Time flies when you are having fun, well I am sure it has some some people.

Had a few months break from work and electronics in general which was been quite nice. Got some other hobbies that are now taking over a bit (and getting me more active and fitter which must be a good thing right???).

Started a new job and moved into a new place a couple of months ago so getting back into the swing of things. Trying to get a little area setup so I can get on with more of this stuff. Few interesting ideas in the pipeline (well for me anyway!). 

Still have some half built boards I need to finish off, probably over 8 months ago the last time I used my soldering iron. Now which box are they in....

So I have dug into the ADAU1966 datasheet and evaluation board manual (applies to ADAU1962 as well).

The datasheet states AVDD is 5V, ranging 4.5V to 5.5V only. The evaluation board has the option to feed AVDD 3.3V or 5V.

As per the last blog post, pin 44 also has different information on datasheet and evaluation board manual. And I don't get the expected CM voltage.

Am I smelling a silicon bug here? Just a guess. It was strange that the ADAU1966 suddenly became unobtanium last year. Analog Devices still say it is in product. Farnell at one point said no longer manufactured. Mouser stocks the "lesser" ADAU1962 (non A) saying life cycle is unclear! Which is no good. Digikey says there are 7000 factory stock of the ADAU1966.

Things are clearer looking at the new ADAU1966A and ADAU1962A. They only allow 3.3V on AVDD, so not directly compatible with the old parts which would annoy any volume manufacturers using the product. (You need us to change voltage regulators as well!? But we already have stock of 5V parts... I can hear them saying).

I shall update my design for the A parts, adjust supply voltages. Quite honestly I cannot be bothered with wasting time where part specs seem plain wrong and inconsistent. Drawback is reduced dynamic range, not sure that's an issue. With current design, it works, you just don't get peak to peak voltages as per the ADAU1966 datasheet. No idea if it effects other performance (THD+N etc).


Finally I was looking to order some AK4458VN parts for the new DAC board, and there is no stock. Digikey will let you order from 1+ quantity on 20 week lead time. Cheap as well £4.36 each up to ten, or £3.90 each for 10+ and so on. Will likely have to try this and just wait.

So the CM voltage pin on the ADAU1966 can be 1.5V or 2.25V depending on supply voltage.

It should be 1.5V with 3.3V analog supply, and 2.25V with 5V. So why do I have 1.5V with 5V supply?

The evaluation board manual states that pin 44, used for configuration in standalone mode selects 1.5V (set to 1) or 2.25V (set to 0). However the Rev E datasheet states this should always be set to 0 for standalone mode. Nothing like inconsistent data to help you.

I have tried changing this pin with no difference, the investigation will continue... 

Finally, after quite a break, I have been playing with my 2 input, 8 output box again.

Interesting times. ADAU1452 still works as expected with EEPROM writing/booting fine, I left it at this point before moving last year.

Running the XLR inputs through ADC, DSP, DAC straight to 2 of the outputs works ok. I have played with it hooked up to my Cyrus One and CM10's. With this in the signal chain, or removed, I could not hear any difference. This was driven from my Asus Xonar U7 USB sound card which is pretty good.

Playing a bit more;  sometimes on power up, or using the reset button on the DSP board, there is a lot of static/hiss on the outputs. It seems to be coming from the ADC as unplugging the I2S cable removes the noise. Music still sounds fine, so unsure what is the problem. 

The PCM4202 board has it's own reset circuit, but is not reset from the DSP when this resets. Might trying enabling this with some tacked on wire. 

Had a quick play with ARTA demo. I am using my Xonar U7 for measurements for now. 

I am seeing low level 50Hz noise. This is an artefact of my setup. Even with the DSP box switched off (i.e. doing nothing) similar 50Hz is present (maybe 3dB to 5dB lower). On my Cyrus One, which is a sensitive amp (37dB gain), with the volume at max, I could hardly hear any low level hum. 

