Misc. sharing for building Raspberry Pi 5 as music server

[hkphantomgtr]

The rest is particularly for/from my Pi 5 music server project.

Just get your pi 5 updated. 

Code:

sudo apt update && apt full-upgrade -y
sudo rpi-eeprom-update -a

But don't use "rpi-update" to update the pi 5 firmware as even the beta firmware will be used.  And from the web info, we are advised not to update the pi 5 firmware FREQUENTLY.

This time, besides adding a power filter hat (it got a dc socket to accept DC 5V input and different types of capacitors and then supply the power to the whole system thru GPIO), I used battery to power Pi 5.  In internet there are few battery hats for pi (for stacking purpose), and most of them cannot provide 5VDC 5A/6A as almost all of them are made for Pi4 and before. Finally I chosen one can provide 5VDC 5A and get it connected to my Pi 5.  Yet Raspberry Pi OS and Ubuntu Desktop keep saying it's not supplying 5V 5A.  The speed of Pi, and wireless connection become very very slow.  









With the help from the seller, I learnt that if I don't power the Pi 5 with 5V 5A/6A PD power supply thru the onboard USB C socket, then I need to add a line in eeprom by Raspberry Pi OS to make Pi 5 to accept more current from other DC inputs.


 

Code:

sudo rpi-eeprom-config -e

after adding following line at the end of the file, then Ctrl-O to overwrite, Ctrl-X to exit.  The screen will show few lines saying something like the flashings are successful.  And then reboot to take effect.
 

Code:

PSU_MAX_CURRENT=5000 

Here, one have to use Raspberry Pi OS to update the eeprom prior flashing and use other OS, e.g. ubuntu, on that Pi 5.  Or, Pi 5 doesn't accept 5A current.  I guess the installer of other OS read the eeprom and set something can't be changed afterward.  I used Raspberry Pi OS, and Ubuntu Desktop to test few times to confirm.  In short, if one is powering Pi 5 with LPS or anything other than a PD USB C power supply, and DIDN'T add this line in eeprom before, you HAVE to use Raspberry Pi OS to update it (ubuntu can't do the job in my setup), and reboot Pi to take effect.  And then re-flashing and re-installing Ubuntu server and other OS used on this Pi 5, so to the SnakeOil again.  Or your Pi 5 is still running in low power supply mode, even you've updated eeprom.

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentatio...AX_CURRENT
 

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Besides this, I'd like to remove the snap service, too.  This is useless to me but occupying CPU cycle.
 

Code:

sudo systemctl disable snapd.socket
sudo systemctl disable snapd.service
sudo systemctl disable snapd.seeded.service
sudo snap remove snap-store
sudo apt autoremove --purge snapd

Please be noticed that, some of the above items may not present in your system.
 

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For the analogue and digital audio hats, initially I thought ubuntu, Raspberry OS, and some other big name audio OS will auto detect the hat and configure accordingly and automatically.  But NONE.  All shows no audio device found.  Some audio OS got a nice webui to let me to choose from a long list.  Some got to input manually in the cli, including ubuntu and raspberry OS.  For the cli case, one got to know the exact name of the overlay (driver) in that OS.  

config file path = /boot/firmware/config.txt
overlay path = /boot/firmware/overlays
 

Code:

sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

In the config.txt, just add this line at the end, under [All] or "Enable Audio hat" in Raspberry OS.  Such as,
 

Code:

dtoverlay=i2s-dac

Please pay attention that the name after "dtoverlay=" must be exactly the same in that folder (no filename extension is needed).

If still doesn't work, I hope adding this line in the same file, above that "dtoverlay=" line will help.
 

Code:

force_eeprom_read=0

Of course, reboot is needed to take effect.  If you've input correctly, in the Player tab of SO webui, the name of corresponding audio hat will appear in the output device field.  And you can assign it to your player as well.

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For the Lan connection, I used to use optical fibre for the galvanic isolation.  ie. switch/router > Lan cable > media converter > optical fibre > media converter > Lan cable > Pi/PC.

These really bled me and took me a lot of space.  From the LPS to the optical fibre and lan cable, they are all good stuff.  Some are generally not available to a layman like me.  In 1.5 yrs ago, I tried a small LAN isolator from iFi.  Wooh.... then I used that simple LAN isolator to replace my optical fibre isolation.

I compared these 2 methods in this way:  I started to play a music file in internal SSD to my USB DAC, and then unplug the LAN cable from this music server (NUC).  I use the sound without lan cable as reference to compare the optical fibre method and iFi isolator.  The result is:
1) optical fibre method gives cleaner and clearer sound, but that's not close to the sound without LAN cable plugged;
2) iFi isolator gives the sound very close to the sound without LAN cable plugged.

That iFi lan isolator just costs a fraction of my optical fibre method.