Wolfson Audio card with Volumio

I was thinking that this had it already together as one package. So, I do need to add the Wolfson kernels then.

Well, if you are using that it should work, as that apparently has the Wolfson drivers built into it. The standard Volumio distribution doesn’t.

The green output is the SPDIF, right? In his post SIB says he ‘thinks’ he ran the use-case script to output to SPDIF. Maybe he didn’t? If you can locate the use-case scripts you could try running the ‘SPDIF_playback.sh’ script.

Alternatively try the other image that somebody here in this forum topic has made available.

Guess I didn’t run it before I took the .img… sorry. However I use the SPDIF on this image in my set-up and it works fine, as tyres2 says run the Wolfson script (id recommend a re-boot) and it should all work.

The scripts are in /home/pi i believe

edit

I just checked and the green one is Line-out I didn’t enable that one as I tested it with the headphone out and use the SPDIF so you need to run Playback_to_lineout.sh which is also in /home/pi.

These scripts are cumulative so no harm in enabling all that you might need.

Try the headphone socket first (black on Wolfson) it should just work

Cheers

SiB

Ah, right. Sorry, got that wrong then! That’s presumably why it didn’t work, if line-out wasn’t enabled.

I am super inexperienced with linux and everything raspberry pi. I purchased a pi and the Wolfson DAC as a kind of starter project. Using your image above I have been able to actually get Volumio up and running. I have one question though. The music is only coming out of the headphone jack. How do I enable the green line-out on the DAC? Please go easy on me. I am really inexperienced and new at doing this kind of thing. Thanks in advance to any hero out there willing to help me with a step-by-step.

If you read SIB’s post a couple of messages above yours, you’ll see he says that line-out is not enabled in his image (if that’s the one you are using).

To enable it, as he says in his post, you need to run the ‘Playback_to_lineout.sh’ script, which as he said is in /home/pi

That means you need to connect to the Pi via SSH, i.e. command-line access over the network. From a Linux operating system you’d use the ‘ssh’ command to do that. If you are on Windows (on your main computer) you’d probably need to use the Putty program, which is freely available.

Got it working and the scripts work great. You can even play with the default volume.
Question, where are the scripts initially being run from during startup? I’d like to add the additional script for line_out in the same place. I didn’t see anywhere in the /etc/init.d directory that they were being launched.

It seems that the current two patched Volumios are using Volumio Beta 1.2 and Volumio Beta 1.3.

This of course makes sense to keep up with development of Volumio.

However I would like to know whether there are any perceptible differences in quality using a patched Volumio 1.1 with Wolfson Audio Card to output music.

Thank you.

Could be wrong, but I don’t think the scripts are run at boot-time. I think they are just a once-only thing, run by the user.

You could ask over in the Wolfson forum over on Element14, there are some knowlegeable guys over there,.

element14.com/community/comm … wolfson_pi

Thank you for your help with changing the output. I’m so new to this, that I had to learn how to browse folders and list contents and run scripts from terminal. I successfully changed the output to line out. Now I have one more question. Some people have mentioned that the main default volume coming from the Wolfson card can be adjusted. I’ve tried doing some research to figure out how to do this, but I cannot figure it out. I would love to raise the volume just a little bit. How would I go about doing this? Also, can adjusting the default volume hurt sound quality? I only want to raise it a tiny bit. Again, thanks in advance for any help anybody can offer.

That sounds like you need to run the ‘alsamixer’ command while logged into the Pi. That gives you a semi-graphical interface for managing the volume level of your outputs. Once adjusted it stays there. You use the up and down arrow keys while in ‘alsamixer’ to adjust the volume level of a given output, and the left and right arrow keys move from one output to another. The ‘Esc’ keys exits out of ‘alsamixer’, but your adjustments remain. There are also function key commands for various things, which are explained in the interface.

I think generally people suggest raising it to about 82. Raising it higher and you go into the ‘red’ area in the alsamixer interface, which I guess may introduce some distortions, or potentially even damage equipment (speakers).

Alsa volume range is directly linked to the card’s linux driver and what the driver exposes. Each card’s driver will do things differently and each DAC will have a different “internal” volume range.

For the IQaudIO.com Pi-DAC the PCM5122 DAC has a vast range but I have limited the usable range within the linux driver to -103.5db to +4db (0 to 100 in alsamixer).

0db corresponds to 2vRMS output (top end of green in Alsamixer). Going into the red is okay and may be needed for especially quietly recorded tracks. I considered giving even greater ability to push this further but felt compelled to limit the output for audio quality.

Other card’s drivers may be completely different, and IIRC the Wolfson chip used is a 1vRMS output or thereabouts.

Best regards,

Gordon@IQaudIO.com

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Thanks Gordon. I do have a Wolfson Audio card myself, so what I said is relevant to the Wolfson card specifically. The levels I said seem to work pretty well for me. But useful to know what the general technical background is. You’ve obviously got a much better grasp of the technicalities than I do!

Sorry, didn’t want to stamp on anyone’s toes - just wanted to post some “insight” - We have had a few people question 100% on card A vs 100% on card B :slight_smile:

No problem. My toes remain unstamped :slight_smile: Useful contribution. As I say, you obviously know your stuff, being in the hifi business.

Hi

I’m a bit of a newbie with Linux, so I can find my way around the basics…

I would like to use my Wolfson Audio card with my Raspberry Pi. I’ve got the new 1.4 version of Volumio installed and working correctly. It works well with HDMI audio, so the system basically works. How do I get the Wolfson card to work with Volumio 1.4?

I guessing that the Wolfson Drivers are missing from the stock 1.4 download. Can I download some extra files and put them in the correct place and update some configuration files in the Volumio filesystem (which I can probably do), or I need to get and compile sources (probably beyond my current skill level) to make the Wolfson card work?

(original post edited for clarity)

Thanks

Peter

The Wolfson card needs the Wolfson drivers to work, and they are not included in the stock Volumio distribution.

A couple of guys in this forum topic have provided Volumio images with the Wolfson drivers compiled into the kernel, but I think they were for Volumio 1.3.

I don’t know if anybody has yet provided an image for Volumio 1.4 with the Wolfson drivers compiled into the kernel.

Thank you for your reply. Recompiling with drivers included from a different source is currently beyond my abilities.

Regards

Peter

Peter,

You may like to check this out :

mega.co.nz/#!KxhFTJza!L5XYBkyJh … Ky6W_S4wBc

Doesn’t work. Decryption key isn’t accepted.