Allo Sparky USBridge

[allo.com]

H-man , we are aware that we need to improve the unit further ...and we will do so.

 

  Dan (from DietPI) has looked at how to auto update and found no option. Now , we hope that this new OS upgrade will further improve the SQ since we tweaked it quite a bit.

 

Regarding the ALU box, I heard that everything passed the test and we should have them sometime Sep/Oct. We will have a special price from whoever bought Usbridge with old case (acrylic case)

 

Meanwhile we are working on the new GUI . So we are busy..

 

[allo.com]

Thx you.

 

  You are the first to use the new image..tell us what do you think ..

 

 

[allo.com]

39 minutes ago, H-Man said:

Sure, here is some very quick feedback:

 

I could not really say anything about SQ as there are a few stability issues. It booted up fine and doing the dietpi-config worked without any issues and the USB output recognized the KEF DAC. Installation of Roon endpoint and Shairport worked. Then we get to the problems: I use DSP changes in Roon between some of my evaluation tracks. Playback started fine but when I changed DSP settings on the Roon server there was a complete hang  on the dietpi and the only way to get back was a power cycle, as reboot from ssh console did not work. 

 

I still have the playback gap a second into playing new selected tracks (i.e. not qued tracks) when using roon. Shairport I only had time for a qucick test and it seemed to work. I might get some more time tonight for further tests. 

 

/Henrik

Ok I sent the feedback to them team , will look into the DSP changes and how it affects DietPI

 

  Please leave feedback  after your testing.

[allo.com]

1 hour ago, volpone said:

Hi Johan, 

• I perfectly understand new OS is not auto-updating from the original DietPi but i hope that, from now, with the new kernel, it will autoupdate. Confirmation ?
•    I will get confirmation from our team, but that is our goal.
• OK if new kernel is patched for DSD DACs and good if you successfully tried with native DSD 256, but i hope you will manage to get compatible DAC to also test DSD 512 !
• DSD 512 Dac on the way..
  
  From the software side (DietPi, ALSA ... ) i’ve no doubt it is, or will be, DSD512 compatible but i would like to confirm Sparky / USBridge HW is OK too. 
• Agreed , we need to test. However the USB lanes are separated from Ethernet ..so 256 no problem , 512 we will confirm.
   
• Patiently waiting for the alu case to order ...
   

Thank’s for your work.

 

[allo.com]

16 minutes ago, H-Man said:

Have you looked at a dual storage approach? I have seen that approach a lot on other platforms but I will admit I have not looked closely at the SBC architectures and limitations. 

We have both eMMC and SD ...+ extra USB ports.

[allo.com]

3 minutes ago, H-Man said:

What i changed in the DSP settings was the Sample Rate Conversion, going from Max PCM rate to For Compatibility Only.

Was it higher than 384Khz ? (sorry I just realized that you changed to "For compatibility only)

 

  Are you playing DSD native ?

[allo.com]

55 minutes ago, mikey8811 said:

Thank you. That helps a lot.

 

Does running both LMS and Squeezelite on the USBridge tax the processing power and compromise sound quality vs just running Squeezelite on the USBridge and LMS on the computer?

Hi Mickey

 there is plenty of processing power with a quad core processor. I don't have an exact number while running both but its very low (under 9% cpu). No the audio quality wont be compromised by running both vs PC.

 

1 hour ago, H-Man said:

I have had a little extra time on my coffee brake to play around with the updated image. For other interested people I would consider staying on the previous image if you use Roon with DSP settings until the bugs are worked out. I can work around this issue since I also have the UltraRendu and can use it's DLNA/UPnP Bridge straight to my KEFs. 

 

As stated earlier the Sparky completely hangs when you change the DSP setting in Roon. It does not matter if you go up or down. The funny thing is that at first it looks like it works but when you hear the music it is like playing a 45 RPM LP on 33 1/3 RPM :-)then after a few seconds it hangs. 

 

I can not really make a new and fair SQ test with the UltraRendu until these stability issues are worked out. 

We are already working in it.

[allo.com]

Anyone that has a USBridge and cannot flash, please contact us and we will send you a SD card flashed. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

 We have looked into this DSP problem. The main problem is that up sampling is now at maximum 768Khz (over 50Mbs of traffic)

 

   We are working hard to try to fix this issue (with driver changes etc) but we always claimed 384Khz on PCM and 128DSD . We are able to go to 256 DSD without an issue . So 384Khz/256 DSD is official .

 

Will update as soon as we get more info for our team. Rest assured that everyone works overtime to try to fix this.

 

     One easy hack...is to use a Ethernet to USB dongle that will remove any bottles necks from our ethernet. Of course its just a hack.It will allow 768Khz PCM

[allo.com]

Hi ,

 

 we are working and will update only Tuesday. Thx you all for your patience .

[allo.com]

The 2 buses are separate , but in most ARM cpus ,  ethernet , USB etc they dont reach full speeds. . On Sparkys Ethernet we observed about 70Mbs throughput . 

