Your solution with the ribbon cable for Problem2 was correct. What was happening was the placid for each DAC were being joined at the Sidecar header.

As for Problem 1, when you say the lock LED turns on, do you mean on the DACs or on the WaveIO?

Would anyone know why this switch wouldnt work? I am positive the wiring was correct.

http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/70425.pdf

Hi Tomasz,

I have the same sometimes. When a light switch is flipped or I plug a charger.
In my case it's acceptable. I figured it must be the interfearance of EMI along the powerlines.

Now when I check (late at night) nothing happens if I do so. But during daytime it might occur more often. It might have something to do with voltage droppage of the power grit.

You can try to connect the power into another socket or socket in a seperate group.
Check the bonding and groundplan.
Check the wall power socket voltage when it occurs and when not.

When looking at your hookup; Is there a possibility to use the Isolated outputs of the Waveio?

Hope it helps you a bit.

All the best!

Jordo

Edited by user Monday, June 8, 2015 11:14:30 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I think this is related to your long I2S runs (looping ribbon cable in your pics). The I2C clock lines are noise generators, but also sensitive to noise. You should try to shorten the ribbon, and if possible, add some shielding to it.

Additionally, you do not want any power wires running anywhere near your I2S lines. I see some really close areas in the routing from the USB Isolator outputs to the Sidecar. Any spikes on the power lines will feed into the I2S lines and can result in unlocks. On the same note, noise from the I2S clock lines can infect the power lines and result in distortion and noise in the audio outputs.

Yesterday my girlfriend fliped a light switch which caused to interrupt the playback.
When I decided to measure the wall contact for voltage only putting one pin into the socket already caused an interruption.
With only one pin at at the socket no currents are drawn from the net so this is strange.
When I tried the other socket no interruption was observed. One or the other must be the Line and Neutral.
I might start an investigation
Also shielding my powerline might be an idea.

All the data lines are shielded and clear from powerlines.

The voltage was approx 220VAC for info.

If I hit on something I will let you know ;)

regards,

Jordo

Update:
It hapens when a metal object touches the Line.
I do to have a power line running not far from the data cables. I might shield it (on a rainy day)

I know it's not my topic but I have a similar complaint and it should be nice to help eachother finding causes and solutions isn't it?

Edited by user Sunday, June 14, 2015 1:15:21 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Hi Jordo,

I was beeing quite busy lately, working like a crazy, couldnt find any time to get anything done on my buffalo., but i will have some days off this week and i plan to try some mods. Anyway i was still checking the forum awaiting your tries, shame it havent worked for you.
BTW i was thinking as well that there is something wrong with my network back in the days, but i moved lately to different city, new built flat (new network) and i still have the same issue... I got this problem changing from stereo to dual mono so i suppose it should be cabling.

I plan also to tide some cabling up, but reading your message make me rather sceptical about the thing...i am going to report the results or lack of them.

All best

Tomasz

Hi Jordo,

It seems I found where is the problem.
From the beginning i did have the problem with summing all 8 dacs per channel, so i just tried to disconect the even DAC on one channel and odd dacs on the other channel. The Buffalos are working just with 4 dacs each and.... it seems to work just fine!!! No loosing LOCK on light switching, no DISTORTION on high volumes!!!.... but i use just the half of dacs :(

Now, I put all the DACS in Arduino code to IN-PHASE and sum it just straight as it is...could that be the problem? On the other hand the remaining 4 DACS are still all in phase and there is no problem....so cabling ??? i have no idea where to start...help!


... at least i got some virtual cases done this weekend

Please HELP!

I am getting crazy! I have tried everything!

I cannot sum the 8 DACs the way it gives me no distortion!

When I connect 4 DAC on each Buffalo in dual mono it works just fine....once i put all 8 dacs together strange things happen... DAC gets quiet (LOCK led still lighting but there is no sound) when i turn the light on or home equipment and the sound get distored, especially on higher levels!

... I disconnect the 4 dacs on each buffalo board and its just perfect, no distortion, no strange sound loosing!

All DACS are in-phase (I am using arduino to set the phase). I have also tried even dacs in phase and odd in anti phase and reversed, but this doesnt work at all...no sound, some clipping!

Just to info I have SIDECAR on input!

