Dummies Guide to Pi2AES! Throw away your PC or laptop.

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by purr1n, Jan 29, 2020.

  1. Scott Kramer

    Scott Kramer Friend

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    1. Try reseating the Pi2AES to the Pi--> there's MHz i2s signals going over those pins.
    2. Always have a 2nd working SDCard built... those corrupt in strange ways at times, especially with full linux I/O moode/volumio.
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2020
  2. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    Power up the Pi2AES with nothing connected besides the power cord. You should still see both the green and red lights after the system has completed startup (wait 60 seconds).

    If not, then something is seriously wrong. Try reseating the card connectors or run the Volumio Config again (Settings > System > Run First Config Wizard).
     
  3. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    Please send us an email and we will provide a return authorization. It sounds like the board has failed for some reason. We will replace your unit as soon as possible.

    One question, are you using a raspberry pi 3 or 4

    Michael
     
  4. ohshitgorillas

    ohshitgorillas Friend

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    Ooh, I finally got around to trying the random 12V (actually measures at 13.5V) 6.5A power supply I found at university surplus (AMX Netlinx Power Supply), and comparing it to the Meanwell switcher. Obviously it's not a major difference, but I'm pleased: it sounds smoother and more full-bodied, which is pretty well in line with my experience regarding switchers vs LPS. I'm not sure exactly what this thing is since I haven't taken it apart, but if others with even better gear say that an LPS vs the Meanwell SMPS is a very minor difference, and since I'm hearing a difference, it's good enough for me to not worry about shelling out money for something fancy. Score!

    Have I mentioned that this sounds absolutely stunning, yet? The details.... my god, the details... the depth... the textures... things I never knew my system was capable of, things I never knew were even there, things it's difficult to hear at an audio show or conference.
     
  5. TheloniuSnoop

    TheloniuSnoop Friend

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    I'm using Pi 4.
     
  6. Pescatore

    Pescatore New

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    @TheloniuSnoop I had a bear of a time with Volumio when I first installed it. Same symptoms as yours. I did a couple of things.

    First, I put a piece of paper on top of the metal housings for the USB and network ports on my pi4 to insulate it from the solder joints on the Pi2AES. On my particular board they were very close and possibly making contact. I still continued to have problems though.

    Second, I had issues with what turned out to be getting Volumio to save the configuration when I selected the audio output. It was displaying the correct output (Aloo Digione) but it wasn't working. Something under the UI wasn't being updated. That may have been a problem with a specific version of Volumio if I remember. I honestly don't recall specifically what I did anymore, but I do remember saving the onboard sound card as the output, then going back to the Allo digone ans saving it again at which point everything started working. This may not apply to you though, as you did have it working at one point.

    In the end I thought there were a lot of shortcomings with Volumio and ended up building out a Roon Core on a NUC and using Ropieee on the Pi2AES. Much happier now, despite the lighter wallet.
     
  7. earnmyturns

    earnmyturns Smartest friend

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    I'm getting a tad nervous with the Pi 4 B reported board temperature on my Pi2AES assembly, up to 67 C today (RopieeeXL). Thoughts on any fanless assembly that would do better than the standard plexiglass case? It should be able to accommodate the RJ-45 I2S board as well (when that arrives...)
     
  8. ohshitgorillas

    ohshitgorillas Friend

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    I actually had to trim the solder posts of the BNC connector when I got mine, they were too long and not only contacted the USB but when mounted it caused that part of the board to flex upwards and made the acryllic case a really tight fit. No big deal, took less than ten seconds to remedy and re-assemble. Anyway, I have strongly considered installing a Vampire gold-plated BNC jack in place of the stock one... yeah, I'm that asshole...

    My main issues these days are with the way moOde gets continually more confused and difficult to navigate every time I plug in a new USB drive or take one out and put it back in. The behavior is so random it's hard to describe, but I'll just save my breath and figure out the best and easiest place and protocol to host the files on the network so the Pi doesn't even need to bother with local files.
     
