Hi friends, been lurking here for a bit and my build is close to being complete so I thought it best to create an account to show you folks what I’ve accomplished BUT, I’m having an issue getting the encoders to function properly. I know the zynaptik board would likely solve this problem but waiting on a shipment from Spain is not in the cards sadly, by the time it gets here I’d never touch it again. So here is where I’m having issues: I added 4 encoders and two push buttons to the Pi 5 8 gb but I can only get one button to respond (menu/back.) I’m fairly certain I have done everything correctly and I’ve tried SEVERAL TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS prior to posting this. I just can’t seem to figure out how the wiring page works on web configure. I really do not want to use a touchscreen because that takes the tactility out of making audio and I can’t stand that. I don’t really know what to add to this post for further info as I am fairly new to all of this so if any info might help you guys help me, please let me know.
My stack goes: pi 5 8gb. IQaudiO DAC pro. DFRobot I/O expansion board. The I/O expansion is the connection point for all controls. I am also trying to add a Pimoroni Dual Mic to the build which I also cannot get to work.
Zynthian boots and I have tested audio and midi and all of that seems to be functioning.
Hi @Jojoranch welcome aboard, it looks like you have already done 96% of the job. If you can see the mixer, you can already make some noise with your box, even without encoders
this one ?
This one, with the display ?
You will have to give more precise infos to get a better help. A copy of webconf landing page is a god start (and what’s your final goal too).
Okay so the gravity hat is the correct hat. and the Pimironi dual mic with the screen as well. Now I am running into a separate issue: can’t seem to log into zynthian local to provide pictures. I can get in thru terminal but not on the web config.
Zynthian’s strandard design use a MCP23017 GPIO ports expander driven by I2C.
They are cheap:
Your DFRobots expansion board doesn’t provide this. If you do not plan to use a small SPI LCD as display (like the one on the Pimoroni audio hat. This will “consume” a couple of GPIOs ) you can still wire the encoders to the Raspberry Pi GPIOs.
So I made progress last night: I killed the pimironi dual mic board. I wired 4 encoders, 3 buttons, 1 joystick with button to equal the number of controls that I believe were on the Zynthian 4 (4 push button encoders/4 buttons) and as far as I can tell there are no GPIO conflicts. I ended up using a 7 inch touch display 2 that connects via ribbon directly to the Pi. Before I went to be I was able to test a little and it seems at least 2 of the encoders are responding. My problem really is that I don’t think I understand the Zynthian wiring page in web config. I think I am misunderstanding how to add these control components on the software side.
My exact build: pi 5 8 gb, IQaudiO dac pro, gravity I/O board, controls as mentioned above and an Adafruit feathering 5 din midi in and out.
As soon as I turn on my computer I will drop pics of the web config.
I have been considering the possibility of running the controls with a teensy 4.1. Dunno how that would work out.
I have finally gotten time to get back around to it and now I am facing an E R R O R message with no hint at what might be causing the error.
I bought and attached a CQRobot MCP23017 and attached 4 encoders to it as well as two push buttons. As far as I am aware this has been installed and connected correctly. The stack is as follows: pi 5 8gb. IQaudiO DAC pro (I have also tried switching it out with a DAC + and achieve the same result,) the MCP23017 and hardware mentioned above, and an adafruit 5din midi featherwing. I also have a Roli Lightpad black for MPE playing and have been wanting to introduce a Pimironi Venus Dust as well. Power doesn’t seem to be the issue and if it becomes one I got a raspi usb hub that can push extra power to external devices. I have a touch display 2 as the screen and as you can see below it is working.
I have also tried using a Daisy pod flashed with Owlsy as a usb midi/audio device (and I have ensured it is recognized as such by other systems.) Below is my current webconfig page (and a problem I’m immediately seeing is the dac pro isn’t recognized by the system when I select IQaudio DAC in hardware settings.
Other than that I can’t see why I’d be getting an error and when I first started messing with this I got the Audio/midi error which was corrected by buying the sound card. I know this as I have gotten it working in various states leading up to this point. Anyone can help I’d appreciate it. Also side note: in testing I have gotten it to work with the touch display/lightpad/sound card connected. It started occurring after connecting the mcp but I have tried removing that and turning it on receiving the same result. So I don’t think it’s the problem. My assumption is it’s something to do with the configuration.
Your webconf shows I2C: Not detected which suggests it is not seeing the MCP board. You also say that it works without the MCP board connected at boot. These two observations point towards the MCP board as being the culprit. Do you have any logs?
No if I remove the mpc board i still get the error message. I was typing all that very late last night so maybe that got lost in translation. I don’t know what you mean by logs.
It is absolutlly fantastic that this page now exists. I had some minor remarks (quite sure you know all that and just had some typos, since you were so kind to explain me this in the first place):
MCP pins are between 100-115 instead of 101-116 (tables in 3.4)
a hint to GPIOs not to use because of MIDI connectors and dac boards
I understand the wiki article after building the custom zynthian, I think I wouldn’t have before. E.g. the use of the mcp adress pins and so on.
It’s a bit of a mess all in all, but I do a little and often on it so hopefully it will tend to something acceptable, it is also another opportunity to get pictures of my Nord Modulars into the zynthian community.
I have to say I loath and like MediaWiki in equal measure it is very powerful and sometimes very irritating.
I’m not sure which pins the zynth audio card uses, but if someone could be emphatic I’m sure the information will make it to the wiki.
