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Unable to get sound from DAC+ Pro (RPi 4)

Jorge Cabrera-Moreno

August 20, 2020 09:59

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I have a DAC+ mounted in a Raspi4

I have follewed all the steps for the software configuration. and succesfully detect the board.

1. remove (I commented it) 'dtparam=audio=on' from /boot/config.txt

2. add this line to the end of the same file 'dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplus'

3. configure alsa file /etc/asound.conf

pcm.!default {

 type hw card 0

}

ctl.!default {

type hw card 0

}

4. finally detect the board 'aplay -l'

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus], device 0: HiFiBerry DAC+ Pro HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0 [HiFiBerry DAC+ Pro HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

However, when I'm trying to play a file there is no sound comming out

'aplay -vv /home/pi/Desktop/1000hz.wav '

Playing WAVE '/home/pi/Desktop/1000hz.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
Plug PCM: Hardware PCM card 0 'snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus' device 0 subdevice 0
Its setup is:
stream : PLAYBACK
access : RW_INTERLEAVED
format : S16_LE
subformat : STD
channels : 2
rate : 44100
exact rate : 44100 (352800/8)
msbits : 16
buffer_size : 22052
period_size : 5513
period_time : 125011
tstamp_mode : NONE
tstamp_type : MONOTONIC
period_step : 1
avail_min : 5513
period_event : 0
start_threshold : 22052
stop_threshold : 22052
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size : 0
boundary : 1445199872
appl_ptr : 0
hw_ptr : 0
########################################+ | 79%aplay: pcm_write:2053: write error: Input/output error

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15 comments

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team August 20, 2020 10:35

  The "write error: Input/output error" indicates some issue with the data transfer. Is the board plugged correctly onto the Pi? Is there anything else connected to the Pi? What distribution are you using? What's the kernel version?

• 0
  
  Jorge Cabrera-Moreno August 20, 2020 10:56

  What do you mean by puggled correctly? You suggesting that might be a physical pin connection problem? The board is just unpacked and the RPi is also out of the box

  Only a monitor

  PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
  NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux"
  VERSION_ID="10"
  VERSION="10 (buster)"
  VERSION_CODENAME=buster
  ID=raspbian
  ID_LIKE=debian
  HOME_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/"
  SUPPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianForums"
  BUG_REPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianBugs" 

  Linux version 5.4.59-v7l+ (dom@buildbot) (gcc version 4.9.3 (crosstool-NG crosstool-ng-1.22.0-88-g8460611)) #1336 SMP Wed Aug 19 16:09:04 BST 2020

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team August 20, 2020 11:43

  Yes, I mean a physical connection problem. To test that there is no software problem, I recommend to install HiFiBerryOS (https://www.hifiberry.com/os), login via SSH and run the commands 

  aplay -l
  play -n synth sine 100
  
  This will create a test tone. If this also isn't working, it might be a problem of the Pi or the DAC. Unfortunately it's not possible to say what side might be defective without testing the DAC here in the lab.

• 0
  
  Jorge Cabrera-Moreno August 21, 2020 08:08

  I finally made the system work. However using a different DAC+ Pro (one that I purchased a while ago)

  My question here is, how come the three new DAC+Pro that I just bought are not working at all? Actually, the problem I described above corresponds to just one of them the other two are not even recognized by the same RPi.

  Might it be a manufaturing defect? I also try to run the hifiberry OS with no success (not booting)

  What do you recommend me to do with the boards?

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team August 21, 2020 16:54

  If you have three boards that do not work, it is extremely unlikely that there is a hardware problem. All boards are tested when they have been assembled. While it's possible that a single units failes after this, it hard to see how three boards should fail. Did you buy these directly from us?

• 0
  
  Jorge Cabrera-Moreno August 21, 2020 17:05

  Yes, I bought them directly from you.

