Respeaker Lite only records static and very quiet voice

[Ray2024]

Hi,
I know you don't support the Respeaker but unfortunately I haven't get any answer yet from Seeed, but maybe you have some tips for me.
I've got a couple of Respeaker lite which doesn't work properly any more. I don't use an ESP or USB but I2S with a Raspberry which after some time I figured out how to set them up.

The problem is, after soldering the pin header it can happen that the Respeaker stop recording voice or at least it does record something like a lot of static and I can hear my voice very quiet.
After 2 "broken" respeaker I ordered the next one. 2 weeks ago I soldered the header, and it was working first but after cleaning up some of soldered pins, I've got the same issue.

3 of 4 Respeaker are "broken" (but they do play audio and I can still flash firmware (at least on two of them but this is another issue...)), and it does not matter if use the respeaker over USB on my laptop or via I2S on the Raspberry.

I just can't believe they are actually broken, I've got the feeling I just put the XU316 into reset mode or something else.

Unfortunately I don't have any XTAG hardware but maybe you guys have another idea or a clue what could be the problem.

Here is a 5 second recording and a picture of the wiring I use with a Raspberry.

Any help appreciate,
thank you.

[andrewxcav]

Hi,

I agree this is better scoped for SEEED than for us at XMOS, but as a user who has had a nicely wired up Pi fail after a software update I have some thoughts:
1. Take a look here as a reference, do not just follow the instructions or run the scripts as they may not be right for the respeaker array you have: https://github.com/xmos/vocalfusion-rpi-setup
2. See if you need to either provide or receive an mclk signal
3. Related to (1.) take a look on RPi forums etc. to see if the I2S or I2C drivers got broken at some release of Raspian

Good Luck!

[Ray2024]

Hi and thank you for your tips.

1. I already played with this repo last year and if I remember correctly I was able to play sound.
2. I tried this too, but with no luck.
3. I2S and I2C are working fine.

In general its working, I have one respeaker lite with a raspberry zero running as a voice assistant satellite working for 2 months now.
It's working great, I'm using this device tree overlay and used the wiring linked in my first post.
The problem is, trying to get 3 others working were they first worked but then stopped working. I think I just set one or more pins high or low on the xu316 or something else.
2 of the 3 broken devices are still playing audio and they even record audio but only very quite and with heavy noise.

And it does not matter if I use the USB firmware connected to my Laptop or I2S connected to the raspberry, the problem is the same.

The 3. one I may bricked as I was playing with the raspberry and just setting the reset pin to high and low, shorting against ground etc. but now it stopped working completely. But this one had another problem, I couldn't flash the firmware any more, but this is another topic...

[Alex40]

Hi! It seems you might have a problem with the XU316. Try to check the links and see if you hurt the chip when you put it together. Often, it's just about making sure all the pins are hooked up right.