RoPieee on Raspberry Pi 4

[Jim_F (Remember - It's easier to Keep a Customer than to get a New One)]

Or, better yet, a DAC HAT of some sort.

[cwichura]

I have that same case for my RPi4 running RoPieeeXL. I installed the included fan, connected to the power pins to get low speed mode. My unit averages ~42C when idle and ~46-48C when Roon is playing. I cannot hear the fan over the ambient computer noise in my home office. (The RPi4 feeds my home office rig that uses Stellia closed-backs for isolation from the computer noise.)

[Jim_F (Remember - It's easier to Keep a Customer than to get a New One)]

Thanks. I don’t plan to install the fan. That’s why I asked about the allowable temps. This is my portable station running off a battery and WIFI. I don’t want the potential noise and/or current draw. Many times, I’m listening to Roon in dead silence. I’m usually using Sony WH-1000XM3’s that would probably kill any little bit of fan noise, but I’d rather not fool with it.

[Jim_F (Remember - It's easier to Keep a Customer than to get a New One)]

@mikeb

Looking good @Jim_F. I like that your case doesn’t rotate the screen. A short right angled USB cable could hide the dragonfly behind and make it not so vulnerable, if thats a thing.

I just tested plugging the Dragonfly into a USB male to female extension cable and that worked. So, I will order a shorter cable to use for this purpose. I’ll probably mount the Dragonfly with velcro so it doesn’t flop around.

I was also getting some “lightening bolts” showing on the screen which is an indication of under-voltage. So, I got rid of the splitter cable and ran two short cables from the Pi and screen to the battery. The battery has 3 USB outputs. I ordered a USB two into one cable for use if I want to plug into 110v.

[cwichura]

@Jim_F

indication of under-voltage

FWIW, using the splitter cable and the “official” RPi4 power supply, I’ve never had the undervoltage warning show up. Is your battery bank capable of 3A on a single port?

[Jim_F (Remember - It's easier to Keep a Customer than to get a New One)]

Yes. It’s working fine using two cables and two outputs.

Screen is drawing .23 amps and RPi4 with Dragonfly plugged in is drawing .31 amps. That’s while streaming to headphones.

[Jim_F (Remember - It's easier to Keep a Customer than to get a New One)]

Bought a short USB male to female cable to connect the Dragonfly.

[Jim_F (Remember - It's easier to Keep a Customer than to get a New One)]

One added benefit of this RPi4 screen…when using my Oppo 203 connected by HDMI to my Nucleus, I can’t view what’s playing on my TV screen. So, it’s easy enough to switch the RPi4 to my Oppo 203 - HDMI zone and see it on the RPi4 screen.

[Sheldon_Stokes]

@Jim_F

So, it’s easy enough to switch the RPi4 to my Oppo 203 - HDMI zone and see it on the RPi4 screen.

I don’t know how easy it would be or the mechanics of how to select it, but it would be nice to be able to select which zone shows up on the screen directly from the screen without having to go to the web admin page on another machine.

[Jim_F (Remember - It's easier to Keep a Customer than to get a New One)]

That is true.

[richard_austin]

I just (almost) finished a RaspTouch w official 7" touch screen, RPi4 2G and Hifiberry DAC+ Pro.
Driving 4" nearfields with vintage TEAC integrated.
Thought Ropieee a bit involved to install till I tried some others.
Back enjoying music rather than the command line interface.
This is a musical hobby for me.
Have PI and DAC individually powered on dual DC inputs., have DAC’s analog out hardwired to rear jacks., bypassing clumsy internal patch cord.
Wishing Ropieee would take the steps in code to integrate the Audiophonics Power Module for sleek on/off with LED indicator.
This chassis has a nicely integrated flush power switch.
Been in hifi since mid 70s. Really like this Ropieee/Roon setup.
One I got past the phone stuff:)’

[Roland_Temmerman]

Hello,
I also have a pair of RaspTouch Roon endpoints with ropieee in use and had the same problem. The power button (momentary switch from Audiophonics). I replaced it with the same type of vandalism proof SPDT (or DPDT) on/off switch, so a choice for hardware shutdown. This poses no problem in contrast to the normal Debian derived images on an SD card because ropieee runs exclusively in RAM and so there is no risk of corruption of the SD card during the shutdown because nothing is saved to the card.

Greetings,

[Geoff_Coupe]

@Roland_Temmerman

ropieee runs exclusively in RAM and so there is no risk of corruption of the SD card during the shutdown because nothing is saved to the card.

That’s one of the reasons why I use Ropieee, yet today I discovered that the SD card had got corrupted, and I had to flash a new one to get my endpoint back. The RPi4 power adaptor is on a timer that removes power between midnight and 8am every day. Could this have caused the corruption?

[Andreas_Philipp1]

What was really the problem with the SD card, file system corruption or a hardware failure? If it were just a file system problem, I would assume the card could just be reformatted or reflashed, but you say you had to use a new card…

[Geoff_Coupe]

I had a spare card, so I just used that. Here’s more background on the event:

RPi4 Ethernet Port Dead?

I suspect that my RPi4 Ethernet port has died. Both the orange and green LEDs are permanently on, and there’s no sign of the RPi4 on my home network. I’ve changed cables and switch ports to no effect, and also tried Ropieee and Dietpi SD cards. Even without any SD card installed, these LEDs are permanently on, and the small green LED on the RPi4 flashes in a cycle of 4 times, followed by a pause. This apparently tells me that the bootloader in the RPi’s eeprom is OK. Thoughts?

[Andreas_Philipp1]

Yes, I had read that thread. I thought that maybe after restoring your Pi4 you would have tried to re-flash the problematic card, just to make sure if it was definitely damaged or if it could be reused.

I would assume this to be a card failure rather than a file system corruption. If it is true that RoPieee runs in RAM and does never write back to the card, then power cycling the Pi4 should never result in file system corruption. Thinking about that, I have never tried to write-protect the SD card in my Pi4 after flashing it… that would go to show that there is definitely only read access to the card during normal operation.

What I do wonder is if the repeated power cycling could eventually induce hardware failure in these cards. I leave my Pi4 running all the time, but have to deal with frequent power outages. So, at the end it too gets power-cycled more often than I would like.

[spockfish (Harry ten Berge)]

Keep in mind that although RoPieee does not write to disk during operation, obviously stuff is written when you change a config option for example.

And for the more tech savvy: RoPieee does not mount stuff RO. Although I’ve got stuff lying around that mounts it RO and remounts whenever it needs to write to disk, I’ve never found the time to finalize this. But I run my units fairly regularly in RO to make sure that there isn’t something ‘leaking’ somewhere.

And finally… there’s the topic of SD cards. They tend to have … a limited lifetime

In general: if you want to go for maximum stability: don’t power the units down.

regards Harry

[Geoff_Coupe]

@spockfish

In general: if you want to go for maximum stability: don’t power the units down.

Yup, probably the best advice. And there’s me trying to do my bit for the planet…

[richard_austin]

I am NOT using Audiophonics power module or switch.
I restartde the PC and both phone and PC only display black screen with logo dancing at center.

[wizardofoz (Mr Fix It aka The Wiz)]

@spockfish

In general: if you want to go for maximum stability: don’t power the units down.

@spockfish does a reboot do basically as a power down then up? and if so will this also cause lifetime impacts on the SD? I reboot/restart my units nightly on the beta channel, maybe I should change that to weekly?