MIC+ installation guide

Installation guides
1

MIC+ V3 Installation Guide

(note that we have updated the color of our PCB to blue but there is no other changes compared with V3 yellow version)

This is the installation guide for the MIC+ V3.

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1747752604487_nobg3785×2276 1.01 MB

Quick Start:

Simply insert your MIC+ V3 and turn ON your Raspberry Pi. It will be automatically detected, and you’re ready to go!

Insert firmly your MIC+ (while your Raspberry Pi is OFF):

1747752604616_nobg
1747752604616_nobg4682×1972 1.12 MB

To use with the Rpi official case use the included 40 pins riser:

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1747752604658_nobg3244×2556 919 KB

1747752604708_nobg
1747752604708_nobg4038×2592 917 KB

Turn ON Your Raspberry Pi (with Pi OS installed, if not already done).

Once booted up, click on the speaker icon at the top right corner, and select the audio device “snd_rpi…”:
Select Audio Device | 564x307

Right-click on the microphone, this is your mic device:
Mic Device | 447x301

Test Sound Output:

  • Open your browser and play a YouTube video, or:
  • Open a command line window and type:
speaker-test -l5 -c2 -t wav

This will play “front left” and “front right” 5 times.

Test Microphone Input:

  • Open a command line window and type:
arecord -D pulse -f S16_LE -r 48000 -c 1 -d 10 test.wav

To play your recording:

aplay test.wav

Manual Installation (for previous versions of MIC+ or for other OS)

Watch this tutorial video

Installing MIC+ Sound Card on current Raspberry Pi OS

  1. Edit Config File:
    You can edit the config.txt file by inserting your SD card in your desktop computer and making the following changes with any file editor, or directly within Pi OS:

    • Open a terminal window and type:
    sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt
    • Comment out the existing audio line by adding a # in front:
    #dtparam=audio=on
    • Add the overlay for the sound card:
    dtoverlay=googlevoicehat-soundcard
    • Reboot your system.

  2. Playing Audio:

    • After rebooting, check if your sound cards are recognized. You should see the speaker icon on the desktop.
      Speaker Icon on Desktop | 375x133

    • To test, open a terminal window and type:

    speaker-test -l5 -c2 -t wav

    You should hear “left” and “right” from your speakers.

  3. Recording Audio:

    • Volume control is managed by PulseAudio in Raspberry Pi OS, serving as middleware between the hardware and software. Enable PulseAudio in the raspi-config menu in Advanced - Audio Config:
    sudo raspi-config

    PulseAudio Config | 634x452
    PulseAudio Config | 634x452950×638 111 KB

    • To record audio on the Pulse device, type:
    arecord -D pulse -f S16_LE -r 48000 -c 1 -d 10 test.wav
    • To play back the recording, use:
    aplay test.wav

  4. Adjusting Volume:
    You may notice that the recording volume is a bit low.

    • To list devices, type:
    pactl list short sources

    It should return something like this:

    Device Listing Output
    Device Listing Output966×54 23.8 KB

    • To increase recording volume, type:
    pactl set-source-volume 1 200%

    Then try recording again (see previous steps).

    • For playback volume, type:
    pactl set-sink-volume 0 100%

    If you prefer a graphical interface, install:

    • To install a GUI for volume control, type:
    sudo apt-get install pavucontrol
    • Then launch the GUI:
    pavucontrol

    Another way to control volume is using alsamixer, which operates on the PulseAudio device:
    Alsamixer | 634x452

MIC+ V3 Additional Information:

How to Turn Off the Onboard Speakers:

  • MIC+ V3:
    Gently operate the micro switches on the back of the board. Move the switch toward the “ON” marking to enable the onboard speakers, and the opposite direction to disable them:
    switchMIC+
    switchMIC+4271×2345 1.42 MB

3D files for MIC + are here

For Volumio:

Raspiaudio is now included in the DAC selection for Volumio. Select “Raspiaudio” in the DAC selection, and it should work straight out of the box.

