Buffalo III upgraded with ES9028Pro

[Dimdim]

Since I happened to have a burned out Buffalo III board, I experimented with mounting an ES9028Pro on it.



Since the 9028 has the same pinout as the 9018, all that needs to change on the B3 board is:

1) Put a jumper on the reset pins.
2) Put in a higher current supply for the 1.2V PS. I found that with a 100MHz clock and 352.8K material current consumption is around 200mA.



I also made a new set of Trident replacement power supplies:



It turns out the I'll have to do a new design for the 1.2V power supply, since it's running pretty hot right now..

The experiment was a success. I'm controlling it with a piece of experimental code running on an Arduino and the sound is a substantial improvement over the "stock" B3.



Next step is doing a new version of my TFT HiFiDuino code that is compatible with the 9028/9038 (their digital core is exactly the same, my code has been tested on both of them and works fine).

I've posted a couple of more detailed posts on the subject on my blog, if you'd like to read "the long version" of the experiment:

Yes, I put an ES9028Pro on my Buffalo III | Dimdim's Blog
ES9028Pro power wows | Dimdim's Blog

PS. If you happen to have a Buffalo II/III/IIISE that has an old AVCC shunt regulator on it, change it for a new Trident SR or other hi-end LDO reg design ASAP. You will get a substantial SQ upgrade for very little money.

[Dave murrey]

great work Dimdim.

will you be writing code for es9028 for your display.
I have got a DIYINHK es9038pro dac kit would love to have a display and be able to control my dac but cant get my head around writing arduno code.
I have got a saismart 3.2" display,mega 2560 & TFT shield kit but have only managed to get a couple of demos sketches working on it.
will the code for es9028 be the same as for es9038.
I had the DIYINHK AK4495 dack kit & ES9018K2M kit but was unable to get the arduino codes to load from hifiduino.
Thanks for any advice or help you can give.

[deanoUK]

Looking good Dimdim.
I did a similar conversion on a dead Buffalo III but had problems with the
thermal pad on the ESS chip touching the +Ve vias under the chip.
Did you make a provision for this ?

[Dimdim]

Originally Posted by Dave murrey

great work Dimdim.

will you be writing code for es9028 for your display.
I have got a DIYINHK es9038pro dac kit would love to have a display and be able to control my dac but cant get my head around writing arduno code.
I have got a saismart 3.2" display,mega 2560 & TFT shield kit but have only managed to get a couple of demos sketches working on it.
will the code for es9028 be the same as for es9038.
I had the DIYINHK AK4495 dack kit & ES9018K2M kit but was unable to get the arduino codes to load from hifiduino.
Thanks for any advice or help you can give.

Yes, I've started work on 9028/9038 support for my arduino tft project. Essentially what I'm doing is a major rewrite of the code. When I'm done with it it will bear little resemblance to the current TFT HiFiDuino code.

Yes, the code for the 9028 is 100% the same as for the 9038. I've tested both chips.

The requirements will be the ones that are applicable to the current TFT HiFiDuino code.

Keep in mind that if you have the DIYINHK 9038 board and are running it without software control, you are listening to a small part of the board's performance (since it is running in multichannel mode). You'll get a very nice bump in SQ when you switch to software control, plus filter selection, etc.

[Dimdim]

Originally Posted by deanoUK

Looking good Dimdim.
I did a similar conversion on a dead Buffalo III but had problems with the
thermal pad on the ESS chip touching the +Ve vias under the chip.
Did you make a provision for this ?

The 9028 does not have a thermal pad, so no prob.

If I were to try putting on a 9038, I'd put some kapton tape on the bottom of the chip and a big heatsink on top.

[Eldam]

Pretty good skill DimDim ! What did you use to remove the first chip so cleanly ?

[Dimdim]

I just used a hot air rework station with a proper nozzle:

[Tranquility Bass]

Originally Posted by Dimdim

The 9028 does not have a thermal pad, so no prob.

If I were to try putting on a 9038, I'd put some kapton tape on the bottom of the chip and a big heatsink on top.

The ES9028PRO's I've been using have a thermal pad. Are these newer chips ?

cheers

[Dimdim]

That's interesting. The chips I got do not. Looking at their datasheet, it appears that they should. I'm not sure what's happened here. I'll get in touch with my supplier.

[Tranquility Bass]

Originally Posted by Dimdim

That's interesting. The chips I got do not. Looking at their datasheet, it appears that they should. I'm not sure what's happened here. I'll get in touch with my supplier.

Where did you purchase them from ?

cheers