Boss Allo / I2S sound card disappearing

[streumix]

streumix

29. März 2018 at 12:25 #34891

Hi,

I’ve got a problem with my Boss Allo on a RaspPI 3B + 7“ diplay. After a few days of use running as a squeezebox replacement and serving other DLNA clients, my I2S sound card – a Boss Allo – disappears from the system in standby. Even a reboot cannot bring it back. ALSA ( e.g. aplay -l) tells me there’s no soundcard (PI internal audio is disabled).
It’s required to power off completely (disconnect from supply) to bring everything up and running.

Since everything is assembled into a stable housing, a loose contact etc is very unlikely. Further, it’s hppening in standy without any mechanical stress to the system.

Is this a know issue for I2S soundcards on RaspPI, or do I suffer from a defective Boss Allo card?
Anything I can do for debugging the state of hardware after my „Boss“ is gone?
I’m not very familiar with I2S hardware yet?

Regards,
Toby

[Heiner premium]

Heiner premium

3. April 2018 at 9:32 #34936

Hi Toby,

Do you have the BOSS version with USB-C port on the top or the one without?

Please first try selecting „none“ in the Allo Plugin, rebooting, reselecting the BOSS and rebooting again.

[streumix]

streumix

5. April 2018 at 13:16 #35001

Hi Heiner,

my Allo BOSS is rev 1.1 without USB-C.
I’ve followed the suggested procedure to re-install the Allo card, but no success. It still disappears from the system after some hours of (successful) use/playback. And as observed before, this is happening silently in idle state.

I’m still puzzled about the basic question: Hardware (defect) or software issue?
What’s required to happen to get ALSA forget about a I2S sound card?
And even if there’s an issue on the I2C control link (loose cables, instable voltage supply, I2C clock issue as addressed by this patch https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/commit/91b0a09e531255757178d6f9cbace73205fd9100), a soft reset/reboot should bring everything back, shouldn’t it?
But it’s required to unplug and perform a cold reboot to get everything back running.

Is there a debug mode for the Allo Boss device driver to get more insight what’s happening?

Regards,
Toby

[streumix]

streumix

12. April 2018 at 10:42 #35141

Meanwhile, I’ve tested my Boss Allo on a RaspPI 2B, and the indentical software stack (=sdcard) run’s very stable for days now. No issues.
I’m suspecting a hardware issue on my Rasp-PI 3B, as it’s very unlikely that there a still kernel clock issues on 3B like this one
https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/issues/1321
open and unresolved. On the the other side, the Allo BOSS running in I2S master mode is kind of an exotic card …

Can anyone confirm Allo Boss Rev 1.1 is running stable for more than a week on Rasp-PI 3B?

Toby

[Heiner premium]

Heiner premium

12. April 2018 at 15:52 #35150

Hi Toby,

Since we have a lot of people running the BOSS on Pi3, I would assume this issue should be specific to your Pi.

While we cannot confirm continuous use for a week, we have been running tests with BOSS cards for a long while now and have not been able to recreate a setup with the card disappearing.

[streumix]

streumix

12. April 2018 at 15:57 #35151

Thanks for this feedback. Good to hear !
I’m going to get the Pi3 replaced immediately („Gewährleistung“ ;-).
Then we’ll see ..
Regards,
Toby