  In addition, I would like to say that I also tried with 4 different RPis and the output was similar. 2 of them not being recognized and one showing the problem already described 

• 0
  
  tstexture August 21, 2020 21:07

  I had the same problem using vanilla drop of buster (raspbian). I also follwed the wiki setup doc here: https://www.hifiberry.com/docs/software/configuring-linux-3-18-x/

  I think the thing that fixed it for me was to run this command: > sudo modprobe -r snd_bcm2835 
  
  As I understand it, this effectively is a forced version of the step that removes this line from /boot/config.txt: dtparam=audio=on
  
  

  A big caveat being that my hifiberry DAC+ Pro XLR continues completely fail to appear to the operating system intermittently for reasons I am yet to understand. 

  Good luck!

   

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team August 22, 2020 06:28

  Jorge Cabrera-Moreno I'll open a ticket for this.

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team August 22, 2020 06:32

  Jorge Cabrera-Moreno As it's almost impossible that 3 boards are defective, let's try to dig a bit deeper. On the Pi where the DAC+ isn't recognized, what kernel version are you using? What's the output of 
  
  uname -a

   

• 0
  
  Jorge Cabrera-Moreno August 24, 2020 09:00

  Linux raspberrypi 5.4.51-v7l+ #1333 SMP Mon Aug 10 16:51:40 BST 2020 armv7l GNU/Linux

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team August 24, 2020 18:27

  How does your config.txt look like?

• 0
  
  Jorge Cabrera-Moreno August 25, 2020 09:03

  # For more options and information see
  # http://rpf.io/configtxt
  # Some settings may impact device functionality. See link above for details

  # uncomment if you get no picture on HDMI for a default "safe" mode
  #hdmi_safe=1

  # uncomment this if your display has a black border of unused pixels visible
  # and your display can output without overscan
  #disable_overscan=1

  # uncomment the following to adjust overscan. Use positive numbers if console
  # goes off screen, and negative if there is too much border
  #overscan_left=16
  #overscan_right=16
  #overscan_top=16
  #overscan_bottom=16

  # uncomment to force a console size. By default it will be display's size minus
  # overscan.
  #framebuffer_width=1280
  #framebuffer_height=720

  # uncomment if hdmi display is not detected and composite is being output
  #hdmi_force_hotplug=1

  # uncomment to force a specific HDMI mode (this will force VGA)
  #hdmi_group=1
  #hdmi_mode=1

  # uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work in
  # DMT (computer monitor) modes
  #hdmi_drive=2

  # uncomment to increase signal to HDMI, if you have interference, blanking, or
  # no display
  #config_hdmi_boost=4

  # uncomment for composite PAL
  #sdtv_mode=2

  #uncomment to overclock the arm. 700 MHz is the default.
  #arm_freq=800

  # Uncomment some or all of these to enable the optional hardware interfaces
  #dtparam=i2c_arm=on
  #dtparam=i2s=on
  #dtparam=spi=on

  # Uncomment this to enable infrared communication.
  #dtoverlay=gpio-ir,gpio_pin=17
  #dtoverlay=gpio-ir-tx,gpio_pin=18

  # Additional overlays and parameters are documented /boot/overlays/README

  # Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835)
  #dtparam=audio=on

  [pi4]
  # Enable DRM VC4 V3D driver on top of the dispmanx display stack
  dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d
  max_framebuffers=2

  [all]
  #dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d

  dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplus

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team August 25, 2020 09:12

  Ok, I see the potential problem. As you upgraded to Linux 5.4, you need to disable EEPROM:
  
  https://www.hifiberry.com/blog/configuration-changes-in-linux-5-4/

• 0
  
  Jorge Cabrera-Moreno August 25, 2020 09:32

  Maybe there was a misunderstanding, but the problem here is not the RPi but rather the boards. 

  The RPi 4 that I have just described above was able to detect my old DAC+Pro but none of the new ones, after adding that line, to the config.txt the RPi still is not to detect none of the new boards but the old one

  *FYI, I added (soldered) to all the boards (old and new) pin headers

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team August 25, 2020 09:37

  I didn't say that the problem was the Pi.
  
  My best guess is that something was damaged while soldering the headers. I think, the only thing I can offer here is to offer to test the boards here. I'll follow up in the ticket.