GPIO G.711 PCM (not I2S) capture for VOIP apps etc

[IBM Portable PC]

I've Googled for hours but can't seem to find a clear answer to this question; is raw PCM input supported as yet? Clearly I2S is supported, at least for output, I guess there's not as much interest in capturing other PCM formats, such as G.711..........

[DougieLawson]

You can't run that stuff without additional hardware. It's a HifiBerry, IQAudio or Cirrus logic add-on that adds that stuff.

[PeterO]

You can't run that stuff without additional hardware. It's a HifiBerry, IQAudio or Cirrus logic add-on that adds that stuff.

They are all I2S devices so out of scope for the OP. And I think they are all DACs not ADCs.
PeterO

[m-h]

They are all I2S devices so out of scope for the OP. And I think they are all DACs not ADCs.
PeterO

Hi PeterO,
The Clac can record from Analogue, so it is a ADC
The others seem to be DAC only.
Greetz Marcel

[PeterO]

They are all I2S devices so out of scope for the OP. And I think they are all DACs not ADCs.
PeterO

Hi PeterO,
The Clac can record from Analogue, so it is a ADC
The others seem to be DAC only.
Greetz Marcel

CLAC ?
PeterO

[IBM Portable PC]

I've not played with raw PCM before, however if I have:

Serial stream
Stream Clock
Stream Framing
Master Clock (if required)

Then why do I need more logic?

I have the stream ready to connect, whilst the BCM2835 clearly supports PCM, and quite possibly down to 8 bits as telephony applications are a target market. From the Broadcom manual:


"The PCM audio interface is an APB peripheral providing input and output of telephony or high quality serial audio streams. It supports many classic PCM formats including I2S.
The PCM audio interface has 4 interface signals; PCM_CLK - bit clock.
PCM_FS - frame sync signal. PCM_DIN - serial data input. PCM_DOUT - serial data output.
PCM is a serial format with a single bit data_in and single bit data_out. Data is always serialised MS-bit first.
The frame sync signal (PCM_FS) is used to delimit the serial data into individual frames. The length of the frame and the size and position of the frame sync are fully programmable." (Page 119)



This thread look interesting, I'll try what's suggested:

viewtopic.php?f=51&t=105712&p=729330&hi ... io#p729330

[IBM Portable PC]

From the link I posted in my previous post, thanks to slashusrbin.

I tried, his Broadcom 2835 suggestion and found an additional playback device via HDMI. However no additional recording devices:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ modprobe snd_bcm2835
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ alsactl init
Found hardware: "bcm2835" "Broadcom Mixer" "" "" ""
Hardware is initialized using a generic method

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ modprobe snd_bcm2836
FATAL: Module snd_bcm2836 not found.

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 0: bcm2835 ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA]
Subdevices: 8/8
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 1: bcm2835 ALSA [bcm2835 IEC958/HDMI]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: UA1A [EDIROL UA-1A], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 1: UA1A [EDIROL UA-1A], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
pi@raspberrypi ~ $

So, I now believe that I don't need any more logic (between my PCM source and the Pi), however I do need a driver that adds a PCM capture device to the 2836/2835?

[DougieLawson]

You need extra hardware. There's NO AUDIO OR VIDEO CAPTURE on a raspberry pi.

[PeterO]

Am I missing something ?

Your title explicitly says "NOT I2S", yet everything in your last but one post points towards you using I2S.

Have you researched I2S to understand what it is and what it can do ?

"From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I2S, also known as Inter-IC Sound, Integrated Interchip Sound, or IIS, is an electrical serial bus interface standard used for connecting digital audio devices together. It is used to communicate PCM audio data between integrated circuits in an electronic device."

PeterO

[IBM Portable PC]

Am I missing something ?

Your title explicitly says "NOT I2S", yet everything in your last post points towards you using I2S.

Have you researched I2S to understand what it is and what it can do ?

PeterO

PCM is not just I2S:

From Wikipedia "The I2S protocol outlines one specific type of PCM digital audio communication with defined parameters outlined in the Philips specification."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%C2%B2S

From Page 119 of the Broadcom manual "The PCM audio interface is an APB peripheral providing input and output of telephony or high quality serial audio streams. It supports many classic PCM formats including I2S."

I am trying to capture a PCM stream that is another "classic PCM format" and not I2S formatted PCM.

[IBM Portable PC]

You need extra hardware. There's NO AUDIO OR VIDEO CAPTURE on a raspberry pi.

The Broadcom2836 DOES have an audio input i.e. discrete PCM.

This means that I either need:

1. A PCM stream to feed it.

2. A CODEC which will take another format, like analogue sound, and convert it to a PCM format the 2836 will accept i.e. a suitable ADC.

[PeterO]

You need extra hardware. There's NO AUDIO OR VIDEO CAPTURE on a raspberry pi.

No one is asking about VIIDEO, and the PI DOES have pcm audio input which is what is being discussed (I now realise)

[
The Broadcom2836 DOES have an audio input i.e. discrete PCM.
This means that I either need:
1. A PCM stream to feed it.
2. A CODEC which will take another format, like analogue sound, and convert it to a PCM format the 2836 will accept i.e. a suitable ADC.

Yes either will work. I've used a PCM1803A as CODEC/ADC and it works just fine as long as it is clock master.

PeterO

PS
The manual says (top of page 121) "The length and polarity of the frame sync is fully programmable and it can be used as a standard frame sync signal, or as an L-R signal for I2S."

