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Volume Pot and Helder AIO

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 10:13 pm
by evillela2001
I have everything wired and working. The sound is the only issue. I can hear the sound coming out the speaker but its really low volume. If I increase the volume through the emulation station menu it starts to break up the sound. If I plug in the headphones I get an insane amount of noise too. Anybody have something like this and know the fix?

Here is the pot that I'm using
http://amzn.to/2iT8bRa

Re: Volume Pot and Helder AIO

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 8:45 am
by kamon
I'm in the same boat as you.
Are you using a USB DAC, or just a low-pass filter?
And, what amp are you using?

Wonder if we could narrow down the issue to it being the potentiometer!

Re: Volume Pot and Helder AIO

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:51 am
by evillela2001
The Helder AIO board has a built in filter and soundcard which is what I'm using.. I have etxra pots too maybe I'll try another one.

Re: Volume Pot and Helder AIO

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 10:01 am
by rodocop
I am using Helders newest all in one board and the same pot as you too, I get a small amount of static from the speaker, which is not noticeable when playing games, but when I put headphones in it is crazy loud with static and basically unusable. I do not have a solution, and the static I get from the speaker doesn't bother me, but maybe someone else has seen this issue, or maybe @Helder can chime in here. I don't really care about the headphones, but it would be nice to solve that problem.

Re: Volume Pot and Helder AIO

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 4:34 pm
by Helder
rodocop wrote:I am using Helders newest all in one board and the same pot as you too, I get a small amount of static from the speaker, which is not noticeable when playing games, but when I put headphones in it is crazy loud with static and basically unusable. I do not have a solution, and the static I get from the speaker doesn't bother me, but maybe someone else has seen this issue, or maybe @Helder can chime in here. I don't really care about the headphones, but it would be nice to solve that problem.
Check the resistors on the left and right of the headphone socket (R15,R16,R17,R18) depending on the value there it's either lower than normal or excessively loud. The amplifier amplifies the headphones and speaker at the same time so since the headphones need less amplification it can be super loud so just turn the volume down when using headphones.

Also as many people don't seem to realize all PWM audio is prone to noise interference so keeping those audio wires from the volume wheel and the PWM pads to the Pi away from data and power wires will help clean the audio up but analog audio will always have some noise in it.

Re: Volume Pot and Helder AIO

Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2017 7:28 am
by rodocop
Thanks @Helder, thanks for the info.

Re: Volume Pot and Helder AIO

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 11:44 am
by Treguard
Is it just the wires from the Pot that cause this? Just wondering if it's worth shielding those wires somehow, or if just a case of running them straight down the side of the case

Re: Volume Pot and Helder AIO

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 11:51 am
by Helder
Treguard wrote:Is it just the wires from the Pot that cause this? Just wondering if it's worth shielding those wires somehow, or if just a case of running them straight down the side of the case
Either option is a good idea to do but trying to keep the PWM wires and volume wheel wires away from everything or shielding them is the way to go.

Re: Volume Pot and Helder AIO

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 2:28 pm
by 144TECH
I've noticed that the majority of ppl just use regular electricity wire, i have never seen speakers or whatever wired like this, for all those having troubles with interference or whatever, you should just use special audio wiring, for example a think isolated wire with red and white wire including ground inside.. that should be the way. and it's always possible to have interference from the PI itself, but here couple of resistors or a capacitor will remove the rest of that noise.

Greets

Re: Volume Pot and Helder AIO

Posted: Fri Jan 27, 2017 5:18 pm
by evillela2001
Helder wrote:
rodocop wrote:I am using Helders newest all in one board and the same pot as you too, I get a small amount of static from the speaker, which is not noticeable when playing games, but when I put headphones in it is crazy loud with static and basically unusable. I do not have a solution, and the static I get from the speaker doesn't bother me, but maybe someone else has seen this issue, or maybe @Helder can chime in here. I don't really care about the headphones, but it would be nice to solve that problem.
Check the resistors on the left and right of the headphone socket (R15,R16,R17,R18) depending on the value there it's either lower than normal or excessively loud. The amplifier amplifies the headphones and speaker at the same time so since the headphones need less amplification it can be super loud so just turn the volume down when using headphones.

Also as many people don't seem to realize all PWM audio is prone to noise interference so keeping those audio wires from the volume wheel and the PWM pads to the Pi away from data and power wires will help clean the audio up but analog audio will always have some noise in it.
So I checked the resistors R15-R18 and all are between 10ohm-12ohm. What should I change these to if I'm getting really low volume on the speaker with the volume pot not affecting the volume at all?