Hi All,
Have ordered the Digi + transformer version. Interested in a couple of suggestions:
Sources for a Regulated Linear Power Supply ?
Suggestions for an inexpensive DAC ?
Plans:
Raspberry Pi > Digi+ (with regulated linear power) > DAC > AMB Alpha 20 Headphone Amp (with Sigma 25 regulated linear power)
Thank you !
Hi Mark,
if you don't own a DAC yet, why aren't you ordering the DAC+ instead of the Digi+?
Best regards,
Daniel
Hi Daniel,
Good question. Thinking an outboard DAC will be better ? Have a couple of DACs but without coaxial in.
- Mark
Some users have compared the DAC+ to much more expensive DACs and liked it a lot. I know of at least 2 people that replaced their 1000$ DAC with a HiFiBerry DAC. However, different people like different sound. Therefore it is impossible to say what you might prefer personally.
Best regards
Daniel
Thank you Daniel,
Does HiFiBerry sell a regulated linear power supply for the Raspberry Pi and Digi+ ?
I believe the HiFiBerry Digi+ draws only a few mA (<50mA). An 1.2A power supply will be enough for both Raspberry Pi and HiFiBerry.
Found this 5V 1.2A http://www.diyinhk.com/shop/audio-kits/70-classic-reference-78xx-power-supply-linear-regulator-33v-5v-12v.html
Thank you,
- Mark
Hans Beekhuygen channel on youtube has lots of helpful info. Hans plans to review some powers supplies soon. Hans didn't think a linear power supply helped much until he connected it directly to the digi+ rather than the pi. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L83EEDbAMJI&list=PLMbsmejHnP8HJ22CPyJgkH2YprMP1Numb. I've ordered the parts to do this & an inexpensive chinese linear power supply on ebay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/131034415051?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT).
Dear pzwief,
Thank you for the information.
I also looked at the referenced video. How do you plan to connect the PSU to the Digi+ ? A right angle pin header ?
All the best
I ordered the following parts from digikey.com:
I've not tried it yet, but I believe these will do the trick. Good luck.
I'm disappointed with the connection given with the connectors referred to above. I found it necessary to tape them together to maintain a decent connection. Have ordered the following as a replacement:
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10571
Solders to Digi+ board. But has screw connectors for wire leading to PSU.
Dear pzwief,
Thank you for the update. Do you notice a difference in the sound quality with the regulated power supply ?
Thanks!
There's a nice improvement in the sound with an inexpensive Chinese linear power supply. I don't have any immediate plans to try an sbooster or other more expensive power supply, but would be interested in hearing others' experiences.
Hi pzwief,
Thank you for the update. Would you mind posting a couple of photos ? Would like to see how you have set up the PSU connection to the DAC.
Thanks !
Here are some pictures:
Here are some pictures:
Hi guys. I am going to purchase the Digi+ to use with my Pi3. Please forgive the noob questions:
1. I plan to power my Pi3 with a linear power supply. The Digi+ gets power from the Pi so is the benefit of powering the Digi+ and the Pi form the P3 of the Digi+ to eliminate any noise coming from the Pi to the Digi+?
2. Since the Pi3 does not have the P5 header, to power both the Digi+ and Pi3, I just need to supply power to the P3 of the Digi+? I read somewhere that the Digi+ also needs 3.3V from the Pi3? If so does that mean I also need to provide 3.3V at P1 of the GPIO header on the Digi+?
3. To really take this to the next level, what if I supply separate 5v to both the Pi3 and Digi+? To do this, I would have to remove pins 1, 2 and 4 from the Pi3 GPIO header? Then I can supply 5V power to the Pi3 from the USB input and 5V and 3.3V power to the Digi+ from P3 and pin 1 of the GPIO header?
