Codec alternatives?

[stanleyfx]

Side note, hand soldering qfn is horrible. That is all

Flux. solder paste and hot air is the only way I will even attempt QFN.

Soldering iron? NOPE!

Yeah ! it took me a few attempts to get those to little QFN chips to solder correctly. I don't have solder paste so my process was flux on the PCB pads then tin all the pads by pulling the iron tip along a row while feeding solder in. More flux then place the QFN on the PCB then with a hot air gas iron to heat the chip and reflow the solder on the pads. Sometimes the QFN floats into position when the solder melts but other times it floated between pads/pins. Solder paste would be easier.

I'm just doing last checks on our PCB's before sending the gerbers off for prototype assembly.

[sebotron]

Side note, hand soldering qfn is horrible. That is all

Flux. solder paste and hot air is the only way I will even attempt QFN.

Soldering iron? NOPE!

Yeah ! it took me a few attempts to get those to little QFN chips to solder correctly. I don't have solder paste so my process was flux on the PCB pads then tin all the pads by pulling the iron tip along a row while feeding solder in. More flux then place the QFN on the PCB then with a hot air gas iron to heat the chip and reflow the solder on the pads. Sometimes the QFN floats into position when the solder melts but other times it floated between pads/pins. Solder paste would be easier.

I'm just doing last checks on our PCB's before sending the gerbers off for prototype assembly.

Haha yes! I do have paste and a hot air gun - also just started to use no-lead paste and terrified I'm gonna burn the ICs

I figured my power issues: I designed my boards in Eagle, sent to fab, moved over to Diptrace and proceeded to rotate an eeprom on one board and a charge pump on another in the process so of course I soldered them upside down :facepalm:

Then I had I2C issues that took me a few days to figure out.

As we're speaking, I can talk to my eeprom and to my codec. Next stop is configuring the codec, slapping on the fxcore and hope for the best!

[stanleyfx]

Flux. solder paste and hot air is the only way I will even attempt QFN.

Soldering iron? NOPE!

Yeah ! it took me a few attempts to get those to little QFN chips to solder correctly. I don't have solder paste so my process was flux on the PCB pads then tin all the pads by pulling the iron tip along a row while feeding solder in. More flux then place the QFN on the PCB then with a hot air gas iron to heat the chip and reflow the solder on the pads. Sometimes the QFN floats into position when the solder melts but other times it floated between pads/pins. Solder paste would be easier.

I'm just doing last checks on our PCB's before sending the gerbers off for prototype assembly.

Haha yes! I do have paste and a hot air gun - also just started to use no-lead paste and terrified I'm gonna burn the ICs

I figured my power issues: I designed my boards in Eagle, sent to fab, moved over to Diptrace and proceeded to rotate an eeprom on one board and a charge pump on another in the process so of course I soldered them upside down :facepalm:

Then I had I2C issues that took me a few days to figure out.

As we're speaking, I can talk to my eeprom and to my codec. Next stop is configuring the codec, slapping on the fxcore and hope for the best!

Hi Sebotron, good to hear you were able to figure out the eeprom and charge pump rotation and get it all up and running. I look forward to hearing more.

I put in our PCB for fabrication, I submitted the bare pcb only and I will hand solder but I had an issue because the fabrication house could not do blind vias on 4 layer boards. I have had to re-route using through hole but trying to communicate with them has proven difficult. The problem is I talk to a sales person who passes on messages to tech, who then pass on the answer to sales then me... I don't need that sales person in the middle to confuse the issue

I have accepted the new design to production but do not know if the vias will connect to the correct layers. I will update when I get the boards back.

[sebotron]

Yeah ! it took me a few attempts to get those to little QFN chips to solder correctly. I don't have solder paste so my process was flux on the PCB pads then tin all the pads by pulling the iron tip along a row while feeding solder in. More flux then place the QFN on the PCB then with a hot air gas iron to heat the chip and reflow the solder on the pads. Sometimes the QFN floats into position when the solder melts but other times it floated between pads/pins. Solder paste would be easier.

I'm just doing last checks on our PCB's before sending the gerbers off for prototype assembly.

Haha yes! I do have paste and a hot air gun - also just started to use no-lead paste and terrified I'm gonna burn the ICs

I figured my power issues: I designed my boards in Eagle, sent to fab, moved over to Diptrace and proceeded to rotate an eeprom on one board and a charge pump on another in the process so of course I soldered them upside down :facepalm:

Then I had I2C issues that took me a few days to figure out.

As we're speaking, I can talk to my eeprom and to my codec. Next stop is configuring the codec, slapping on the fxcore and hope for the best!

Hi Sebotron, good to hear you were able to figure out the eeprom and charge pump rotation and get it all up and running. I look forward to hearing more.

I put in our PCB for fabrication, I submitted the bare pcb only and I will hand solder but I had an issue because the fabrication house could not do blind vias on 4 layer boards. I have had to re-route using through hole but trying to communicate with them has proven difficult. The problem is I talk to a sales person who passes on messages to tech, who then pass on the answer to sales then me... I don't need that sales person in the middle to confuse the issue

I have accepted the new design to production but do not know if the vias will connect to the correct layers. I will update when I get the boards back.

