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Post by Tim on Aug 14, 2014 19:40:22 GMT
The nice thing is that the battery's charger plugs into a different port in the battery and could be plugged into a timer to charge it during non-use hours, leaving the RPi running on pure battery while you're listening. Now that's the kind of 'outside the box' thinking that impresses me, nice one Martin
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Post by terrybooth on Aug 14, 2014 20:18:21 GMT
Thanks, Terry. Ok, so 22.9% CPU load to play via the HiFiBerry DAC? Was that a settled figure (i.e. after waiting a while)? Was it a hi-res file you were playing? Tried it with a number of 192/24 files (not that I have that many of them). It settled there or thereabouts (22/23%) with all that I tried. I'd expect to get similar figures to you if I reconfigured to play through USB without the DAC board given that the B and B+ are not that dissimilar.
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Post by Tim on Aug 14, 2014 20:19:18 GMT
Re my Last.fm scrobbling query Martin, I just found this; If you got bored with nothing to do with the Pi, maybe you could try it with your Last.fm account? If it works then I'm in and will definitely buy one and join the TAS Pi builders (and Terry - I like this from your signature 'Is of the opinion that hifi is for playing music, not an end in itself' - me too )
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Post by MartinT on Aug 14, 2014 20:37:23 GMT
Terry - that's great news, very good CPU load when streaming 24/192. Shows that USB will be worth eliminating.
Tim - brill, I'll try it as soon as I can.
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Post by MartinT on Aug 15, 2014 5:53:17 GMT
Hmm, well it all looked so easy: sudo apt-get install mpdscribble
Unfortunately I got lost in a mire of Debian dependencies (sounds like alien outposts). Working backwards to try to go from the last dependency in the chain, I got as far forward as sudo apt-get install glib-networking and then my extremely limited Linux failed me, as there appears to be a version issue that may need MPD to be recompiled.
Luckily, Michelangelo has promised to include mpdscribble in the next version of Volumio. I will keep monitoring and will definitely report back when scrobbling is working for me.
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Post by MartinT on Aug 15, 2014 18:29:08 GMT
MPDScribble Installation
I've cracked the installation of MPDScribble, for Last.fm and Libre.fm scrobbling, onto RPi Volumio v1.41 with a lot of external reading.
Follow these instructions. If you stuff your installation, you can always re-write the image onto your MicroSD card. What's the worst that can happen?
Add in these three additional lines into /etc/apt/sources.list (cd /etc/apt and then sudo nano sources.list, make the changes, Ctrl-o to write the changes and Ctrl-x to exit):
deb http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ jessie main contrib non-free rpi deb http://archive.raspbian.org/raspbian jessie main contrib non-free rpi deb-src http://archive.raspbian.org/raspbian jessie main contrib non-free rpi The above edit adds three more repositories which contain necessary upgrades to the Linux OS in the RPi Volumio build*. Now for the biggies. Perform these two operations, which will take at least 30 minutes. Answer all requests to make changes to files with 'No', but answer 'Yes' to going ahead with the downloads and installations. Try not to stare and look worried:
sudo apt-get update Sudo apt-get upgrade
Now you are finally able to install mpdscribble:
sudo apt-get install mpdscribble Now add your last.fm/libre.fm username and password to /etc/mpdscribble.conf (cd /etc and then sudo nano mpdscribble.conf)
Edit /etc/default/mpdscribble to read MPD_SYSTEMWIDE=1 (cd /etc/default and then sudo nano mpdscribble)
You may have to restart your RPi at this point. Do it elegantly with: shutdown -r -t 0 0 Hopefully you'll be scrobbling away - I'm told that scrobbling is very hit-and-miss and they may appear in batches but it's working for me.
*In fact, Jessie is the development name of Debian v8 (the current version being Wheezy). They are all Toy Story characters!
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Post by MartinT on Aug 16, 2014 12:00:55 GMT
Confirmed: the scrobbling works, and reliably.
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Post by Tim on Aug 16, 2014 13:48:35 GMT
Fantastic news, nice one Martin - just took a peek, Tori Amos, Air and lots of Grandaddy
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Post by MartinT on Aug 16, 2014 13:59:03 GMT
That's right!
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Post by chukka on Aug 31, 2014 21:19:44 GMT
Hi, just a quick update (probably a little off-topic) to report that I have had some luck to get Cubox / Volumio combo working as a Airplay relay to my USB DAC. The nice thing about it, is that it plays at 48kHz instead of the 41kHz which the Apple Airport Express does. So, it seems that there is no down sampling going on. Judging on the SQ, I would say that it sounds more dynamic than the Airport Express solution.
