Adding an External Volume Control

**VaFank** · February 2, 2019, 3:42pm

Hi no my friend once it is configured you dont have to go to the retroarch option. In a game you can change the volume without exit

**VaFank** · February 2, 2019, 4:13pm

I think we dont understand each other. You dont have to do all this. Send me your mail, Im gonna send you a video of how I do without it. Dont do all these complicated stuff

**mills** · February 2, 2019, 7:18pm

Well thank you both alphanumeric & VaFank for taking the time to bother to reply I’m quite amazed by this to be honest.

Alphanumeric I’m not going to have time this evening to play with the config.txt file will look at it tomorrow afternoon when I get some “me time” that doesn’t involve bikes or family, I understand the uncommenting now thanks to your reply and me actually looking at the Rpi forums, no bios huh!

VaFank I honestly don’t know how I send you my e-mail address, but will look into that tomorrow as well.

Again a big thank you to you both.

**alphanumeric** · February 2, 2019, 7:38pm

Yeah, it took me a little while to wrap my head around the no BIOS. The confix.txt is sort of kind of the Pi’s equivalent. It reads that first to turn things on off etc. The nice thing about no BIOS is you can’t brick your Pi by messing with the config.txt. Worst case scenario is it just doesn’t boot. Redo your Micro SD card and your back in business.

If you click on VaFank’s avatar you should get a message option. Click that and you can send him a private message only he can see.

**mills** · February 3, 2019, 3:36pm

Thanks for the “clicking on the avatar” heads up.

**alphanumeric** · February 3, 2019, 5:37pm

No problem glad to help.
Where it is depends on the forum software being used, if its enabled. Some forums have it turned off.
Some times its in plain site some times you have to go look for it.

**mills** · February 4, 2019, 3:49pm

HI all

Ok VaFank I’ve done what you described in the post above to set up the joystick as a volume control in the " input hotkey binds" sub menu of retroarch and absolutely no luck, I’m obviously going wrong somewhere, but I’ve no idea where!.

FYI I updated everything I could find to the newest version then I had a fun ten minutes trying to work out how to log back in, all sorted now, except for the sound obviously, I still think adding an external volume control is easier than what I’ve been doing for the last five hours of Picade use, perhaps there’s some instructions somewhere, but if there are they’re well hidden.

**mills** · February 12, 2019, 9:12am

I have a bit of an update now…

I do still want an external volume control, but at this point I’d be willing to be able to control volume without having to exit out of a game and go into the “ncurses” style volume menu!, I honestly can’t find any other way to control the volume and I’ve re-installed retropie twice and set it up as suggested in the build video.

I’ve tried mapping the joystick & the “select” button to control sound together but retroarch doesn’t allow me to do this and I’ve no idea why, also it only gives me 4 seconds to do it and as soon as I push up and the select button it times out, I think most of the problem is xhat related and specifically it’s stupid sound setup it seems very restricted especially the way it disables the Pi’s on board stereo jack and then doesn’t give an option to re-enable it I realise this isn’t a retropie/retroarch issue but to do with the software you download from pimoroni when you first install the system, I am super tempted to dump it and fit the “zero delay arcade usb encoder” as listed on other sites as I’ve no idea how to get the sound sent through the jack again.

If anyone has any thoughts could you suggest a fix, but at this point dropping £9.00 on the encoder seems like a fair trade to get my sanity back.

**alphanumeric** · February 12, 2019, 10:23am

One way to go about it is to install just Raspbian. Set your sound to the onboard audio jack, confirm it works, then copy that config.txt to a safe place like a thumb drive.
Then install the X-Hat software and compare the two config.txt files to see what was changed.
Then edit the current one to get the stock audio back.
Or rename the current config.txt to config.bak and copy in the one you saved.
Then see if it breaks the X-Hat.

The encoder is likely going to be very hard to setup for volume. IMHO anyway.
Do you have a plan for that already in the works?

**mills** · February 12, 2019, 4:44pm

Hi alphanumeric

I did try installing base Raspbian and thought I’d be able to get something like retroarch up & running but I couldn’t.

I looked at the encoder because it seems to be plug & play, it comes with the wiring for the buttons & joystick and from what I can see you just plug it into the Pi via usb, then setup the button & joystick mapping in retropie and off you go, it leaves the Pi’s audio alone so all I need do then would be to plug in a mono ring tip jack with a log pot for volume and wire it straight to the speaker.

I know I’m going to have to put a power switch on as well I was looking at the on/off shim but considering the trouble I’m having with the xhat set up so far it’s put me off pimoroni stuff.

Or is this wishful thinking.

Obviously I’d prefer to get sound control through the Picade xhat working and then maybe work out how to put external volume control on there, but this is where I am.

Also if anyone’s reading this and is put off from getting a Picade please don’t be they’re great, it’s just that I’m having sound control issues.

**alphanumeric** · February 12, 2019, 5:07pm

Ok, when you said encoder I was thinking this, https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/rotary-encoder-illuminated-rgb
Can you please post a link to the “encoder” you want to use?

