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DAC+ DSP Is Not Correctly Recognized

Anthony Beemish

March 05, 2021 22:19

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Hello,

I'm having a heck of a time getting this DAC+ DSP board working. At one point, all I needed to do was change /boot/config.txt and load on the DSP profile, but now the DSP board does not seem to be functioning correctly as well. I am using HifiBerryOS on a Raspberry Pi 4. I am using the optical input and optical output.

I loaded on the OS as-is, and changed /boot/config.txt to have dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplusdsp at the end. I then rebooted, loaded on a DSP profile via ssh, and I still do not get any output.

When I go to Sound-> DSP in the HifiBerryOS menu, I get no options, but some statement telling me that HifiBerryOS supports a variety of DSP controls as: .... When I go into Sources and select Optical Input, it says the Optical input status can't be determined with the current DSP program.

I've also tried Bluetooth and NAS sources to see if I get any output, which I do not.

Any ideas? Thanks

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44 comments

• 0
  
  westy March 06, 2021 03:03

  I have the same problem, as are others.  In addition to adding dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplusdsp to the config file I tried the recommendations here: https://support.hifiberry.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360014624237-DSP-settings-not-available-in-HifiBerryOS with no help.  

  If I ever get the basic functionality to work I suspect from seeing other threads I will have to figure out a bunch more stuff to get the optical input to work too, as that does not come up as an option in the inputs.  Great product! 

   

   

   

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  westy March 06, 2021 03:03

  I have the same problem, as are others.  In addition to adding dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplusdsp to the config file I tried the recommendations here: https://support.hifiberry.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360014624237-DSP-settings-not-available-in-HifiBerryOS with no help.  

  If I ever get the basic functionality to work I suspect from seeing other threads I will have to figure out a bunch more stuff to get the optical input to work too, as that does not come up as an option in the inputs.  Great product! 

   

   

   

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  HiFiBerry team March 06, 2021 06:33

  Anthony Beemish: Do I understand you correctly that it was working before, but isn't anymore? Did you update the software? 
  
  @westy: Don't cross-post everywhere without additional information. This doesn't help us helping you. Descreive exactly what's your specific problem and what you did.

• 0
  
  Anthony Beemish March 06, 2021 06:36

  That is correct - this was all working fine yesterday. Rebooted and now input/output does not work. I did not update the software.

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  HiFiBerry team March 06, 2021 06:42

  Please login and check the output of

  dsptoolkit get-meta detected_dsp

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  Anthony Beemish March 06, 2021 06:46

  The output of that command is just a blank line.
  
  BTW - thank you for the quick responses!

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  HiFiBerry team March 06, 2021 06:47

  That means the DSP isn't detected. If might be a hardware problem with the Pi, the DSP or the connection. Try unplugging/replugging it. Is there anything else connected to this Pi?

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  Anthony Beemish March 06, 2021 06:54

  I unplugged the DSP from the Pi, and plugged it back in (with power off) and powered it back on. Same result from the command you posted. There is nothing else connected to the Pi - just power over USB type C, and toslink in/out from the DAC+ DSP.

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  HiFiBerry team March 06, 2021 06:56

  One thing you can still try is a fresh installation on a new SD card. Corrupted SD cards can sometimes result in crazy behavior. If this doesn't help, the hardware needs to be checked.

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  Anthony Beemish March 06, 2021 07:16

  I put in a new SD card with a fresh install of HifiberryOS, and modified boot/config.txt to:

  dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplusdsp

  General->System Tools->Diagnostic Information shows DAC+ DSP, but I still get no output. The command you mentioned earlier (dsptoolkit get-meta detected_dsp) still shows a blank line.

  I purchased this from kjdelectronics in the USA. From your prior comment, should I work with them to replace the DAC+ DSP board?

  Edited by Anthony Beemish March 06, 2021 07:17
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  HiFiBerry team March 06, 2021 07:17

  The dtoverlay line is not needed. 
  Looks like some hardware issue. I'll open a ticket for this.

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  Anthony Beemish March 06, 2021 07:19

  Interesting! I always thought that was a required step. Maybe I had a bad board all along, which could explain my prior issues.

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  HiFiBerry team March 06, 2021 07:21

  According to your previous post it was working before. For HiFiBerryOS, there isn't really a difference in music playback between the hifiberry-dac and the hifiberry-dacplusdsp overlay. The only difference in these 2 drivers is a recording channel that's not used in HiFiBerryOS.

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  Anthony Beemish March 06, 2021 07:27

  Ah, I see. Just for my information, should the DAC+ DSP be detected by HifiBerryOS without needing to modify any files? All needed configuration (e.g. adding a NAS/Bluetooth/Wifi/etc. is all done through the web UI?

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  HiFiBerry team March 06, 2021 07:35

  If everything works correctly - yes. However, there can still be bugs that require some manual steps.

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  Anthony Beemish March 06, 2021 07:36

  Understood. Thank you!

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  westy March 06, 2021 17:26

  I am having the same problems with the same results with new images/SD cards ETC.  Sending it back, good riddence. 

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  Anthony Beemish March 08, 2021 01:32

  While getting it ready to get sent back, one more idea popped in my head. I realized when I was troubleshooting it earlier, I took off the jumper near the TOSLINK I/O. I popped it back on, and now it all works! So I guess problem solved on my side.

  I couldn't find any documentation on what the jumper does. Obviously I know I need it but can you comment on what it is supposed to do, and in what situations I would not want it on?

