PeppyMeter and moOde

[fdealexa]

Hi Francesco

Thanks for the details. I'll have a look tomorrow if I can reproduce this (and hopefully fix it).

Adrian.

Thanks to you.
Have a nice weekend,
Francesco

[adrii]

Hi Francesco

I removed the mpd_oled ALSA configuration and found that I got the same error if either graphic equaliser was used with those SoX settings (when nothing was set I just heard jittery audio and the Pi Zero was running at 100% CPU). If you wish to use these SoX settings with mpd_oled you will need a custom ALSA config. Look at the messages startimg here:

   https://github.com/antiprism/mpd_oled/is...-804370242

Adrian.

[fdealexa]

Hello Adrian,
That means, probably, It is a limit of the equaliser.
Thank you very much and good weekend,
Francesco

[fdealexa]

Hi Adrian,
if you remember in point 2 of the "post" # 412 of the "thread" "http://moodeaudio.org/forum/showthread.php?tid=155&page=42", I wanted to mean exactly this: to have, in the moOde configuration, the possibility of ENABLING AN ALSA PLUG by providing it with a NAME, in order to have a way to insert any additional object, without having to modify a part (modification of the MPD through .php files) or use a function that is not of interest (use of the graphic equalizer) of the moOde platform.
Probably, in that POST I had not explained myself well, I hope I have done it better now. Thanks for your attention and for your patience and greetings,
Francesco

[adrii]

Hi Francesco

The messages in the link I posted show how to override the graphic equalizer to use it simply as an ALSA entry point. If you use a setup like that you will enable the graphic equaliser in the UI, so Moode knows to send the audio to it, but the equaliser iteself will not be used. The difficulty with this setup is that you need to know the ALSA name of your playback device, as it must be written in the ALSA configuration file (but maybe this can be extracted from the Moode database if you need to automate the generation of the configuration file).

Adrian.

[fdealexa]

Hi Adrian,
it finally works; I had to change the hypothesis that you kindly advised me because the PeppyAlsa only accepts the 16bit-44100 format, which however is not good for the AlsaEqual.
I tried a three way setup:
1. Direct AlsaEqual
2. Direct LoopBack
3. PeppyAlsa with conversion and null output.
but I couldn't use the "type null", so I went back to the two way configuration:
1. Direct AlsaEqual
2. Conversion, PeppyAlsa with LoopBack as output.
Everything works but I noticed that both the meter and the OLED are ahead of the sound.
I then cleaned everything from scratch and noticed this advance, only for the OLED even with the basic configuration.
I have not noticed this advance, however, with the "old" configurations. My configuration output sees Kali reclocker and Audiophonics 9038 DAC. Could the sound delay depend on the reclocker? Frankly with previous configurations I had never noticed. What do you think about it?
Happy Sunday and thank you,

Francesco

[adrii]

Hi Francesco

The Kali reclocker introduces a 0.7 second delay.

   https://www.allo.com/sparky/kali-reclocker.html
   "the FPGA will read the incoming stream, will buffer the DATA 0.7s while discarding the incoming clocks"

This has previously been reported to me, but I have not had an opportunity to add a delay into mpd_oled to account for it. If your Peppy meters are synchronized then maybe there is a Peppy option for this.

Adrian.

[fdealexa]

Hi Francesco

The Kali reclocker introduces a 0.7 second delay.

   https://www.allo.com/sparky/kali-reclocker.html
   "the FPGA will read the incoming stream, will buffer the DATA 0.7s while discarding the incoming clocks"

This has previously been reported to me, but I have not had an opportunity to add a delay into mpd_oled to account for it. If your Peppy meters are synchronized then maybe there is a Peppy option for this.

Adrian.

Thanks, Adrian,
So the delay was not a feeling!!!
Thanks and best regards,
Francesco

[fdealexa]

Hi Adrian,
I'm testing the "mpd_oled" configuration in the "alsa" version and I found that without any additional DAC, using the raspberry headphone or HDMI output (rpi both 3 and 4) gives the following error:

MPD error
Failed to open "ALSA Graphic EQ" (alsa); Error opening ALSA device "alsaequal"; snd_pcm_hw_params_set_buffer_time_near () failed: Invalid argument

 or 

MPD error
Failed to open "ALSA Parametric EQ" (alsa); Error opening ALSA device "eqfa12p"; snd_pcm_hw_params_set_buffer_time_near() failed: Invalid argument

I also tried to force the output (in asound.conf) to hw: 0,0 (HDMI) or hw: 2,0 (headphone).
Obviously all this happens when one of the equalizers is enabled.
Thank you and greetings,
Francesco

[adrii]

Hi Francesco

If the error is due to an incompatibility between your settings and the equalisers (rather than a direct issue with the mpd_oled configuration) then what is happening next may be that after producing the ALSA error MPD has not restarted correctly, and so you can put good seetings into /etc/asound.conf but MPD does not read them and you end up with the same ALSA error. Try editing /etc/asound.conf to use your device (bypassing the equaliser) and then restart MPD with 'sudo systemctl restart mpd' and then click on MPD Config "SAVE". I don't know all the details of this, it is just something I have noticed.

Do you get the same error with SoX disabled?

If you are still unable to troubleshoot this, then please run the following commands and post the contents of report.txt

Code:

wget http://www.antiprism.com/misc/mpd_oled_moode_audio_copy_report
bash mpd_oled_moode_audio_copy_report > report.txt

Adrian.