Distorted output with Behringer UCA202 USB sound card

[AlecSp]

Having enjoyed piCorePlayer with just it's analog output for a couple of years, I fancied upgrading the audio output. As I already have a Behringer UCA202 USB interface which does me proud from my laptop, I thought I'd use that - not the best, but really not bad.

Connected & configured in piCorePlayer nice and easily, and sounds great. The next day, I suddenly noticed some distortion on one channel. Rebooted the Pi and all was well, until a day or so later and the distortion had returned. It seems like piCorePlayer will play fine through the interface for 24-36 hours before the distortion appears. Restarting Squeezelite appears to be the minimum required to reset it back to correct operation - but only for a while.

I've got two of these interfaces, and both appear to misbehave in the same way.

I've uploaded recordings of this in action on Soundcloud here with well behaved playback, distorted playback, along with a recording from the analog output.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Or uses the Behringer UCA202 interface without problem?

Unless there's anything obvious, I'm tempted to give up on this and either return to the analog output or get a HiFiBerry hat - which could be slightly awkward, given the Aluminium Amour heatsink case I'm using.

[paul-]

Not sure what would cause one channel to act up. From your sig, looks like you are using a RPI4. Which USB ports are you using?

[AlecSp]

Not sure what would cause one channel to act up. From your sig, looks like you are using a RPI4. Which USB ports are you using?

I'm mystified too! Especially as it's all fine for a day or so, and then turns bad.

Yes, a RPi 4. I've got a 512GB USB key for my music library in the bottom right (USB3) port. I've had the UCA202 initially in the bottom left (USB2) port, and then tried it in the top right (USB3) port - the problem is the same in both. And it does seem to be a sudden onset - I've heard the distortion arrive on two occasions.

From googling around, I can't find much info from others using this interface on their piCorePlayer setup. Though, like I said, the interface has performed flawlessly on a Windows PC for years before this.

[Man in a van]

I'm mystified too! Especially as it's all fine for a day or so, and then turns bad.

Yes, a RPi 4. I've got a 512GB USB key for my music library in the bottom right (USB3) port. I've had the UCA202 initially in the bottom left (USB2) port, and then tried it in the top right (USB3) port - the problem is the same in both. And it does seem to be a sudden onset - I've heard the distortion arrive on two occasions.

From googling around, I can't find much info from others using this interface on their piCorePlayer setup. Though, like I said, the interface has performed flawlessly on a Windows PC for years before this.

A couple or so ideas:

Try both on the usb2

Which power supply are you using for the rpi4

Can you connect both devices through a powered usb hub?

ronnie

[AlecSp]

Some good suggestions.

I'll try both UCA 202 and USB memory stick on the two USB 2 sockets. Not an ideal outcome, as one of the reasons I recently updated from Pi 3B+ to 4 was to get the fast USB 3 port to bring the local library on the memory stick up to decent speed (which it does in spades, a full library scan went from 40 mins on the Pi 3B+ to 9 mins on the Pi 4).

I could also try using the Pi 4 with the UCA 202 and no USB memory stick, with a remote mounted network share for the music library. Again, not a great solution, but might help shed light on the problem.

Good point on the PSU - it's not an official Raspberry Pi one, but it does claim to have a 3A output. For what it's worth, the model number is XBS-0530, sold as a Pi & PSU package here.

The UCA 202 documentation does give the current draw of the UCA 202 over USB as 100mA at 5v. Hard to know what the memory stick could consume - USB 3 can in theory deliver 900 mA, but not sure if a memory stick would draw this much?

I don't have a powered USB hub to try.

I still have my Pi 3B+, which I hadn't tried the UCA 202 with. I've just set it up to have a play with too.

Given that it takes 24 hours or so for the problem to show up, it'll be a few days before I've got anything to show from my experiments. Appreciate the input!

[Man in a van]

@AlecSp

Well I did a search for raspberry pi power supply XBS-0530

and found this (note the conclusion)

https://lygte-info.dk/review/USBpowe...0530%20UK.html


Official PS are available

https://shop.pimoroni.com/collections/raspberry-pi?filter=Power



It might be worth looking in a few logs thext time it happens.

On LMS go to Settings > Information > scroll to the bottom of the page for Server log info.

On pCP, Main Page > Diagnostics.

ronnie

[d6jg]

I have a couple of UCA202.
One is used with a Pi3 and piCorePlayer (can't remember the version) no issues at all. Have you set Squeezelite to pause or stop when not playing?
The other is also connected to a Pi which runs Raspbian and an Liquidsoap/Icecast server. No issues at all. This one has been powered up for months.
I think it could well be a power issue. When you reboot you effectively reset the DAC chip in UCA202

[AlecSp]

I have a couple of UCA202.
One is used with a Pi3 and piCorePlayer (can't remember the version) no issues at all. Have you set Squeezelite to pause or stop when not playing?
The other is also connected to a Pi which runs Raspbian and an Liquidsoap/Icecast server. No issues at all. This one has been powered up for months.
I think it could well be a power issue. When you reboot you effectively reset the DAC chip in UCA202

Great to hear a positive experience with the UCA202, at least that's a good starting point.

Over 48 hours on, I can report that the UCA202 has perfomed flawlessly with my Pi 3B+, once again vindicating the interface per se.

So, it's back to another bit of experimentation with the Pi 4...

Interesting views about the power supply. I've actually been impressed at how cool it runs. The review said it didn't struggle to provide 3A for an hour on a 240v source, which is what I have in the UK. I do wonder how much power the USB 3 flash drive could draw when writing - but it does very little writing - once in a blue moon, I copy a few new files to the USB drive, but that's about it - all the LMS files are currently still on the SD card.

Yes, I should have taken a trawl through the logs after misbehaviour - I'll do that this time.

Depending on how things go, I might pick up an official Pi 4 PSU, but I'm currently not hugely optimistic for that - ready to be proved wrong, mind!

[AlecSp]

I have a couple of UCA202.
One is used with a Pi3 and piCorePlayer (can't remember the version) no issues at all. Have you set Squeezelite to pause or stop when not playing?

And on this point, I'm not sure those settings in LMS would have any effect, as they're more what the player does when powered up, right?

I did take a look at the piCorePlayer -> Squeezelite settings -> Close Output Setting, which defaults to enabled. As I've found that a power cycle (and just restarting Squeezelite) seems to fix the problem, then maybe setting Squeezelite to close the output device after, say, an hour of idle time might help. Though it would still be a workaround, rather than a fix of the root cause - whatever that is.

[d6jg]

And on this point, I'm not sure those settings in LMS would have any effect, as they're more what the player does when powered up, right?

I did take a look at the piCorePlayer -> Squeezelite settings -> Close Output Setting, which defaults to enabled. As I've found that a power cycle (and just restarting Squeezelite) seems to fix the problem, then maybe setting Squeezelite to close the output device after, say, an hour of idle time might help. Though it would still be a workaround, rather than a fix of the root cause - whatever that is.

Not sure I’ve tried either of my UCA202s with a Pi4 but I do have a Pi4 running with a Khalas Tone Board and for some reason it’s connected to one of the USB2 interfaces rather than USB3. I’m sure I read somewhere that USB audio interfaces don’t like USB3 but no idea where I read it or what the reasoning was.