I am looking for some help

Jacob,

The connections are really quite simple.  The diagram below is how it should work.  Keep in mind that the pin-out on the headphone jack will need to match the part that you are using.

Good luck,

Gene

So can this audio amp be connected to the Raspberry Pi Zero without using the GPIO. Can I solder the Vin, GND, A+, and A- to the USB Test Pads and use it to get sound?

Jacob,

Not quite sure that I know what you are trying to do here. Best I can tell, Vin and Gnd are your power supply connections (2.5V to 5.5V), SD is used to turn the amp 'on' (Vin) or 'off' (gnd).  A+ and A- are your inputs (differential, if single-ended use A+ and tie A- to gnd.

How this relates to the USB Test Pads is where I am getting lost.

Gene

I want to connect the amp to a raspberry pi zero without using the GPIO and being new to this I am not sure if I can do it with this or not so figured I would ask people who were smarter then me when it comes to this. I know you can wire a USB sound card to teh pads on the bottom of the Pi but not sure If I can do the same with amp.

Jacob,

Well then you might need another person who is smarter than me for this one.  I have no experience with the Raspberry Pi, even though I recently purchased a Pi zero.  I can see how a GPIO could be used to generate an audio signal, but I am not sure if I have heard of the USB port being used in this way.

Any ideas from the more experienced Raspberry Pi people here?

Good luck,

Gene

Hi Jacob,

It's not possible in the way you mention, without additional hardware (a USB sound card effectively). Otherwise GPIO can be used.

If you don't want to use GPIO connections, then a USB sound card is needed.

If you do eventually decide to use GPIO, see here for the circuit you need (in additional to the amplifier which you have already got).

https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing-the-raspberry-pi-zero/audio-outputs

Or you could connect a digital audio card to the GPIO pins. But it uses GPIO pins.

SoI guess the question is can I, and if I can, hook up a Adafruit Mono 2.5W Class D Audio Amplifier - PAM8302 to a raspberry pi zero without using the GPIO since in the project I am doing they are all used. If it can be done I would like to know how.

Thanks for your help you got me half way to what I am trying to do.

So I am building a Gameboyzero (Link Below) and you mount the Raspberry Pi Zero W onto the PCB. I am not sure if I can use the GPIO PWM. Here is an image with the pins numbered maybe you can tell if I can do what I want to this way.

https://www.tindie.com/products/thirtytwoteeth/game-boy-zero-handheld-edition/

Hi Jacob,

You originally stated that all GPIO pins were in use, is the question now if some are actually free?

If so, it is really better if you check (good learning experience). The way to do it is to either find the circuit diagram of this gameboy project if you can, or visually inspect the circuit board if you have purchased it, to see which of the GPIO pins are in use. You could also use a multimeter to probe pins if you really don't wish to find the circuit diagram or if it is not available (if you don't have a multimeter, it is highly recommended).

If the GPIO pins are just soldered but really are not going anywhere, then those GPIO pins are free. However, as you can see from the adafruit audio link sent earlier, the audio available on the GPIO pins are on _specific_ pins. You can't interchange. So you'd need to see if those specific pins are free and unused on that gameboy project board.

And as mentioned, all you have is an audio amplifier. It can't directly connect to GPIO pins anyway, even if the GPIO pins are free. You need to also assemble the small circuit described on the adafruit page (a total of 4 resistors and 4 capacitors).