Thank you in advance for the help.
tbooe:
Your questions are beyond my knowledge. I'm very interested to hear the answers, however, and would be interested to learn the websites you find helpful in configuring your Pi 3, as I just ordered one. Thanks & good luck!
pzwief, what Pi are you using with your Digi+? I assume looking at your pics above that you supplied 5V to P3 of the Digi+ board and this is now powering both your Pi and Digi+?
Right now I'm using the 2B, but I've got a 3 on order. I'm using an ifi ipower power supply through the p3 of the Digi+ to power both the Pi & Digi+.
Thank you for the reply. So then I must assume that the 5V being passed to the Pi2B is being converted to 3.3V then sent back to the Digi+. Not ideal but a good start. I am hopeful that supplying the Digi+ with 5V and 3.3V separately from the Pi3 will lead to further improvements. I will start with what you did though. Now I just need to purchase the terminal block. Its $0.75 but I will probably end up paying $10 in shipping! By the way, the polarity in your pic red for + and black for -?
Yes, red is positive.
To start, DON'T do this! It's just my test before buying parts...
I "borrowed" the ADP150 (U2) 9uV noise 5V-3.3V regulator circuit from the D+Pro to power the Digi+ WM8804 chip separately from the pi 3.3V (you bend away gpio pins 1,17 to decouple it)
also powering wifi separate. (linear power for the pi,wifi,and D+Pro ADP150)
decoupling the wifi really stabilizes the piZERO power at constant ~100mA, with wifi attached, huge ~100mA to ~220mA swings constantly.
***** not only is there a jump in quality, it's probably perfect
my DAC is a PSAudio DL3 (w/Cullen IV mods and BNC jack)
pic below is the mishmash... I'll be refining it with 0.8uV low noise (3.3V and 5V) linear supplies etc. And will probably be doing a video on it.
also see related video on my channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxEdd6GJCNA
like I said tho... please let me refine it down, this is mid project/experimenting
Thanks!
Thanks Scott! Thats pretty awesome! So if I understand correctly, to completely decouple the Digi+ from the Pi3 power I need to cut pins 1,2,4,17 from GPIO. Then to power the Digi+ I need to supply 5v to P3 on the Digi+ board and 3.3V to pins 1 and 17 on the Digi+?
Thanks for the post Scott! Very interested in this. Where do you mostly commonly post so I can follow your progress?
whoa, I've been editing that post... hope you guys got all of it--
...Also, the 5V used by the digi+ is to power the TOSLink only... I actually removed mine and cut the trace off at the header (on the back side of the board, it's easy to see)
So Scott, does that mean if I do not intend to use Toslink, I only need to supply 3.3V to the Digi+?
Hi tboooe, Yes I'm already doing that, the 5V thats connected in the pic simply powers the pi 5V thru GPIO, just a convenient place to hook it up
Hi pzwief,
Mostly that diyaudio thread, my youtube channel & here a little
Got it Scott. I could also supply 5V to the Pi3 through the usb connector. Or I could leave pins 2 and 4 as is in the Pi3 GPIO, supply 5V to P3 on the Digi+ board so that the Pi3 also get its power, cut pins 1, 17 from the Pi3 GPIO, and supply 3.3V to these same pins on the Digi+ board. What ground pin should I use? I notice there are many pins in the GPIO that is ground.
tboooe, you have it right (i'd bend the pins at first so you can go back)
Don't use the USB... simply using 5V linear power thru the GPIO is an improvement.
Yes, just leave the 5V GPIO pins (2,4) -- my Dac video gives you a glimpse of the piZERO and how I did the headers-- I bend away the 3.3V (1,17) -- will be the same for the Digi.
Use the closest ground pin I suppose--
It'll be very clear and documented soon tho... be careful, you can fry things :D
OK, as a sanity check, I bent away 2,4 and 6 to use as ground-- then hooked the linear supply to (4,6) and it still works fine... good double check that it's just the TOSlink using the 5V. So no 5V at all needed. (Already knew that :D the WM8804 whitepaper shows 3.3V only)
