Hi!
I just want share my experience with the DIGI+ in the hope that others benefit from it. My attempts to get the DIGI+ working with RaspBMC always ended in a disaster, i.e. after upgrading the kernel or enabling the external sound card, the system would not boot any longer nor react to anything such that a new installation was then needed.
However, the OpenELEC 4.1.6 worked out of the box, i.e. no updates needed at all. I simply needed to do the software configuration as described on the HP (only the location of the config files are different than the standard ones). Looking a bit further around one quickly finds instructions on how to move /storage to a USB drive which expedites execution by quite a bit.
At this point I am really impressed by this system! Many thanks for making this possible - I never thought that such an old ancient piece of hardware like the Pi is capable to deliver such a performance, i.e. high quality audio and HD video.
Best,
Sebastian
Date
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32 comments
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hifi Hi,
I had opposite experience - no luck to make Digi+ work with OpenELEC but I was
able to make it work with Raspbmc and Volumio. Could you share the steps which
you made in order to make it work? That would save a lot of time and nerves to
many of us :)
Thanks. -
Sebastian Weber Let me try to recover what I did:
Make sure your grab the beta OpenELEC 4.1.6. After installation I followed the instructions given here in this forum:
http://www.hifiberry.com/forums/topic/hifiberry-digi-openelec-4-0-x/
The easiest way to do these changes is to ssh into the Pi (or use your TV with an attached keyboard).
However, the entry for the dvdplayer switch has a slight mistake there, the correct one is found on the hifiberry homepage under guides. In addition to the steps outlined above I also blacklisted the lirc driver which is also described in the threat referenced above.
I also setup a ~/.config/asound.conf as given in the hifiberry configuration description which did not seem to be necessary (it worked without), but it won't hurt either.
After these changes, simply reboot and then select in the System->Audio menu the HifiBerry board. AirPlay and UPnP worked out of the box after enabling them. My remote for my beamer also worked instantly.
Once this works you can accelerate your OpenELEC installation by moving it to a USB drive. I followed these steps here:
http://casa-laguna.net/all-the-news/show/openelec-on-raspberry-pi-running-from-usb
but do not use the copy instructions from that page, these are simply wrong. Instead of using cp to move your data, use tar instead, i.e. with the command
tar -cf - -C /storage/ . | tar -xvpf - -C /var/media/sda-usb-JetFlash_Transce/
It is a really sweet system I have to say.
I hope this helps. -
pauloaspo Can you give us a clean image of openlec with Digi+ working?
Noobies like me would appreciate very much.
Thx
Would be nice from hifiberry to have images from raspbmc and openlec with Digi+ working. Not everyone seem able to configure this setup, so less people buy this boards. -
hifi I agree with pauloaspo it would be very helpful.
When you make it working it looks like this is simple process
and you also gain experience in Linux. But... it can take long
time (read this, read that, change, reboot, reboot.. pray) and
do I really need that experience? ;) So if there is no any license
issues it would be helpful at this stage until systems have all
necessary changes to distribute images with those changes.
Thanks.
-
HiFiBerry team Thank you for the feedback. Unfortunately we don't have the resources at the moment to also manage images for different distributions. We support the developers of the software as much as possible to make support as straightforward as possible.
However in general XBMC based distributions are not really focussing on audio, therefore adding configuration options to enable external Raspberry Pi sound cards does not seem to be their first priority.
When we have more time we might look into this.
Best regards
Daniel -
pauloaspo I hope so, because it seems you have unique products that many would like to add to raspberry.
You should understand that if images of distro are not things you can't do in a half and available for customers, imagine the difficulty of inexperienced consumer.
I think as company would benefit from it.
At this moment I can't recommend these hifi cards to my inexperienced friends. I'm still waiting to receive my Digi+, and I'm very afraid that can not get it work, most of consumers are not like me who likes challenges with the aggravating of costing money.
After all, only are two commonly distros used, raspbmc and openlec, would suffice update the stable versions of which one that dint comes often, openlec 4.0.7 is from July if not mistaken.
My opinion from business point of view, is that would be more profitable to invest now in supporting existing cards, than bet on developing more.