Hey man! Sorry to hear you're having fab woes! I'm still working through the issues with my own build most of them stemming from hand soldering the tiny ICs. I hope it worked out for you!

[sebotron]

We've also got our AK4619 working. As sebotron says, most of the default values in the control registers will work ok. We just needed to set up the analog input mode to single-ended and you also need to set the Power Management register to power up the ADCs and DACs as they default to off.

Hi Phil! Paging you to see if you could lend me a hand getting that AK4619 working! Connections seem good and I can talk to it w/ I2C and read back the registers but I can't see anything on the datalines.

Cheers!

[PhilHaw]

We've also got our AK4619 working. As sebotron says, most of the default values in the control registers will work ok. We just needed to set up the analog input mode to single-ended and you also need to set the Power Management register to power up the ADCs and DACs as they default to off.

Hi Phil! Paging you to see if you could lend me a hand getting that AK4619 working! Connections seem good and I can talk to it w/ I2C and read back the registers but I can't see anything on the datalines.

Cheers!

Hi buddy!. Did you turn on the AK4619 ADCs and DACs by setting the power management registers? Page 60 in the AK4619 datasheet. IIRC I2C comms were working but I had no data signals until I correctly configured the power management. I also did a loop-through test ADC1 -> DAC1 and ADC2 -> DAC2 to make sure the data lines were good. (page 49). It's been a few months so I have already forgotten a lot of it LOL

Phil.

[sebotron]

Hi buddy!. Did you turn on the AK4619 ADCs and DACs by setting the power management registers? Page 60 in the AK4619 datasheet. IIRC I2C comms were working but I had no data signals until I correctly configured the power management. I also did a loop-through test ADC1 -> DAC1 and ADC2 -> DAC2 to make sure the data lines were good. (page 49). It's been a few months so I have already forgotten a lot of it LOL

Phil.

Ya, here's what I do:

1) Pull up the PDN pin to put the codec in standby mode
2) Set the analog Input mode to single ended on AINL4 and AINR4 by setting the 0x0B register to 0x05 ( 0b00000101 ) as per page 43
3) Set the power management register, 0x00 to 0x13 ( 0b00010011 ) to turn on PMAD1 and PMDA1 as well as RSTN to put the codec in normal operation mode

Reading back the same registers give me the right values so I'm very confused. I'll be posting my schematics in the other thread.

EDIT: I'm also happy to share my MCU code if anybody is a STM32 HAL ninja

[PhilHaw]

I don't know if any of this is different from what you're doing but here goes:

1) You need to hold the PDN pin low for a minimum of 600ns (page 40). I keep it low for approx 2ms on power up.
2) Then you need to wait at least 10ms after taking PDN high before making any control register settings in the AK4619.
3) I then set register 0x0B to 0b01010101 (single-ended inputs to AIN1L, AIN1R, AIN4L and AIN4R).
4) Wait 100ms (AK4619 Datasheet page 42: "Start-up time on Analog input pin")
5) Set register 0x00 (Power Management) to 0b110111. (Turning on both DACs and both ADCs and setting the RSTN bit.)

If you want to try the loop thru test (ADC1 -> DAC1) then send 0b1110 to register 0x12 (DAC input select register).

I think you are pretty much doing all of this, except you only turn on ADC1 and DAC1 whereas I am using all 4 channels.

I don't speak STM32 lingo, sorry! We're using an ATMEL atmega2560 mcu.

Hope you get it sorted - best of luck!

Phil.

[sebotron]

I don't know if any of this is different from what you're doing but here goes:

1) You need to hold the PDN pin low for a minimum of 600ns (page 40). I keep it low for approx 2ms on power up.
2) Then you need to wait at least 10ms after taking PDN high before making any control register settings in the AK4619.
3) I then set register 0x0B to 0b01010101 (single-ended inputs to AIN1L, AIN1R, AIN4L and AIN4R).
4) Wait 100ms (AK4619 Datasheet page 42: "Start-up time on Analog input pin")
5) Set register 0x00 (Power Management) to 0b110111. (Turning on both DACs and both ADCs and setting the RSTN bit.)

If you want to try the loop thru test (ADC1 -> DAC1) then send 0b1110 to register 0x12 (DAC input select register).

I think you are pretty much doing all of this, except you only turn on ADC1 and DAC1 whereas I am using all 4 channels.

I don't speak STM32 lingo, sorry! We're using an ATMEL atmega2560 mcu.

Hope you get it sorted - best of luck!

Phil.

Oh I think I'm a giant dumbass. AIN4L/R is on ADC2, which is routed to SDOUT2. I connected SDOUT1 to the FXC and SDOUT2 to VSS. *facepalm*

Guess I'll report back in a few weeks... thanks Phil

[PhilHaw]

I hope that will get you going now buddy! Let us know how things go.

Phil.