So it would seem a simple task to convert exisiting I2S setup code to generate PCM timing signals.

PeterO

[DougieLawson]

How are you going to get the input signal into the RPi? Can it use a regular GPIO pin or does it need specialist hardware?

[IBM Portable PC]

How are you going to get the input signal into the RPi? Can it use a regular GPIO pin or does it need specialist hardware?

The GPIO on the Pi 2 Model B includes PCM input pins:

Pin 12 GPIO18 PCM_CLK
Pin 35 GPIO19 PCM_FS
Pin 38 GPIO20 PCM_DIN

For PCM Output:
Pin 40 GPIO21 PCM_DOUT

[IBM Portable PC]

So it would seem a simple task to convert exisiting I2S setup code to generate PCM timing signals.

PeterO

Simple it should be, however my preferred programming language is solder......... someone must be onto this? A PCM driver opens up all sorts of possibilities.

[PeterO]

Someone will have to modify the I2S driver ! I'll have a look at the kernel code this evening

Dougie, have a look at http://www.peteronion.org.uk/I2S/
I know it needs updating to include the working configuration I use when using Device Tree.
PeterO

[DougieLawson]

Dougie, have a look at http://www.peteronion.org.uk/I2S/
I know it needs updating to include the working configuration I use when using Device Tree.

There's some extra external hardware you're using for that. So you're not doing it with an un-modified RPi.

[PeterO]

Dougie, have a look at http://www.peteronion.org.uk/I2S/
I know it needs updating to include the working configuration I use when using Device Tree.

There's some extra external hardware you're using for that. So you're not doing it with an un-modified RPi.

Are you asleep Dougie, because you seem to not be paying much attention to what is being written. No where have I said it was without extra hardware, infact I clearly said I was using an PCM1803 CODEC. And I've NOT modified the PI either !

PeterO

[drgeoff]

Are you asleep Dougie, because you seem to not be paying much attention to what is being written.

He's not asleep, far from it. But his unbounded enthusiasm to answer as many posts as possible forces him to speed read. He spots a few keywords and then responds to what he imagines was written.

It's a pity because when he does imagine correctly his replies are usually helpful.

[IBM Portable PC]

I'm going to take a closer look at the data sheets for existing Pi sound cards. There's a chance not all of the chips used talk I2S format with the 8253 on the Pi. One may just be PCM and that driver may work, provided its a play and capture driver.

I can't believe PCM has been so neglected, possible projects include:

Streams from DSP based devices (like my application)
MD players can be modded for PCM out
Set top boxes can be modded for PCM out
Digital radio also
Satellite radio
DAT players
Possible VOIP and other telephony applications
Some Bluetooth modules offer PCM in and out
Etc etc etc

[IBM Portable PC]

Someone will have to modify the I2S driver ! I'll have a look at the kernel code this evening
PeterO

Many thanks!

[IBM Portable PC]

My application by the way, is to capture a stream from a DSP based device, specifically a TM320LC17, from the data sheet:

"In the serial mode, sign-magnitude linear PCM (13 magnitude bits plus 1 sign bit for μ-law format or 12 magnitude bits plus 1 sign bit for A-law format) is compressed to 8-bit sign-magnitude logarithmic PCM by the encoder and sent to the transmit register for transmission on an active framing pulse. The decoder converts 8-bit sign-magnitude log PCM from the serial port receive registers to sign-magnitude linear PCM.
Page 96

The specification for μ-law and A-law log PCM coding is part of the CCITT G.711 recommendation."

So a driver that works for me, will suit many telephony/VOIP projects and others.


Googling further, it appears that some have avoided the driver issue to some extender by using a VLSI DSP to transcode the PCM data:

search.php?keywords=Vs1063

The VS1063 appears to be able to convert G.711 to 16 bit PCM...........


A little more research and the VS1063 needs some code too operate.

I'm certain there's a software CODEC, used by VOIP apps, that works with ALSA. I'll keep searching along those lines.

[IBM Portable PC]

After all of the above, it is clear that my application needs a BCM2836 driver which will capture PCM streams other than I2S from the GPIO, specifically in my case, G.711.

I guess I'll have to wait until Pi users turn their attention to VOIP and related applications.........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.711




Although, like PeterO, I find this post by plugh, very interesting:
viewtopic.php?f=44&t=8496&p=604231#p604231

I may work through this, if all goes well, in the end (after a little tweaking), apart from the arecord example given by Plugh, I will hopefully be able to:

g.711 A-law mono: arecord -D hw:1,0 -f A_LAW -r 8000 -c 1 output.g711
g.711 mu-law mono: arecord -D hw:1,0 -f MU_LAW -r 8000 -c 1 output.g711

[IBM Portable PC]

Okay, so I'm not the first to go down this path:

Mefodey tried to connect a GSM module which also had a non I2S PCM connection.

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=8496&p=445697#p445697

[glnmr]

Hi,

Has anyone had any success with Raspberry Pi's PCM (not I2S) interface?

To recap, in my case I'd like to connect a 3G device which has a PCM interface for voice (bothway) to the PCM pins on the RPi. (PCM_SYNC, PCM_DOUT, PCM_DIN & PCM_CLK).

I was expecting that I could configure the RPi to run aplay and arecord on the device to send and receive audio data respectively.

Any pointers as to how to configure the RPi appreciated.