USB Sound Card on Type-C Connector

#1

The volume on the Rock Pi S is too low, even when on max.

  1. Is there any way to make it louder?
  2. Is it possible to play sound another way (to increase volume)?
  3. Is it possible to connect a USB sound-card to the Type-C connector?

@RadxaYuntian - Any help is most appreciated.

Nadav

#2

@ken please take a look at above questions.

#3

Does the ROCK PI S POE HAT increase audio volume?

#4

So, I purchased the HAT, and no, it does not increase volume.

@ken - any tips to help increase audio volume will be much appreciated!

#5

@RadxaYuntian, I have not heard back from Ken.
I followed the instructions here, but could not get sound card to work on USB-C.
Is it possible to connect a USB sound-card to the Type-C connector?

#6

You cannot follow those instruction since you need the USB-C to work as host instead of device mode.

Please first check when a powered USB hub is connected on ROCK S, can it recognize the USB devices on the hub. You can see connected USB devices via lsusb command.

#7

@RadxaYuntian,
I tried two things:

  1. I powered the ROCK S via the 5V pin, and connected multiple USB-C sound-cards.
    None of them appear via the lsusb command.
  2. I connected a USB-C powered hub (that works on another machine), and connected multiple USB-C sound-card.
    No new devices/hubs appear via the lsusb command.
#8

The USB C doesn’t support OTG mode detection, you need to enable HOST mode on the USB C port of the Pi S by change the device tree, something like this:

dr_mode = "host"

refer this:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/devicetree/bindings/usb/generic.txt

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#9

@jack, you’re amazing!
Here is the overlay dtbo: rockpi-s-usb-c-sound.zip.

Detailed instruction to create the overlay (based on USB Device in FullSpeed):

  1. decompile existing dtb to rk3308-rock-pi-s.dts:

cd /boot/dtb/rockchip/
dtc -I dtb -O dts -o rk3308-rock-pi-s.dts rk3308-rock-pi-s.dtb

  1. Find the usb@ff400000, and change dr_mode to host:

usb@ff400000{
…
dr_mode = “host”

  1. recompile dts to rk3308-rock-pi-s_2

dtc -I dts -O dtb -o rk3308-rock-pi-s_2.dtb rk3308-rock-pi-s.dts

  1. edit /boot/armbianEnv.txt to use rk3308-rock-pi-s_2

fdtfile=rockchip/rk3308-rock-pi-s_2.dtb

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