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DAC+ADC no input but output works and I see capture device at 100 in alsamixer.

Stephen Lester

April 02, 2021 23:59

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I just got a new HiFiberry DAC+ADC that I'm using with a Pi 4 8GB and fresh raspberry pi 32 bit os with jackd, guitarix, and audacity installed.

I have followed the guide to set up the HAT editing my boot/config and I now have only 1 sound device the snd_rpi_hifiberry_dcaplusadc

This is the only output and capture device shown when arecord -l and play -l

alsamixer shows the input as CAPTURE after following the guide. previously it said something else. ok great this input should work now let's fire up Audacity.

Ok, right device: ALSA and card and hit record and NOTHING. This mic works because I can use it on the up with my 50ms USB sound card just fine.

What could be wrong? The input device shows up now and is at 100 but audacity can't capture any sound.
I saw in HiFiBerry OS that they had to enable the analog input first. Do I also have to do that in Raspbian?

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38 comments

• 0
  
  Stephen Lester April 03, 2021 00:05

  CORRECTION!  I wasn't paying attention to alsamixer device thinking default was the only one that ALSA sees. Wrong. after changed to the snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplusadc card I see the same labels and the capture section does NOT show capture input level but "Analog playback" and it's at 100. The input seems to not be enabled. Is this the right item to see in the Capture section when input is enabled?
  The Linux guide I used: https://www.hifiberry.com/docs/software/configuring-linux-3-18-x/
  
  pi@raspberrypi:~ $ aplay -l
  **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
  card 0: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplusadc], device 0: HiFiBerry DAC+ADC HiFi multicodec-0 [HiFiBerry DAC+ADC HiFi multicodec-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

  
  pi@raspberrypi:~ $ arecord -l
  **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
  card 0: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplusadc], device 0: HiFiBerry DAC+ADC HiFi multicodec-0 [HiFiBerry DAC+ADC HiFi multicodec-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  
  

  pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /boot/config.txt |grep -Ev "^#|^$" (remove lines starting with # and blank lines)
  
  [pi4]
  dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d
  max_framebuffers=2
  [all]
  dtoverlay=hifiberry-dacplusadc
  force_eeprom_read=0
  dtdebug=1

  
  dmesg

  Output shows some lines that may be relevant:
  pcm512x 1-004d: No SCLK, using BCLK: -2
  HiFiBerry DAC+ADC: ASoC: unmatched rate symmetry: 8000 - 44100

   

  The pcm512 error are only on boot and I haven't seen one for 15 minutes since boot and I've played successfully but failed all attempts to record. I restarted Audacity and the pcm512x errors came back. spit out about 100 of the same message and stopped.The DAC+ADC is the only think added to the Pi and I checked the connections and pins which are all factory installed.
  
  

  Edited by Stephen Lester April 03, 2021 00:50
• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team April 03, 2021 05:36

  The card is configured correctly. Your problem seems to come from the fact that you try playback and recording at different sample rates which is not possible. 
  This might come from pulseaudio that Raspbian is using now as this runs at a fixed sample rate. You might try stopping (or removing) Pulseaudio.

• 0
  
  Stephen Lester April 03, 2021 17:23

  I had Pulseaudio installed. I removed the packages and rebooted and still no input for audacity. I am also trying to get JackD to work with this HAT, same issue input not working but output is good and I can see the pretty red led light up when Jackd starts the device. I have input working great with this cheap USB sound card/mic for both Jackd and Audacity. But not with the dacplusadc input. The sample rates are set at the Driver level in Jackd which is ALSA. So I don't see/know where else I could change the sample rates nor do I see where they are independent. Thanks for your help.

• 0
  
  Stephen Lester April 04, 2021 18:15

  I installed HiFiBerry OS today and it detected the DAC+ADC as dacplus. I put the card in my other computer to edit the confit.txt to dtoverlay=dacplusadc and reinserted it into the pi

  this shows the analog input option as disabled in Sources now. when I click turn on analouge input it goes to a full screen with the message Turning analogue input on... and just stays there. I feel like something isn't right with this HAT.