Now what i do, first some info i found in net:

Register 13

DACx Polarity [link]

Defines the polarity of DACx relative to its input. This may sound obvious but it is not so obvious if the input of a DAC is internally remapped to take its input from another DAC. When the input is remapped, the phase applied propagates to the other (remapped) DAC. This has the following implications:
– When using “in-phase” then there is nothing to worry, all dacs whether with inputs remapped or not will all be in-phase
– When using “anti-phase”, then the phase is also propagated to the remapped DAC so that the phase setting in the remapped DAC is also applied to the propagated phase

Example: In register 14: remap the source of DAC3 to be DAC1. In register 13: set polarity of DAC1 and DAC3 to be “anti-phase. The output of DAC1 will be “anti-phase”; the output of DAC3 will be “in-phase”: the anti-phase from DAC1 has been propagated to DAC3 and DAC 3 applied “anti-phase” to “anti-phase” resulting in “in-phase”

------------------
Register 13 (0x0D) DAC polarity
In-phase: 0x00 (all 8 channels) (D)
Anti-phase: 0xFF (all 8 channels)
------------------
Register 19 (0x13) DACB polarity
In-phase: 0xFF (all 8 channels)
Anti-phase: 0x00 (all 8 channels) (D)
1256 In-Phase; 3478 Anti-Phase: 0x33
1256 Anti-Phase; 3478 In-Phase: 0xCC
------------------

here comes the code:

writeSabreLeftReg(0x0D,0x22); // MONO LEFT DACx: odd dacs=in-phase; even dacs=anti-phase
writeSabreLeftReg(0x13,0x00); // MONO LEFT DACBx: all dacs anti-phase with respect to DACx

writeSabreRightReg(0x0D,0x11); // MONO RIGHT DACx: odd dacs=anti-phase; even dacs=in-phase
writeSabreRightReg(0x13,0x00); // MONO RIGHT DACBx: all dacs anti-phase with respect to DACx


Now 0x22 = 0010 0010
and 0x11 = 0001 0001

So, just two DACs are set to anti phase, it has something to do with register 14 if i get it right:

My Register 14 is set default to: 1111 1001

Register 14 (0x0E) DAC source, IIR Bandwidth and FIR roll off
|0| | | | | | | | Source of DAC8 is DAC8 (D)
|1| | | | | | | | Source of DAC8 is DAC6 (To Buffalo II wiring)
| |0| | | | | | | Source of DAC7 is DAC7 (D)
| |1| | | | | | | Source of DAC7 is DAC5 (To Buffalo II wiring)
| | |0| | | | | | Source of DAC4 is DAC4 (D)
| | |1| | | | | | Source of DAC4 is DAC2 (To Buffalo II wiring)
| | | |0| | | | | Source of DAC3 is DAC3 (D)
| | | |1| | | | | Source of DAC3 is DAC1 (To Buffalo II wiring)
| | | | |0| | | | Pseudo differential
| | | | |1| | | | True differential (D)
| | | | | |0|0| | IIR Bandwidth: Normal (for PCM)
| | | | | |0|1| | IIR Bandwidth: 50k (for DSD) (D)
| | | | | |1|0| | IIR Bandwidth: 60k (for DSD)
| | | | | |1|1| | IIR Bandwidth: 70k (for DSD)
| | | | | | | |0| FIR Rolloff: Slow
| | | | | | | |1| FIR Rolloff: Fast (D)



here comes the question, why i get problems with stability and distortion and would setting the even and odd dacs in antiphase help in that case?

How about the input, shall I put the reg 14 to 0000 XXXX, would this help?

Please help me to get this work, basically I am using standard HiFiduino code, but it could be it doesnt work with SIDECAR (is Reg 14 a problem?)

I would really appriciate help.

Tomasz

Today I have done some more tests...

First I have removed the sidecar and connected the I2S directly to the board like this (all dacs open, no remapping):

https://hifiduino.wordpr...ode-and-buffalo-iii-dac/

no change, still distortion.

... then I have tried different wireings, shielding and stuff like this, but no joy.


I should say, I hear distorted sound quite badly first on volumes higher than -30 dba. Its not ground hiss or distortion, its like digital distortion and its remarkable in the middle range.

Again, when I put just 4 even DACS (2468) or 4 odd DACS (1357) together the sound is just perfect and clean... i put them all together strange things happen.

It seems to me like I could have been trying to connect the I2S the wrong way, but i get the same on SPDIF.

Edited by user Monday, July 27, 2015 7:15:16 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I would try to get it to work with the on-board firmware first, then move to the Arduino and custom code. That would at least let you know where the problem lies.