How to setup and test

[AB1VL]

Flatmax:

Here is output from lsmod on my Pi3B on Raspbian Stretch: Looks to me like config.txt is being ignored and the broadcom sound soc is getting loaded despite #dtparam=audio=off in config.txt. Web search returns raspi-blacklist.conf is deprecated, is that true? How do I keep the brcm sound tree from getting loaded? I'm now convinced this is the issue. BTW, not only does the audio out intermittently not work but it also tends to time out after a while. Can we focus on getting a way to keep from loading the broadcomm tree? tnx in advance


Module Size Used by
fuse 99667 3
rfcomm 37723 6
bnep 12051 2
hci_uart 20020 1
btbcm 7916 1 hci_uart
bluetooth 365844 29 hci_uart,bnep,btbcm,rfcomm
snd_soc_wm8731 14257 1
evdev 12423 4
joydev 9988 0
ftdi_sio 33027 0
usbserial 29943 1 ftdi_sio
brcmfmac 292847 0
snd_soc_bcm2835_i2s 7480 2
snd_soc_audioinjector_pi_soundcard 4782 0
brcmutil 9863 1 brcmfmac
snd_soc_core 180471 3 snd_soc_wm8731,snd_soc_bcm2835_i2s,snd_soc_audioinjector_pi_soundcard
cfg80211 544609 1 brcmfmac
snd_compress 10384 1 snd_soc_core
snd_pcm_dmaengine 5894 1 snd_soc_core
rfkill 20851 6 bluetooth,cfg80211
snd_pcm 98565 5 snd_soc_wm8731,snd_pcm_dmaengine,snd_soc_bcm2835_i2s,snd_soc_core,snd_soc_audioinjector_pi_soundcard
snd_timer 23968 1 snd_pcm
snd 70032 9 snd_soc_wm8731,snd_compress,snd_timer,snd_soc_core,snd_pcm
i2c_bcm2835 7167 0
bcm2835_gpiomem 3940 0
fixed 3285 0
uio_pdrv_genirq 3923 0
uio 10204 1 uio_pdrv_genirq
i2c_dev 6913 0
ip_tables 13161 0
x_tables 20578 1 ip_tables
ipv6 409194 40

[AB1VL]

I researched and finally found a way to blacklist the snd_soc_bcm2835_i2s on boot. Unfortunately that disabled ALL sound in the process. Audacious reported it could not find ALSA and communicate with it. So evidently it is necessary for at least some parts of the broadcom sound tree to be loaded to get sound out of the Stereo Audioinjector. Or maybe the install script is out of date for Stretch. It also suggests that the info about disabling the broadcom tree via edits to config.txt are not valid, at least for the PI3B with Raspbian Stretch. Which probably means that Stereo was not tested with Stretch and PI3B. So as far as I can tell, the product info on the Amazon site is in error for Stretch and Pi3B, as is the setup and testing info on the website.

I no longer have access to asking you questions via Amazon, so let me be clear that unless I hear from you PDQ with full disclosure regarding my unanswered questions, I'll have no option but to write a so-so product review citing iffy product support as the reason. Which is a shame because I really want this board to work. And I believe that it may well work once a valid configuration can be found. I allow that Stretch may be a different animal, and that the Raspbian team's tweaks to make debian work on the Pi3B seem to have rendered their latest documentation and forum posts out of date. But I'm also not happy that my posts are taking so long to appear in the Stereo forum, where others that might have advice could review them and leave updates. After all most new customers will want the 3B and it will ship with Stretch. As a vendor you bear some responsibility in making sure buyers have the correct info before and after the sale. If you still need to moderate posts from post-sale customers that comes across to me as a cause for skepticism.

I hope we can work through the information flow problems soon. Please advise about next steps.

[robiwan]

Here is output from lsmod on my Pi3B on Raspbian Stretch: Looks to me like config.txt is being ignored and the broadcom sound soc is getting loaded despite #dtparam=audio=off in config.txt. Web search returns raspi-blacklist.conf is deprecated, is that true?

You do mean dtparam=audio=off, don't you ? I mean, is the # a typo ? I have this in the config.txt

dtparam=audio=off

and it seems to work as it should (exact same setup as you have).

[AB1VL]

yes, that was a typo.

