PC Speaker Wake-up

[Cutlass_Stallion]

Greetings Everyone,

I purchased a pair of desktop speakers not too long ago, the Creative GigaWorks T40 Series II. They are fantastic speakers, however they have this annoying feature where they automatically shut off after 10 minutes of non-use. Supposedly, it's an energy saving feature to comply with European environmental laws.

I was initially going to put up with this, until an idea hit me: I wonder if the Raspberry Pi can be used in such a way to output signal and keep the speakers active? In all, I would like the Raspberry Pi controller to:

1. Stay inactive when music is playing (so it doesn't potentially interrupt/break the middle of a song)

2. Send signal every 5 minutes or so when it detects non-use in order to keep the speakers from dipping into standby mode.

Is the Raspberry Pi capable of such a task? I envision sending this "wake-up pulse" via the Pi's audio out jack and into the audio in of my speakers (which it has 2 of). As for how to make it discern between "audio playing" and "audio not playing" in feature #1 above, I'm not completely sure how that would work...

I'd appreciate your feedback!

[Paul Webster]

An alternate route might be to open them up and see if there is a jumper inside for EU/non-EU modes.
Of course, this would be at your own risk.

[redhawk]

According to some of my online searches the speaker's power saving function cannot be disabled nor does it possess any kind of jumper.
This leaves you with 2 choices: either periodically play an inaudible wav clip i.e. 24kHz sine waveform @ 96kHz sample rate, or open the speaker locate the "lame" R/C timing circuit on the board, find the capacitor output pin and with resistor pull up to +vcc or down to ground.

Richard S.

[Richard-TX]

Years ago, the FM radio stations would send out a subaudible low frequency tone at the beginning and end of every commercial break. This was easily seen on an oscilloscope but totally inaudible. A 15 hz tone burst should keep the speakers alive.

[ame]

Greetings Everyone,

I purchased a pair of desktop speakers not too long ago, the Creative GigaWorks T40 Series II. They are fantastic speakers, however they have this annoying feature where they automatically shut off after 10 minutes of non-use. Supposedly, it's an energy saving feature to comply with European environmental laws.

Thanks for the review. I shall add these things to my "Do not buy" list.

However, back on topic, once the speakers have shut themselves off what do you have to do to turn them on again? Do you have to press a button, or power-cycle them, or something?

If it's 'pressing a button' then the Pi can be tweaked to do exactly that. Bonus- you get to use the power saving feature.

[BMS Doug]

Greetings Everyone,

I purchased a pair of desktop speakers not too long ago, the Creative GigaWorks T40 Series II. They are fantastic speakers, however they have this annoying feature where they automatically shut off after 10 minutes of non-use. Supposedly, it's an energy saving feature to comply with European environmental laws.

Thanks for the review. I shall add these things to my "Do not buy" list.

However, back on topic, once the speakers have shut themselves off what do you have to do to turn them on again? Do you have to press a button, or power-cycle them, or something?

If it's 'pressing a button' then the Pi can be tweaked to do exactly that. Bonus- you get to use the power saving feature.

from what I read: the speakers self wake as soon as an output is sent to them, unfortunately it takes awhile to warm up and the first 3 seconds of transmission are lost.

[Tarcas]

Greetings Everyone,

I purchased a pair of desktop speakers not too long ago, the Creative GigaWorks T40 Series II. They are fantastic speakers, however they have this annoying feature where they automatically shut off after 10 minutes of non-use. Supposedly, it's an energy saving feature to comply with European environmental laws.

Thanks for the review. I shall add these things to my "Do not buy" list.

However, back on topic, once the speakers have shut themselves off what do you have to do to turn them on again? Do you have to press a button, or power-cycle them, or something?

If it's 'pressing a button' then the Pi can be tweaked to do exactly that. Bonus- you get to use the power saving feature.

from what I read: the speakers self wake as soon as an output is sent to them, unfortunately it takes awhile to warm up and the first 3 seconds of transmission are lost.

In that case, just write a shell script to send a brief inaudible tone at low volume to the speakers, wait 5 minutes, and do it again. Not sure how it'll affect any music that's currently playing, or how exactly to define "inaudible tone" and "low volume." These will probably require some experimenting.
Alternatively, any time you're going to start music or whatever, just have it play something the exact length of the wakeup cycle before starting the actual sound you want to hear. Then you still get the reduced power usage. You still have a delay, but at least your own media isn't cut off at the start.

[BMS Doug]

In that case, just write a shell script to send a brief inaudible tone at low volume to the speakers, wait 5 minutes, and do it again. Not sure how it'll affect any music that's currently playing, or how exactly to define "inaudible tone" and "low volume." These will probably require some experimenting.
Alternatively, any time you're going to start music or whatever, just have it play something the exact length of the wakeup cycle before starting the actual sound you want to hear. Then you still get the reduced power usage. You still have a delay, but at least your own media isn't cut off at the start.

I don't think the pi is intended to be the primary sound source, just desired to be a snooze button on the eco function (using the second input).

Some experimentation is needed:
What is the effect of two sources being active at the same time?
How long does the source need to be active to prevent shutdown?
Is there a minimum volume or frequency required to prevent shutdown?

