I connected the pHAT BEAT to the Pi Zero, booted and installed the software according to the getting started tutorial. After installing and rebooting, the setup does not work anymore: The Pi boots (LED flickers as before) and at some point, the speakers make a popping noise and the Pi reboots, speakers pop, etc. ad infinitum. If I remove the BEAT, the Pi boots as usual. I suspect that something goes wrong when the driver activates the BEAT. Any ideas, what I can do to fix this? The solder joints look ok, but maybe I have to resolder them? Or is it possible that I broke something by overheating?
If you can post a picture of your soldering. A good close up.
If it was me I’d do up a fresh install of Raspbian. Then give the one line installer another go. If it glitches again its pretty certain its a hardware issue.
What’s the current rating of your power supply?
I have the same experience using phatbeat with two speakers in stereo mode attached to RPi3B. Towards the ennd of the bootprocess there is lots of speaker pops and cracks and the device reboots. The powerunit cannot cope with such high current surge. I used the official 5V 2,5A psu. So I removed one speaker and it didnot reboot. It also happend using RPi0W with phatbeat 2 speaker. I am convinced the dc-component on the speaker terminals causes a nearly 2,5 A extra current spike. Speakers used are the pimoroni 5W 4ohm
Pi Zero W > pHat Beat > stereo speakers no reboots. 2.5A power supply. I’m pretty sure I’ve also run it on a 2A power supply with no issues. My speakers are an old Logitech R20 set, (original amplifier removed).
The power supply is rated 1A.
This could be a problem. Depending on the speakers you’re using, they could be drawing too much current when firing up. The speaker “pop” is the moment at which power hits the DAC and speakers are pulled from their resting position. I’d definitely recommend trying a beefier power supply.
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What he said. 1A likely isn’t enough. I’d recommend 2.5A, if your like me an occasionally crack up the volume. ;) 2.5 amps should let you go to 11.
Thanks for the comments and suggestions!
It seems like a design mistake to me that this current spike occurs. Yes, the speakers are an inductive load, but why do the have to be moved from the resting position at all when the DAC is activated?
Unfortunately, I (or the setup) will have to live with a limited power supply because I want to power it with a battery.
Would it be helpful to add a large capacity to the power line? If yes, 3V3 or 5V?
What type of battery? If LIPO this may work for you, https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/mp2636-power-booster-charger-module •Boost mode Maximum output current: 2.5A
Yes LIPO. The linked item is currently out of stock. I have the PowerBoost 1000 Charger, but it provides “only” 1000mA.
I also have a 1000c. It’s powering a Pi A+, Sense Hat, and a few other odds and ends. I haven’t measured my current draw, but no issues so far and I’m using the LED matrix on the Sense Hat. I’m hoping to get one of the ones I linked too for a rover project. I don’t think a 1000c will be enough. 4 motors to power plus some other bits. Sorry, didn’t notice it was out of stock.
What about an e-cap between power and GND to provide the energy for the current spike? I have some 1000uF e-caps lying around.
Might work. I think you’ll still have issues playing any music. Especially if you turn the volume up. 3W per channel is 6w total. That’s 1.2 A at full volume. Granted you likely won’t run at full volume but at half that’s 600 ma. Plus what the Pi draws, which is ~150ma at idle, plus what the pHat beat uses to drive the LEDs.
And that pop you hear, I get it every time I switch channels. There is info on mitigating it, I tried it once and it didn’t work for me. I think I made a typo though. I do believe plans are afoot to clean it up and roll the fix into the one line installer. I don’t know if that been done yet though. I’m still running and older install on Jessie.
@gadgetoid would know the status on the pops issue.
The config I use for pop reduction is here: https://gist.github.com/Gadgetoid/3301cec3e47495e75b31d3120d8f17d9
You should be able to install this by running: curl get.pimoroni.com/pulseaudio | bash
Thanks for that, will be redoing my setup shortly and will give it a go. Jessie is recommended right?
Shouldn’t that be
curl https://get.pimoroni.com/pulseaudio | bash
:P
But yes, it should be. The https bit is good practise, albeit not strictly necessary.
Ok, cool. Haven’t tested it yet, but I will. Other things got in the way of my tinkering around.
Did a fresh install and ran the curl https://get.pimoroni.com/pulseaudio | bash. Still getting pops on channel change. They may not be as loud as there were, hard to say for sure.