Pi2 Design Idiot-Proof Ready-To-Go RPi/AES Streamer

Discussion in 'Digital: DACs, USB converters, decrapifiers' started by Michael Kelly, Jan 16, 2021.

  1. Smody

    Smody New

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    Earlier mercury prototype design were showing LED screen, this one doesn’t seem to have any LED screen, Is screen removed ?
    I Hope final mercury model will be With LED screen
    By the way, the acrylic design looks stunning.
     
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  2. Prtuc2

    Prtuc2 Acquaintance

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    Hi Michael,

    Would the 4GB/0GB version of the Mercury able to have a M2. slot for self add on M2. SSD or it only limited to the 8GB/1TB version board? Thank you for your valuable time.
     
  3. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    Would someone with knowledge of the Mercury who has been following this thread be willing to write me a summary for the upcoming loaner thread? I don't think this is Michael's specialty, he's better making awesome sounding streamers. I could do it but I haven't been following this thread.

    I'm looking for something that says

    1) What the Mercury is
    2) How is it different from the Pi2AES?
    3) Technical info, outputs, usage, technical ability vs Pi2AES etc

    Send me a pm if you're up for helping. I think this is important because the Mercury is targeted at less tech savvy people, so providing information about it and how it's used and why it's easier than the Pi2AES will be very important for people to understand why they might want one.
     
  4. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    sadly we decided to remove the screen because the various software players have poor support for a small character display. It would require making modifications to the players with third-party pieces which then either don’t stay up-to-date or are overridden if the customer updates the player.

    At the end of the day we decided that future products based on the same board, which we do plan for, will use either HDMI screens or DSI LCDs.
     
  5. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    both versions have the SSD socket. The distinction between them is partly marketing, i.e. having a base unit and a more expensive unit with extra features, but also practicality because I could only get 50 of the 4GB models and the 8GB models cost an extra $50. So they became the higher end version.

    This may change by the middle of 2022 when availability of the compute module is supposed to open up. Until then I have 50 of the 4’s and 150 of the 8’s.
     
  6. Josh Schor

    Josh Schor Friend

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    HI Michael,
    I am a non computer guy, I tried one of your units last year and with Marv's help could not get it to work very well. Is the Mercury going to be something that anyone could set up and Use? Or is it still a challenge and computer knowledge is needed. There does not seem to be any hand holding support either written or on line that will be available is that still the case?
    best,
    Josh
     
  7. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    there will be a getting start a document with references to Volumio which will be installed by default. As it is an open system other software can be loaded by those who prefer something else.

    The primary benefits will be the integration of the pi and all of the audio functions along with mass storage, all in a nice metal and/or acrylic enclosure. Plus having a pre-configured software player. For most folks the only thing they will have to do is go through the wireless connection process. Which is fairly easy with Volumio. Those instructions will be referred to in our documentation.
     
  8. svampebob

    svampebob New

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    @Michael have you measured the performance/noise vs the pi2aes? If not, what would you expect?
     
  9. Doug_D

    Doug_D New

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    My music collection is larger than 1 TB and growing. Will it be possible to get the Mercury with a larger SSD? (or none.)
     
  10. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    It will also be offered with no ssd.
     
  11. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    some testing and it looks slightly better. Although optical is much better. But we need to wait until we get the final production version in a few weeks.
     
  12. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    This new world order continues to slap me around! One of the power supply chips we were using on Mercury was unavailable so we found a substitute that was pin compatible (though limited to 32V in) and we bought 200 for Mercury. When we bought them there were ~10K in stock at TI (the manufacturer) so we are all good, right? Umm, no. When we decided to continue PI2AES we went to buy more and they were gone! WTF? Which brought us back to our original dilemma, 200 more PI2AES or 100 Mercury (which uses two).

