Music / Sound (rack version)

[sunnyboy010101]

I guess I'm using the GUI to talk to my rack PiDP-1, but when I try <ctrl>-F1 I see nothing.Is there supposed to be feedback from this keystroke?

I do see the USB music dongle as default sound choice when I click the speaker icon on the VNC display, but get no sound out of the rack speakers. I am using headless HDMI so the only sound should be the rack speakers.

Is there a simple Raspbien test to check if speakers are working? I figure if they aren't working in linux, then they won't be working when I load up the music tapes for the PiDP-1, so best to debug the sound/speakers under linux first.

Thanks,

-R

[Matthias Barthel]

Open a website with a Musikstream, e.g. a online radiostation or a YouTube site, i tested my audio with a radiostation but i make no music at this time with the pidp1.

Matthias 

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[Bill E]

 I had to do something to get it working properly, I think it was a boot file config change. Google 'pi 5 no sound with usb dongle' and you'll get a number of hits with suggestions.

The amp and speakers in the rack are pretty feeble, not all that loud. I ended up replacing the super cheap amp with another super cheap amp that had a bit more gain.

Bill

[sunnyboy010101]

Thanks all for the suggestions. Once my new power supply arrives and I figure out how I want to mount the rack, I'll do some playing to get the music to work.

I'm really short of places to put the new rack version. The console could sit nicely on a table, but the rack needs mounting. It can't just be stuck on a wall like a picture - I need to access the switches. So I'm trying to make something work with my 19" tall synth rack but it's challenging as there's no space there either.

-R

[sunnyboy010101]

My new 'official' Raspberry Pi 45W power supply arrived today, and I can turn on the amplifier without getting the low power lightning bolt.

My sound is now working, and I am pretty sure I know the reason. When I built my PiDP-10, I wanted full VNC resolution without connecting a HDMI monitor to the Pi-5 (i.e. running headless). I found (this was summer 2024) that the solution was to install a "dummy HDMI plug". I did this and it worked perfectly, running 24/7 since summer 2024.

Then I bought the PiDP-1 kit this fall. After building it, I repurposed another Pi-5 that I'd bought in 2024 as a "test bed" prior to getting the PiDP-10 kit built. It was identical to the PiDP-10 Pi-5, except had a "top hat" NVME hat and M.2 SSD. The one for the PiDP-10 needed a bottom NVME hat to fit the PiDP-10.

It was the same for the PiDP-1. I had to convert it from it's top hat NVME to a bottom hat NVME. Like the PiDP-10, it too ran headless and so also had the HDMI dummy plug. 

And my sound did not work. What I saw was TWO - HDMI sound devices available, as well as the USB audio dongle. But no matter what I selected, I got no sound from the USB dongle and speakers.

Now for today's success. In other conversations I've talked about my Elecrow 7in HDMI monitor that came today and has been installed, albeit with temporary cabling which I need to clean up. However, I wondered if having a REAL HDMI monitor which supports audio (it came with speakers I have yet to mount) might just change the whole sound landscape.

Short answer - YES. With the Elecrow HDMI monitor working, I now see ONE HDMI sound device and the one USB audio dongle. I select the USB device and run the sound test program, and IT WORKS! It's not very loud, but that's been reported before. But it does work perfectly with stereo output.

So I conclude that HDMI dummy plug was reflecting HDMI sound that simply was not present, and confusing / interfering with any proper sound operation.

Anyway, sound is working, the HDMI monitor looks awesome (except for the soon to be hidden cables) and the low power warning is also gone.

-R

[sunnyboy010101]

My mount solution discussed in other conversations was to buy a used small audio mixer rack (the kind that tilts) and mount the PiDP-1 to it. It works perfectly!

(photo of rack and new HDMI monitor with messy cables for now)...

On Tuesday, January 6, 2026 at 8:39:39 AM UTC-8 sunnyboy010101 wrote:

[sunnyboy010101]

My rack PiDP-1 is now complete! I drilled a 1in hole in behind the Elecrow HDMI monitor to pass the cables thru the paper tape panel and used the supplied 180degree connectors plus male-female cables to connect HDMI, power USB and touch USB to the appropriate places. I found a brand new 1in bi-metal hole saw was the cleanest way to drill the hole.

