With BBB rev c. is there a need for an audio cape?

Question

I see references to Audio cape and Audio cape with DVI capabilities. But they don't seem to be in stock anywhere which makes me wonder with the newest revision of BeagleBone are they needed anymore? It would seem some type of Audio Cape/USB sound option would still be good for input and to be able split the audio from HDMI.

shabaz · Answer

Hi John,

All revisions of the BeagleBone Black have HDMI, but no other audio out by default. However, it is easy to add audio out capability either using a USB device as you say, or hooking directly to the on-board I2S interface.

Check out this blog post (there are three parts, the links to the other two parts are there too): http://www.element14.com/community/community/designcenter/single-board-computers/next-gen_beaglebone/blog/2013/07/06/bbb--building-a-dac

There are schematics there, as well as gerber files attached to one of the posts if you wish to construct your own. Sound quality is as good as an ipod.

This is the board layout. If you don't need the headphone or speaker outputs and line out is sufficient, then much of the board doesn't need populating.

swartz96@earthlink.net · Answer

I started down the path of a DSP but at the end of the day independent clocking of the DSP for for the different sample 44.1 et al - sent me to a Off the Shelf HMDI splinter. $30 or $40 USD and a power supply. Works great, plugged powered speakers and bingo. Required additional cables and adapter too. As I quickly reviewed the referenced doc's --- it looks like a couple of years ago they had a go at it. They had results that were great -- but good grief I would prefer a streaming cape to be less involved. Between voltage isolation, and the I2C isolation,,,,,, I think Off the Shelf is not pretty but works with just 7 watts. The deep hardware is not where I an strong but -- it is a KISS thing for me. Cheers

With BBB rev c. is there a need for an audio cape?

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