No sound when connecting through bluetooth

Product support
#1

I can connect to the balena device using bluetooth, but when I stream Spotify after connecting, no audio is coming through.

I restarted the bluetooth service, no luck. Any pointers?

I picked up the following in the log

8.10.20 18:41:40 (+0200) audio W: [pulseaudio] module-loopback.c: Configured latency of 200.00 ms is smaller than minimum latency, using minimum instead
08.10.20 18:41:40 (+0200) audio W: [pulseaudio] module-loopback.c: Cannot set requested source latency of 66.67 ms, adjusting to 250.00 ms
08.10.20 18:41:46 (+0200) audio E: [bluetooth] a2dp-codec-sbc.c: SBC decoding error (-2)
08.10.20 18:41:46 (+0200) audio E: [bluetooth] module-bluez5-device.c: Decoding error
08.10.20 18:42:09 (+0200) audio W: [pulseaudio] module-loopback.c: Too many underruns, increasing latency to 220.00 ms

#4

Hi there – thanks for getting in touch with us. Let me ask some questions:

  • I presume you’re asking about the balenaSound project. Is that correct?
  • Can you confirm what kind of device you’re running this on? If it’s a Raspberry Pi, can you confirm the version?
  • When you run Device Checks from the Diagnostics tab on your device dashboard, does it give you any warnings?
  • What happens when you try the troubleshooting/workaround steps in the “Audio cuts or is very stuttery” section of the balenaSound support page? Although the symptoms described there are a bit different, it’s still related to bluetooth performance problems and may offer some help.

All the best,
Hugh

#6

Hi Hugh
Yes, Sound project
It is running on a Raspberry Pi 3B+
All checks are green.
I have disabled the multi-room server and client, but still the same issue.
I will test with a bluetooth dongle.

It seems to me that bluetooth is very buggy on RPI3, so I will not spend too much time on that, thank you for the pointers.

#8

Hey,

The Pi3B+ has better bluetooth than previous versions, but we do still see issues when users are using both WiFi and Bluetooth at the same time. I think your options are either to run the device over ethernet (if that’s possible) or go with a bluetooth dongle as you suggest. These at least provide a separate radio and normally have a higher gain antenna.

Do let us know how you get on.
Phil

#10

Hi,

I’ve the same problem, I’ve bought a bluetooth dongle to solve it.

My question is: how I can disable internal bluetooh from balena dahboard ?

Can’t found any information about that in documentation or in forum thread or github issues.

Thanks
enuts

#12

Hey there,

According to the troubeshooting guide balenaSound will automatically deetct the usb bluetooth dongle and use it.

As for disabling bluetooth maybe you can try dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt. You can add this via balenaCloud dashboard as a config variable. you can read more on how to do this here https://www.balena.io/docs/reference/OS/advanced/

Hope this is helpful

1 Like
#14

thanks for your answer,

I’ve disable rpi bluetooth with dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt and I use the dongle instead but I still experience the same issue.

12.10.20 19:53:48 (+0200)  audio  E: [bluetooth] a2dp-codec-sbc.c: SBC decoding error (-2)
12.10.20 19:53:48 (+0200)  audio  E: [bluetooth] module-bluez5-device.c: Decoding error
12.10.20 19:55:00 (+0200)  audio  W: [pulseaudio] module-loopback.c: Cannot set requested source latency of 66.67 ms, adjusting to 68.54 ms
12.10.20 19:55:00 (+0200)  audio  E: [bluetooth] a2dp-codec-sbc.c: SBC decoding error (-2)
12.10.20 19:55:00 (+0200)  audio  E: [bluetooth] module-bluez5-device.c: Decoding error

Do you have an idea ?

#15

Hi,

Just to clarify, the configuration variable should be RESIN_HOST_CONFIG_dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt. Is that what you tried?

John

Pi 3B - Bluetooth Sound breaks
#17

yep,

I’m also using a dac and another variable was present by default, so I have :

vc4-kms-v3d,iqaudio-dacplus,pi3-disable-bt

#18

ok, I’ve try different combinations of quotes around these variables and now, it seems ok !

To those with the same problem, here is my configuration

image
image908×442 28.2 KB

#19

Thank you Simon for showing your correct configuration!