ASR Open Source Streamer Project

[mdsimon2]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned elsewhere - but have you looked at the RPi compute module 4 with their IO board? Has much better position for connectors, takes 12V, and can have an external antenna.

Buy a Compute Module 4 IO Board – Raspberry Pi

Exposing every interface from Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, the Compute Module 4 IO Board provides a development platform and reference base-board design for our most powerful Compute Module yet.

www.raspberrypi.com

I briefly looked at it but I do not think it provides any advantages in this application but maybe I am missing something. Other than figuring out the best position for this USB IR receiver I have no issues with the RPi 4 layout. I see how having all the ports on one side can be useful but I have no plans to use HDMI and relocating the power with an extension is easy enough. Also not a fan of the much larger footprint.

Michael

 

[Madjalapeno]

I briefly looked at it but I do not think it provides any advantages in this application but maybe I am missing something. Other than figuring out the best position for this USB IR receiver I have no issues with the RPi 4 layout. I see how having all the ports on one side can be useful but I have no plans to use HDMI and relocating the power with an extension is easy enough. Also not a fan of the much larger footprint.

Michael

Only thing I would say is availability.

 

[voodooless]

FLIRC does not need USB to work. Last time I used it 15 years ago it was just a simple io line.

 

[mdsimon2]

Are you sure we are talking about the same FLIRC? I am talking about the USB receiver linked below.

Flirc USB - Flirc

best from flirctv - Flirc

flirc.tv

Michael

 

[voodooless]

Are you sure we are talking about the same FLIRC? I am talking about the USB receiver linked below.

Flirc USB - Flirc

best from flirctv - Flirc

flirc.tv

Michael

Yes, it’s the same stuff. Using USB for an IR signal is like squishing a fly with an atomic bomb

See: https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/305rhb
USB was kind of co-opted as an easy solution, but FLIRC never started out that way.

 

[mdsimon2]

But obviously not the same as that is an “alternative to FLIRC”. I do have some IR receivers laying around and it does seem like integrating them via GPIO is a good solution. Would have been nice if it was a plug and play USB solution but folks will already need to mess with GPIO for the display so probably not a bad idea.

Michael’s

 

[voodooless]

But obviously not the same as that is an “alternative to FLIRC”.

Like I said, it’s co-opted. Looks like the old FLIRC project got taken by a commercial company and turned into a product selling platform. Seems to have been a successful ploy.

 

[mdsimon2]

FLIRC does not equal LIRC.

Michael

 

[mdsimon2]

And I should add that if you want to provide instructions for integrating an IR receiver via GPIO and LIRC that would be very much appreciated.

Michael

 

[voodooless]

FLIRC does not equal LIRC.

Ah, so that’s the difference must have been to long ago

And I should add that if you want to provide instructions for integrating an IR receiver via GPIO and LIRC that would be very much appreciated.

I’m afraid it has been to long ago. Back then no Pi’s yet, just a miniITX with a Via CPU. It wasn’t much harder than connecting the thing to some IO’s and updating some config files

 

[mdsimon2]

Forgive me if this has been mentioned elsewhere - but have you looked at the RPi compute module 4 with their IO board? Has much better position for connectors, takes 12V, and can have an external antenna.

Buy a Compute Module 4 IO Board – Raspberry Pi

Exposing every interface from Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, the Compute Module 4 IO Board provides a development platform and reference base-board design for our most powerful Compute Module yet.

www.raspberrypi.com

I need to apologize for dismissing this solution before, I do think this is the way to go as it does have a USB pin header. Hardware cost will be a bit more and the compute modules themselves seem to be out of stock at many places. I will order one and start playing with it.

Michael

 

[Madjalapeno]

I need to apologize for dismissing this solution before, I do think this is the way to go as it does have a USB pin header. Hardware cost will be a bit more and the compute modules themselves seem to be out of stock at many places. I will order one and start playing with it.

Michael

The IO board is easy enough to source. I got the most basic CM4 from Adafruit last month. If you don’t have any luck I can share a spare.

 

[mdsimon2]

The IO board is easy enough to source. I got the most basic CM4 from Adafruit last month. If you don’t have any luck I can share a spare.

Just ordered the basic one from adafruit (1 gb ram, no emmc, no wifi) and got an IO board from digikey.

Thanks again for the suggestion!

Michael

 

[Madjalapeno]

Just ordered the basic one from adafruit (1 gb ram, no emmc, no wifi) and got an IO board from digikey.

Thanks again for the suggestion!

Which OS are you going with? On the CM4 you need to enable the USB in the boot config.

