TinyTOSLINK (digital audio output) now for B+, too

[[IDC]Dragon]

Many boards are shipped now, but little feedback. During the last days, german postal service is on strike. There may be delays for the more recent shippings.
Everybody who wrote me should have a positive answer, everybody who payed should have the hardware at least in transit, if not in his hands. During the first rush, I've been preparing envelopes every evening.
One exception: last sunday I got a complaint from somebody, that one of his boards has a short. That made me re-open the already prepared envelopes and test every board I have in stock. Took me 2 days, none of them had a flaw. It was a pity, they've been already nicely sealed in individual ESD protection bags, which I had to cut open. Well, now we're on the safe side, every board did play some web radio from New Zealand (radioactive.fm).

Jörg

[renne]

@Jörg
Is it possible to build a version with FOUR TOS-Link-transmitters? This would allow to transmit 8-channel LPCM as 4x LPCM
stereo. That way any surround-codec could be decoded to multichannel-LPCM driving 4 stereo power-amplifiers.

[[IDC]Dragon]

@Jörg
Is it possible to build a version with FOUR TOS-Link-transmitters? This would allow to transmit 8-channel LPCM as 4x LPCM
stereo. That way any surround-codec could be decoded to multichannel-LPCM driving 4 stereo power-amplifiers.

Short answer: No.
Long answer: The digital audio hardware interface within the BCM2835 supports 2 channels, each up to 32 bits wide. With some external interfacing logic it would be possible to re-interpret this data stream, e.g. double the sample rate and split the samples into 16 bits. The driver which feeds this hardware would need to mux the 8 channels accordingly.
However, the BCM would need to decode your multichannel bitstream into LPCM, too. I'm not sure it is capable of doing so, normally it would just pass it to HDMI?

Jörg

[dslioncub]

Jorg,

what would you need to ship your Toslink module to me? Does it support 5.1. output? I have Rasp Bi Model B+.

Thanks for your answer in advance.

Kind regards,

D.

[etern1ty]

Hi Jörg,

I was wondering if its possible for you to create a TinyToslink for the new raspberry pi's for me? I would be happy purchasing two from you depending on the price you deem reasonable

Would these work on the new raspberry pi 2?

Regards,
Jeremy

[[IDC]Dragon]

Please folks, read a bit into this thread.
Here (one page backwards) is how to order:
viewtopic.php?p=769627#p769627
I wrote that it also works for the new Pi and for 5.1 surround bitstream output.

Jörg

[digitalface]

Ok so I received mine a week or so ago (thanks Dragon!) but does anyone know how I get it recognised under Kodi?

[lnelson]

Ok so I received mine a week or so ago (thanks Dragon!) but does anyone know how I get it recognised under Kodi?

(need to post to enable PM, hope you don't mind)

You don't say if you are using a RaspberryPi 2, but this post from earlier in the thread might help:
viewtopic.php?p=686713#p686713

[armpowered]

For anyone thinking of getting one of these I'd like to say that it makes a really neat/tidy solution. For some time I've had a HifiBerry Digi on an original Pi model B (running PiCoreplayer Squeezebox client) but always felt it didn't look good (might have been the case I hacked!) and more recently I've had a budget PiFi Digi+ on a Pi A+.

The big advantage of the Tiny Toslink card is the ability to fit it inside a standard case, I have it on a Pi A+ in a B+ case (wifi dongle inside) - see attached photos, this combination also uses about a third of the current of the original Pi.

Highly recommended.

Card in case on A+

InPlace3.jpg (60.94 KiB) Viewed 7029 times

End of case cut to take optical socket

FrontSocket.jpg (26.99 KiB) Viewed 7029 times

[foresto]

For some time I've had a HifiBerry Digi on an original Pi model B (running PiCoreplayer Squeezebox client) but always felt it didn't look good (might have been the case I hacked!) and more recently I've had a budget PiFi Digi+ on a Pi A+.

The big advantage of the Tiny Toslink card is the ability to fit it inside a standard case, I have it on a Pi A+ in a B+ case (wifi dongle inside) - see attached photos, this combination also uses about a third of the current of the original Pi.

That describes my situation almost exactly. I missed my chance at a TinyTOSLINK the first time around, so I scoured the net until I found the PiFi Digi+ from a Chinese vendor. It works, but finding a suitable case and support hardware was a pain, and in the end, it looked too bulky for my taste.

I now have a TinyTOSLINK, and it's just about perfect. I even bought the same case as you. I'm very happy with the result. I'll have to sell the PiFi and its case to someone who doesn't mind the larger size (or who needs the built-in IR sensor).

