Hi All,
I can find no information about this here or out there on the Internet, so I'm asking if anyone might have some experience here.
I have an Into-Maker DAC (marked "Skylark" on the board) hat based on an ES9038Q2M chip,on a Pi4 running the newest version of Moode. The Pi is powered by a switcher, and the DAC is powered by a linear supply. The jumper enabling the power from the Pi to flow to the DAC is out, separating them, as it is supposed to be. Moode is working fine.
It is playing music and there are things I like about the sound, but it's making a dirty ticking sound at approximately six clicks per second. The noise is constant, no matter what the volume level on Moode is. At low music levels, the ticking is plenty apparent. When I power down the Pi, it stops. Some noise seems to follow the activity of the pi, with short bursts, etc.
Does this issue sound familiar to anyone? Could it be some kind of ground problem, even though there's no humming? The whole thing is simply plugged together with commercial cables and is not contained in a case. I've used other DACs with this and similar setups with no issues of this kind. I actually have two of these DACs, and they both have this issue, even though the other one is pretty well contained in a metal case. It would be great to get this fixed or else determine that this is a flaw in the devices. I did find they are no longer listed on eBay, FWIW. Any help. as always, would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers.
I can find no information about this here or out there on the Internet, so I'm asking if anyone might have some experience here.
I have an Into-Maker DAC (marked "Skylark" on the board) hat based on an ES9038Q2M chip,on a Pi4 running the newest version of Moode. The Pi is powered by a switcher, and the DAC is powered by a linear supply. The jumper enabling the power from the Pi to flow to the DAC is out, separating them, as it is supposed to be. Moode is working fine.
It is playing music and there are things I like about the sound, but it's making a dirty ticking sound at approximately six clicks per second. The noise is constant, no matter what the volume level on Moode is. At low music levels, the ticking is plenty apparent. When I power down the Pi, it stops. Some noise seems to follow the activity of the pi, with short bursts, etc.
Does this issue sound familiar to anyone? Could it be some kind of ground problem, even though there's no humming? The whole thing is simply plugged together with commercial cables and is not contained in a case. I've used other DACs with this and similar setups with no issues of this kind. I actually have two of these DACs, and they both have this issue, even though the other one is pretty well contained in a metal case. It would be great to get this fixed or else determine that this is a flaw in the devices. I did find they are no longer listed on eBay, FWIW. Any help. as always, would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers.
Yes, ticking happens whenever the system is on, whether music is playing or not.
mpaudio, it is not clear what the proper buffer settings should be. There are no pull-down settings options for the Katana device. Also, nothing here in their user guide that I could find:
https://github.com/inno-maker/dac-pro-hat
I'm not overclocking as far as I know.
There is also some not-quite-usable information on their quick start guide on GitHub:
"7.Pops and Crackles Soluations
Some customers said that there are some pops and crackles when play music over our dac module, but no problem over with HDMI of Raspberry Pi. Please try below solutions.
1.Power supply
Change a better 5V power supply. The inferior power supply will limits you to pursue the better audio quality. The battery pack linear power supply is a better choice.
2.Hotspot
Some music system open the Raspberry Pi build-in hotspot default. But the 3.5 mm jacks will be an antenna and received the interference signal from the WIFI module. So use wired network instead of the Raspberry Pi build-in WIFI can help you cut noise pollution completely. Esp the build-in WIFI be used as wireless hotspot."
mpaudio, it is not clear what the proper buffer settings should be. There are no pull-down settings options for the Katana device. Also, nothing here in their user guide that I could find:
https://github.com/inno-maker/dac-pro-hat
I'm not overclocking as far as I know.
There is also some not-quite-usable information on their quick start guide on GitHub:
"7.Pops and Crackles Soluations
Some customers said that there are some pops and crackles when play music over our dac module, but no problem over with HDMI of Raspberry Pi. Please try below solutions.
1.Power supply
Change a better 5V power supply. The inferior power supply will limits you to pursue the better audio quality. The battery pack linear power supply is a better choice.
2.Hotspot
Some music system open the Raspberry Pi build-in hotspot default. But the 3.5 mm jacks will be an antenna and received the interference signal from the WIFI module. So use wired network instead of the Raspberry Pi build-in WIFI can help you cut noise pollution completely. Esp the build-in WIFI be used as wireless hotspot."
IIUC - if the cracking occurs while no music is being played, then IMO it cannot be caused by buffers. Also some I2S mismatch seems rather unlikely as it should have no impact when no music is being transferred.
Okay. I've been fiddling around with these some more. At least one of my ticking pi players doesn't tick at all when plugged into another system.
The ticking and activity-related hash only is present when plugged into my Mini Amp Camp Amp. At the moment, I'm building a partial enclosure for it, but like a lot of people building these amps, was not planning on a full enclosure.
If any has and special insights about this new information, I'm happy to hear them. I'll pose the question and a picture on the ACAMini thread in the Pass forum and see what they have to say. Appreciate the help so far!
The ticking and activity-related hash only is present when plugged into my Mini Amp Camp Amp. At the moment, I'm building a partial enclosure for it, but like a lot of people building these amps, was not planning on a full enclosure.
If any has and special insights about this new information, I'm happy to hear them. I'll pose the question and a picture on the ACAMini thread in the Pass forum and see what they have to say. Appreciate the help so far!
What do you exactly mean by "activity-related hash"? If noise related to RPi activity, that would strongly hint at a ground loop. How is your mini amp powered?
By activity-related hash I mean short bursts of static that seem to coincide with the Pi's activity--accessing the drive, etc.
Pi and DAC board are powered by a 25w linear power supply meant for this purpose, one of those on eBay with the LED voltage readout. This model of DAC does not allow separate powering of Pi and DAC. When I hooked up a Jensen isolation transformer, it unexpectedly made a lot of hum. I have no idea what that means in this situation.
I recently completed the Nelson Pass FR EQ kit on the DIY Audio Store. Problem persists.
Pi and DAC board are powered by a 25w linear power supply meant for this purpose, one of those on eBay with the LED voltage readout. This model of DAC does not allow separate powering of Pi and DAC. When I hooked up a Jensen isolation transformer, it unexpectedly made a lot of hum. I have no idea what that means in this situation.
I recently completed the Nelson Pass FR EQ kit on the DIY Audio Store. Problem persists.