Allo Sparky USBridge

[davedre]

Hi,

 

I've been using the USBridge for a while with no issues. However I realized I've forgotten my root password. Is there an easy way to boot into single user mode to reset the password? 

 

Do I need to physically remove the emmc card or is there another easier alternative like changing to single user mode on startup?

 

Any help is appreciated.

[ALLOsupport]

10 hours ago, luisma said:

thanks, same version

 

root@ALLO-LIVING:~# apt-cache policy networkaudiod
networkaudiod:
  Installed: 3.5.4-38
  Candidate: 3.5.4-38
  Version table:
 *** 3.5.4-38 100
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

don't know what could it be happening, HQP Win vs HQPE ? should be the same

 

check cat /DietPi/uEnv.txt  value aotg.urb_fix=1

this parameter set for HQplayer

 

[GerardA]

@bassivus Thanks for the link to the diy-powersupply. I was thinking of building one myself but did not check it out yet.

I use a sbooster on my minidsp 2x4hd and it makes a big difference. But buying another one for the allo gets a bit to much for me.

Building one should be much cheaper and I like to diy.

Can you update us on the sound improvement?

[luisma]

9 hours ago, ALLOsupport said:

check cat /DietPi/uEnv.txt  value aotg.urb_fix=1

this parameter set for HQplayer

 

@ALLOsupport is set at 0 should I set it as 1?

root@ALLO-LIVING:~# cat /DietPi/uEnv.txt  
uenvcmd=setenv os_type linux;
bootargs=earlyprintk clk_ignore_unused selinux=0 scandelay console=tty0 loglevel=1 real_rootflag=rw root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootwait init=/lib/systemd/systemd aotg.urb_fix=0 aotg.aotg1_speed=0

[luisma]

yep that fixed it 
before it worked on 0 with no issues same environment, I guess with updates and such it was more and more needed

[bamyasi]

Hi,

 

I was going to try dual-powering my USBridge and I have already removed J28 jumper off the USBridge HAT board. However, when I tried (accidentally) to boot with only DC 5V power connected to USBridge (default configuration) Sparky would still boot and work perfectly fine. I can load Allo GUI and connect via ssh as before in this configuration. Is this expected and normal behavior? Is it safe to connect my second 5V DC power adapter to microUSB port on Sparky now?

 

Thanks,

Bamyasi

 

[Lukasluis]

3 hours ago, bamyasi said:

Hi,

 

I was going to try dual-powering my USBridge and I have already removed J28 jumper off the USBridge HAT board. However, when I tried (accidentally) to boot with only DC 5V power connected to USBridge (default configuration) Sparky would still boot and work perfectly fine. I can load Allo GUI and connect via ssh as before in this configuration. Is this expected and normal behavior? Is it safe to connect my second 5V DC power adapter to microUSB port on Sparky now?

 

Thanks,

Bamyasi

 

Same here. At first I thought that by removing the jumper the sparky and the usb board will need to be powered separately but I was wrong. I can use my unit by applying power to any of the DC ports and power to both ports as well. 

[davedre]

I've managed to reset my root password. However I just upgraded to dietpi 6.20.6 and now I'm getting these messages on login:

 

-bash: /DietPi/dietpi/func/dietpi-globals: No such file or directory
-bash: /DietPi/dietpi/login: No such file or directory

 

I checked the /DietPi/ directory and it is empty... It seems like maybe something is not mounting properly? Any help is appreciated.  I would flash the whole system, but I don't currently have a microSD reader...

[luisma]

On 1/28/2019 at 11:21 PM, Lukasluis said:

Same here. At first I thought that by removing the jumper the sparky and the usb board will need to be powered separately but I was wrong. I can use my unit by applying power to any of the DC ports and power to both ports as well. 

Months ago when I installed mine for the 1st time I was doing some testing on power consumption and noticed that bridge and sparky still share power, I believe you will be safer if you apply power to both and you will get better SQ if the power applied to the bridge comes from a good quality source 

 

[bamyasi]

Hi,

 

Looks like I am having serious enough problem with my USBridge.