  I SSHed in and dmesg shows this
  [ 17.145913] i2c /dev entries driver
  [ 17.174616] audit: type=1325 audit(1617559793.374:11): table=filter family=2 entries=12
  [ 17.183732] at24 11-0050: 4096 byte 24c32 EEPROM, writable, 1 bytes/write
  [ 17.184288] i2c i2c-11: new_device: Instantiated device 24c32 at 0x50
  [ 37.465458] pcm512x 1-004d: No SCLK, using BCLK: -2
  [ 37.490389] pcm512x 1-004d: No SCLK, using BCLK: -2
  # aplay -l
  **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
  card 0: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplusadc], device 0: HiFiBerry DAC+ADC HiFi multicodec-0 [HiFiBerry DAC+ADC HiFi multicodec-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  # arecord -l
  **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
  card 0: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplusadc], device 0: HiFiBerry DAC+ADC HiFi multicodec-0 [HiFiBerry DAC+ADC HiFi multicodec-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

  Edited by Stephen Lester April 04, 2021 18:24
• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team April 04, 2021 19:09

  Configuration looks exactly right. I don't see what should be wrong with the hardware. It's normal that HiFiBerryOS doesn't fully detect the DAC+ ADC as it simply can't distinguish a DAC+ from a DAC+ ADC.
  
  BTW: There are no ALSA mixer settings on the input as the DAC+ ADC does not support any software configuration of the input. You need to use the DAC+ ADC Pro for this. Configuration of the input gain on the DAC+ ADC is done via the jumpers:
  https://www.hifiberry.com/docs/data-sheets/datasheet-dac-adc/

• 0
  
  Stephen Lester April 05, 2021 23:13

  I have tried setting the gain to 32db and still the same result. I have also tried putting the dacplusadc on an old pi 3 b+ and installed fresh raspbian like in my first post. I am having the same issue here. No input. I have stoped pulse audio and the only card is the hifiberry one. but I can't get any input to work. alsaloop doesn't have any change in what it picked up by the input.

  Can you flash the latest raspberry pi os 32 bit to a Pi and grab a dacplusadc and see if the input is working when you follow the Linux instructions I linked above? I wonder if something has changed and I don't know enough about Linux audio to see that something else is needed to enable analog input.
  Instructions I'm following are 5.4 and up at this page: https://www.hifiberry.com/docs/software/configuring-linux-3-18-x/

  Also this doesn't explain why when I tried an image of HiFiBerry os that it froze on the turn-on analog input.
  
  I have a new dacplusadc on the way that will be here Wednesday to test if this is just a bad board.

• 0
  
  Stephen Lester April 07, 2021 23:07

  I have received a brand new DAC+ADC today and I am having the same exact issue as the other board. Can you please test that the instructions in the link to configuring 5.4 Linux is accurate?
  I find it hard to believe that I can't get input to work on 2 different DAC+ADC or 3 different Raspberry Pis 2 different pi 4 8gb and 1 pi 3 B+ or 4 differnt OS flavors (Raspbian, HiFiBerry OS, ELK OS, or Patchbox) The last 2 support your DAC+ADC boards but I can't get input to work.
  I will retest the HiFiBerry OS again and see if I can enable Analogue input. When I tried last time it froze on the screen and you never answered my question about why would it freeze enabling the analog input on a stock image that I described in detail above.
  I do want to point out that I have 2 different USB sound cards that I can configure the input on just fine, but it has 40ms lag and I want as close to ULL as possible.

• 0
  
  Stephen Lester April 07, 2021 23:08

  I'm pretty sure most other people would have moved onto another solution at this time so PLEASE HELP ME OUT!