**mills** · February 12, 2019, 6:59pm

it’s on a different Pi site, is this allowed?

**alphanumeric** · February 12, 2019, 9:15pm

I think so? I’ve linked to Adafruit stuff, but they also sell Pimoroni stuff. I think I know what it is now anyway, after a Google search. From the product description it “should” work. I’m having a hard time buying into the Zero delay bit though.

**mills** · February 13, 2019, 11:29am

Hello again alphanumeric

yep the “Zero delay” is the bit that stopped me in my tracks (from buying it immediately), I can’t see how it converts the button & Joystick output through to usb without some kind of slowdown, but yeah in case were looking at different things:

https://www.modmypi.com/raspberry-pi/arcade/arcade-controllers/zero-delay-arcade-usb-encoder-and-wire-set

So do we still think “zero delay” isn’t and that there may be a bit of lag?, but the features description does make a bit of a thing about the lack of lag

Anyway thanks for taking the time for a reply, also I had a thought that maybe there really is something wrong with the xhat and that maybe I should contact Pimoroni to ask for some sort of sound control setup instructions, because there doesn’t appear to be any.

**alphanumeric** · February 13, 2019, 12:28pm

Yeah, thats what a google search led me too. I haven’t looked all that close at it but if it emulates a HID (keyboard mouse) device maybe there isn’t all that much lag? I play FPS games on my PC with a keyboard mouse all the time. Now that I give it more thought I guess its no worse than plugging in a joystick and or USB game controller?
I don’t currently own an X-Hat or Picade. I may buy one at some point, not sure when that might be though? So basically I can’t help you with that part of your problem, the setting the volume issue.

If you go to the Shop page, there is a “contact us” link at the bottom. You can use that to contact Pimoroni directly, just put a link to this thread in the support e-mail.

**mills** · February 13, 2019, 2:27pm

Thanks again
I’m going to do that, it’s my last day 'till Monday so I should have some time, and I will link back to this thread, will update here if I get anywhere.

**mills** · February 19, 2019, 9:27am

Hi All

Had a reply from Matt at Pimoroni with a link to the retropie forums:

but it seems the posters there want to do what I want to do! ie at this point just control the sound without shutting down a game!, but as I’ve found there’s no real solution to be had.

If someone reading this has followed the link and understands what to do could you give me a hint.

I spent most of my free time over the weekend trying to get some kind of button mapping to control the sound but I get no where.
I’ve tried installing retropie without adding the pimoroni software for the Picade Xhat but obviously I had serious button & joystick mapping issues, I did get them to work (sort of), so I’m back where I was there doesn’t seem to be a great deal of support for the Picade from Pimoroni for this issue.

My next plan is to buy the zero lag arcade controller (in my link in a previous post) and get an on off button for the Pi ,wire in a mono ring tip jack plug to the Pi’s audio out jack and a log pot to the speaker and see what happens then, as in this link I found:

http://www.learningaboutelectronics.com/Articles/How-to-build-a-speaker-circuit-with-adjustable-volume

it shouldn’t cost too much to do either as I have most of the bits.

I’d like to ask if anyone reads this and knows how, how do I alter my Original Post title from " Adding an External Volume Control" to something more descriptive as I now realise I’d be really happy to settle for easier sound control on the Picade, and people on the forums may not be looking at my post because adding an external volume control isn’t for them.

Thanks for reading.

**mironc** · March 13, 2019, 4:38pm

As per the VaFank post above, I got the in game volume control working using the hotkey and joystick up/down, but there are a couple of problems. First, it doesn’t control the volume in Emulation Station. Second, the volume level is reset when I exit a game, so I need to alter the volume every time I switch to a new game.

The system volume setting in Emulation Station works perfectly - it sets the volume for Emulation Station and all games. Because it alters the system volume, it also remembers the setting across reboots. The problem is that afaik, this volume setting can only be controlled through the Emulation Station menu, so it can’t be used in-game. Does anyone know a way to control the system volume using the hotkey and joystick combo?

**VaFank** · March 13, 2019, 5:55pm

Hi buddy concerning the volume reset when you change the game you can save your config in retroarch > save game override. In emilationstation, I dont think it is possible.
Nb : do you know how to change the brightness if the screen via Retropie (the screen configs doesnt save)?

Thx

**mironc** · March 14, 2019, 5:22pm

VaFank, many thanks for the Save Game Override info, that will let me adjust all my games to get them running at the same volume level.

The next step is getting the system volume control working using keys. Maybe the best option would be to program the Pi and/or XHAT to adjust the system volume with Esc + joystick up/down, so it would work in ES and in-game. I don’t have enough knowledge of the Pi & XHAT to know if that’s even possible, let alone how to do it. If anyone can offer any advice I’m all ears.

Re the screen, if you’re asking about the 10" screen (which is what I have), then no, I don’t know how to change the brightness via Retropie. My guess is it’s not possible. It’s really odd that the screen menu system doesn’t have a save option - what’s the point of being able to adjust brightness, contrast, etc if you can’t save those changes. I noticed a couple of others complained about this in the forums, but I’ve not seen any response from Pimoroni yet.

Regards.