I tried to comment out (e.g. #dtparam=audio=on) in config.txt first, because the directions say to do that. I then tried dtparam=audio=off, but the broadcom soc is showing up in lsmod results either way. The only way I can get it out is to blacklist it, but then I lose all audio.

My hunch is that with both the broadcom soc and the AI soc loaded, that may be the reason that sometimes audio out works, and sometimes it doesn't. After all, the instructions clearly say that there will be I2S contention if both are loaded. So eliminating the broadcom soc seems to me the thing to do. But maybe because I am on Raspbian Stretch things have changed regarding how the trees are loaded, or auto-loaded, though from what I read on Pi forum the Raspbian way to do things is for the kernel to auto-load modules on the fly to keep memory util down.

Since my results are conflicting with the setup instructions I need some clear guidance on why my audio out is a roll of the dice each time I boot. Confirmation of whether all or part of the broadcom soc is required to be loaded for the AI stereo to work will tel me if I have stepped on a bug or not.

[robiwan]

I see. I would suspect that snd_soc_bcm2835_i2s is always needed, since it is the I2S driver, the other drivers merely use I2C to talk to f.i. the WM8731 chipset of the stereo sound card. I.e. I don't think there is a AI specific I2S driver.

The dtparam=audio=off stuff is for the PWM audio only.

I have a similar setup to yours with the stereo card on RPi3 with Raspbian Stretch, and I have not yet encountered any problems there. I do have odd problems with the octo card though, like sometimes physical input 1/2 end up on capture 7/8. Weird.

[martindunne1]

hi there getting audio out no problem but can only get audio in if i unmute output mixer line bypass but then i cannot add effects to the audio in. any ideas please

[martindunne1]

hi there i can get audio out no problems but am having problems with audio capture. i can only hear audio in if i un-mute outpur mixer line bypass in alsamixer but then no internal effects are applied to the incoming sound, am i missing something.

my alsamixer settings

settings.JPG (221.61 KiB) Viewed 7567 times

[flatmax]

The bypass mode just routes audio input to output.

You should probably disable that. Any progress so far ?

[terry1769]

I haven't been able to get the first test working. I followed the automatic setup procedure and verified it with the manual. Hardware is an Audio Injector Zero on a Raspberry Pi Zero W running Stretch Lite. Here's the output of the recommended first test:
audioInjector-test.sh
play: no process found
arecord: no process found
gpicview: no process found
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM anyChannelCount
arecord: main:788: audio open error: No such file or directory
sox FAIL formats: can't open input file `/tmp/test.wav': No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM anyChannelCount
play FAIL formats: can't open output file `default': snd_pcm_open error: No such file or directory
xdg-open: file '/tmp/spectrogram.png' does not exist
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM anyChannelCount
arecord: main:788: audio open error: No such file or directory
sox FAIL formats: can't open input file `/tmp/test.mic.wav': No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2495:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM anyChannelCount
play FAIL formats: can't open output file `default': snd_pcm_open error: No such file or directory
xdg-open: file '/tmp/spectrogram.mic.png' does not exist
press enter to test again, any other key then enter to exit

Other info:
aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: audioinjectorpi [audioinjector-pi-soundcard], device 0: AudioInjector audio wm8731-hifi-0 []
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0


arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: audioinjectorpi [audioinjector-pi-soundcard], device 0: AudioInjector audio wm8731-hifi-0 []
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

dmesg | grep "audio"
[ 27.105408] audioinjector-stereo soc ASoC: CODEC DAI wm8731-hifi not registered - will retry
[ 27.105436] audioinjector-stereo soc snd_soc_register_card failed (-517)
[ 27.535632] audioinjector-stereo soc ASoC: CODEC DAI wm8731-hifi not registered - will retry
[ 27.535661] audioinjector-stereo soc snd_soc_register_card failed (-517)
[ 27.574385] audioinjector-stereo soc ASoC: CODEC DAI wm8731-hifi not registered - will retry
[ 27.574411] audioinjector-stereo soc snd_soc_register_card failed (-517)
[ 32.173471] audioinjector-stereo soc wm8731-hifi <-> 20203000.i2s mapping ok

Alsamixer output attached.

I've been tinkering with it for several days so any help is appreciated.

[flatmax]

Looks like you are setup ok.
Forget about those tests - can you try

Code: Select all

aplay filename.wav