Low volume in BalenaSound / Pi 4B

Project help balenaSound
1

Hi there

I’ve just set up balenasound on a Pi 4B running today’s release version (3.8.4), but the output level is very low. I’ve tried using the headphone jack and a (not officially supported) USB DAC and they are both too low, and I’ve tried Spotify Connect and Airplay with various different apps playing audio. I’ve ensured that volume is full on the control device.

I’ve browsed several help threads and have tried setting SOUND_VOLUME to 100 and SOUND_SPOTIFY_DISABLE_NORMALISATION to 1, which both raised the volume somewhat, but not enough. To be clear, the issue is not unique to Spotify.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

2

Hey @smokeyjoe, can you visit http://<IP_ADDRESS>/support and share the contents in here? <IP_ADDRESS> is the local IP address of your device as seen in the balenaCloud dashboard.
Also, how are you powering the Raspberry Pi? Using a power brick? via USB from another device like a laptop/computer? Can you share details of your power supply? Thanks

5

Thanks for the swift response. I’m using an Anker B2620 dual charger capable of supplying 2.4A total, with the balenasound Pi4 and another Pi2.1 connected.

As far as I can tell, the Pi4 shouldn’t draw more than about 1.2-1.3A under full load, and the Pi2 should be under 500mA, which is well within the limits of the charger. Does that sound right to you? I’m happy to try another charger.

Here’s the contents of the /support link:

{“version”:“3.8.4”,“config”:{“mode”:“MULTI_ROOM”,“device”:{“ip”:“192.168.0.38”,“type”:“raspberrypi4-64”},“multiroom”:{“master”:“192.168.0.38”,“forced”:false},“audioBlock”:{"_events":{},"_eventsCount":2,“pulseCookie”:{“type”:“Buffer”,“data”:[115,117,98,115,99,114,105,98,101,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,184,242,127,163,127,0,0,0,32,210,31,163,127,0,0,0,9,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,122,177,233,199,1,0,0,0,91,6,0,0,168,1,0,0,48,210,31,163,127,0,0,0,92,6,0,0,43,0,0,0,8,210,31,163,127,0,0,0,80,210,31,163,127,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,248,191,31,163,127,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,232,207,31,163,127,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,232,209,31,163,127,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,176,210,31,163,127,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,192,210,31,163,127,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,208,210,31,163,127,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,122,6,0,0,55,7,0,0,0,0,0,0,2,0,0,0,2,1,1,129,18,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,127,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]},“connected”:true,“chunks”:,“requests”:,“lastRequestId”:67,“pulseAddress”:{“port”:4317,“host”:“192.168.0.38”},“address”:“tcp:192.168.0.38:4317”,“subToEvents”:true,“name”:“BalenaAudio”,“socket”:{“connecting”:false,"_hadError":false,"_parent":null,"_host":null,"_readableState":{“objectMode”:false,“highWaterMark”:16384,“buffer”:{“head”:null,“tail”:null,“length”:0},“length”:0,“pipes”:,“flowing”:false,“ended”:false,“endEmitted”:false,“reading”:true,“sync”:false,“needReadable”:true,“emittedReadable”:false,“readableListening”:true,“resumeScheduled”:false,“errorEmitted”:false,“emitClose”:false,“autoDestroy”:false,“destroyed”:false,“errored”:null,“closed”:false,“closeEmitted”:false,“defaultEncoding”:“utf8”,“awaitDrainWriters”:null,“multiAwaitDrain”:false,“readingMore”:false,“dataEmitted”:true,“decoder”:null,“encoding”:null},"_events":{},"_eventsCount":4,"_writableState":{“objectMode”:false,“highWaterMark”:16384,“finalCalled”:false,“needDrain”:false,“ending”:false,“ended”:false,“finished”:false,“destroyed”:false,“decodeStrings”:false,“defaultEncoding”:“utf8”,“length”:0,“writing”:false,“corked”:0,“sync”:false,“bufferProcessing”:false,“writecb”:null,“writelen”:0,“afterWriteTickInfo”:null,“buffered”:,“bufferedIndex”:0,“allBuffers”:true,“allNoop”:true,“pendingcb”:0,“prefinished”:false,“errorEmitted”:false,“emitClose”:false,“autoDestroy”:false,“errored”:null,“closed”:false,“closeEmitted”:false,“writable”:true},“allowHalfOpen”:false,"_sockname":null,"_pendingData":null,"_pendingEncoding":"",“server”:null,"_server":null},“defaultSink”:“balena-sound.input”}},“audio”:{“name”:“pulseaudio”,“version”:“15.0”,“user”:“root”,“hostname”:“503f8ba2f194”,“sampleSpec”:{“format”:3,“channels”:2,“rate”:44100},“defaultSink”:“balena-sound.input”,“defaultSource”:“alsa_output.usb-soundcard-1.analog-stereo.monitor”,“cookie”:2217375553,“channelMap”:{“channels”:2,“types”:[1,2]}},“sinks”:,“volume”:100,“constants”:{“debug”:false,“port”:80,“coteDelay”:5000,“mode”:“MULTI_ROOM”,“balenaDeviceType”:“raspberrypi4-64”,“multiroom”:{“forced”:false,“pollInterval”:60000,“disallowUpdates”:false},“volume”:100,“inputSink”:“balena-sound.input”}}

6

I too am having this issue so following.

7

Hey @tmigone

Just wondering whether you’d had a chance to look at this yet?

Just to add - the USB DAC works perfectly when connected to other devices, so I think it’s safe to rule out.

Cheers!