Radxa Zero 3W: i2s audio failure (INMP441 microphone and MAX98357a audio amplifier)

Hello folks,

I am working on an embedded system using the Radxa Zero 3W (RK3568) and need to connect the following peripherals simultaneously:

  • INMP441 microphone (major failure)
  • Max98357a audio amplifier (major failure)
  • 1.8 inch SPI display (planned but not connected and tested)

Os Version:

  • Kernel: 6.1.84-10-rk3568 (Official Radxa Debian)
  • Status: Clean install, no major updates/upgrades performed.

The Issues Encountered:

1st priority: Audio failure

  • I2S3-M0 (12, 35, 38, 40) After enabling I2S3 and connecting the amplifier, I get a constant “crick crick” noise. aplay -l only shows card 0 [dummy-sound], and I am unable to remove or bypass the dummy sound driver.
  • I2S1-M2 (Pins 22, 32, 33, 37): Enabling this via overlay results in a “bus down” error during boot.
  • I2S0-M1 (Pins 11, 12, 13, 15): I moved to Bank 4 pins to ensure total isolation, but the result is identical.
  • Critical Log: The system consistently drops into Rescue Mode with the error: aicbsp: sdio_err:<aicwf_sdio_bus_pwrctl,1404>: bus down.

2nd Priority: System Update Failures I have tried to update the system to see if a later kernel fixes the bus stability, but it fails in every way:

  • rsetup update

  • OS GUI update

  • sudo apt update via Konsole

Additional note ( a breakthrough): If I enabled the i2s3-m0 through rsetup, and test the speaker using command speaker-test -d hw:0,0 -t sine -f 440 -c 2 -r 44100 able to hear the sound but failed to prevent the crick crick sound for all the time (even during boot)

Note: I have even fix the broken the upgrade but the no improvement in the audio. so I stop upgrading the OS to try for i2s1, and is20.

If anyone has encountered this specific SDIO bus failure while trying to enable I2S on the Zero 3W, I would appreciate any guidance on the Device Tree settings required to stabilise the power domains.

@SanchYESS @radxa @ChenJaly @Nasca @Mitchell

Thanks and regards.
Anand Sagar

Hi @Morgan and @Nasca

Can you help me on above topic?

Thanks