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team April 08, 2021 04:43

  Just boot HiFiBerryOS and use these command to test recording:
  https://www.hifiberry.com/simpl-recordings-using-arecord-aplay/

   

• 0
  
  Stephen Lester April 08, 2021 20:17

  Steps I did

  1. If you’re testing this with HiFiBerryOS, make sure that “Analogue input” is disabled.

  2. Use CD quality (44.1kHz/16bit)

  arecord -f cd -d 10 1; sleep 1; aplay 1

   

  3. tried 96kHz/32bit

  arecord -f S32_LE -r 96000 -c 2 -d 10 1; sleep 1; aplay 1

  
  I ran the commands but I got no input!

  I tried enabling input after and it hung on turning on the analog input. I even unplugged the mic when recording to try and get some noise thinking maybe the input is only listening to Left or Right and pulling the phone connector will cause static on both L and R. But I got silence.

  Edited by Stephen Lester April 08, 2021 20:20
• 0
  
  Stephen Lester April 08, 2021 21:51

  Have you tried replicating what you're recommending? Have you tested this hat with the latest 32-bit Raspbian? I wonder if there have been changes since you wrote the "how to install on linux 5.4+" because the instructions are not working for me no matter how many different HATs or Pis I try.

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team April 09, 2021 05:08

  We're using HiFiBerryOS here all the time and according to your post you also did. Yes, we tested this here just fine with HBOS.
  I also know that there are lots of Raspbian users around and nobody has these problems.

  My best guess is a defective Pi or a defective SD card. I can also offer to test the cards here, but it's rather unlikely that you would have 2 defective cards. I'm still assuming, you're using a standard HBOS without modifications and no other hardware connected to the Pi.

  Edited by HiFiBerry team April 09, 2021 05:09
• 0
  
  Ed Okerson July 08, 2021 01:03

  I seem to be having the same problem with HiFiBerry DAC+ ADC Pro. I have tried two cards on a Pi3 and two different Pi4's. All are running Raspbian 32 bit. I have the Pi3 up now, it is running kernel 5.10.17-v7+. Both aplay and arecord list the snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplusadcpro as the only device on card 0. Cannot get anything to record with arecord or Audacity, but the record LED on the HiFiBerry comes on. My audio input comes from an audio-technica AT-LP120 turntable that has an integrated preamp. The same turntable works fine with other line input devices. It seems like everything here is configured properly and should work.

  So what are the differences between HiFiBerryOS and Raspbian?

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team July 08, 2021 06:09

  The main difference is that Raspberry Pi OS is using PulseAudio today which creates some "virtual" sound cards. You might run into problems with this. Always make sure, you're using the hardware device for playback and recording (should be hw:0 if you disabled onboard sound).

• 0
  
  Ed Okerson July 08, 2021 11:31

  OK, I uninstalled PulseAudio. It still won't record. What else can I try?

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team July 08, 2021 15:44

  What exactly do you do to record audio?

• 0
  
  Ed Okerson July 08, 2021 16:00

  amixer sset "ADC Mic Bias" "Mic Bias off"
  amixer sset "ADC Left Input" "VINL1[SE]"
  amixer sset "ADC Right Input" "VINR1[SE]"
  amixer sset ADC 40db

  arecord -d 60 -c 2 recording.wav

  mplayer recording.wav

  The record LED lights up while arecord is running. There is no sound when running mplayer but the playback LED lights up. If I use a downloaded audio file then mplayer plays it fine. This seems to indicate that recording.wav has no audio in it. I also tried using Audacity with the same result. I have ALSA snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplusadcpro: HiFiBerry DAC+ADC PRO HiFi multicodec-0 (hw:0,0) selected as the input source.

• 0
  
  Ed Okerson July 08, 2021 16:03

  The turntable is plugged into the 3.5mm jack on the HiFiBerry. If I unplug it from the HiFiBerry and plug directly into amplified speakers I can hear the audio from the turntable, so I know the cabling is fine.

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team July 08, 2021 16:06

  Just a comment on your turntable: The 40db settings doesn't seem right, if you're using an pre-amplifier. If you're not using one, the audio will be distorted. 
  