  9. earnmyturns

    earnmyturns Smartest friend

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    I have two Pi2AES systems: 1) stand-alone one with a Pi 3, Samsung SSD music storage, and moOde; 2) Roon endpoint with Pi 4 B and RopieeeXL. #1 was on work office system until I moved to WFH (COVID-19) in early March. Almost every weekend before then I would shut it down via the appropriate moOde clicks, remove the SSD, bring it home, add music to it, and take it back to work on Monday. No problems ever. I've not used it since, though, because I prefer to drive all my listening from Roon when I'm at home.
     
  10. Metro

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    I don't know if this helps at all, but I have the Pi2AES sitting on its side so that circuit boards are vertical (power jack on top).

    Edit: hmm... another variation is sitting the Pi2AES on its end (USB and other ports up). This configuration may promote a little more thermal convection airflow if you don't use many connectors (I only have AES connection).
     
    Last edited: May 28, 2020
  11. earnmyturns

    earnmyturns Smartest friend

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    Good idea, thanks, will try.
     
  12. Mindbender

    Mindbender Acquaintance

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    @Michael Kelly - I know it's a brand new release, but the 8GB Pi 4 was released today in limited quantities. Not knowing if its architecture is the same as the other Pi 4's (or not), do you know if the PI2AES will be compatible?

    I'll be ordering one of the 8GB units to test out.

    Thanks for any info that you can provide.
     
  13. Azteca

    Azteca Friend

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    8GB?! I juuust bought a 4GB model. I know the odds are it will have zero impact on what I’m doing, but dang if it doesn’t sound impressive.
     
  14. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    Yeah.

    I have one velcro'd to the back of a small screen I use to admin network equipment, I might get it for that, web browsers are hungry.
     
  15. Azimuth

    Azimuth FKA rtaylor76, Friend

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    moOde does not like this at all. It has to rebuild the MPD database every time a new drive is inserted or removed. And this process can take awhile depending on the size of the drive. My 400+ GB database takes about an hour to crawl through. One of the annoyances when there is a major update.

    There is a setting in the Library Config where you can turn off the Auto update the MBD database on USB insert/remove. Just be safe as it will not remove the files once you update, and you have to manually update. So all the files will appear as if they are there yet they won't play. But if you know certain files are on certain USB drives, then you should be set.
     
  16. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    Yeah these are evolving pretty quickly. Meanwhile, I have a 3B and thinking of getting another for backup since it works so well for me ha
     
  17. Dr J

    Dr J Friend

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    Went down that rabbit hole, came back:

    https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...ay-your-pc-or-laptop.8878/page-20#post-295794

    The main takeaway is that Pi designers say it is no problem running the PI constantly at 80 degrees C, as it is specced for that.

    If you are not convinced by that, you can update to the latest firmware, drill holes in the case, position the board vertically, get a passive cooling case, and/or downclock the Pi and turn off unnecessary processing and devices. You could also get an active cooling case, but an electrical motor connected to a Pi board that is used for hifi... not so sure about that.

    I experimented with those except the cooling case, currently the Pi is running nicely at 52 degrees C.

    The cool passive cooling case setup by mtavares documented starting here could be an option: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...ay-your-pc-or-laptop.8878/page-19#post-294464

    Thinking of doing something similar. Edit: to clarify, not for cooling, but I like the look and idea of putting some metal around the Pi
     
    Last edited: May 28, 2020
  18. Taverius

    Taverius Smells like sausages

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    The only thing hat can wear out are the capacitors, and those decrease in duration exponentially with temperature and are specced in thousands of hours at 105c.

    So like, take your temperature nervosa, shoot it in the back of the head, light the corpse on fire and don't even bother to piss on it, cause we're talking something in the order of a decade at that temperature.
     
  19. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    Probably won't get one to test as they are in short supply now. The only change I could see is increased power consumption. But, we already supply 5V @ 4.5A from our on-board 24V-5V supply. Much more than the recommitted 3.5A for the Pi 4 4GB.

    I suspect if any issues come up it will be on the SW side of things.
     
  20. Mindbender

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    So I got the 8GB RPi today and couldn't get Volumio to boot. Even downloaded the latest version, but I wasn't able to boot it up. So I'm unable to test the PI2AES at this time.

    The RPi powers on and lights blink at boot-up but no display. What's odd is that an older version of Raspian also refused to boot but the latest version did boot up fine. I'm wondering if there's code changes that need to be made before Volumio is compatible with the 8GB RPi.

    Did anyone else get similar results?
     

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