 

I have installed Plex Media Server using dietpi-software tool and it worked like a charm: installation, initial setup, everything. However, as soon as I have added my musical library to Plex and started scanning it, in just 5 minutes CPU temperature jumped to 70C, according to 'cpu' tool:

Temperature | Warning: 70'c : 158'f | Reducing the life of your device.

I have cancelled Plex media scan operation but what can I try next? I read that CPU temperature readings on the Sparky board can be unreliable and often exaggerated. However, I do not want to risk killing my CPU. Is there a simple way to throttle CPU temporarily when overheating? I do not mind if the initial media scan takes much longer.

 

Thanks,

Bamyasi

[Lukasluis]

You may underclock the CPU using dietpi-config. 

[bamyasi]

4 minutes ago, Lukasluis said:

You may underclock the CPU using dietpi-config. 

 

Also, does anyone know about any alternative (and performing better) heatsinks that would fit onto Sparky CPU? Unfortunately, my USBridge uses acrylic case since aluminum cases were out of stock when I was ordering mine (they still is) and I was then not aware of the heating improvement it would provide. So my best bet now would be installing better heatsink I guess.

[bassivus]

On 1/25/2019 at 10:33 AM, GerardA said:

@bassivus Thanks for the link to the diy-powersupply. I was thinking of building one myself but did not check it out yet.

I use a sbooster on my minidsp 2x4hd and it makes a big difference. But buying another one for the allo gets a bit to much for me.

Building one should be much cheaper and I like to diy.

Can you update us on the sound improvement?

The improvment with LPS powering all with j28 was HUGE. Now with j28 removed and separate powering I can say that this little gizmo for the first time bested my reference dedicated CD transport. Of course direct comparing the two is Allo on USB and CD on spdif DAC input. The only thing that sound from spdif/CD transport is still better is calmness and blackness... hard to describe. But depth, positioning and details are stunning now with LPS on USBrige and standard smps on Sparky

[bamyasi]

16 hours ago, Lukasluis said:

You may underclock the CPU using dietpi-config. 

 

Thanks, gave it a try and it did work to some extent but the effect was minimal even with high freq. limit set at 504MHz (1/2 full freq). Still running at about 60C during CPU intensive tasks. Setting it to the lowest possible freq. @204 MHz helps to tame the CPU temperature but renders Sparky/DietPi pretty much unusable due to slow reaction and poor performance overall.

 

I will be looking into installing some sort of heatsink/fan combo since even just removing top acrylic lid from the case already decreased CPU temperature by 2-3C on average.

[volpone]

Hi @ALLOsupport

Using NAA (3.5.4-38) with DietPi (6.19.7) on ALLO USBridge (Sparky Kernel version 3.10.38) to feed my DAC. 
I've recently discovered something weird when playing (PCM / DSD whatever the resolution):
dmesg output (about every second): delay: estimated 0, actual X 

DietPi ssh terminal: 

> dmsg -wH 

DAC ON

[Feb. 4 16:03] usb 4-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 7 using aotg_hcd 
[+0,000025] aotg_hcd aotg_hcd.1: device addr: 0x00000082 
[+0.080071] aotg_hcd aotg_hcd.1: <DISABLE EP> ep0 index 0 from ep[in] 
[+0.019897] aotg_hcd aotg_hcd.1: device addr: 0x00000082
[+0.000719] usb 4-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor = 16d0, idProduct = 071a 
[+0,000013] usb 4-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr = 1, Product = 2, SerialNumber = 3 
[+0,000008] usb 4-1.1: Product: Combo384 Amanero 
[+0,000006] usb 4-1.1: Manufacturer: Amanero Technologies 
[+0,000007] usb 4-1.1: SerialNumber: 413-001 
PLAY

[Feb. 4 16:04] iso_packets: 0, bInterval: 1, urb_interval: 1, reg_con: 0x4 
[+0.000160] iso_packets: 0, bInterval: 6, urb_interval: 32, reg_con: 0x4
[+0,198317] delay: estimated 0, actual 177 
[+0,999997] delay: estimated 0, actual 177
[+1.000004] delay: estimated 0, actual 177 
[+0,999999] delay: estimated 0, actual 177
[+1.000126] delay: estimated 0, actual 177 
[+0,999998] delay: estimated 0, actual 177 
[+1.000002] delay: estimated 0, actual 177 
[+0,999999] delay: estimated 0, actual 177 
[+1.000124] delay: estimated 0, actual 177

.... and so on until PAUSE

 

Sound is perfect, no issue !