Advantages are: - no downsampling ASFAIK - Cubox (or Pi) can act as a direct relay to a USB DAC - about the same price as a new Apple Airport Express device but with the added advantage of being a full fledged computer which could act as a server, mediaplayer, etc.
Disadvantage AFAIKS - Shairport is reverse engineered technology, so it may stop working one day (unlikely IMO) - Needs quite a bit of fiddling around to get it to work properly (editing scripts, etc.)
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Post by MartinT on Sept 2, 2014 5:16:32 GMT
Great stuff, chukka, keep us informed. A photo or two of your setup would be great.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 2, 2014 5:17:47 GMT
My Digi+ board has been despatched from Germany, so I hope to resume this project in earnest soon with a report on how the module is installed and sounds.
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Post by John on Sept 2, 2014 5:32:05 GMT
Looking forward to the update
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Post by Pinch on Sept 2, 2014 6:13:04 GMT
Ah ha! Pleased to see that it was ready on time. Will you get a new case to accommodate it, or modify the Ninja?
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Post by MartinT on Sept 2, 2014 6:46:48 GMT
I will attempt to modify my existing Ninja, if I can do it without it falling apart.
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Post by chukka on Sept 6, 2014 16:29:07 GMT
Great stuff, chukka, keep us informed. A photo or two of your setup would be great. sure, sorry for the wait.. hmmm ... having trouble uploading images... is that possible on this forum ?
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Post by MartinT on Sept 9, 2014 18:17:52 GMT
8. Adding the HiFiBerry Digi+ S/PDIF Module
So here it is, the newly released HiFiBerry Digi+ module, for the RPi B+, designed to bring S/PDIF digital audio (co-ax and optical) to the RPi for high quality streaming to an external DAC. The kit comes complete with the module, which connects to the RPi via a long DIL socket on the underside, and nylon mounting posts, nuts and bolts.
The RPi ready for installation of the Digi+. Note that my CPU heatsink only just clears the underside of the Digi+ module, so you can't use anything taller. The module simply bolts onto the posts, while pushing the connector into place. There is no soldering required for the B+ model, a major step forward for those nervous about damaging their RPi.
Oh dear, as expected the Ninja case doesn't fit with the Digi+ installed. Neither will any other standard B+ case. Luckily HiFiBerry have announced that there will be a case available soon. Meanwhile, I did what I could to afford the RPi some protection by using only the Ninja layers that fit, plus some spacing nuts.
Powering it up, all looks as it should with the addition of a green LED on the Digi+ module, indicating that it is powered. Now to get it configured and working with Volumio.
Firstly, you need to edit in the HiFiBerry I2S drivers to load on start-up. Edit the /etc/modules file and add some lines as follows:
sudo nano /etc/modules
snd_soc_bcm2708 bcm2708_dmaengine snd_soc_hifiberry_digi
Now reboot the RPi. After it restarts, test that the I2S drivers are loaded with:
aplay -l
You should see confirmation that the Digi is running with a response containing this:
card 1: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_digi], device 0: HifiBerry Digi HiFi wm8804-spdif-0 [] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Now go into the Volumio interface and configure it in Menu | Playback | Audio Output by selecting sndrpihifiberry and saving the configuration.
That's it! Hook up either the optical or digital output to your DAC and select a song to play. If all goes well, you should hear music.
I soon discovered that the I2S interface is indeed very efficient with nothing like the CPU power required by the USB interface. With my CPU overclock set to 'medium', playing an mp3 file requires 5.9% CPU, a 24/96 file 5.3% and a 24/192 a remarkably low 9.9% (I couldn't even play one of these files previously).
I'll review sound quality in another post, but suffice to say that it sounds completely glitch-free and in a different class of resolution compared with USB streaming.
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Post by John on Sept 9, 2014 18:46:05 GMT
Great news Seems to have worked really well I am looking forward to the review
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Post by ChrisB on Sept 9, 2014 18:47:28 GMT
Looks good Martin. What does this extra board cost?
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Post by Pinch on Sept 9, 2014 19:01:09 GMT
I'll review sound quality in another post, but suffice to say that it sounds completely glitch-free and in a different class of resolution compared with USB streaming.Gah! That's not what I wanted to hear! Great stuff though - looking forward to the review!
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