Pi3 and DAC+ Pro

jimmeuh

Hi Frank

No, no improvents so far.
I Also didn't have the time to debug/test further.

jimmeuh

Just to give you some feedback:

I restored the latest image yesterday because I was experiencing crashes of RuneAudio after the upgrade of the kernel.
Whenever I tried to play mp3's, the music stopped after a few seconds.
Flac files didn't had that problem.

So back to the "clean" image, wired connection, library mounted, everything plays fine.

I will try to test wifi this evening.

tobvc

Hi everybody,

I've got the same hardware configuration (Pi 3 + Dac+ Pro) and I experience the same problem with runeaudio: as soon as the DAC is activated in the config.txt, wifi becomes unusable. Apart from that, rune is running smoothly, so I would be glad if I could contribute to the solution of this problem.

Has anyone tried if the problem also occurs using an external wifi dongle?

Tobi

jimmeuh

OK thought to give it another shot..

Setup with a static ip on lan interface, playing fine.
I connect to my wlan, configure it with a static ip.
Lan cable disconnected and .... what?!... now it just works????

Reboots are fast, music plays fine.
Several reboots later, wifi still is connected and listening through it just fine.

Ok what did I do other then before?
A static ip on the LAN interface... where before I just used DHCP for the LAN (thought I only needed it for the setup, so why bother with a static)
I need to test more...
Will report back

Tobi > how are your interfaces setup?

jimmeuh

Oh I just remember that I also activated the DACplus in the config file through windows with Notepad++
The other times I just user VI in an SSH session.

Don't think that this should be any difference, but I just mention it.

tobvc

Hi jimmeuh,

thanks for your further testing. I will try to reproduce your results concerning the LAN interface asap. I have also used DHCP all the time up to now.

Tobi

tobvc

Ok, I did some testing this morning. I can confirm your findings partly: With static IP on both interfaces I was able to connect to my wifi, but it took 10 to 15 tries until the green check apeared. Everything worked fine, even after one reboot. After another reboot, the Pi again refused to connect to wifi.

Tobi

Edit: After 5 more reboots, it works again. It seems that static IP makes it better in some way, but it is still not stable/usable.

jimmeuh

Did you disconnect the LAN cable?

Forgot to mention that a continous ping to the LAN interface stopped getting replies after I activated the wireless connection.
I then disconnected the LAN interface since it wasn't working.

tobvc

Yes LAN is disconnected.
Up to now, I had automatic wifi channel selction (ch. 1 - 11) on my AP activated. Set it to a fixed channel now, seems to be an improvement in stability. Even after some reboots it is still working. I will report if anything changes.

Tobi

tobvc

Ok, with static IP and fixed wifi channel the connection is very stable it seems.

But now I have the following problem: Playing (16 bit) FLAC files from an USB flash drive, left and right channels swap every 30 to 60 seconds. I had this suspicion listening to music and I confirmed it with a modified file where I muted one channel.

Can anyone reproduce this problem?

Tobi

Edit: I made the following additional observations:

I could not reproduce the problem with 24 bit FLAC or mp3 files, but with 16 bit WAV files
channels swap once after 5 - 120 seconds and swap back after additional 5 -120 s, sometimes multiple times during a file
if I use the search bar when channels are swapped, it reverts to valid channels
using Shairport, it happens very often, sometimes multiple times in a second

jimmeuh

Hi Toby

Read the same issue on the hifiberry forum somewhere. (channel swap thing)
I didn't encounter that problem yet though.

I notice now that wifi is very stable for me, but playback isn't.
Sometimes after boot, I press play, the music just won't start. I reboot from the menu, and afterwards music plays fine.
So It looks like the DAC is still conflicting with the wifi somehow.
Now the wifi got priority over the DAC, while before it was the otherway around.
Nothing usefull in the logs for now....

tobvc

Hi jimmeuh,

that behaviour I did not notice up to now, wifi now runs fine on my system. But as the connection seems to be very sensitive to network parameters when a DAC+ pro is connected, the behaviour you observed fits in.
Could someone with background knowledge make a guess where to look for the cause (Hifiberry drivers/Rune/Arch)?

Concerning the channel swap problem: I made a 5 min. long 16 bit FLAC containing a sine tone on the right channel. It is easy noticing the channel swap phenomenon playing this file. Playing it from a local flash drive, I get at least 2 channel swaps per run. Is it possible for you to run it once or twice to check whether you can reproduce the problem? If not, it also could be a hardware defect.

Tobi

jimmeuh

Hi Tobi

Tested your file through my mounted cifs share.
Works ok, the tone stays at the right channel.

tobvc

Ok, thanks for your testing.

Now that is interesting: both problems (bad wifi + channel swap) seem to be connected in some way. I continued testing different wifi channel configurations on my AP.
With the DAC+ pro activated and the AP on channel 1 or 11, the wifi connection does not work (does that point to any kind of inference?).
In the test runs I made, the channel swap problem seems to appear more often when wifi channels at the beginning or end of the spectrum are used (e.g. ch. 2 or 10). If a channel in the middle of the spectrum (e.g. ch. 6) is used, channel swaps seem to appear much more seldom.

There have been problems with the DAC+ pro and Bluetooth. Is it possible that there are similar problems with wifi? Is there a way to completely disable the wifi chip for futher testing?

Tobi

hondagx35

Hi Tobi,

You can disable the drivers by editing the file /etc/modprobe.d/disable_rpi3_wifi_bt.conf:

##wifi
#blacklist brcmfmac
#blacklist brcmutil
##bt
#blacklist btbcm
#blacklist hci_uart

This will disable wifi:

##wifi
blacklist brcmfmac
blacklist brcmutil
##bt
#blacklist btbcm
#blacklist hci_uart

Frank

tobvc

Thanks Frank.

Unfortunately disabling wifi did not make a change.

Tobi

jimmeuh

Just some more testing:

Yesterday I was changing amps and disconnected the pi.
Booted it up, wifi worked fine, no playback. (Press play, nothing happens)
Rebooted several times, still no playback.
Turned it off, reseated the psu, still no playback.
Plugged in LAN cable, no pings on the lan interface. ( ok this was the same as before)
UI didn't respond. not on wlan or lan interfaces. Disconnected the LAN cable again.
Logged in through ssh on the wifi interface, issued a reboot command and after reboot playback was back ok.

I don't get it

At least the wifi still works...

tobvc

Have you tried using a different wifi channel?

I have ordered a Pi 2 B and a DAC+ non-pro now to perform further tests.

Tobi

hondagx35

Hi Tobi,

I have ordered a Pi 2 B and a DAC+ non-pro now to perform further tests.

I eagerly await your report.

Frank

tobvc

The Dac+ (non-pro) was in the mail today. The channel swap problem still occurs in the same way as with the Dac+ pro (Shairport is heavily affected, local 16 bit audio content much less).

On the other hand, wifi seems to work much more stable. Contrary to the system with the DAC+ pro, I even get a stable connection on wifi channels 1 + 11.

So is channel swap a Pi 3/Rune problem, while wifi is affected by the DAC+ pro?

Tobi

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