Hardware Play/Pause Button

[rastus]

Ohhhh.... so your powering the HifiBerry DAC separately to the Pi.... or powering the Pi via the power to the DAC?

Edit: I checked again.... You are... this is the better option. So sound wise, it is better yes? No? Than powering the DAC via the Pi's micro USB? What about powering the Pi and the DAC separately to each other... have you tried that? Both having separate power supplies?

I've thought of this with my DAC (PiFi)... how to power it separately to the Pi's power. It is, as I understand, better to isolate the power supply from the Pi's power supply.

[PeteB]

Correct. The micro USB is bypassed. I am supplying power via a heavier cable, a conventional barrel connector, through a filter (not shown in the pics), and directly to the 40-pin header.

The DAC+ and the Pi are both supplied from the header, so the DAC does not have to get its power through the Pi. Noise generated on the Pi 2, stays on the Pi 2. Noise that gets out of the power supply (50mV max ripple), is caught by the filter.

[rastus]

A USB cable with a ferrite core/bead/thingie.... I bought some, attached one to the Pi's power micro USB cable, close to the Pi itself. Also, one on my powered USB hub's power cable, and another one on the USB cable from the USB hub to the Pi's USB connector. Not sure it does anything, made me feel good though... felt like I was an EE. Though... I think it's 'all things' considered, battery pack, cables, ferrites, powered USB hub, etc. Anyway, nice call.

Edit: Heard they can be useful on Ethernet cables too. Also, I keep the USB WiFi dongle away from the Pi itself by using the powered USB hub too. The Pi really is a DIY project, saves money too... and it's downright enjoyable too (especially when music is playing through it).

[PeteB]

[PeteB]

[PeteB]

[rlsten]

This is great information! Thanks, Pete, for all your work in putting this together.

Do you think it would it be possible to wire and program a 5-way switch such as this to navigate between the pages of the interface, scroll up and down on each page, and execute a command (such as "add to queue" when on the library page, or toggle play/pause when on the playback page, etc.?

[PeteB]

[rlsten]

Thanks, Pete. That makes sense. But coding a switch to act like a mouse might be beyond me.

I may have a simpler solution: a small touchpad like this:

I would have to shorten the cable significantly and run it inside the enclosure. They make an even smaller version, but inexplicably it has a PS-2 connector and requires a USB adapter -- way too large for my enclosure.

Here is what the enclosure looks like now:

2016-06-01 19.31.13.jpg (180.75 KiB) Viewed 4312 times

It is basically a 3D Printed enclosure for a Raspberry Pi 3, a Chord Mojo portable DAC, 4 SD cards in SD Card readers attached via USB, a 5300 mAh Lithium battery, and a Tontec 3.5" Screen. The Chord Mojo is attached to the Pi via USB. The purpose is to hide all the cabling between the storage, source, battery, and DAC. I'm using the Chord Mojo because it provides tremendous sound quality and is able to drive full-size headphones.

[PeteB]

The mousepad looks like the right solution if yu want something more than one or two buttons, and the enclosure looks really nice! Why don't you post some pics in the DIY section, perhaps it will inspire other people to give it a try.