Thank you, Jörg!

[DocPaulUK]

Great - been looking for something like this for a while - I'll PM.

[ElGato]

Love it. I want one.

[qsecofr]

Would like to get one from you

[Alexandro]

Hello Jörg.
I would like to have one board. PM will be sent.
Thanks

[funnylaugh]

Hello Jörg ,
I'm excited.
I would also like to have a board.
PM is on the way

[foresto]

Why are all you people posting "I want one" messages to this public thread? Those of us subscribed to the thread get email every time you post. I realize that Jörg's device is exciting, but unless you have something relevant to add to the discussion, I think just sending the PM would be sufficient.

[Man in a van]

If I remember correctly, one has to make a first post to enable PMs.

Don't be a

Grouch!

Relax

[ElGato]

Received my TinyTOSLINK's yesterday and have to say thank you Jörg. You sir are a star.

It is the perfect compliment to the Raspberry Pi and you should be proud to have produced this, thank you again.

Another small donation coming your way as token of my appreciation. Have a couple of beers on me.

[Alexandro]

Just wanted to say Thanks.
The device has been received today and Immediately installed.
After adding the necessary changes in config.txt Openelec recognized the device as a digi one.

I didn't managed to succeed with raspbmc by unknown reason. The config file looks the same as Openelec's one but the system just refuses to recognize the tiny toslink. I guess this is a rasplex problem.

Anyway, Thank you Jorg for this great addon.

[[IDC]Dragon]

Thanks for the thanks,

ElGato, I had the beers immediately on saturday night.

Have fun listening,
Jörg

[lnelson]

First the good news. This is a great little product and Jörg is easy to deal with. If you are thinking about it, don't hesitate. Thank you so much for creating this product Jörg, it's awesome!

Packaging for the trip in the post (then inside a padded envelope):

shipping_packaging.JPG (59.58 KiB) Viewed 6623 times

Hole cut into the 'official' Raspberry Pi case to gain access to the new port:

official_case.JPG (61.39 KiB) Viewed 6623 times

PS: (a) by Dremel skills are not great, (b) this is not the best case to be cutting a hole there - note I needed to grind away half of the tab holding the top panel on, but it seems to have no ill-effect on the integrity of the case.

Now the only trouble I had was due to my choice of Raspbian + Kodi on the Pi. That combo will not allow you to passthrough DD/DTS over the TOSLink connection. The "passthrough device" option is locked to HDMI and disabled. By all reports the HiFiBerry Digi+ suffers the same issue. Root cause is an issue in the firmware that reports the card in a way that Kodi does not like. Affects both Kodi 14.2 and 15.0RC2. There is a patch to fix it, but getting it working is ... non-trivial.

I've not tested this myself yet, but by all reports OpenELEC5 and OSMC will work out of the box. Daniel from HifiBerry strongly recommends OpenELEC or OSMC be used in his posts on the forum (example: https://www.hifiberry.com/forums/topic/ ... ssthrough/). Those operating systems have applied the necessary patch/hack in their version of Kodi to make it work.

I did manage to get it working in Raspbian + Kodi, but I don't recommend it. Took me two days of mucking around and compiling Kodi on the Pi2 (at 2-3 hours a pop). If you really, really want to, here's some resources:

Basic build-from-source process: http://not-guild.de/temp/kodi.txt
Patch from OpenELEC that fixes this issue, plus a bunch of others: https://github.com/OpenELEC/OpenELEC.tv ... orts.patch

Hints from me:
* You will need upwards of 3.2GB free disk space for the build
* You will probably run out of RAM during the build. Add more swap before you start.
* Because of those first two points, I ended up formatting a USB stick with ext4 and using it for the swap file + build -- no, not the most efficient way to do it, but I only had an 8GB SD card
** PS: if you do this, also put the 'ccache' on the USB drive. Set this shell variable before starting: CCACHE_DIR=/mnt/usb/.ccache export CCACHE_DIR
* The 5.95.2 patch file from OpenELEC looks like is was probably made to work with the last beta of Kodi 15.0, not RC2. I got a build failure relating to two patches that used a 'FF_BUG_GMC_UNSUPPORTED' symbol that did not exist. I manually culled the offending patches - they did not seem important, and it still worked for me.
* I disabled CEC in my build as I did not need it, but someone on the raspberrypi forums did and had problems because the CEC library has been updated since the original build instructions were put together. If you need CEC, use the libccec-2.2.0 version (I think) (see: viewtopic.php?p=789062&sid=ec933c4d7cf7 ... 3a#p789062)
* I needed NFS support, so I had to install the libnfs-dev Raspbian package and add --enable-nfs to the configure command
* I had a but-for-the-passthrough-issue-fully-functional Kodi 14.2 install, so I was a little naughty and just installed my custom 15.0RC2 build over the top of the existing package-installed-14.2 so I got to keep my existing startup scripts, etc. For that to work I needed to add --prefix=/usr to the configure command. Having 14.2 installed and working first may not have been necessary, but I did not want to go all the way back to square one to find out.