The HDMI screen also comes with two small speakers that attach to the back of the monitor. I installed them and the sound is significantly better/louder than the kit supplied USB audio dongle plus amplifier and speakers on the speaker panel. Both now work very well, just the HMDI sound is "nicer". The "touch" also works, so that's nice. (the little green tab on the side of the monitor is the removable protection film I've not yet removed as I just completed the hole drilling etc. today)

You can see the 180 connectors on the side of the HDMI monitor, but I don't really mind.

-R

[sunnyboy010101]

Last bit of assistance requested on playing music on the PiDP-1.

First, I have sound. Both HDMI and USB audio dongle work and produce sound on the Raspberry Pi-5. 

I also followed the directions on the site https://obsolescence.dev/pdp1-music.html such that the pdp1m13.rim tape loaded correctly, and then trioSonataIII_intermediate.bin was mounted. I set the sense switch (1) and the address (0004) and pressed start 3 times. Each time it read the tape and compiled each voice off the tape. I then set sense switch 1 to off, pressed start and the lights on the PiDP-1 started blinking suggesting it was indeed doing what it was supposed to do.

But... no music.

The issue I think is in the initial instruction: "Make sure you have the audio enabled (a check box on the Web user interface, or Ctrl-F1 on the GUI user interface)."

The problem is I'm using VNC to watch the PiDP-1 screen as well as running an HDMI monitor attached to the Raspberry Pi-5. Neither one shows any check box but I'm not surprised as it's not using the "web interface". But when I press <CTRL>-F1 on my VNC session, nothing happens either. I know some F keys work because on the blinky demo I can reduce the size of the displayed info text using <CTRL> minus.  My Pi is running WayVNC on RealVNC viewer so Wayland is the screen stuff I'm using.

Any hints as to how to enable music on the PiDP-1 some other way?

Thanks,

-R

[sunnyboy010101]

Also, on this chart from the PiDP-1 manual:

 Key    | Action                     |     | Key    | Action                     |    
| ------ | -------------------------- |     | ------ | -------------------------- |
| F7     | mount file in reader       |     | Ctrl-F1| Toggle Audio on/off        |
| F8     | remount last file          |     | Ctrl-F2| Toggle mul/div on/off      |
| F9     | saved punched tape to file |     | ------ | -------------------------- |
| F10    | clear punch                |
| Ctl-+  | increase font size         |
| Ctl--  | decrease font size         |
| ------ | -------------------------- |
| F1     | cycle layouts              |
| F2     | toggle layout mode         |
| F3     | duplicate current layout   |
| F5     | re-read pdp1_layout.txt    |
| F6     | save pdp1_layout.txt       

The keys F7, F8, F9, F10, Ctl-+ and Ctl--  all work. F1 does not work but F2 seems to work (has a layout action of sorts).

Ctrl-F1 does nothing. I don't know what mul/div would show so can't tell if it works.(actually, just tried - Ctrl-F2 does the exact same thing as F2 so I guess the control is not getting thru?

Kinda stuck trying to get the audio to toggle on/off at this point.

Thanks for any advice,

-R

[Bill E]

The audio on/off app I did only works with my modded version of pidp-1 with the enhanced audio generation, unfortunately. But, audio did work before I made my mods. Be sure the audio out device when you're running isn't the vnc hdmi connection, that definitely doesn't work. It's been so long (a few months, seems like forever) since I had to fiddle to get audio working, the details are fuzzy. But, if you want to build and try the modded version, two choices:

 Check out https://github.com/wjenh/pidp1-core-mods.git for just the original mods I did, which gets you the reworked audio and app, dynamic IOTs, enables the high-speed channel panel light, and a bugfix in the sbs16 logic. There is no difference in behavior executing code and none of my IOT impls are included.

or

Check out https://github.com/wjenh/pidp1-mods.git which gets you the above plus everything else I've done. If you're going to bother, I'd go this way, I'm not really doing much in the above branch now. Again, the changes are transparent in general.

Bill