Once in a while I am still receiving inquiries of fellow audio folks asking for my Squeezebox Touch Toolbox.
Squeezebox Touch, a device that's been sold until 2011, if I recall correctly. The Toolbox is pretty much of same age. Time is flying by. It feels like a different life back than.
Fun fact. I am sure that this ancient Toolbox will still have a slight impact on modern DACs. Yep. Unfortunately we still face similar challenges on our digital gear after all these years.
The winter season, a great time to do some hardware work. Doesn't happen that often around here - hardware work.
Why not getting rid of a bare board DAC and a bare RPi and build a nice looking desktop streaming solution!?!? That idea triggered this little project...
Hi folks.
The foundation has updated its kernel tree a short while ago. It seems they plan to switch to kernel version 6.1 during the year. Usually the foundation goes for LTS (long term support) kernel versions.
A lot of RPi related stuff had been merged into the so called mainline kernel tree of 6.1 over time. That's the master tree maintained by Linus Torvalds. The more stuff the foundation can transfer to mainline the less effort they and the developers will have to maintain two kernel trees. And the users should greatly benefit by getting much faster newer kernel versions and related features. Especially accessing performance relevant developments asap are of great value for embedded system like the RPi.
What's new on 6.1 ?
A lot.
Not much going in RPi land these days. It's unbelievable that a whole industry branch gets dragged down currently.
However. Many of us still run and maintain RPis. I'd like to make you, the tweakers, aware of a recent change in the RPI firmware.
IanCanada recently released a new gadget called UcPi.
It's basically a supercap power buffer for the RPi. It follows a to me new approach - I just called it "HAB" -- Hardware Attached to Bottom. To accomplish it IanCanada makes use of spring contacts to connect to the soldered GPIO power pins at the bottom of the PI board.
Over at github you'll find the manual that also lays out this or that application:
https://github.com/iancanada/DocumentDownload/blob/master/UltraCapacitorPowerSupply/UcPi/UcPiManual.pdf
Audiophonics sells the product:
https://www.audiophonics.fr/en/single-board-computers-et-hats/ian-canada-ucpi-universal-ultracapacitor-power-supply-board-for-raspberry-pi-p-16717.html
I do use cap buffers to improve the RPi power rails for years with good results.
Therefore I consider the UcPi a promising gadget. However. @ $/€79 plus feet on top I consider the pricing a bit steep.
Further it seems to take a while to get the supercaps charged, which might make operation of the module slightly annoying, especially if you don't run an AlwaysOn system.
Beside that it's recommended to use a quality PS for charging. Another argument that weakens the UcPi proposition. Of course - the lack of a case is another bummer.
Anyhow. I do think for those who run quality RPi implementations with PS like Allo Shanti, iFi iPower or alike the UcPi should enhance the overall performance of the setup without being too complex.
If anybody out there have already tested the UcPi, please let us know.
Enjoy.