No such messages when playing from RoonBridge .

I've looked at https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15204#p407215 seems same messages output using MPD ?

Any idea why these messages ?
 

I've cross posted to HQPlayer NAA thread to ask @Miska advice but don't know yet where networkaudiod logs are located. 

Thank you ...

[Frederic]

On 1/30/2019 at 7:01 AM, davedre said:

I've managed to reset my root password. However I just upgraded to dietpi 6.20.6 and now I'm getting these messages on login:

 

-bash: /DietPi/dietpi/func/dietpi-globals: No such file or directory
-bash: /DietPi/dietpi/login: No such file or directory

 

I checked the /DietPi/ directory and it is empty... It seems like maybe something is not mounting properly? Any help is appreciated.  I would flash the whole system, but I don't currently have a microSD reader...

 

Hi, I ran into the same problem

[davedre]

2 hours ago, Frederic said:

 

Hi, I ran into the same problem

 

According to Allo support, the empty directory was due to an issue with my upgrade from dietpi v 6.7 to 6.20.  It seems that the dietpi 6.11 upgrade requires a re-flash and can't be done from the command line without breaking the system.

[Frederic]

13 hours ago, davedre said:

 

According to Allo support, the empty directory was due to an issue with my upgrade from dietpi v 6.7 to 6.20.  It seems that the dietpi 6.11 upgrade requires a re-flash and can't be done from the command line without breaking the system.

Thanks for the info!

[volpone]

On 2/4/2019 at 9:03 PM, volpone said:

Hi @ALLOsupport

Using NAA (3.5.4-38) with DietPi (6.19.7) on ALLO USBridge (Sparky Kernel version 3.10.38) to feed my DAC. 
I've recently discovered something weird when playing (PCM / DSD whatever the resolution):
dmesg output (about every second): delay: estimated 0, actual X 

DietPi ssh terminal: 

> dmsg -wH 

DAC ON

[Feb. 4 16:03] usb 4-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 7 using aotg_hcd 
[+0,000025] aotg_hcd aotg_hcd.1: device addr: 0x00000082 
[+0.080071] aotg_hcd aotg_hcd.1: <DISABLE EP> ep0 index 0 from ep[in] 
[+0.019897] aotg_hcd aotg_hcd.1: device addr: 0x00000082
[+0.000719] usb 4-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor = 16d0, idProduct = 071a 
[+0,000013] usb 4-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr = 1, Product = 2, SerialNumber = 3 
[+0,000008] usb 4-1.1: Product: Combo384 Amanero 
[+0,000006] usb 4-1.1: Manufacturer: Amanero Technologies 
[+0,000007] usb 4-1.1: SerialNumber: 413-001 
PLAY

[Feb. 4 16:04] iso_packets: 0, bInterval: 1, urb_interval: 1, reg_con: 0x4 
[+0.000160] iso_packets: 0, bInterval: 6, urb_interval: 32, reg_con: 0x4
[+0,198317] delay: estimated 0, actual 177 
[+0,999997] delay: estimated 0, actual 177
[+1.000004] delay: estimated 0, actual 177 
[+0,999999] delay: estimated 0, actual 177
[+1.000126] delay: estimated 0, actual 177 
[+0,999998] delay: estimated 0, actual 177 
[+1.000002] delay: estimated 0, actual 177 
[+0,999999] delay: estimated 0, actual 177 
[+1.000124] delay: estimated 0, actual 177

.... and so on until PAUSE

 

Sound is perfect, no issue !