[montnemery]

Brilliant
Will send you a PM next.

[Larsl]

First the good news. This is a great little product and Jörg is easy to deal with. If you are thinking about it, don't hesitate. Thank you so much for creating this product Jörg, it's awesome!

Packaging for the trip in the post (then inside a padded envelope):

shipping_packaging.JPG

Hole cut into the 'official' Raspberry Pi case to gain access to the new port:

official_case.JPG

PS: (a) by Dremel skills are not great, (b) this is not the best case to be cutting a hole there - note I needed to grind away half of the tab holding the top panel on, but it seems to have no ill-effect on the integrity of the case.

Now the only trouble I had was due to my choice of Raspbian + Kodi on the Pi. That combo will not allow you to passthrough DD/DTS over the TOSLink connection. The "passthrough device" option is locked to HDMI and disabled. By all reports the HiFiBerry Digi+ suffers the same issue. Root cause is an issue in the firmware that reports the card in a way that Kodi does not like. Affects both Kodi 14.2 and 15.0RC2. There is a patch to fix it, but getting it working is ... non-trivial.

I've not tested this myself yet, but by all reports OpenELEC5 and OSMC will work out of the box. Daniel from HifiBerry strongly recommends OpenELEC or OSMC be used in his posts on the forum (example: https://www.hifiberry.com/forums/topic/ ... ssthrough/). Those operating systems have applied the necessary patch/hack in their version of Kodi to make it work.

I did manage to get it working in Raspbian + Kodi, but I don't recommend it. Took me two days of mucking around and compiling Kodi on the Pi2 (at 2-3 hours a pop). If you really, really want to, here's some resources:

Basic build-from-source process: http://not-guild.de/temp/kodi.txt
Patch from OpenELEC that fixes this issue, plus a bunch of others: https://github.com/OpenELEC/OpenELEC.tv ... orts.patch

Hints from me:
* You will need upwards of 3.2GB free disk space for the build
* You will probably run out of RAM during the build. Add more swap before you start.
* Because of those first two points, I ended up formatting a USB stick with ext4 and using it for the swap file + build -- no, not the most efficient way to do it, but I only had an 8GB SD card
** PS: if you do this, also put the 'ccache' on the USB drive. Set this shell variable before starting: CCACHE_DIR=/mnt/usb/.ccache export CCACHE_DIR
* The 5.95.2 patch file from OpenELEC looks like is was probably made to work with the last beta of Kodi 15.0, not RC2. I got a build failure relating to two patches that used a 'FF_BUG_GMC_UNSUPPORTED' symbol that did not exist. I manually culled the offending patches - they did not seem important, and it still worked for me.
* I disabled CEC in my build as I did not need it, but someone on the raspberrypi forums did and had problems because the CEC library has been updated since the original build instructions were put together. If you need CEC, use the libccec-2.2.0 version (I think) (see: viewtopic.php?p=789062&sid=ec933c4d7cf7 ... 3a#p789062)
* I needed NFS support, so I had to install the libnfs-dev Raspbian package and add --enable-nfs to the configure command
* I had a but-for-the-passthrough-issue-fully-functional Kodi 14.2 install, so I was a little naughty and just installed my custom 15.0RC2 build over the top of the existing package-installed-14.2 so I got to keep my existing startup scripts, etc. For that to work I needed to add --prefix=/usr to the configure command. Having 14.2 installed and working first may not have been necessary, but I did not want to go all the way back to square one to find out.

great job

[c0b4lt]

I'm really interested if one of these for my new 2B. PM otw

[JonathanNet]

I got the TinyTOSLINK today, but I use Openelec version 5.0.8 but I cant get the audio to work with it, should I do something in SSH to get it work?

I have a Raspberry Pi 2 B Model

As you can see I cannot change it to other then HDMI and Analog, and the TinyToslink module it not have the red beam in there, as showing on the pictures.