Adding a display to the Khadas Tone Board?

[JamesC1]

There have been some threads on this a year or so back where Pjotr shared his successful integration of the ESS Controller board (developed by Ian JIn in Canada) with the Khadas Tone Board (KTB). There is a photo of his end result on this forum. However, the connections discussed in that post don't seem to correspond with the signals available on the connector used by Pjotr. I wondered if anyone else had done this and if so, which signals they picked up from the Khadas board to pass through to the ESS Controller. In Ian's documentation he specifies using SCK and LRCK to trigger this on-board analyzer. LRCK is available but the only other similar signals I can see available on the KTB are MCLK and BCLK. Can anyone help me on this?

 

[Aldoszx]

Take a look here
It seems somebody figured out.
I'll be also interested to use this controller, so maybe you can confirm if it's indeed working.

 

[JamesC1]

Take a look here
It seems somebody figured out.
I'll be also interested to use this controller, so maybe you can confirm if it's indeed working.

Yes, the posts you see on the Khadas forum were posted by me! You can see the connections that I used there also. But I would make two points:
1. The analyzer mode is not activated on the controller on power on, you have to push the encoder knob for a few seconds to initiate the analyzer.
2. The display is VERY small! You almost need a magnifying glass! You check the actual size of the ESS controller on the github page of Ian Jin Canada.
James

 

[Aldoszx]

I see.
Searching for a solution for myself, I've found this
It is a DIY job, but i think is is interesting.
Maybe you could give it a try

 

[Aldoszx]

Have you found a solution?
I am also looking for a good controller for my Tone Board.

 

[JamesC1]

I posted on January 16 in reply to you. as I said, I have implemented the Ian Canada ESS controller board just as an analyzer for displaying the audio file format being received by the KTB. It works but there are disadvantages, as I described.The ESS Controller board is advertised as a full controller for ESS-based dac's and as you know, the full schematic and pin-outs for the KTB are published by Khadas. Ian Canada's github page for his ESS Controller board also contains some fairly basic information about how it should be used as a controlle, but I have not implemented as a full controller, only as an analyzer and that only requires picking up the I2S signals available on one of the KTB's external sockets. Hope that this helps.

 

[Aldoszx]

Thanks for your answer !
I think I am gonna order one too.
Best regards !

 

[JamesC1]

For your information, you can order direct from Ian Jin in Canada but also from Audiophonics in France, which is where I ordered mine from. Less hassle with international shipping (for me anyway!)

 

[Aldoszx]

I live in EU.
I think Audiophonics is the best choice.

 

[Pantin]

I posted on January 16 in reply to you. as I said, I have implemented the Ian Canada ESS controller board just as an analyzer for displaying the audio file format being received by the KTB. It works but there are disadvantages, as I described.The ESS Controller board is advertised as a full controller for ESS-based dac's and as you know, the full schematic and pin-outs for the KTB are published by Khadas. Ian Canada's github page for his ESS Controller board also contains some fairly basic information about how it should be used as a controlle, but I have not implemented as a full controller, only as an analyzer and that only requires picking up the I2S signals available on one of the KTB's external sockets. Hope that this helps.

Hi James,
owning myself a KTB1 I found and liked your idea adding a controller board with display. Though never attempted myself to add Ian's ESS controller to the KTB nor did any other modification to this DAC board yet. Just listening music.

But I quickly looked at the documentation. Ian writes in his ESS controller documentation:
"
Works with external ESS DAC
It’s also possible to make this ESS controller working as a dedicated controller of an external ESS DAC even
without a Raspberry Pi. To do so, you will need:
1. Solder the 10 wires of the cable to the footprint of J3.
2. Connect the wires of the cable to the corresponding signal pins of the DAC.
3. Remove any possible local controller that connected to the I2C bus of the ESS DAC. Also make sure I2S bus
has pull-up resistors for both signals.
"

From the above and having looked at your communication in Khadas Forum I could see your focus was asking about SCK and LRCK/D1 signals. So, could it be that your implementation is missing the connection of the I2C bus? CL and DA? You did not mention these, or I must have overlooked that.

Steffen

 

[JamesC1]

Hoi Steffen, I am only using Ian’s board as an analyser, not as a controller of the ESS dac chip (Khadas has that covered!) So I only need the two I2S clock signals. The I2C signals are only needed when you use the full functionality of Ian’s board.
Hope this helps
James