Piano 2.1 left channel broken

snuka · November 11, 2020, 6:48pm

Hi, since Volumio 2.834 the left channel of my Piano 2.1 installation is not working anymore with Spotify. After Factory Reset, left channel works with web radio but as soon as I use the Spotify plugin it breaks again. Any help welcomed. Thank you.

PS where can i find previsous volumio downloads ? thanks

michel8166 · November 12, 2020, 11:05pm

check out the link, maybe you can do something with it.

snuka · November 13, 2020, 9:14am

@michel8166 … thanks. That’s exactly the issue I’m having.

snuka · November 16, 2020, 10:27pm

well. not really. I’ve downloaded and installed the previous version 2.699 which has the options for the Allo Piano 2.1 DAC. But there’s still a problem with the volume on the left channel when using the DAC in Dual-Mono mode (haven’t tried other modes) with the Spotify Connect 1.05 plugin.

I’m not sure what is happening but the volume on the left channel fades over time. I have to go back to the web interface and turn the volume up again. Btw. It only works for the left channel. So, I turn it up to 100% and all is fine. Then over time it sinks back to 5% by itself (MPD volume control for clients is deactivated). Thats kind of spooky.

volumio · November 16, 2020, 11:04pm

This is an issue with the Spotify connect plugin. It should use volumio volume control rather than alsa. I am notifying the developer

snuka · November 17, 2020, 9:21pm

thanks

ashthespy · November 18, 2020, 5:08pm

Did something change recently? It used to work fine previously.
The daemon doesn’t do anything fancy, it just requires the correct mixer-name, card and index. If it gets the right values, it should work

I don’t have the DAC, but can you check if the Volumio API gives us the correct parameters?
You could check by examining the configuration file for vollibrespot

# VLS config
cat data/plugins/music_services/volspotconnect2/volspotify.toml

Also confirm that this matches what Volumio should use

cat /data/configuration/audio_interface/alsa_controller/config.json

Then you could open alsamixer and check which of the mixers move when you change the volume from Volumio webUI for web radio, and which one changes when you use Spotify connect.

I’d reckon that they will be different mixers…

volumio · November 18, 2020, 6:41pm

The problem is that this DAC has 2 separate mixers (one for left and one for right), so Volspotconnect is actually setting the volume of the left channel only and ignoring the right one.

ashthespy · November 18, 2020, 7:22pm

I had a bit of a head scratching moment – I thought I had implemented things wrong, but as far I can tell, it’s correct. This in turn hooks into ALSA’s snd_mixer_selem_set_playback_dB_all which

Set value in dB of playback volume control for all channels of a mixer simple element.

But if the driver use two separate mixers for each channel, then it should also probably provide a Master mixer that maps to both these channels as stereo.

You can then of course set them independently for that perfect balance

amixer sset Master 40%,42%

Anyone from allo on here? Thoughts?

Okay, peeking at the driver’s source indicates that things should work as expected with the new driver?

github.com

raspberrypi/linux/blob/rpi-5.4.y/sound/soc/bcm/allo-piano-dac-plus.c#L581-L613


	if (digital_gain_0db_limit) {
		ret = snd_soc_limit_volume(card, "Master Playback Volume",
					207);
		if (ret < 0)
			dev_warn(card->dev, "Failed to set volume limit: %d\n",
				ret);
	}
	if (glb_ptr->dual_mode == 1) { //in Dual Mono Mode
		ret = snd_soc_component_write(rtd->codec_dais[0]->component,
				PCM512x_DIGITAL_VOLUME_2, (~left_val));
		if (ret < 0)
			return ret;
		ret = snd_soc_component_write(rtd->codec_dais[1]->component,
				PCM512x_DIGITAL_VOLUME_3, (~right_val));
		if (ret < 0)
			return ret;

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snuka · January 15, 2021, 11:56am

Hi, is there a fix for this yet ? Thanks.

snuka · January 23, 2021, 2:33pm

hi, sorry to bump this but there is a problem with this DAC and the Spotify plugin. Allo.com ? could you please chime in?

The left channel just fades away over time, even when the player is left on . The remedy is to push the volume to 100% manually via the volumio web interface.

ashthespy · January 23, 2021, 3:53pm

You could try the buster beta images that have the 5.x.y kernels that contains the new driver fixes…

snuka · January 30, 2021, 4:09pm

Ok, thanks, Ill give it a try.

snuka · March 29, 2021, 8:02pm

tried and failed. There is a serious issue with this dac & volumio. Hoping for a fix. thx

Josh2000 · March 29, 2021, 8:45pm

Hi,

i own also a couple of Piano 2.1 hats and hope someone could fix the issues with that DAC, that is sounding very well in Dual Mono Mode - especially in conjunction with an Allo Kali.

br
Josef