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  • Author Author: saurocksall
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Rocking The Rocking Raspberry Pi Challenge.. Part 8 Problems I am Facing With Wolfson Audio Card...

saurocksall

Hi Guys, Sorry for the delay My exams are going on currently, so I was busy in them and had no time to write the blog, however I took time to work on the project,

In this post I will discuss about some problems I am facing with the Wolfson Audio Card.. If any one out there can help me please help me out..

 

So Here it goes..

 

First I tried to download the Image file provided by  Wolfson, it took around 15 hours to download, and after I unzipped the file size was bigger than the size of my memory card, I was depressed and angry because of this, So I searched and searched the internet for a solution for this and found ragnar.jensen's Image file which was smaller and I downloaded and installed on my card..

 

After which I am facing these problems :


1). Raspberry pi hangs allot, and gets over heated..


2).Wi-Pi and other USB devices don't work properly, works for some time and then stops completely and then system freezes..


3). When I remove and replace any USB device, Raspberry pi gets restarted, this is strange !!!


4). VLC Media player hangs allot, and shows error in audio output..


5). And the most interesting one is now I can't even get audio output form the Pi's audio jack !!!


The competition is near its end and I am now really far behind because of Wolfson Audio card, I am not a software person, but know the basic stuff, But unlike the PiFace CAD Wolfson Audio card has almost no support and tutorials etc. for making it easy to use, I agree that it is a fine piece of hardware but if it not easy to use its not worth any thing, the Element14 team should really need to focus on to provide some good documentation on how to use it, with some good examples like the PiFace People made, Something like that will be really helpful, and please make a smaller image file for it, or better make it install-able by apt-get or something..


If some one has the solutions to my problems please help me out, I will be really thank full to you guys...

  • Hi Saurabh,

     

    after I unzipped the file size was bigger than the size of my memory card

     

    • What is the size of your memory card ?
    • What class is your memory card?
    • What image are you running on your memory card, if not the Wolfson one ?

     

    If the SD Card is less than a Class 6 then that's a problem which needs to be fixed, Christian tells me you were sent an 8gByte SD Card with NOOBS on it, that should be enough to have the Wolfson Audio Card image written to it (are you using Win32Imager as stated in the User Manual ? Wolfson Raspberry Pi Soundcard Manual (.IMG install) V1.1).

     

    Just to state the obvious you do not directly copy the .img file you download to the SD Card.

     

     

    Raspberry pi hangs allot, and gets over heated..

     

    You will probably find that if you get a new SD Card with a higher Class rating that the majority of your crashes will stop or you will have different problems.

     

    The default Wolfson SD Card Image that you can download from element14 overclocks the Raspberry Pi by default, so you could prevent that if you're using it by just removing those lines from the config.txt (overclock details here: RPiconfig - eLinux.org or here How to Overclock Your Raspberry Pi - Make Tech Easier ).

     

    Also it could be that your power supply isn't up to task; don't run it from a USB port on your computer, use a standalone power supply rated to at least 1Amp, preferably 2Amp.

     

    Failing that, put a heatsink on it. Even if its a few copper coins (I used to do that with my Playstation 2 slimline as a heatsink).

    Wi-Pi and other USB devices don't work properly, works for some time and then stops completely and then system freezes..

     

    This will be related to your SD Card and power as stated above.

     

    When I remove and replace any USB device, Raspberry pi gets restarted, this is strange !!!

     

    This is normal behavior, the Raspberry Pi does not handle USB very well and the Ethernet adapter shares the same chip. My experience has been that it reboots if it is a device that is power hungry (though not out of specification for the device, just something like a WiFi adapter).

     

    VLC Media player hangs allot, and shows error in audio output..

    It would help to copy and paste the errors into a quote on your blog post, but I suspect that this is related to the above issues, namely which SD Card image you're running and the Class of the SD Card.

     

    And the most interesting one is now I can't even get audio output form the Pi's audio jack !!!

    This could be down to any multitude of reasons, it makes sense that if you've got the Wolfson Audio Card and you've used a 'use case' it will have switched the audio output to your Wolfson Audio Card and that this would have to be changed. What the original settings are? I'm not certain. Typically it's easier to just wipe the SD Card and start again.

     

     

    Wolfson Audio card has almost no support and tutorials etc. for making it easy to use

     

    I understand it's my own blog post, but if you are just using Raspbian then the steps I point out here: Can you hear the Wolf(son) calling? Setting up and using the Wolfson Audio Card are relatively straight forward.

     

    The user manual is also a helpful resource to read thoroughly: Wolfson Raspberry Pi Soundcard Manual (.IMG install) V1.1.

     

    Frankly it sounds like the SD Card you're using is what is mainly hindering you if the Class rating is below 6. If you're having problems downloading SD Card images in future, let me know and I'll look at providing a mirror for the file(s) temporarily.

  • Hi Saurabh,

     

    Sorry to hear that. Because these problems seem to be quite diverse, I'm wondering if they are power supply related. It might be good to remove all USB bits and the Wolfson card, and just try to power up the RPI alone, and make sure it is stable (try checking the uptime occasionally, to make sure it has not rebooted). If it is not stable, try replacing the PSU and/or the USB cable.

    It could be an SD card issue, or flaky connector(s) I suppose : ( hard to say. The most you can do there is visual inspection, see if it only occurs if the card or connector is lightly moved.

    A lot more tips are at here.

    Also, I'm sure Ragnar's file is ok, but _just in case_ your hardware is subtly different and the official RPI image perhaps takes that into account, it may be worth re-trying with an official image. It's a long shot.