My post is only constructive. :) -
hifi pauloaspo, I could share the working image for Digi+ and Raspbmc if
you could teach me how to make it from my SD :) -
hifi Bingo, now OpenELEC works for me with Digi+ as well. The most
confusing thing was Ethernet cable. If I disconnect it
my IR remote stops working with OpenELEC and Digi+ stops
working with Raspbmc. I didn't try it with Wi-Fi yet.
So I could share three images preconfigured for Digi+:
OpenELEC, Raspbmc and Volumio. -
kuba.dk Hi,
Anybody managed to actually watch something on OpenElec using Toslink or SPDIF?
I have tried default configuration (below) with LIRC blacklisting. Also used Openelec 4.1.6 followed by latest Milhouse testbuild.
snd_soc_bcm2708
bcm2708_dmaengine
snd_soc_hifiberry_digi
So far:
--> without any configuration changes, I get Toslink light on, but no ALSA card in settings available.
--> with Hifibrerry configuration file, I can set up a card in sound setting, however Toslink light is permanently off :(
Also, do you use 'decode sound on external device' ?
Any successes so far on your DIGI cards working with movies ?
Thx in advance
K -
pauloaspo Thx, I do my images with Win32Diskimager
http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/
It makes an image from my SD, but with real size, I think is this the way....but I don't know to do the little size images that usually I see on openlec\raspbmc forums. -
hifi kuba.dk, it plays video without problem with audio through Digi+
with dvdplayer in advancedsettings.xml. I didn't try with default
omxplayer.
pauloaspo, first just try to follow instructions on this forum. If
it won't work let's talk about making image from my SD card.
I just followed instructions, nothing special. But everything
works fine for me only if I keep Ethernet cable connected to RPi.
Regards. -
pauloaspo Thx buddy, when it comes i will see if can put this baby rolling. -
HiFiBerry team Hi,
could somebody post a link to a configured image of OpenElec for the Digi+? This might also help other users.
Best regards
Daniel -
hifi As I said I can do that for three systems: OpenELEC, Raspbmc and Volumio.
Just let me know how to do that and where to place those images. They will
also have IR remote configured for GPIO pin #22 (it's done in different ways
on different systems). But LIRC config file will be for my particular remote
control. People will need to replace it by their own file or I can disable
LIRC at all.
Thanks. -
hifi Daniel,
If you could give me testing WAV file I could also include it
to the images. I don't want to distribute copyrighted song
which I use right now ;)
Thanks. -
hifi As pauloaspo mentioned already if I use these instructions for Windows:
http://computers.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-clone-your-raspberry-pi-sd-cards-with-windows--mac-59294
I have 8 GB (size of my SD card) image. That's too much to distribute.
Does anybody know how to make the small image?
Thanks. -
hifi After compression (ZIP) from 8 GB it becomes 500 MB.
So the question now is where to place these files? Is
there any file sharing system which allows to place
files of this size for free?
Thanks. -
-
pauloaspo I Have my Digi+ Working perfectly! (i'm with openelec USB 4.2)
I lost some time because many important things are scattered and one of the hifiberry guides AdvancedSettings.xml are wrong, which leads to not work.
Here are the correct steps, I copied and edit some hifiberry guide and from user @hifi who appreciate what his posted. :)
___________________________________________________________________________
1 -
Install the hifiberry and start your raspberry. The green light should turn on (if not there’s something wrong).
SSH into your Raspberry.
- Use the command cd .config/modules-load.d
- Use the command nano hifiberry.conf (it opens the editor).
- Add the Code below on editor:
snd_soc_bcm2708_i2s
bcm2708_dmaengine
snd_soc_wm8804
snd_soc_hifiberry_digi
- Close the Editor and save the hifiberry.conf.
____________________________________________________________________________________
2 -
- Make on text editor a advancedsettings.xml file named advancedsettings.xml make sure you renamed it with .xml extension, and dont it leave with .txt extension.
If you already have an advancedsettings.xml, just open it and add the code below:
The tree estruture and spacing between letters and lines, are very important to make sure nothing goes wrong.
- Copy\send advancedsettings.xml file to /storage/.xbmc/userdata/
_________________________________________________________________
3 -
- Make a new file, like you do to advancedsettings.xml...but this time with .conf extension, named disable-lirc.conf
in text editor, just put this simple line:
blacklist lirc_rpi
Save, close, and make sure it as .conf extension
- Copy\send disable-lirc.conf file to /storage/.config/modprobe.d/
__________________________________________________________________________
Now you can reboot Pi, and setting Digi+ on xbmc audio settings. -
pauloaspo <advancedsettings>
<video>
<defaultplayer>dvdplayer</defaultplayer>
<defaultdvdplayer>dvdplayer</defaultdvdplayer>
</video>
</advancedsettings> -
hifi Congratulations! So, do you think there is still the need for the disk image?