 

 Since the USB2.0 (back) of sparky has also a dedicated bus to CPU , we tested Ethernet to USB2.0  and Usbridge output (another dedicated bus) . In our preliminary test , we have seen 786Khz and DSD 512 working...

 

I want to stress that those are preliminary tests, we will finish internal testing and will update everyone.

 

 Again , thx you all for your patience and support.

[allo.com]

11 hours ago, jtwrace said:

Thanks.  Downloaded Etcher and get the same result.  Nada. I've done it the Allo way using their recommended software and now this.  Nothing.  I don't get it.  

Hi jtw,

 

 please wait a few days for us to finish our testing and we will send you a new flashed eMMC

[allo.com]

Yeap I heard that tone...not musical at all.

 

  Tomorrow our testing team is back online and will start debugging .

[allo.com]

We are working and testing all this time.

 

  We identified the root cause of ethernet problems (dsd 256) and higher.

 

We are solving some problem with specific DAC and DSD 256.

 

  Before end of the week we will have an update .

 

 

[allo.com]

Ok time for some updates.

 

  Ethernet problem was traced back to phy chip. Its sensitive to network noise (?!). Nothing we can do about it. We have 4 setups , on some setups it works up to 70Mbs , on some networks up to 40Mbs.

 

So at this moment we recommend (native ethernet) to use DSD 128 / Pcm 384Khz. Its stable.

 

So what we did is to use a Ethernet to USB dongle (that we will provide for free for all our USBridge customers) Gb ethernet to USB2/3

 

  On the USB 2.0 (remember the USBs buses are separated) we reached 260Mbs stable. Plugged into USB 3.0 we reached 610Mbs, rock solid.

 

Using the Ethernet to USB dongle , 256 DSD has no issues whatsoever .  512 should have no problems but we did not fully test. CPU usage  is low , logs show 0 errors.

 

    Regarding the new image , we are advancing as fast as we can. The new GUI is coming up nicely , Dan (the great) is implementing all the features needed . We will make sure that software is updated regularly .(with auto update function)

 

Reports are coming in regarding the DSD native compatibility . Most Dacs work well (native ethernet excluded)  , Mytek Brooklyn has a problem that we are presently debugging .

 

Was a long week, thx you all for your patience.

 

 

[allo.com]

Are you on native ethernet ? Can you check the CPU usage at 512 ? In our experiments , its not about the CPU usage (its low) but rather the bottleneck was at native ethernet. Once we moved to Ethernet/USB , we have full capability. 512 seems to run without problems  ( but need more testing)

[allo.com]

Yes I think its a NAA issue on ARM. We will investigate after releasing the new image.

[allo.com]

Hello H man ,

 

  We are aware of the problem of Mytek Dac and Usbridge and we are working around the clock to find the issue. The patch that we found is "experimental  support " . We dont know how uRendu does it ,  we will try to solve this issue on our own. Jason , Dan , Allo team  , we are exchanging emails daily and testing different ideas . Also we have tried to solve it with Mytek suport with no luck so far.

 

 

[allo.com]

10 hours ago, pgbcincy said:

Yes, this Sparky release is v155.  

@allo.com

What is the difference between the images out there?  DietPi_SparkySBC-armv7-(Stretch)-USB_ETH-ROON_AUTO vs. DietPi_SparkySBC-armv7-(Stretch)

 UEB-ETH-ROOn has ethernet enabled in USB

10 hours ago, pgbcincy said:

 

 

[allo.com]

root@DietPi:~# mii-tool -v eth0
eth0: negotiated 100baseTx-FD, link ok
  product info: vendor 00:07:49, model 1 rev 1
  basic mode:   autonegotiation enabled
  basic status: autonegotiation complete, link ok
  capabilities: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
  advertising:  100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
  link partner: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD flow-control

 

  We quickly checked seems that flow control is enabled

[allo.com]

OK we are investigating further and will update

[allo.com]

Ok I just discussed with Dan , flow controls has a bug on the driver . Also on some DACs we have a bug with 44.1Khz files.

 

 Please wait for a new image with both those problems corrected. We will release in max 48h.

[allo.com]

http://dietpi.com/downloads/images/DietPi_SparkySBC-armv7-(Stretch).7z1

 

 Slow mo on44.1Khz file (on a few DACs ) fixed.

 

New image with flow control enabled coming up.

 

 Thx you Dan :-)

[allo.com]

Thx you Vortecjr. We will give it a try.

[allo.com]

So you are using MPD on DietPI ? What type of files are you playing ? (44.1Khz I assume)

 

 Seems there is an issue with MPD , we will investigate.

[allo.com]

14 hours ago, PJotr said:

Thank's allo for your work, naw I have dietpi from 12.09 and 44.1kHz work OK on oppo ha-2 but...

I play on MPD, when I connect to Sparky USB3.0 work ok, but when I connect to usbridge
music work OK too, but when I want to change the track the music hangs.
The same situation it is on Amanero, crashes when change of track.

 

Of course, when I press the stop before turning another song I can continue playing.

We tested on latest version...we see no problem on changing to next song. Are you powering through the DC jack ?