USB sound card overheating with headphones (and now apparently fried)

[HarryManback]

Hi everyone!

I finished my first build two weeks ago, and I am very happy with the result and the overall experience (never used a dremel or a solder before January ). I also made a video to celebrate it (with thanks to the people who helped me, like RodoCop, you can see it here, sorry it is in italian: www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1zggp5hqrY).

Then some days ago I got problem: the audio of my GBZ stopped working.

This is how it happened: first of all, I had to say that I always noticed that while playing using the headphones the audio card overheated. I could clearly feel it in my hand because of its position inside the GB (see image 1). And then, some days ago, while playing I heard some pops, some fuzzzzzzz, and then the audio stopped. Now everything works, except the audio. The sound card red led light I could see before from the inside of the GB is no longer visible, and if I run the command lsusb the system no longer sees the USB card it found when I set up the audio using Chiz's guide. I checked the wirings, but the wires are ok (I mean, wires are connected). This is why I suppose the audio card has gone (fried?).

I have already bought a new USB audio card (identical), and while awaiting delivery I am trying to understand if I made some mistakes in the audio circuitry, to avoid having the same issue in the future.

Ah, another (important?) detail: when the audio stopped working I was playing while charging the battery (it was the first time I was charging and playing at the same time).

In the image 2 there is a scheme of how I build the audio circuit (I set the audio volume only via software, did not use the potentiometer because I had only the orignal one and was very bad).

These are the parts used building the audio circuit:
Powerboost: the Adafruit one
Sound card: the "3D SOUND" cheap USB soundcard
Amp: PAM8403
Speaker: original one
USB: don't know, see image 3

Now the questions: did I make some mistake in building the audio circuit or only got bad luck and found a failed USB card? Has this issue something to do with the audio card overheating? Is audio card heating normal? Is it normal it happens only with headphones? If yes, how can I reduce it?

Many thanks and greetings!

[McGyver]

A USB hub should distribute data. In your drawing it is only distributing power. Is your drawing wrong or did you realley wire your gameboy as mentioned on this drawing? Anyway: if wired as shown there should be no overheat issue, just no ussage of usb hub.

[VeteranGamer]

your diagram is not complete.....
and i suspect you've wired something incorrectly for it to over heat.....

you have a headphone socket and that's not shown in the diagram, especially as the USB sound card was overheating when headphones were plugged in.....

how have you wired the headphones?
do you have a volume wheel, if so how is that wired?
how is the ground for the audio wired (complete circuit)?


please show clear images/photos of your setup....

diagrams wont show completely where you've gone wrong
as the diagram might be correct, but you still might have wired it incorrectly in your build......


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[HarryManback]

you have a headphone socket and that's not shown in the diagram, especially as the USB sound card was overheating when headphones were plugged in.....

how have you wired the headphones?
do you have a volume wheel, if so how is that wired?
how is the ground for the audio wired (complete circuit)?

Whops... just forgot the most important thing...
Anyway: no, as I wrote I don't have a volume wheel because the one I planned to use (the original GB one) was in very bad conditions so I decided to adjust volume only via Retropie (of course now that I have to rebuild the audio circuit I could get a working one and mount it..).
Then: I just tried to take a picture of my headphone jack wirings, but I couldn't because I completely glued the jack and removing the glue without destroying it was impossible. I can only show you a picture of what it was like because I bought a 10-pack so here you have a picture of a new one. It is the PJ324 version, or at least I suppose it is and treated like it was. I see there are small differences from the picture of the scheme below, but the pins are in the same position, and I used them as shown in the scheme. Maybe here is the problem.
Also, to wire the whole audio circuit I followed exactly the scheme below (of course not considering the volume wheel, and wiring datas from the Pi0 directly to the sound card). Here you can have an idea of the ground wirings.

A USB hub should distribute data. In your drawing it is only distributing power. Is your drawing wrong or did you realley wire your gameboy as mentioned on this drawing? Anyway: if wired as shown there should be no overheat issue, just no ussage of usb hub.

Correct: I had some problem with the USB hub data wires, then I realize that I would not use the hub to carry data because I can connect wireless to the Pi0 to load roms and run configs (as I did) so I decided to use the hub only to distribute power. I thought it was easier and cleaner than soldering three wires to the same point in the powerboost (to feed the Pi0, the sound card and the amp).
Are there any problems in doing that?

I'll post pictures of my new audio circuit as soon as I'll get the new USB sound card, delivery estimated in a week, meanwhile I'm playing with no audio...

[VeteranGamer]

I just tried to take a picture of my headphone jack wirings, but I couldn't because I completely glued the jack and removing the glue without destroying it was impossible. I can only show you a picture of what it was like because I bought a 10-pack so here you have a picture of a new one. It is the PJ324 version, or at least I suppose it is and treated like it was. I see there are small differences from the picture of the scheme below, but the pins are in the same position, and I used them as shown in the scheme. Maybe here is the problem.
Also, to wire the whole audio circuit I followed exactly the scheme below (of course not considering the volume wheel, and wiring datas from the Pi0 directly to the sound card). Here you can have an idea of the ground wirings.

I'll post pictures of my new audio circuit as soon as I'll get the new USB sound card, delivery estimated in a week, meanwhile I'm playing with no audio...

taking pictures of headphone sockets and showing diagrams isnt gonna help much....

the issue could be with your wiring, which no one can see (not even you)

i've seen countless amount of times people following certain diagrams and have an issue with their setups....
and it turned out they'd either wired something incorrectly (not following their own diagram)
or there was a poor connection somewhere....


diagrams and pictures don't help, as these are not issues others are facing, especially those that are following the same diagram....
(i would assume you have a self inflicted issue somewhere in your wiring)


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[HarryManback]

Hi everyone.

So I finally got some new parts, and some spare time to rebuild the audio circuit. In the pic the way I did it.
The speaker works fine, but when I plug the headphones I can hear only one channel. What's the matter? Also, at the moment I have no overheating problems, but I did only a 10 minutes gameplay test, first of all I want to hear from both headphones.

[VeteranGamer]

Put the amp after the headphone socket.....

The USB sound card has enough power for the headphones....
(a diagram is available on my Custom Build post)


Also now that you've cleaned it up....
Just used some double sided tape (ideally some VHB tape) to secure the both componates in
There's no need to glue them back in...
(Some Kapton or insulation tape might come in handy)


Also consider swapping the single speaker to two mini speakers....
(Check my Custom Build post for an example)
(Any small tablet speakers will work as well)

Because how you have it...
The output is only via one side, either Left of Right...
This is not Mono audio, so will sound a little off...



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