  What's the output of your arecorcd command and what's the output of

  aplay -l
  arecord -l

   

• 0
  
  Ed Okerson July 08, 2021 16:30

  I have tried various db levels, there is no audio from any of them, distorted or otherwise.

  pi@raspberrypi:~/Music $ arecord -d 60 -c 2 recording.wav
  Recording WAVE 'recording.wav' : Unsigned 8 bit, Rate 8000 Hz, Stereo
  pi@raspberrypi:~/Music $ ls -l recording.wav
  -rw-r--r-- 1 pi pi 960044 Jul 8 11:29 recording.wav
  pi@raspberrypi:~/Music $ arecord -l
  **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
  card 0: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplusadcpro], device 0: HiFiBerry DAC+ADC PRO HiFi multicodec-0 [HiFiBerry DAC+ADC PRO HiFi multicodec-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  pi@raspberrypi:~/Music $ aplay -l
  **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
  card 0: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplusadcpro], device 0: HiFiBerry DAC+ADC PRO HiFi multicodec-0 [HiFiBerry DAC+ADC PRO HiFi multicodec-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team July 08, 2021 16:31

  You're trying to record 8-bit audio in 8kHz. That won't work as this is neither a supported sample rate nor a supported sample format. You need to use at least 44.1kHz and at least S16_LE sample format.

• 0
  
  Ed Okerson July 08, 2021 16:36

  Can you kindly update the documentation with proper commands then? This was a direct copy/paste from the "RECORD AUDIO ON YOUR RASPBERRY PI" document.

  I have 44100 selected as the sample rate in Audacity and it still doesn't record.

• 0
  
  Ed Okerson July 08, 2021 16:39

  pi@raspberrypi:~/Music $ arecord -d 60 -c 2 -r 44100 -f S16_LE recording.wav
  Recording WAVE 'recording.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo

  Still nothing recorded.

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team July 08, 2021 16:46

  It could be a problem with your Pi, the DAC+ or your software installation. This is a plain Raspberry Pi without anything else connected? It's also a plain Raspberry Pi OS without any additional stuff?

• 0
  
  Ed Okerson July 08, 2021 17:00

  As I said in my first post, 2 different HiFiBerry boards and 3 different Pi's. Uninstalled PulseAudio on the Pi3 as you indicated it might be an issue.

  Have you actually tested on the recent Pi kernels?

• 0
  
  Ed Okerson July 08, 2021 18:11

  I downloaded HiFiBerryOS for the Pi3 and installed it. I don't see any options there for recording. Are there instructions somewhere on how to record audio from HiFiBerryOS?

• 0
  
  Ed Okerson July 08, 2021 19:11

  OK, Analogue input with autodetect works on HiFiBerry OS and plays the turntable through to the speakers. So I started over with a brand new SD card and installed Rasbian from scratch. It will not record audio. Kernel 5.10.17-v7+. What other differences are there between HiFiBerryOS and Raspbian besides PulseAudio?

• 0
  
  Stephen Lester July 08, 2021 20:53

  I do want to point out that when you test with the "arecord" command, that it will listen for like 5-10 seconds. After that it will playback what it recorded. I was stopping the program too early because I didn't hear a passthrough type of recording. Where you can hear what the mic is picking up in real-time.

• 0
  
  HiFiBerry team July 09, 2021 05:09

  Ed Okerson: Raspberry Pi OS and HiFiBerryOS are completely diffrent. However, the base ALSA functionality is identical and both are using the official Raspberry Pi kernel. We also test here regularly with Raspberry Pi OS (we always use the light version) and haven't seen any issues. Therefore, I can't really say what might be the problem. 
  One thing we see regularly is silent SD card corruption. Everything seems to be ok, but something isn't working. In this case, a fresh installation on a new SD card would fix this.

• 0
  
  Ed Okerson July 09, 2021 10:14

  As I said in my last post, this IS a fresh installation on a new SD card. It did NOT fix this. You might consider testing on a normal Rasberry Pi OS install, as this is what most people will install by default and it is expected to work. On first boot up let it do the updates, as again, this is what most people will do.

  Is there a way to get a shell prompt on HiFiBerryOS?