rooDial a Wireless Volume Knob for Roon with Microsoft Surface Dial

Audio Gear Talk rooExtend
1226

At one point I was using the unbalanced outputs from my RME ADI-2 Pro. They does not have galvanic isolation from the USB input.

I had a case where I was getting computer noise transmitted to the amp inputs.

Matthias, the owner of RME mentioned in their forum that he’d used an Intona isolator - which fixed the issue for him (and for me).

I generally consider RME to be very well engineered.

3 Likes
1227

Computer power supply’s are normally grounded to earth. This indeed can give a loop that causes hum and other noise.
I prefer a Rasbery Pi driving my ADI-2/4. It‘s power supply is free of any connection to earth which means it is floating. The Ethernet also is floating by definition.
This means that even as the ADI-2/4 analog ground is not decoupled from USB I can‘t catch any noise via USB. :+1: :+1:

2 Likes
1228

Hi @nquery,
this is a good device and for sure very helpful with ground loops via the PC. USB 2.0 Hi-Speed Isolator
Ground loops via PC are really bad because the power drawn by the PC depends on what you do with the PC. Working with the PC the current drawn through the power cable varies with the application and therefore causes an additional voltage change in the ground loop. This means in case of such a loop you can hear in the speakers what the PC is doing! This has to be avoided and as the intona breaks this loop it probably will cure noise in this case.

One additional thing I like to mention. Using a powered USB HUB with the ZEXMTE Bluetooth antenna:

  • If you power down the Pi you also must power down the HUB.
  • On power up the HUB has to be switched on first.

This is caused by the firmware loading to the antenna. It can be loaded only if the antenna was freshly powered on. If you leave the antenna powered and turn off the Pi or the HoloAudio Red then at power on of the Pi it cannot be initialized by the Pi and did not work any more.

Best DrCWO

1 Like
1229

Hi,

I downgraded from 3.0.6 to 2.3.2 because of the latency problem. In 3.0.6. the Surface Dial paired immediately. Now it is impossible to pair my Surface Dial. I flashed the SD card twice, so this should be no problem. What else can I try?

Thanks.

1230

I’ve had the same issue and resolved it with help from others. From what I recall:

  • Take the batteries out.
  • Reboot the RooDial RPi (I believe it only pairs after boot).
  • Replace batteries and try pairing the Surface Dial.

It should work…

1231

Unfortunately it does not work. I have tried it several times but no success. After first installation the extension shows “sleeping” and after reboot “unpaired”. The LED of the Surface Dial is blinking for pairing.

It is possible that 2.3.3 does not work with Rpi4?

1232

Did it stop blinking after some seconds?

And it yes works with Pi4.

Please try with v2.3.3 Beta 5

Best DrCWO

1 Like
1233

Thanks.

Trying the Beta right now. The extension is enabled but sleeping. The Surface Dial is blinking but not pairing. It does not stop blinking.

1234

I flashed now to 3.0.6 with rooDial 1.5.4 again and it works.

@DrCWO

A downgrade does not work with Pi4 because there is no pairing possible.

Too bad that the newest firmware does not work as expected.

1235

A big amount of users run v2.3.3 successfully with the Dial.
I have no idea why this doesn’t work with your hardware :thinking:

  • Did you use the builtin bluetooth antenna or an external USB-Stick?
  • If External USB: Which and directly plugged in the Pi or via a HUB

Best DrCWO

1236

I use the builtin antenna.

Can anybody confirm a successful downgrade of a Pi4? That means v3 was already running on Roon before downgrading to v2?

@DrCWO Could you reproduce it please? Thank You.

Maybe there is a update in the pipeline that resolve the v3 latency problem? :wink:

1237

I’ve gone between v3.x and v2.x on multiple Pi4 devices. I’ve been able to re-pair Dials going in both directions. It’s been quite a while since I downgraded - I don’t recall having issues.

1 Like
1238

Same here – @gTunes and me share remarkably similar experiences.

2 Likes
1239

Downgrading is the wrong word. You decide to start with 2.x.x or 3.x.x. It is always afresh start and there is no influence what SD card image ran on the Pi before.

1240

Expressions with delayd reconnection but not with downgrade right?

1241

Yup, right!

1242

Correct. No issues going from v2 to v3 or vice versa.

1243

I have saved the key on the Raspberry Pi sd card. But it’s not under RooDial so I have to copy it to RooDial from RooExtend at each start-up. How is this resolved?

1244

Maybe it is a downgrade for Roon. The authorizations will not be deleted automatically, e.g.

Is is not my task as a paying customer to find solutions for bugs. I am a long time Roon user with some free extensions from other members of this forum. Those members do it for free so I am very patient and I am happy to donate something.

Your extensions cost money, what is a fair choice for hard work though unusual in the Linux community. So they have to work without spending time in bug researching by myself. And what I am reading here is that I am not alone.

No offence, just some thoughts.

1245

Whatever release you use (v2.x.x or v3.x.x):
The license key for rooDial has to be entered in the rooExtend License Manager. Doing this enables rooDial. I hope you know that you cannot pair the Surface Dial if rooDial ist invisible in Roon Settings/Extensions?

Best you save the key in a text file on your PC and copy/paste it from there to the rooExtend License Manager if you use a freshly brogrammed SD Card.

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