    After a day of having a little pity party, we decided to change Mercury to use another PSU chip that we used before. It is in stock at all distributors and over 100K+ at the factory. Too good to be true you ask? How can this be you ask? Because this part is not used in automotive! The only downside is that it can only take 18V in max. Which is why we switched to the TI part in the first place.

    But as often happens in life, when you step back and re-evaluate why you made your original decisions, you realize the circumstances have changed. In particular, the need for 24V to power a potential DAC and HP Amp add-on. Once we set that aside, it became clear that 12V in had a lot of benefits. First it means that the AES buffers, Low-Jitter Clocks, and low noise LDO's can be be powered from a low noise 5V LDO (12V-5V means much less power dissipation than 32V-5V). It also means if you (the customer) decide to use a linear 12V supply (needs to be at least 2A though) you get an all linear power chain for the critical sections. Even using an external 12V switcher you get a low noise LDO (LM2941) for 5V followed by even lower noise LDO's (LT3042) for 3.3V, one for the clocks and one for the WM8804)

    The switchers on board are used only for the digital sections outside of the signal chain.

    Of course, nothing is free, so now we have to re-spin the CM4AES (the boards used in Mercury). This will not add much to the schedule since we were only going to build a few more Mercury in about 2 weeks. Now that will be 3-4 weeks. Unfortunately this means the beta units will not go out since the PSU chain is different from what will be used in the final. No sense reviewing something that might have a slightly different sound profile then the final.

    We are just having so much fun in the time of COVID, aren't we? :eek:

    EDIT - I owe all the highly "nervousa" types here at SBAF for making me more aware to the PSU issues. As a former digital network engineer, I have learned a ton here! Thanks!
     
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2021
  13. haywood

    haywood Friend

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    Are you switching to that part for the new pi2aes revision too? That’d make a lot of the people who want to upgrade power supplies happy. It seems like the demographic for pi2aes was never going to be interested in adding on relatively low-cost dacs or headphone amps and removing that potential could cut your costs a bit and bring in upgrade sales if it improves the performance.
     
  14. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    I wish. Sadly there simply is no room for multiple LDO's on the PI2AES.
     
  15. bobfa

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    I think this will be a better outcome for the whole design. I am VERY excited to see where this ends up. I am using Pi4 for streamer and server using PiCorePlayer LMS and Squeezelite. The Sound is amazing. Part of the system design includes linear power supplies that help with SQ but not with the budget! The CM4 has great potential and I am glad to see it slowly hitting real products.

    I cannot wait for my Pi2AES to arrive and to see where the Mercury ends up. Fabulous work!

    Bob
     
  16. Josh Schor

    Josh Schor Friend

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    I am one of the people that Mav's son built one for. I could not get it to work with spending some time with Marv on the phone. So Michael if there is
    support and an excellent manual I would be willing to buy one when there are available.
    best
     
  17. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    i would be happy to put it together for you.
     
  18. Michael Kelly

    Michael Kelly MOT: Pi 2 Design

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    never mind. I should’ve read it more carefully. You already have it put together, but you’re having trouble integrating it into your network in your music playing. Unfortunately, this is the nature of the raspberry pi open source software. I can tell you everything about our board, but that won’t tell you how to actually use it in your system.

    We are hoping that mercury will solve some of this by providing you with a premade image that just requires a fairly simple set up for the Wi-Fi. Time will tell how simple it really is. Honestly at this point, we are still trying to figure out what the best player to put on the box will be.
     
  19. Josh Schor

    Josh Schor Friend

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    thanks Michael, I am the perfect test dummy, 71 years old I am not good with computers. Let me know if you need a true novice to see if they can make it work.
    best,
    Josh
     
  20. Josh Schor

    Josh Schor Friend

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    Hi Michael,
    I found someone on SBAF that lives close to me and has offered to help me with setting it up. I am currently using wifi to stream will the Mercury have the latest wifi? Asking as the last one I tried did not work well with wifi. Have you settled on a price? When will it be available for purchase?
    best,
    Josh
     

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