rickmcinnis wrote:....
ALL HAIL jkeny and his battery scheme!
Steady on there, Rick :)
always seemed strange to me that using battery power for these type of things isn't more common
as there is not any reg that could compete performance wise at this voltage at least not at any reasonable cost
sd card player, modded soekris dac, class a lifepo4 amp or gb class a/b amp, diy open baffle speakers based on project audio mundorf trio 10's
rickmcinnis wrote:....
ALL HAIL jkeny and his battery scheme!
Steady on there, Rick :)
always seemed strange to me that using battery power for these type of things isn't more common
as there is not any reg that could compete performance wise at this voltage at least not at any reasonable cost
Yep, with lifepo4 batteries, its relatively cheap and easy to make this a killer dac.
BTW, I guess I agree that the fpga cap mod was worth it, although for a while yesterday I was doubting it. I think there are a lot of changes that have made small improvements, but taken in total they add up to something special.
So you just pushed the caps? In the middle of the cap?
Unique capacitor test :)
I plan to get my usb chip working first, and then I'll try sychronized mode.
Randy
MSI H81-P33 MB, Xeon E3-1225 V3, LPS/LIFEPO4 and Astron RS-12A, 240gb SSD music, 2nd SSD for OS, Mod SS PCIE USB card, Server2012 R2 Ess+AO+MQn, Amanero USB to DACEND ES9018 to Schiit Lyr amp to Senn HD 700 headphones
My enthusiasm can overshoot its boundaries when it is FULLY justified, jkeny!
Wish Randy had not thought the FPGA cap mod worth the trouble. Guess I will go ahead and order the caps and stare at them for a few weeks.
Wish the clock mod PCI-e card was not needed. I am powering whatever card is there with battery power through the ASROCK riser so the only thing missing will be the clock. When I install all of those caps I may be ready to do that. Might have enough confidence.
Does anybody make a PCB that would make installing the clock easier? Will start looking.
Nigel, do you know anything good or bad about the VIA USB chip? Like I said I am getting purely for troubleshooting. I know the slot works since I have put the video card in there. The riser is getting power. Strange that neither the SILVERSTONE or the JCAT card are recognized.
rickmcinnis wrote:
Wish Randy had not thought the FPGA cap mod worth the trouble. Guess I will go ahead and order the caps and stare at them for a few weeks.
lmao
Honestly, this one is borderline because the caps are so fragile. Although once I pulled the scope out, it was easy to find the bad ones and replace them.
I ordered 100 caps because you get a price break from Mouser there, and I'm glad I had the extra ones so I don't have to worry about running out.
Randy
MSI H81-P33 MB, Xeon E3-1225 V3, LPS/LIFEPO4 and Astron RS-12A, 240gb SSD music, 2nd SSD for OS, Mod SS PCIE USB card, Server2012 R2 Ess+AO+MQn, Amanero USB to DACEND ES9018 to Schiit Lyr amp to Senn HD 700 headphones
[quote="rickmcinnis"
Wish Randy had not thought the FPGA cap mod worth the trouble. Guess I will go ahead and order the caps and stare at them for a few weeks.[/quote]
you could leave it til later its not plain sailing getting these fragile caps on, and there's much else to do
Wish the clock mod PCI-e card was not needed. I am powering whatever card is there with battery power through the ASROCK riser so the only thing missing will be the clock. When I install all of those caps I may be ready to do that. Might have enough confidence.
Does anybody make a PCB that would make installing the clock easier? Will start looking.
iancanada at diyaudio might have adapter boards for clks
Nigel, do you know anything good or bad about the VIA USB chip? Like I said I am getting purely for troubleshooting. I know the slot works since I have put the video card in there. The riser is getting power. Strange that neither the SILVERSTONE or the JCAT card are recognized.
i had a via card before i always prefered the renasas
DIYINHY card is ordered.
Where is the next cliff for us to jump from?
bypass fpga
no idea where to start though
sd card player, modded soekris dac, class a lifepo4 amp or gb class a/b amp, diy open baffle speakers based on project audio mundorf trio 10's
Nah, there's no chance of bypassing the FPGA - it does a number of things specific to the Soekris configuration along with converting the I2S incoming signal into sign-magnitude output which is then directed to L & R channels & within these channels to +ve & -ve legs. It also controls the timing/clocking of these signals to each of the shift regs - they might be serial to each shift reg in the leg or parallel to all shift regs in each leg - only a logic analyser will give you this info. Latching of the parallel outputsall at the same tim eis also controlled by an FPGA signal.
This is probably as far as this design can be tweaked. To do any better would require a different approach which addresses the weak areas of the Soekris design.
www.Ciunas.biz
For Digital Audio playback that delivers WHERE the performers are on stage but more importantly WHY they are there.
jkeny wrote:Nah, there's no chance of bypassing the FPGA - it does a number of things specific to the Soekris configuration along with converting the I2S incoming signal into sign-magnitude output which is then directed to L & R channels & within these channels to +ve & -ve legs. It also controls the timing/clocking of these signals to each of the shift regs - they might be serial to each shift reg in the leg or parallel to all shift regs in each leg - only a logic analyser will give you this info. Latching of the parallel outputsall at the same tim eis also controlled by an FPGA signal.
This is probably as far as this design can be tweaked. To do any better would require a different approach which addresses the weak areas of the Soekris design.
so it would be as easy/difficult as starting a new design
if that's the case were probably not that far off all the soekris dac can be
was letting the sound of the current soekris implementation soak in over the wkend and it is rather impressive even with my desktop pc it is pretty immersive
so it is likely not as vulnerable to upstream and issues this is likely due to the usb hub and its clean power
however upstream issues still prevail and is obvious testing it on the audio pc, it seems there will never be a silver bullet
sd card player, modded soekris dac, class a lifepo4 amp or gb class a/b amp, diy open baffle speakers based on project audio mundorf trio 10's
The ROSEWILL PCI-e USB card ended up having the NEC chip instead of the VIA it said it would.
it did not work, either.
SO, you are not having any problems with an NEC card and XMOS? This is very strange. Cannot imagine the MB being the problem but nothing else would explain it. I know the slot works. I love my little MB!