The only thing which I did in addition to your list - configured IR remote on
GPIO pin #22. -
HiFiBerry team @pauloaspo: Thank you for this very good guide. We will update our guide accordingly.
Best regards
Daniel -
hifi BTW, here is pretty good free program which allows to generate
WAV files with different frequencies and sample rates. That is
useful to check out what your hardware can actually reproduce
and/or your ears can hear ;)
http://www.tropicalcoder.com/AudioTestFileGen.htm
Regards. -
pauloaspo Thanks.
Maybe not necessary, if we can have a fairly simple tutorial of steps to do. My initial difficulty was that very good information was scattered, if i had a tutorial all right would been much simpler.
You could add point 4 - to guide how to do that "configured IR remote on
GPIO pin #22."
we would be grateful. :) -
hifi You disabled IR remote control in step #3. That is necessary because
if you don't do that RPi by default will try to use GPIO pin #18 for
IR remote control. The problem is that Digi+ also needs that pin for
one of the PCM signals. Therefore there is the conflict and as a result
the whole system hangs if you don't disable IR module (lirc_rpi).
If you still want to use IR Remote Control with your OpenELEC you need
to make the following steps.
4. In order to use IR remote control on RPi you need to do the following:
- install IR sensor
- provide file lircd.conf which consists of codes of your remote control
- enable lirc_rpi on GPIO pin #22 instead of default pin #18
Here is a good tutorial which describes all these steps. Just remember
that instead of pin #18 described in that tutorial you should use GPIO
pin #22
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV_QmDKx0kQ
There are several things which I did differently from that tutorial:
- I used IR sensor HX1838 and I didn't connect any resistors or capacitors
to it. All pins of the sensor were directly connected to Digi+. You can see
that on the following image:
http://www.hifiberry.com/forums/topic/raspberry-pi-b-digi-player/
In the left bottom corner you can see how I connected IR sensor to Digi+
as it's more problematic to connect it to RPi. The top connector connects
+3.3V and GND to IR sensor and another connector below connects GPIO pin #22
to the sensor. The sensor itself mounted on the front panel is on the image
above.
- To enable lirc_rpi on GPIO pin #22 I used the following line in autostart.sh:
modprobe lirc_rpi gpio_in_pin=22
Other than that I just followed the steps in that tutorial.
Please let me know if you will face any issue.
Regards. -
HiFiBerry team Thank you for this guide, we have created a guide from this:
http://www.hifiberry.com/guides/openelec-configuration/
Best regards
Daniel -
kuba.dk And what about audio settings, in particular 'decode sound on external device’ (after selecting DIGI as an output)? Put it on or off?
Rgds
K -
Elliott Balsley How about a guide for the HiFi Berry (non plus version)? I figured it out, but it would be a good idea to include that info on the website. I needed the following modules loaded:
snd_soc_bcm2708_i2s
bcm2708_dmaengine
snd_soc_hifiberry_dac
snd_soc_pcm5102a
I did not disable lirc, nor did I change the default player. It's working well so far. Why do you change the default player in advancedsettings.xml? -
HiFiBerry team The "old" HiFiBerry DAC does not interfere with LIRC as the GPIOs have changed with model B+. The advancedsettings.xml is only needed if you want to use the DAC/Digi to output the sound from movies.
Best regards
Daniel -
kuba.dk Finally got through it.
Please don't you dare using NOOBS installation for Openelec! No matter how many updates you gonna perform, it still shows no Toslink light.
First I've checked test image of hifiberry - worked fine. Than I've installed an Openelec 4.2 image, but not as an update, but as a clear SDcard image.
Now works perfectly, however guys, please advice me about two minor issues:
- I only have 2channels decoding, now matter if I play DTS, AC3 or whatsoever.
- Ambilight Boblight support. OMX worked fine with these LEDs, but DVDplayer refuses tu light up, regardless the fact, that menu is illuminated (simply turns off when playing a movie).
Rgds
K
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