 

[mdsimon2]

Which OS are you going with? On the CM4 you need to enable the USB in the boot config.

Ubuntu Server 21.10.

I’ve done just a bit of reading about the CM4 and did see that USB was disabled by default so was going to add “dtoverlay=dwc2,dr_mode=host” to /boot/firmware/confit.txt.

Anything else I need to look out for on the CM4 vs the RPi4?

Michael

 

[Madjalapeno]

Ubuntu Server 21.10.

I’ve done just a bit of reading about the CM4 and did see that USB was disabled by default so was going to add “dtoverlay=dwc2,dr_mode=host” to /boot/firmware/confit.txt.

Anything else I need to look out for on the CM4 vs the RPi4?

Michael

It's very similar, which is what's so nice about it. The lack of inbuilt WiFi on the lower spec modules means some messing with cables, but beyond that I've not had any problems.

 

[mdsimon2]

The CM4 and IO board came today, unfortunately testing with my Ultralite Mk5 did not go well.

Installation went exactly as expected, I had recently done a clean install of Ubuntu Server 64 bit 21.10 on a RPi4 so I followed that the setup procedure exactly. The install went fine but when I went to play music I got very loud popping sounds regardless of source. I tried different 12 V power supplies, tried ethernet and USB wifi, tried different USB ports, tried a powered USB hub but all had the same results. I even took the exact SD card and popped it in a RPi4 and it worked perfectly so it is definitely something hardware related with the CM4.

In my experience the Mk5 has been a bit picky about hardware, it also does not work well on a RPi3 for example. However, as it is my primary DAC for this setup I do not have any interest in exploring the CM4 further.

So long story short back to a normal RPi4. I do not plan on doing any sort of extension for the FLIRC receiver, as I mentioned it works fine in my setup using wall bounce. If that doesn't work for other folks there are a lot of other ways to implement extensions.

I also ordered some new displays. I really like the OLED display I have from NewHaven Display and their documentation is really good, however they do not have an OLED display that will fit in a 1RU enclosure and a 2U enclosure just seems too large. The new displays are a bit cheaper (coming directly from China) but use the same SSD1322 controller so hopefully will be a relatively drop in replacement. Once I have the displays lined out (hopefully early next week) I will send the enclosure drawings to modushop for machining.

Michael

 

[Madjalapeno]

The CM4 and IO board came today, unfortunately testing with my Ultralite Mk5 did not go well.

Installation went exactly as expected, I had recently done a clean install of Ubuntu Server 64 bit 21.10 on a RPi4 so I followed that the setup procedure exactly. The install went fine but when I went to play music I got very loud popping sounds regardless of source. I tried different 12 V power supplies, tried ethernet and USB wifi, tried different USB ports, tried a powered USB hub but all had the same results. I even took the exact SD card and popped it in a RPi4 and it worked perfectly so it is definitely something hardware related with the CM4.

In my experience the Mk5 has been a bit picky about hardware, it also does not work well on a RPi3 for example. However, as it is my primary DAC for this setup I do not have any interest in exploring the CM4 further.

So long story short back to a normal RPi4. I do not plan on doing any sort of extension for the FLIRC receiver, as I mentioned it works fine in my setup using wall bounce. If that doesn't work for other folks there are a lot of other ways to implement extensions.

I also ordered some new displays. I really like the OLED display I have from NewHaven Display and their documentation is really good, however they do not have an OLED display that will fit in a 1RU enclosure and a 2U enclosure just seems too large. The new displays are a bit cheaper (coming directly from China) but use the same SSD1322 controller so hopefully will be a relatively drop in replacement. Once I have the displays lined out (hopefully early next week) I will send the enclosure drawings to modushop for machining.

Michael

Damn - I'm sorry to hear that.

 

[mdsimon2]

Damn - I'm sorry to hear that.

Yeah, would have been nice if it would have worked. Have you used yours successfully with a USB DAC? I have MOTU M4 which seems much more flexible than the Mk5 so I might try it down the line with the CM4.

Michael

 

[phofman]

I even took the exact SD card and popped it in a RPi4 and it worked perfectly so it is definitely something hardware related with the CM4.

Which USB slot did you use on RPi4 in your check, the USB3 type A, or the USB2 type C? The USB slots on CM4 IO board are connected via onboard USB2 hub to the dwc2 USB perfipheral of the SoC, which on RPi4 is the USB-C connector.

I wonder if USB-C on RPi4 worked with your DAC. The dwc2 IP core must be properly configured, maybe your many-multichannel soundcard requires larger packets for which the RPi config is not fit. This issue deserves troubleshooting and fixing, at best.