Asus Tinker Board

[tokenbrit]

Did you get the cheaper board, or the S ?

[matthias]

I've been curious about HAKAI for quite a while now. Not because I'm unsatisfied with my KDSM, but mostly curious about how good a DYI project like this could actually be. Also, since I spend quite a bit of time in my home office, I would like something better than my computer for music.
But HAKAI being made up of a big bunch of outdated and hard-to-source component has held me off.
Then the other night I noticed two clips here, comparing a Tinker Board box with HAKAI, and I found I preferred the former. (And apparently, so did several others here.. I'm surprised not more has been said about this.)
Tinker Board is easy enough to get hold of and costs much less than HAKAI, so I figured I'd just go ahead and order one.
So earlier tonight I put the Tinker Board together, installed the latest VolumIO and connected it to my Gigaport HD+ (which I already had).
It's now 3.30 in the morning, I've been sitting on this office chair for 5-6 hours, and I still don't want to stop listening to music. I don't think I've ever listened to headphones for this long before. Amazing. This thing is GREAT!

teatime,
thank you for sharing.
Can you provide clips?
And same question as tokenbrit: S or non-S?
Thanks again.

Matt

[teatime]

Did you get the cheaper board, or the S ?

This is the TInker Board S. Since there was no known comparisons available, I went with the version that seemed more practical. Though currently, I'm running it off the SD-card, not the on-board eMMC.

[teatime]

Can you provide clips?

Well.. I probably can, but I don't think mobile clips by themselves say much. I don't think it makes much sense unless I can do a comparison, and I'm not sure of what, as I don't have an HAKAI. Comparing with my own random PC isn't all that interesting, is it?

I don't have an analog preamp, and I don't have the cables to connect the Gigaport directly to the main system speakers (needs XLR), and comparing against KDSM, via KDSM, doesn't really make sense.

[FairPlayMotty]

I'll post more clips after my house move. Hopefully both the Hakai and Tinker Board S clips will be based on Snakeoil OS.

[teatime]

I'll post more clips after my house move. Hopefully both the Hakai and Tinker Board S clips will be based on Snakeoil OS.

You've found Snakeoil OS better than VolumIO? It's pretty cool that as long as you buy a few memory cards, you can switch between them to compare. :)

So far I'm too happy to start messing with it, but knowing me, I probably will soon..

[FairPlayMotty]

You've found Snakeoil OS better than VolumIO?

It's a much better sounding piece of software with more options and the ability to support an audio server as well as a dedicated player.

[teatime]

You've found Snakeoil OS better than VolumIO?

It's a much better sounding piece of software with more options and the ability to support an audio server as well as a dedicated player.

Hmm.. checking the Snakeoil OS site, I can find no explicit mention of Tinker Board support, only Raspberry Pi. But I suppose it could be that they are similar enough to work anyway... You've tried it on the TB?

Did you try the new VolumIO release? (TB release was last week)

[lejonklou]

It's a much better sounding piece of software with more options and the ability to support an audio server as well as a dedicated player.

Could you elaborate a bit on "Much better sounding"? Clips would of course be ideal to support the claim. :)

[FairPlayMotty]

Could you elaborate a bit on "Much better sounding"? Clips would of course be ideal to support the claim. :)

As soon as I conclude the new house purchase I will do. When I ported from Volumio to Snakeoil OS I tested extensively with one Hakai with Volumio right next to one with the latest version of MPD. The difference was marked and it was very clear that Snakeoil OS sounded significantly better. Agent Kith updates the system frequently and each version has the latest version of MPD plus prior versions and a number of other players (Squeezelite, HQPlayer etc.).

I'm a fan of the way Kith tunes the system and the server functionality is exceptional.

[TMV]

The new Raspberry PI 4 has been launched:
Maybe worth to try vs. Tinker Board and Hakai.

I´m using TB S & Gigaport HD+ with good results, just bought a RPi4 but with Volumio RPi4+Gigaport HD+ does not work yet.

[matthias]

I´m using TB S & Gigaport HD+ with good results, just bought a RPi4 but with Volumio RPi4+Gigaport HD+ does not work yet.

Thanks for sharing,
another nice device will be the upcoming Allo USBridge Signature which is based on the latest RPi compute module.

https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/vendor- ... ost5880783

Matt

[matthias]

HI,

a new SBC for Audio purposes is launched:

https://allo.com/sparky/usbridge-signature-pcb.html

Matt

[MarcoHarn]

Hi...while working on a project I found the ASUS Tinker Board randomly. I was comparing RPi vs Olimex vs other alternatives. My project is a chassis-embedded hardware monitor/controller for a ROG PC, lol, this SBC seems like the instant winner.
I am looking for a touchscreen measuring about 3.25"x5.75"(HxW) to cover a full-height drive bay.

circuit card assembly

[Spannko]

One of the main reasons why is the board's internal DC-DC conversion, which turns the single voltage from the power supply into multiple voltages that feed all the circuits on the board. If the DC-DC conversion chip is bad, or its implementation not well executed, the board doesn't perform any good.

Fredrik,
would it make sense to bypass the DC-DC converter and to supply the different voltages directly to the circuits with a multi-rail PS?

Matt

Absolutely not.

It's probably easier to redesign the entire board from scratch than to remove and replace components, find and cut buried tracks, and then add new supplies to all circuits that must start in a certain order.

I have exchanged a few components on these miniature boards, that's probably as far as one can take it.

I think it may be possible to power the tinker board with separate 5V and 3.3V supplies via the GPIO pins. It should also be possible to power a usb DAC with another 5V supply. This may or may not improve the sound of the Tinker Board!

[FairPlayMotty]

Google the Primo reviews and look at the images - it's pretty obvious how the guys behind the Primo dealt with the power issue.

[Cobra Dave]

I installed latest version of Volumio (2.834 for Asus Tinkerboard S, and the Gigaport HD+ DAC) a couple of weeks ago.

It all looked good, Volumio found the DAC, but got this error as soon as I started to play any music:

Failed to open “alsa” [alsa];
Error opening ALSA device
“hw:5,0”;
snd_pcm_hw_params() failed:
Broken pipe

This can be solved by installing an old version of Volumio.

[springwood64]

As an alternative, you can use the ESI Gigaport EX with the Asus Tinkerboard S and the (current) build of Volumio (2.878)