No such messages when playing from RoonBridge .

I've looked at https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15204#p407215 seems same messages output using MPD ?

Any idea why these messages ?
 

I've cross posted to HQPlayer NAA thread to ask @Miska advice but don't know yet where networkaudiod logs are located. 

Thank you ...

 

Hi @ALLOsupport , @allo.com 

Any idea on why these messages when playing from NAA (networkaudiod) at any rate ?

I updated DietPi from 6.19.7 to 6.21.1 (and therefore networkaudiod from 3.4.4 to 3.5.5) and still the same messages:
"delay: estimate of 0, real X".

I chatted with @Miska (HQP designer, see https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/13649-hqplayers-network-audio-adapter/?page=118&tab=comments#comment-925941) and he never encountered such messages. He seems to think that they are from kernel and hardware related .. Could you test and / or ask @Daniel Knight ?
 

Thank's 

[ALLOsupport]

On 2/8/2019 at 3:54 PM, volpone said:

 

Hi @ALLOsupport , @allo.com 

Any idea on why these messages when playing from NAA (networkaudiod) at any rate ?

I updated DietPi from 6.19.7 to 6.21.1 (and therefore networkaudiod from 3.4.4 to 3.5.5) and still the same messages:
"delay: estimate of 0, real X".

I chatted with @Miska (HQP designer, see https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/13649-hqplayers-network-audio-adapter/?page=118&tab=comments#comment-925941) and he never encountered such messages. He seems to think that they are from kernel and hardware related .. Could you test and / or ask @Daniel Knight ?
 

Thank's 

this shows the usb packets delay warnings. 

[volpone]

1 hour ago, ALLOsupport said:

this shows the usb packets delay warnings. 

 

Thank you @ALLOsupport ,
 

Apparently no SQ consequences. However, i don't know if this can be related, but I had some unexplained USBridge crashes after several hours playing from NAA (forced me to power off Sparky). Any possibility for these messages to saturate RAM log. Would you recommend me to open a Diepti ticket?
 

Last point: I'm using ALLO supplied USB3 / Ethernet adapter.

[ALLOsupport]

2 minutes ago, volpone said:

 

Thank you @ALLOsupport ,
 

Apparently no SQ consequences. However, i don't know if this can be related, but I had some unexplained USBridge crashes after several hours playing from NAA (forced me to power off Sparky). Any possibility for these messages to saturate RAM log Would you recommend me to open a Diepti ticket?
 

Last point: I'm using ALLO supplied USB3 / Ethernet adapter.

This delay messages observed with Amanaro USB device mainly , will verify this with NAA and update you.

[volpone]

11 minutes ago, ALLOsupport said:

This delay messages observed with Amanaro USB device mainly , will verify this with NAA and update you.

 

OK. I'm actually using AMANERO, no such messages when playing from RoonBridge.

[ALLOsupport]

11 minutes ago, volpone said:

 

OK. I'm actually using AMANERO, no such messages when playing from RoonBridge.

can you update the driver and check.

https://github.com/sparky-sbc/sparky-test/tree/master/dsd-marantz

 

 

[volpone]

31 minutes ago, ALLOsupport said:

can you update the driver and check.

https://github.com/sparky-sbc/sparky-test/tree/master/dsd-marantz

 

 

 

Thank you, i will update and check ...

Could you confirm driver update procedures on DietPi ?

Is one update procedure "safer" than the other ?

ssh root login
cd /usr/src
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sparky-sbc/sparky-test/master/dsd-marantz/snd-usb-audio.ko -O /lib/modules/3.10.38/kernel/sound/usb/snd-usb-audio.ko
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sparky-sbc/sparky-test/master/dsd-marantz/snd-usbmidi-lib.ko -O /lib/modules/3.10.38/kernel/sound/usb/snd-usbmidi-lib.ko
sync
reboot

 

OR

sh root login
cd /usr/src
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sparky-sbc/sparky-test/master/dsd-marantz/install.sh
sh install.sh
reboot