Messages

1

DACs / Re: CM2606 based DAC - on linux

« on: September 17, 2009, 08:25:43 am »

Woohoo! The correction board arrived today.

YUSSSSSSssss

DrLava - is it right that I should only have 50k pots and no 10k ones? (they say W503   036T) on them.

...starts to build

**EDIT** - so I just read your instructions.. got it.

blimey those surface caps look hard to solder..

2

DACs / Re: CM2606 based DAC - on linux

« on: September 01, 2009, 01:39:19 pm »

OK cool thanks for info.. am going to continue to play with LaserBoy software until I get my new PCI card through:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260462436715

different to the one above but James you mentioned that you have had success with VIA chips before?

Looking forward to getting the correction PCB pack and building.. I wander which will arrve first!

3

DACs / Re: CM2606 based DAC - on linux

« on: August 30, 2009, 08:38:21 am »

Hi DrLava

- just ordered a full kit from the URL - hoping it's one with the DC/DC converter?

*jumps around room waiting for deliveration*



- this is the USB card I have



and this is the card so far - have soldered on connections to 25-pin connector from and old SCSI cable.

Nice

4

DACs / Re: CM2606 based DAC - on linux

« on: August 29, 2009, 08:26:26 pm »

This has a 8768 chip but looks like a small board - what do you reckon?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Asonic-8-Channel-Soundcard-C-media-8768-Chipset-3D-PCI_W0QQitemZ200373499133QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_ComputerComponents_SoundCards?hash=item2ea730f4fd&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

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DACs / Re: CM2606 based DAC - on linux

« on: August 29, 2009, 06:11:43 pm »

Grand!

Let me know, what's up DrLava?

Pictures to come tomorrow of what's happening over here

6

DACs / Re: CM2606 based DAC - on linux

« on: August 29, 2009, 06:01:08 pm »

Have seen those photos and diagram before -

however not sure on how to add the extra sections - with electronics I can follow instructions but building skills are limited theory-wise.

Am thinking buying one of your PCBs would save us a lot of time - despite being keen to make a fully homebrew solution! How much would postage to UK cost?

one thing - when bypassing the output caps on the USB sound card are you soldering to the negative terminal of each cap? I am keen to crack on with the project and soldering relevant connections onto the card seems like a good thing to be doing. I am trying to compare other pictures of modified sound cards based on different chips on these forums and have an idea of what to do..

--EDIT--

I am using a desktop with plenty of spare PCI cards but using a USB card because thats what I have

7

DACs / Re: CM2606 based DAC - on linux

« on: August 29, 2009, 05:38:28 pm »

-->

The letter 'q' gets you out of man, man!  Wink Grin

--> well, phew! I was quitting and restarting terminal before then..!

adjusting well to laserboy - happy without a mouse - it's refreshing

managed to aplay -l and found both audio devices - the dev1 - USB device is listed as default.

so, now need to wait for oscilloscope - tomorrow - and have a look at the circuit diagram and see what other components I need. Do you have a link to it?

-EDIT-

just got fbset to work and trying to install it - on flaky wifi! progress comes to those who wait..

8

DACs / Re: CM2606 based DAC - on linux

« on: August 29, 2009, 04:56:55 pm »

Makes sense - motherboard had onboard audio and I guess when I plugged in USB card it created /dev/dsp1

I am a little confused as to where I shouold be typing these # alsamixer commands - terminal, laserboy or otherwise!?

consider my linux knowledge to be minimal at the moment!

Just trying to make a multichannel wav file in laserboy now...

9

DACs / Re: CM2606 based DAC - on linux

« on: August 29, 2009, 04:32:15 pm »

Thanks for advice etc. - take that as granted now or I'll just sound like a major fanboi!

tried the "# fbset" command and nothing displayed in terminal. Any further ideas..?

With the c-media USB thing - seemed to work fairly well out of the box - went into the sound drivers section of ubuntu [System->Preferences->Sound]

I selected the option 'USB sound device USB Audio (OSS)' option and when testing can get sound out of the main (green) jack and the 'headphone monitor' jack.

also the usb card has onboard buttons to control volume / muting and they do work - causing a soft volume display to appear on screen - displaying changes made by buttons.

so - the card seems to be fairly well recognised. I now want to try and get more outputs working and perhaps create some sort of batch or onfig file that I can run to set all of the outputs and volumes correctly.

Does the board ' remember' settings - ie. if configured by a windows PC would it remain the same on next boot by default or does it require setup each time before use?

I understand that resistor values will need to be tweaked - all part of the fun right? but I have access to oscilloscopes etc

I have looked in my /dev/ folder and there is no /dsp folder - there are dsp and dsp1 files but I can't open them with text editor.

Looking forward to getting back into linux again then?!

+ yeah the attitude thing - it was about the post you made encouraging lurkers to get in touch. plus enthusiasm for the laserboy software is cool!

10

DACs / Re: CM2606 based DAC - on linux

« on: August 29, 2009, 03:57:50 pm »

Hi James

- thanks for such a warm welcome! Your attitude is what really pushed me into posting up for help - not so common across interweb forums!

OK so the story so far:

>> Have you built the LaserBoy code in Linux yet?

- yes, got it all working in as far as the program loads and I can flick through menus etc. - it is running on ubuntu jaunty 9.04


>> What sort of help do you need with building the sound card DAC?

- I have got hold of a card with a 6206 chip in it and was originally hoping to build one of the laserboy corretion amps completely DIY - so would really like a circuit diagram or something similar. Since reading your forum though I am tempted to get one of your boards or even full kits as it looks like it would take a lot of legwork out of the building. Fairly used to using a soldering iron and would say just above basic electronic understanding / skills.

As far as linux help goes - ubuntu is GUI and n00b friendly but I am used to command prompt - from the good old dos days! So have been using the terminal to run commands / install drivers and codecs within linux so far.

Not sure if I see a penguin when I load - is there a more terminal-based way I can check if I have a frame buffer enabled kernel?

Also very keen to find out about command-prompt ways of testing the sound card / playing back multi-channel wavs. I have been having toruble finding drivers and am assuming that there aren't any official drivers or equivalents to the windows sound manager app to set the levels on the sound card - terminal commands seem so much more elegant, I just need to know what to type and store it in my memory!

Keen to post pictures and share my experience to help others with a 6206 card too.

Linux FTW!

11

DACs / CM2606 based DAC - on linux

« on: August 28, 2009, 05:35:24 pm »

Hi all - been following and reading forum for a while and have struggled to find the help I need so far:

I'm trying to build a soundcard based DAC for a laser projector. My house mate has a laser projector but hasn't got round to making a soundcard DAC yet and we're keen to get one up and running.

We are running the USB card on linux 9.04 and struggling to find appropriate drivers to control each of the souncard's outputs.

Also generally using linux without access to windows seems to be less well documented - as a relatively-n00b linux user this has proved quite hard too - but we're keen to learn.

any pointers?

12

Operating Systems / Re: No one uses Linux!

« on: August 28, 2009, 05:23:45 pm »

Hello..

just started using Ubuntu Linux - 9.04 and so far enjoying it. I put the machine together specifically for a laser projector and have been reading for a while.

so far have a c-media 6206 '7.1' usb card, big box of components and a laser projector to test with.

First up - i'm trying to sort out the sound card to playback through all channels at correct settings + volumes. Am having problems finding how to set up within linux and no access to windows.

Spent a fair while reading and researching before posting! Any help, even pointing in the right directino would be appreciated.

lovely