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  westy March 08, 2021 04:17

  Good find.  This also solved my problem. However my board didn't even come with a jumper in that position.  It would seem as though the jumper is required for the board to be seen and configured, but not necessary after initial configuration.  I needed the optical input to work and noticed it was necessary for that.  However I found that if I connected my TV to the other end mayhem ensued.  I would get essentially noise on the output, even when playing from other sources.  I assume it doesn't like a different bit rate or full 7.1 surround output.  Removing the jumper prevents this.  The optical input works fine from my Bluesound Node 2i.  I am using the DAC +DSP for DSP capabilities with a tube amp I built.

  Edited by westy March 08, 2021 04:18
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  Anthony Beemish March 08, 2021 04:35

  Interesting. I haven't tried surround sound through the DAC+ DSP. I'm using it in between my TV digital output and a digital input to a DAC/preamp. I have the jumper on at the moment and the digital in/digital out seems ok right now, as well as Bluetooth and NAS playback.

  Did you build a particular tube amp, or design it from scratch?

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  westy March 08, 2021 06:04

  Something about the sourcing from the TV causes problems that affects other inputs, no idea why.

  I am a mechanical engineer and wanted to understand analog circuits better so I built up a Bob Latino ST-70 kit making sure I understood every connection before soldering it into place.  It definitely sounds different than my not so great AVR receiver.  Soundstage is better, cymbals have become extremely obvious.  Not sure if that is the result of the amp being more transparent or just distortion.  If it is distortion I kind of like it, that could be psychosomatic from spending 20 hours meticulously putting it together. 

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team March 08, 2021 06:58

  westy Anthony Beemish
  Thank you for this feedback. The jumper is the is enables self-boot of the DSP. We'll add this to the documentation.

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  Tony Tromp March 28, 2021 10:15

  I truly understand the frustration to get the board working. In fact i almost send it back after 1 day, but now I am very glad that i didnt.The EQ software is really amazing once you get everything working and my HIFI never has sounded as good as gets. Thank you Hifiberry Team!!! and i do hope you guys will release more DSP add-on cards as its truly one-of-a-kind (and i prefer this DSP software over others like using miniDSP Studio).

  The board and software is great, but documentation shed's littly light on trouble shooting certain issues. It must be made clear to people that the Auto-Mute profiles only work on B&O systems. It would be great if the profiles you choose from the menu would not have this by default as it seems to confuse people why they are not getting audio.

  It took me 6 hours trouble-shooting and flashing before i understood the difference between those DSP profiles. Yes, in essence it is a RTFM question, but i think itwould make sense to not include the auto-mute as a default feature. It confused the hell, when the board was installed it worked out-of-the-box but with NO EQ / DRC settings available (as no DSP profile loaded), then i flashed the board, the EQ was enabled but no sound anymore... on any outputs. i was pretty convinced i broke the board by accident while flashing, untill i learned there were different profiles for Auto-Mute and non-automute.

  Another thing that would be nice, if it has a drop-down for Board Selection on the setup. So the right settings are automatically applied to the /boot/config.txt file. Sounds trivial, but a typo mistake is easily made on settings like: dtparam=i2c_arm=on, dtparam=i2s=on, dtparam=spi=on, dtoverlay=hifiberry-dac. In fact i still dont understand if i should choose hifiberry-dacplusdsp or hifiberry-dac because both seems to work, but the documentation mention to use dtoverlay=hifiberry-dac for a broad different boards (https://www.hifiberry.com/docs/software/configuring-linux-3-18-x/).
  
  Kind regards,
  Tony

   

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  HiFiBerry team March 29, 2021 07:30

  Tony Tromp: Boththe hifiberry-dacplusdsp and hifiberry-dac will work fine. There is only one difference: The hifiberry-dacplusdsp also provides in input channel to the Pi. That's not needed for most users.
  We don't plan to implement sound card selection in the UI as our idea is that this works automatically. I know in some cases it doesn't. But we rather spend work on improving this.

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  Tony Tromp March 29, 2021 11:39

  >>We don't plan to implement sound card selection in the UI as our idea is that this works automatically.

  Ok. So the /boot/config.txt should have been automatically changed to hifiberry-dacplusdsp instead of leaving it default: hifiberry-dac? If not, you dont expect users to use the input on the DAC+DSP board? Automatic detection of board would be best if it updates the configs accordingly.

  Edited by Tony Tromp March 29, 2021 11:41
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  HiFiBerry team March 29, 2021 11:40

  No, it should not. The hifiberry-dac overlay just works fine. There is no need to use the dacplusdsp overlay on HiFiBerryOS.

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  Anthony Beemish March 29, 2021 16:23

  I think this whole thread is a testament to the frustration of having incomplete documentation. I appreciate that these forums allow us to reach out directly to staff members to help troubleshoot issues but it seems like investing the time into a comprehensive guide would spare time for the support staff and save end-users a lot of headaches.

  I work as an electrical/software engineer where we see documentation issues the same way as software bugs, because both problems essentially have the same effect - the product isn't doing what the end-user expects to occur.

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  Lukas October 17, 2021 12:06

  I got my dac+ dsp yesterday. At first it worked right away with a pi4. I turned it off for the night and in the morning today it was not recognized anymore.

  I tried replugging it, running hifiberryos without the dac+ dsp attatched, editing "/boot/config.txt", running "/opt/hifiberry/bin/reconfigure-players" and reinstalling hifiberryos all several times and I tried 3 different SD-Cards.

  Here is the debug info: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZVHQozCyb5Ms8GqiZL3QTP1-U6oI2SCB/view

  Hopefully it is not a hardware issue.

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  HiFiBerry team October 18, 2021 05:43

  What sound card is detected? Did you set the selfboot jumper?

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  Lukas October 18, 2021 06:27

  It detects Dac+ Zero/Light/MiniAmp as in the hifiberry.state file. I tried with and without the jumper set several times.