Introduction


This guide contains all the information you will need to run the OSA Electronics DACBerry PRO.

Summary

  1. What we need
  2. Assembly
  3. Onboard configuration
  4. Quick install
  5. Volumio instructions
  6. OSMC instructions
  7. Retropie instructions

What we need


Assembly


Use the nylon screws and standoffs to assembly the Raspberry Pi together with the DACBerry PRO, as shown on the image below:

 

Quick Install


There is an easy way to install support for DACBerry PRO on Raspbian Jessie.

Just run the following code from your Raspberry Pi with Internet connectivity:

curl https://www.osaelectronics.com/get/dbpro.sh | bash

You may need to reboot once. After rebooting, everything should work!

*NOTE: If quick install doesn’t work at all, or want to follow step by step instructions, please refer to the Retropie part.

Volumio Instructions


Volumio team is already working to add official support on next release, but meanwhile, you can follow these steps to make it work:

*IMPORTANT: In order to make it works properly, is recommended to do a fresh install of Volumio and use lastest version.
**IMPORTANT: This board has a +6dB output on RCA by default, this means about 4 times output volume. In order to avoid clipping, please do not go higher than 60% Volume.

To get it working using the RCA Output, you need to choose the “iQaudio DAC Plus” profile.

Airplay

Volumio is a perfect choice if you want to stream music from your Apple devices.

Step 1
Open Volumio and navigate trought “Network” in Settings Panel, and connect to your WiFi network.

Step 2
Inside “Network” settings, locate “Hotspot Settings” tab and enable it if it’s not. Restart.

Step 3
Go to your desired Apple (or Windows) device and open iTunes if you are using a computer, or open the “control center” if using a phone/tablet. Go to the “Airplay” icon and select “Volumio”.


Step 4

That’s it! Enjoy streaming music!

Adding password to your Airplay device

With the Airplay feature activated, everybody will have access to your device and will be able to play music on it. If you want to add a password to it, follow these instructions.

Step 1
Open an SSH connection to your Pi, if you can’t connect at all, enable it on volumio.local/dev.

Then, type the following line to open up the template for the shairport config file in a text editor:

sudo nano  /volumio/app/plugins/music_service/airplay_emulation/shairport-sync.conf.tmpl

Step 2
In the “general” section, add a password, like this:

general =
{
    name = "${name}";
    log_verbosity = 0;
    password = "<your airplay password here>";
};

Save the file as usual and reboot.

Step 3
Connect to your device, you should be prompted for a password when airplaying to it.

OSMC Instructions


KODI OSMC team is already working to add official support on next release, but meanwhile, you can follow these steps to make it work:

*IMPORTANT: In order to make it works properly, is recommended to do a fresh install of OSMC and use lastest version.
**IMPORTANT: This board has a +6dB output on RCA by default, this means about 4 times output volume. In order to avoid clipping, please do not go higher than 60% Volume.

To get the it working using the RCA Output, you need to use the “iQaudio DAC Plus” profile.

 

 

Retropie Instructions


As for Raspbian Jessie, just run the following code from your Raspberry Pi with Internet connectivity:

Analog Output

curl https://www.osaelectronics.com/get/dbpro.sh | bash

The next step is to edit the raspi modules list with:

sudo nano /etc/asound.conf

This file should be blank! Just copy and paste the following text into the file:

pcm.dacberry {
    type softvol
    slave.pcm "plughw:0"
    control.name "PCM"
    control.card 0
}

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm  "dacberry"
}

ctl.!default {
 type hw
 card 0
}

Save the file as usual and reboot:

sudo reboot

Now to check everything is as expected, just type:

amixer
aplay -l

You should see something like that:

pi@retropie:~ $ amixer
Simple mixer control 'DSP Program',0
Capabilities: enum
Items: 'FIR interpolation with de-emphasis' 'Low latency IIR with de-emphasis' 'High attenuation with de-emphasis' 'Fixed process flow' 'Ringing-less low latency FIR'
Item0: 'Low latency IIR with de-emphasis'
Simple mixer control 'Analogue',0
Capabilities: pvolume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 1
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 1 [100%] [0.00dB]
Front Right: Playback 1 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Analogue Playback Boost',0
Capabilities: volume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: 0 - 1
Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Auto Mute',0
Capabilities: pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Mono:
Front Left: Playback [on]
Front Right: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Auto Mute Mono',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Auto Mute Time Left',0
Capabilities: enum
Items: '21ms' '106ms' '213ms' '533ms' '1.07s' '2.13s' '5.33s' '10.66s'
Item0: '21ms'
Simple mixer control 'Auto Mute Time Right',0
Capabilities: enum
Items: '21ms' '106ms' '213ms' '533ms' '1.07s' '2.13s' '5.33s' '10.66s'
Item0: '21ms'
Simple mixer control 'Clock Missing Period',0
Capabilities: enum
Items: '1s' '2s' '3s' '4s' '5s' '6s' '7s' '8s'
Item0: '1s'
Simple mixer control 'Deemphasis',0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Digital',0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 207
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 207 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Front Right: Playback 207 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Max Overclock DAC',0
Capabilities: volume volume-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Capture channels: Mono
Limits: 0 - 40
Mono: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control 'Max Overclock DSP',0
Capabilities: volume volume-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Capture channels: Mono
Limits: 0 - 40
Mono: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control 'Max Overclock PLL',0
Capabilities: volume volume-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Capture channels: Mono
Limits: 0 - 20
Mono: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control 'Volume Ramp Down Emergency Rate',0
Capabilities: enum
Items: '1 sample/update' '2 samples/update' '4 samples/update' 'Immediate'
Item0: '1 sample/update'
Simple mixer control 'Volume Ramp Down Emergency Step',0
Capabilities: enum
Items: '4dB/step' '2dB/step' '1dB/step' '0.5dB/step'
Item0: '4dB/step'
Simple mixer control 'Volume Ramp Down Rate',0
Capabilities: enum
Items: '1 sample/update' '2 samples/update' '4 samples/update' 'Immediate'
Item0: '1 sample/update'
Simple mixer control 'Volume Ramp Down Step',0
Capabilities: enum
Items: '4dB/step' '2dB/step' '1dB/step' '0.5dB/step'
Item0: '1dB/step'
Simple mixer control 'Volume Ramp Up Rate',0
Capabilities: enum
Items: '1 sample/update' '2 samples/update' '4 samples/update' 'Immediate'
Item0: '1 sample/update'
Simple mixer control 'Volume Ramp Up Step',0
Capabilities: enum
Items: '4dB/step' '2dB/step' '1dB/step' '0.5dB/step'
Item0: '1dB/step'
pi@retropie:~ $

pi@retropie:~ $ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: IQaudIODAC [IQaudIODAC], device 0: IQaudIO DAC HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0 []
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
pi@retropie:~ $

And voilà! Enjoy playing retro games!

1 thoughts on “DACBerry PRO Quick Start Guide

  1. Erik says:

    Hi
    I own a DACBerry pro since 2017. I’ve never been able to get it to work. At the time I thought it was my raspberry pi skill so I gave up. No my skills have improved but I’m still unable to start it using in volumio v3.233.
    I’m useing a RPI 3b+, also build in 2017.

    I used the instruction above with no result. Selecting iQaudio DAC Plus doesn’t work and also “OSA DACBerry pro” doesn’t. Both hte headphone jack as the RCA connectors don’t give any sound. My amp is ok. It works with sonos on RCA.

    Can you please help me out?

    Regards,

    Erik

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