[PiGraham]

If the Pi isn't the sound source, and so doesn't know when music is about to play, it would be a good idea to connect an audio input device so that the Pi can monitor the line for long silences and only output the keep-alive tone when it's quiet. A cheap USB sound card should do.

[Cutlass_Stallion]

In that case, just write a shell script to send a brief inaudible tone at low volume to the speakers, wait 5 minutes, and do it again. Not sure how it'll affect any music that's currently playing, or how exactly to define "inaudible tone" and "low volume." These will probably require some experimenting.
Alternatively, any time you're going to start music or whatever, just have it play something the exact length of the wakeup cycle before starting the actual sound you want to hear. Then you still get the reduced power usage. You still have a delay, but at least your own media isn't cut off at the start.

I don't think the pi is intended to be the primary sound source, just desired to be a snooze button on the eco function (using the second input).

Some experimentation is needed:
What is the effect of two sources being active at the same time?
How long does the source need to be active to prevent shutdown?
Is there a minimum volume or frequency required to prevent shutdown?

First of all, thank you for your kind reply. I did not expect to get so many messages regarding this small issue, but I'm overwhelmed by all the great suggestions on here! You are correct, I was looking for a way to keep the speakers active and prevent them from slipping back into "standby" mode. In answer to your questions:

1. Having two sources active keeps the speakers on. Playing sounds in both sound inputs on the speakers will mesh the noises together if played simultaneously (i.e., if my iPod and PC are connected to them, email alert chimes can be heard over the music).

2. When in standby mode, it seems to take the speakers good 2-3 seconds from the time I push play on the iPod to finally hear the music.

3. I am unclear on this at the moment, but I will test this out first thing next week. I know that simply moving from song to song on the iPod generates these light "click" noises, and those are enough to wake the speakers up (after 2-3 seconds of constant clicking of course).

I liked the previous commenter's idea of generating an inaudible pulse every 5 minutes to keep them awake, however this would of course take concern #3 of yours into consideration. I will test this out on Monday and let you know how it goes (I see there is a YouTube video of 10 minutes of silence, so this should be a perfect test ).

[Cutlass_Stallion]

According to some of my online searches the speaker's power saving function cannot be disabled nor does it possess any kind of jumper.
This leaves you with 2 choices: either periodically play an inaudible wav clip i.e. 24kHz sine waveform @ 96kHz sample rate, or open the speaker locate the "lame" R/C timing circuit on the board, find the capacitor output pin and with resistor pull up to +vcc or down to ground.

Richard S.

That is a great suggestion! I will have to test and see what audio level "reawakens" the speakers, but I don't think it takes much. I know the gentle clicking of my iPod when I move from song to song is enough to reawaken them, but I'll need to see how low I can go. As for your suggestion of getting to the timing circuit, I attempted trying to get inside these things a few days ago, but it's rather solid and tough to get through the outer chassis (even after removing all the screws). I'm afraid of breaking them if I put too much force in disassembling them, so I think I'll stick with my original idea of an external awakening source for now.

[Cutlass_Stallion]

Years ago, the FM radio stations would send out a subaudible low frequency tone at the beginning and end of every commercial break. This was easily seen on an oscilloscope but totally inaudible. A 15 hz tone burst should keep the speakers alive.

Great suggestion! I will give this a shot next week and see if that provides enough signal to reawaken them. If that's the case, the Raspberry Pi solution could be the answer.

[Cutlass_Stallion]

Greetings Everyone,

I purchased a pair of desktop speakers not too long ago, the Creative GigaWorks T40 Series II. They are fantastic speakers, however they have this annoying feature where they automatically shut off after 10 minutes of non-use. Supposedly, it's an energy saving feature to comply with European environmental laws.

Thanks for the review. I shall add these things to my "Do not buy" list.

However, back on topic, once the speakers have shut themselves off what do you have to do to turn them on again? Do you have to press a button, or power-cycle them, or something?

If it's 'pressing a button' then the Pi can be tweaked to do exactly that. Bonus- you get to use the power saving feature.

Haha, I'm glad I could help . They really are great speakers though (the best desktop speakers I could find that don't require an external amp to achieve deep mid-ranges). After some reading, there does appear to be a different SKU that doesn't have the auto shutoff feature; unfortunately I do not know how to find them. It's only the European models that have this power saving feature.

To answer your questions, the only thing that "reawakens" the speakers appears to be signal sent from the sound source into the audio-in jack of the speakers. There is no switch or option on the speakers to shut this feature off. The only other way to reawaken them is to of course turn the speakers off and then on again, which involves rotating a physical dial (the volume knob) all the way to the off position. Also, pulling out the audio cord from the iPod and reinserting, while keeping the other end of the audio cord plugged into the speakers, reawakens as well. Interesting idea you suggested with the Pi though; I can think of a few other devices that I have that could benefit from having a power saving feature installed.

[t23]

play an inaudible wav clip i.e. 24kHz sine waveform @ 96kHz sample rate

Just wanted to say thank you - this solved a huge issue i had with keeping my soundbar awake.