
  7. Adjust the latency setting using TheSycon Control Panel utility

Job done!

2.23 though seems to be bug fixes irrelevant to our usage, so don't expect any improvement to SQ. Best to do it though to keep up to their latest bug fixes.

Good luck
Jonathan

PS W8.1 audio stack is noticeably better for SQ than Win 7.
 
L

Lorien

Member
Joined 2007
luckit.biz
Nounours18200 said:
SO you have connected the WaveIO BEFORE installing the driver...
Click to expand...
As long as Thescyon installer want to "see" WaveIO at installation process, you have to plug in your card in any free USB ports. But right after you'll do that, Windows will attempt to search for compatible drivers for your WaveIO. In this time Thesycon installer cannot access your card and you have to wait until Windows will give up on what it's doing or... cancel the process. After that, things are going back to 'normal'.
 
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