Home Media Center powered by Raspberry Pi and TAS5805M DAC
Designed by Sonocotta in Poland
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What is it? The Louder Raspberry Pi Home Media Center is a compact and neatly designed hardware project that combines the power of the Raspberry Pi SBC and the Hi-Fi audio capabilities of the TI’s TA…
Read More…The Louder Raspberry Pi Home Media Center is a compact and neatly designed hardware project that combines the power of the Raspberry Pi SBC and the Hi-Fi audio capabilities of the TI’s TAS5805M DAC with a highly efficient D-Class output stage. This versatile media center provides a customizable and fully open-source hardware platform for home entertainment.
Louder Raspberry Pi Hat drops the USB-PD in favor of an external power supply up to 28V (opposed to 20V over PD) and has a step-down converter onboard to deliver 5V to the Pi, so you need only a single power source for everything. Otherwise, it delivers audio through the same highly capable DAC, capable of driving large speakers or tearing apart small ones
I did few audio projects in the past, some using ESP32, some using larger Orange Pi and Raspberry Pi devices. Each has its pros and cons, and with each iteration I'm trying to focus on the details that were working best for me, while actually using them.
What is special about the Raspberry eco-system is of course its community support. Being a not-so-strong software developer, I often have to rely on the work that other people did and baked into the base Raspbian image. Enabling an IR reader is as simple as adding a line into the config.txt
file. Adding DAC is a 5-minute job (with attached code). All the device tree definitions, kernel drivers, and dependency packages are already in place.
Sure, compared to the ESP32 platform it is not as lightweight. It requires more power, it takes some time to boot. But when it comes to rapid development, there is nothing like the Raspberry Pi.
Louder Raspberry Pi is a top-of-the-range model that uses a modern highly capable TAS5805M DAC and is aimed to be paired with medium-to-large speaker systems. With up to 30W per channel stereo output, it packs a punch and can easily enliven living quarters or dorm rooms. It is highly efficient, but much more demanding for power when cranked, therefore it uses an external power adapter with up to 28V voltage reading (starting from as low as 7V).
HiFi Raspberry Media Center | HiFi Raspberry Hat | HiFi-Plus Raspberry Hat (coming soon) | Loud Raspberry Media Center | Loud Raspberry Hat | Louder Raspberry Media Center | Louder Raspberry Hat | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Image | |||||||
DAC | Single PCM5100A 32bit Stereo DAC | Dual PCM5100A 32bit Stereo DAC | Dual PCM5100A 32bit Stereo DAC working with TPA3110D2 D-Class amp | Dual I2S DAC MAX98357 with built in D-Class amp | Quadruple I2S DAC MAX98357 with built in D-Class amp | Stereo I2S DAC TAS5805M with built in D-Class amp | Stereo I2S DAC TAS5805M with built in D-Class amp |
Output | 2.1 VRMS Line level output -100 dB typical noise level | 2x 2.1 VRMS Line level output -100 dB typical noise level | 4x 25W (8Ω, 1% THD+N) at 22V; 4x 22W (4Ω, 1% THD+N) at 16V 2x 40W (4Ω, 1% THD+N) at 20V | 2x 3W (8Ω); 2x 5W (4Ω) | 4x 3W (8Ω); 4x 5W (4Ω) | 2x 22W (8Ω, 1% THD+N); 2x 32W (4Ω, 1% THD+N) at 20V 1x 45W (4Ω, 1% THD+N) at 20V | 2x 32W (8Ω, 1% THD+N) at 24V 1x 55W (4Ω, 1% THD+N) at 24V |
RGB LED | yes | none | none | yes | none | yes | none |
IR input | yes | header only | none | yes | none | yes | header only |
External relay driver | yes | none | none | no | none | yes | none |
Onboard Serial Bridge | yes | none | none | yes | none | yes | none |
Ethernet | Wiznet W5500 SPI Ethernet | none | none | Wiznet W5500 SPI Ethernet | none | Wiznet W5500 SPI Ethernet | none |
Powers from | 5V USB-C power adapter (up to 1 A) Triple LP5907 3.3 V Ultra-Low-Noise LDO | 5V from the host 5x LP5907 3.3 V Ultra-Low-Noise LDO | 8..26V from external sourcepowering host (up to 3A cont.) | 5V USB-C power adapter (up to 3 A) | 5V from the host (up to 4A) or 5V from screw connector (powering host) | 65W USB-C PD power adapter (25W/45W with limited power) | 7..28V from external sourcepowering host (up to 3A cont.) |
Mechanical dimensions (WxHxD) | 88mm x 38mm x 100mm | 65mm x 30mm x 15mm | 70mm x 61mm x 20mm | 88mm x 38mm x 100mm | 65mm x 30mm x 20mm | 88mm x 38mm x 100mm | 65mm x 56mm x 20mm |
I2S CLK | I2S DATA | I2S WS | IR INPUT | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Raspberry Pi Zero | 18 | 21 | 19 | 17 |
Raspberry Pi 2,3,4 | 18 | 21 | 19 | 17 |
Raspberry Pi 5 | 18 | 21 | 19 | 17 |
I2C CLK | I2C DATA | DAC PWDN | DAC FAULT | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Raspberry Pi Zero | 3 | 2 | 4 | 26 |
Raspberry Pi 2,3,4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 26 |
Raspberry Pi 5 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 26 |
You can use any distribution you like. To enable the IR reader you need to add 1 line to the /boot/config.txt
dtoverlay=gpio-ir,gpio_pin=17
TAS5805M DAC is not supported by default Raspbian distribution, therefore some work needs to be done to enable it. Linked repo contains code and instructions on how to configure it. It will take you 5 minutes and one reboot.
Project repository provides a few examples with build instructions, including Volumio setup instructions, among others.
Please visit the hardware section of the project repo for board schematics and PCB designs. Note that PCBs are shared as multi-layer PDFs as well as Gerber archives.
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Please follow this guide to configure an IR reader
TAS5805M DAC (and his big brother TAS5825M) has quite a sophisticated DSP inside, which is mostly undiscovered by the community at the moment. Documentation of it is scarce. The only reasonable way to use it is to obtain a TI PurePath license and Hardware Development kit ($250 if you find it). This should allow the following skills
Below are the power requirements for different Pi models
Model | Power requirement |
---|---|
Raspberry Pi Zero W | 260 mA (1.3 W) |
Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W | 500 mA (2.5 W) |
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B | 1.34 A (6.7 W) |
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ | 1.21 A (6.05 W) |
Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ | 0.75 A (3.75 W) |
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B (1GB, 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB RAM variants) | 3.0 A (15 W) |
Raspberry Pi 5 | Approximately 3.5 A |
Consider expected audio output to be a part of the power budget and buy a reasonable power source capable of delivering the sum of Pi and audio requirements with a reasonable margin of 15%+
In the extreme scenario, using 2 channels with 4 Ohms load with Pi5 you'd need (15W [Pi] + 60W [audio]) * 1.2 = 90W
, round up to 100W.
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