Waveshare WM8960 Audio HAT

Product Overview

The WM8960 Audio HAT is an audio adapter board produced by Waveshare Electronics, featuring the WM8960 Codec. It supports dual-channel microphone recording and audio playback. The board is shown below:

For more details, refer to the WM8960 Audio HAT Wiki.

Installation

• Hardware Setup

Connect the audio HAT to the 40-pin header of the RDK X5 as shown below:

• Software Configuration

1. Use srpi-config to configure the audio board.
   Go to 3 Interface Options -> I5 Audio
   Select WM8960 Audio Driver HAT:

2. Follow the prompt to reboot, or run sync && reboot to restart the board. If cat /proc/asound/cards shows a duplexaudioi2s1 sound card, the installation was successful.

root@ubuntu:~# cat /proc/asound/cards 
 0 [duplexaudioi2s1]: simple-card - duplex-audio-i2s1
            duplex-audio-i2s1
 1 [duplexaudio    ]: simple-card - duplex-audio
            duplex-audio

• Uninstallation

1. Use srpi-config to configure the audio board.
   Go to 3 Interface Options -> I5 Audio
   Select UNSET to uninstall the audio driver and related configurations.

2. Remove the HAT from the board.

Usage

Check if the sound card exists and verify the device number.

To confirm the sound card is registered (as mentioned above):

root@ubuntu:~# cat /proc/asound/cards 
 0 [duplexaudioi2s1]: simple-card - duplex-audio-i2s1
            duplex-audio-i2s1
 1 [duplexaudio    ]: simple-card - duplex-audio
            duplex-audio

To check logical devices:

root@ubuntu:~# cat /proc/asound/devices
  2: [ 0- 0]: digital audio playback
  3: [ 0- 1]: digital audio capture
  4: [ 0]   : control
  5: [ 1- 0]: digital audio playback
  6: [ 1- 0]: digital audio capture
  7: [ 1]   : control
 33:        : timer

To check user-space device files:

root@ubuntu:~# ls /dev/snd/
by-path  controlC0  controlC1  pcmC0D0p  pcmC0D1c  pcmC1D0c  pcmC1D0p  timer

From the above, and with reference to the Onboard Earphone Audio Port, you can confirm that sound card 0 corresponds to the WM8960 Audio Driver HAT node. The devices exist, with device numbers 0-0 and 0-1. The actual devices to operate are pcmC0D0p and pcmC0D1c.

The onboard sound card is card 1, device number 1-0, which is not used here.

This audio HAT requires audio routing configuration before each function. The following commands must be run before each scenario.

• Recording

• Dual-channel microphone recording:

tinymix -D 0 set 'Left Input Boost Mixer LINPUT1 Volume' 3
tinymix -D 0 set 'Right Input Boost Mixer RINPUT1 Volume' 3

tinymix -D 0 set 'Left Input Boost Mixer LINPUT1 Volume' 1
tinymix -D 0 set 'Right Input Boost Mixer RINPUT1 Volume' 1

tinymix -D 0 set 'Capture Volume' 40,40
tinymix -D 0 set 'ADC PCM Capture Volume' 200,200

tinymix -D 0 set 'Left Boost Mixer LINPUT1 Switch' 1
tinymix -D 0 set 'Right Boost Mixer RINPUT1 Switch' 1

tinymix -D 0 set 'Left Input Mixer Boost Switch' 1
tinymix -D 0 set 'Right Input Mixer Boost Switch' 1

tinymix -D 0 set 'Capture Switch' 1,1
tinycap ./2chn_test.wav -D 0 -d 0 -c 2 -b 16 -r 48000 -p 512 -n 4 -t 5

• Playback

• Dual-channel speaker playback

tinymix -D  0 set 'Left Output Mixer PCM Playback Switch' 1
tinymix -D  0 set 'Right Output Mixer PCM Playback Switch' 1
tinymix -D  0 set 'Speaker DC Volume' 3
tinymix -D  0 set 'Speaker AC Volume' 3
tinymix -D  0 set 'Speaker Playback Volume' 127,127
tinymix -D  0 set 'Playback Volume' 255,255
tinymix -D  0 set 'Left Output Mixer PCM Playback Switch' 1
tinymix -D  0 set 'Right Output Mixer PCM Playback Switch' 1
tinyplay ./2chn_test.wav -D 0 -d 0

• Simultaneous headphone and speaker playback

tinymix -D  0 set 'Headphone Playback Volume' 80,80
tinymix -D  0 set 'Playback Volume' 220,220
tinymix -D  0 set 'Speaker DC Volume' 4
tinymix -D  0 set 'Left Output Mixer PCM Playback Switch' 1
tinymix -D  0 set 'Right Output Mixer PCM Playback Switch' 1
tinyplay ./2chn_test.wav -D 0 -d 0

• Headphone playback only (speaker muted)

tinymix -D  0 set 'Headphone Playback Volume' 115,115
tinymix -D  0 set 'Speaker Playback Volume' 0,0
tinymix -D  0 set 'Playback Volume' 244,244
tinymix -D  0 set 'Speaker DC Volume' 4
tinymix -D  0 set 'Left Output Mixer PCM Playback Switch' 1
tinymix -D  0 set 'Right Output Mixer PCM Playback Switch' 1
tinyplay ./2chn_test.wav -D 0 -d 0

FAQ

Q1: Hardware and software are working, audio path is normal, speakers have sound, but headphones are silent.

A1: The headphone volume may be too low. Increase the headphone volume, for example:
tinymix -D 0 set 'Headphone Playback Volume' 115,115

See more questions here