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Raspberry Pi as headless streamer

So, after some research i found how to connect Rpi with i2s to Buffalo DAC II and III.

Buffalo DAC has four inputs for i2s - GND, DCK, D1, D2

On Pi we use p5 header

http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2012/09/raspberry-pi-p5-header/

and we can connect Buffalo to Pi with i2s this way:

Buffalo Gnd to Gnd (obviously) Rpi p5 header Pin 7 or 8
Buffalo DCK to Bit Clock Rpi p5 header Pin 3
Buffalo D1 to Word Clock/LRCK Rpi p5 header Pin 4
Buffalo D2 to Data out Rpi p5 header Pin 6

I will try to do it during weekend :)
 
Good stuff Tomek - it works brilliantly.

Are you using a linear supply for the Pi? That seems to help a little as long as you can supply sufficient current!

Mark
 
My RPi was apparently dead this evening - just the red LED on. Plugged it in to a monitor, and it was in a 2 second reboot/crash loop. I re-wrote the SD card, tried again, no change. So I was ready to order myself a new RPi, when I thought maybe I'll check the power supply.

Lucky I did, as it works fine off an Apple charger. So the noname USB charger I was running it off has obviously partly croaked and is unable to supply the right voltage/current any more...
 
For anyone interested, I hooked up a RPi to a curryman DAC (ESS9023 based) over i2S and much to my delight and surprise it worked straight away with Volumio. The Pi is on a SMPS but the DAC has a seperate linear supplies for analogue and digital sections.

It's giving my clock-locked Cambridge IsoMagic a run for it's money sound wise although I need to do a bit more listening over the weekend.

Having battled with ALSA in the past I was delighted when the i2s interface just worked.

Linear supply for the Pi is next....

Cheers
Simon
 
Help needed:
Volumio
trying to run volumio but every time I type volumio/local into my browser Google doesn't find it -- either laptop or android phone -- any thoughts?
Raspbmc
The system runs fine via Mapiln DAC and sounds good to my ears BUT the library doesn't load -- the program runs at start-up with the small box in the top corner identifying progress through around 95% of may external hard drive files but then stops and only a few files are loaded into the library -- again any ideas?
Steve
 
I found the IP address by logging into my router as admin and looking to the IP of the connected devices....
 
The volumio alias only works if you have Bonjour running, just find the IP of the Pi - either from router DHCP table or plug the pi into a monitor and type ip -addr at the command prompt. Pop that into the address bar of your browser and you should see the Volumio page.

No idea on Raspmc, it could be being tripped up by an odd filename? Personally I switched to OpenElec a while back and find it very reliable.

Cheers
Simon
 
Thanks all -- the / was a typo I've been using volumino.local -- I've downloaded Bonjour but it gave me a printer access. Is this because I won't go near iTunes?
Will have another play later in the week.
Steve
 
I took a Pi out and put a cubox into my system, it was a volumio to volumio jump for me so , its a hell of a lot tidier. Fewer boards, ready cased and sounded the same... However what I did notice was volumio was faster at responding and allowed me more interpolation features that were not available.

The build is not the latest and you do need to do a few apt-get update and apt-get upgrades but its a tidy wee cube, no case to worry about, it has IR control plus most of the cables are out the back.

Its $59 so I bought two, one is a media streamer the other is a general data logger for the house and Wifi airport repeater and it may become a few other things as well, a second streamer for headphones in the bedroom for example.
 
I am sticking with the Pi for now and picoreplayer. I have a Beaglebone which when it isn't dropping lock to the dac sounds a little cleaner than the pi, using the same Squeezelite streaming client. I am waiting for the Botic cape from Twisted Pear Audio to see if that cleans up the BBB's act.

If not, maybe a Cubox is the next step, though music via the Pi is darn fine.

I stepped away from Volumio. It's slow and clunky compared to picoreplayer and the development speed isn't what I (admittedly impatient and demanding) would hope for. With only a little Linux knowledge you can get farther down the road than Volumio in current form. And I must admit I am not wholly convinced by the Gui, though that is personal taste and I am sure it'll get there in the end.
 
tomek said:
So, after some research i found how to connect Rpi with i2s to Buffalo DAC II and III.

Buffalo DAC has four inputs for i2s - GND, DCK, D1, D2

On Pi we use p5 header

http://www.raspberrypi-spy.co.uk/2012/09/raspberry-pi-p5-header/

and we can connect Buffalo to Pi with i2s this way:

Buffalo Gnd to Gnd (obviously) Rpi p5 header Pin 7 or 8
Buffalo DCK to Bit Clock Rpi p5 header Pin 3
Buffalo D1 to Word Clock/LRCK Rpi p5 header Pin 4
Buffalo D2 to Data out Rpi p5 header Pin 6

I will try to do it during weekend :)
Click to expand...

Thanks Tomek.

The next RuneAudio release (Beta 0.3) will sort out wifi, dashboard ALAC selection etc. Volumio just didn't work for me - couldn't see the NAS.

The end game is to run I2S into my TDA1541A Rogic Aya DAC - this info helps enormously. Thanks! :D
 
Fortunately there is loads of choice in open source streaming... Rune I tried but has very limited hardware support but will mature. Volumio has been a joy for me, I don' want sleeve art and stuff' I just want basics which it delivers in spades. I never got on with Squeezebox and prefer just shoving the music all over the place and letting Volumio sort it out although I can see myself buying bliss to sort out some of the downloads that appear in Japanese because I have been buying from Japanese download only labels and need translation.

The CuBox does a great job in respect to streaming in that it is tidier. the Pi is also good but the Cubox has extra power and is tidier on a shelf... That's the main draw, it's boxed and a bit more powerful, has integrated spdif which is ideal for DAC users... Overall I like black cubes... Its cute.
 
Sticking with my Pi-Curryman combination for music however I'm tempted by an i-Cubox for movies - has anyone tried XBMC on it into a processor for Dolby Digital/dts over S/PDIF? I know the Pi has issues with passthrough over anything other than HDMI,I wondered if the Cubox was the same?
 
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