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Troubleshooting

Verify That Pisound Is Detected

Once the system boots up, open a terminal (command) window and run: 

 amidi -l
 arecord -l
 aplay -l
You should see output similar to: 
 pi@raspberrypi:~ $ amidi -l
 Dir Device    Name
 IO  hw:1,0    pisound MIDI PS-10JAD4Q
 pi@raspberrypi:~ $ arecord -l
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 1: pisound [pisound], device 0: PS-10JAD4Q snd-soc-dummy-dai-0 []
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
 pi@raspberrypi:~ $ aplay -l
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 0: bcm2835 ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA]
   Subdevices: 8/8
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
   Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
   Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
   Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
   Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
   Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
   Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
   Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
 card 0: ALSA [bcm2835 ALSA], device 1: bcm2835 ALSA [bcm2835 IEC958/HDMI]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
 card 1: pisound [pisound], device 0: PS-10JAD4Q snd-soc-dummy-dai-0 []
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Pisound Not Detected

If your Pisound is not detected, try these solutions:

  1. Make sure that the hardware connection is good. Turn the system off and try to re-attach your Pisound to your Raspberry Pi. Boards should appear completely parallel, so you may have to squeeze the side with the pins a bit. You may try even without the spacers, just to make sure the connection is not the issue.

  2. Check for system errors by running dmesg.

Sound Quality Issues

If your Pisound has sound quality issues, try these solutions:

  1. Make sure the power supply is capable enough. We recommend using a 5.1 V rated power supply, capable of providing 2.5 A of current or more. Read more here.

  2. Try different Jack settings. Our recommended Jack settings can be found here, but you may need to use higher values so feel free to experiment. If you are using the Patchbox OS, Jack parameters can be changed by running patchbox and choosing jack then the config option.

  3. Check for system errors by running dmesg.

Other Issues

  1. If you are using the Patchbox OS, make sure you have the latest version. To update the system, run patchbox update

  2. Check for system errors by running dmesg.

Running dmesg

Once you get the dmesg output log, keep an eye out for lines containing 'pisound' as well as any general errors, especially related to 'sound', 'snd', and 'device tree overlay'. In case there's nothing obviously helpful in the log, try to post the entire log to our community forum.

Comments & Questions

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If you have any questions about the information on this page let us know below! 👇