I have run some basic THD tests with around 1Vrms on the outputs (max the Xonar U7 line input can take). However these are not accounting for the U7's distortion, although that should be low (not sure at max input level though).
​
20kHz = 0.046% (THD+N)
10kHz = 0.057%
5kHz = 0.045%
1kHz = 0.031%
500Hz = 0.030%
100Hz = 0.029%

I am happy with these for now. There are several issues to resolve, such as why the ADAU1966 reference voltage was low when last measured. All inputs and outputs are single ended, the XLR input negative terminal connects to ground at the Xonar U7 single ended output (which I am lead to believe is the correct way to do it). I also have no idea what I am doing with ARTA as I have not used it before, so this was just a quick play. 

Oh and I also have a 600Hz and 700Hz test signal on two of the other outputs, generated by the DSP, at around 1.7Vrms. Not sure if crosstalk from these has any affect yet. 

Example measurement below:

New boards arrived, with £5 duty/VAT to pay and a stupid £8 Royal Mail handling charge. 

Only one minor issue with one set of boards have a routed slot not routed. 

Also some other boards for some power amps to play with. Might start another site with more of my other hobby stuff on and upload some of these projects to that. 

of the postal system/courier type. So my package of PCBs from China arrived at Heathrow in the UK on the 18 April, not that long ago. Royal Mail promptly sent this to the wrong place near Birmingham on the 19 April and have not updated the tracking information since, except to say they sent it to the wrong place.

So JLCPCB and supporting services can, in two weeks, produce 55 PCBs, of mixed designs, ship them half way around the world, all in very good time. Yet the Royal Mail in the UK cannot tell the difference between the M1 heading north and the A23 heading south, on an island where England is what, 400 miles long? Well done. *claps hands*

 

Finally, after quite a break, I have order some new boards. 7 different designs from JLCPCB. Never used them before, but I know people who have and seem happy with them. Plus they are very very cheap for what's on offer. Not sure if I will have to pay import duties as the order was a little expensive.

4 designs are OHDSP boards, uDSP, uCODEC, CoreOne-xCore200-2.0, and DAC-AK4458 boards. 3 designs are something different, all power amplifier designs, two clones of some Silicon Chip amplifiers, and one a "homage" to the old 1980's Yamaha HCA style amplifiers. Just something to play with, no idea if they will work, or be stable, or sound rubbish, with more modern devices. We will see!

Order towards the end of last week and already being shipped which is impressive.

I have also dug out some other bits and pieces that have been waiting for attention. I have an ST TDA7498/TDA7492 PCB design I ordered back in 2017. PCBs have been sitting in boxes since then, plus most parts to test them. Couple of potential issues with the output filters I have spotted before building (component power ratings), but I shall build them up anyway to test. No point letting them go to waste!

Have put up files for a new simple xmos board (CoreOne-xCORE200-2.0) and an AK4458 based dac (DAC-AK4458). Not committed to release, likely to be a few small mistakes. 

I have been holding on to a few of these design for a long times. I have not had the funds to buy the boards and build them, and keep tweaking the layouts which seems to be never ending. I figure if I just put up the files as I might order them, which I really want to do now!

A small DSP needs a small CODEC (ADC and DAC) board to go with it. So here it is:

4 Differential Inputs and 8 differential outputs.

Not yet tested... but soon!

Ummm, yes. Imagine watching paint dry.... well it would be quicker than this project!

I have several new designs that are in the "output" stage (making Gerbers and documentation, readme files etc).

uDSP is now on GitHub. It is not tested yet, so why do I put it online? Well the files are "released" and nothing I release has any warranty so it is a convenient place to keep track of released files. If you don't have some method for tracking revisions it can get messy very quickly. I was trying to use BitBucket with private repositories, but running two Git systems is also messy.

Oh and what is uDSP? Well it's a 5cm x 5cm version of the other DSP board I have released. Same hardware, all DSP connections available (minus the thermal diode, although that is on test points). 

Why? Not sure, but it seemed like a good idea. Not designed to work with ribbon cables, thinking of more of a stack of boards. Like many other popular hobby boards. I shall order some soon to play with.

Only possible issues, I have used the regulator built into the DSP and cannot work out if being held in reset disables the regulator. The reset circuit works off this regulator, so if the regulator doesn't work in reset then the reset circuit won't work.... Gives me a headache thinking about it.