For Ubuntu:

  1. Edit the Config File:

    sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

    Comment the following line (add a #):

    #dtparam=audio=on

    Replace it with:

    dtoverlay=googlevoicehat-soundcard

  2. Copy the Overlays Directory:
    Copy the overlays directory from /lib/firmware/4.15.0-1034-raspi2/device-tree to /boot/firmware:

    sudo cp -r /lib/firmware/4.15.0-1034-raspi2/device-tree/overlays /boot/firmware

  3. Reboot your system.

Pinout:

Please find the pinout on our friends at pinout.xyz:

Pinout | 279x500
Pinout | 279x500509×909 44.2 KB

2

Hello,

I have an RC522 module, and it already uses GPIO 25, is it possible to replace this GPIO by another?

3

Hi Aurel,
Indeed Pin 25 is used by the led :

It may not interfears wih your RC522 module, but if it does you will still be able to removed the led with a soldering iron or go brute force and cut/ destroy the led with a cutter.

Hope it helps!

Olivier for the Raspiaudio team

4

I finished the installation and then did the test. The test worked fine, as shown in the video.

But now my raspi shows ‘No volume control on this device’ on the audio icon at the top right corner. And I dont see any audio preferences.

Any advice on how to resolve this issue would be greatly appreciated!

Edit: One more issue I wanted to add to this - The test gives an ‘Overrun’ error several times. And the microphone recording is too noisy. Is there a way to resolve these issues too?

5

How do you control the microphone and speaker to -

  1. Record a stream of audio from the microphone.
  2. Process this stream of audio on the Rpi
  3. Output a stream of audio from the speakers, based on the processing done in step 2.

Thanks

6

For desktop vlume control under Raspbian:

First enable the audio control, you need to go on the desktop-preference-Audio Device settings then click on “Select Control” and check both “Master” an “Micro”, then if you want to change the volume from your desktop you need to make a right click on the bluespeake iconr to open Audi Device Setting and adjust the sliders. let me know if it helps,

7

this is a generic Alsa sound device, if you google “raspberry arecord” you will find plenty of examples
for example you can try:
arecord -d4 --rate=44000 test.wav

then play it:
aplay test.wav

if you prefer a software with graphic interface I recommend Audacity

thx!

11

Hello,

Is it possible to use Mic + with Node-red? If yes, how?

12

I have not tried it but you should be able to use the work from HifiBerry that is using the same I2S driver than us:
https://www.hifiberry.com/docs/projects/automating-your-hifiberry-with-node-red/

13

Have the Mic+ working on RPI3b+ and Ubuntu 20.04. There is a faint whizzy gurgle noise coming from both speakers when it boots and stays like that until turning it off. Note i am only using external speakers and detached the mic mini board.

Note the speakers are working perfectly and the microphone is working perfectly, it is only the faint whizzy gurgle noise that is causing issues currently.

14

Note is it only having the strange faint background noise on the external left speaker. The sound is similar to when one puts their ear next to a sea shell. Replaced for the backup Mic+ (lucky i ordered 2), and noise is gone. Must have been faulty.

15

Hello Will,
If you have noise a good temporary test to do is to try to use as USB battery pack instead of a plugged usb charger. If you have no noise with the battery it means that you could solve the issue with a different usb cable or usb wall charger. On the other hand if you still have the nois the unit might be defective so send if back to Amzon for replacement.

If you use external speaker also try to use differnet cable lenght or shielded cable as you might have an harmonic with your power supply.

16

Hi, is there instructions for moodeaudio or/and for runeaudio?

I tried to install into moodeaudio but in the audio configuration to select driver, raspiaudio doesn’t show up.

Thank you,

Marco

19

Hi Marco

For Rune Audio have you tried this (as i’m writing this message their site seems to be down)

But in the past others have done this:
-edit the file /etc/modules-load.d/raspberrypi.conf (with nano for example)
and change the line “snd-bcm2835” by “#snd-bcm2835”
save

-edit /boot/config.txt
and change the line “#dtoverlay=hifiberry-dac” by “dtoverlay=hifiberry-dac”

-reboot

For Mood Audio:

As I2S dac on the market are using the same driver, so just select hifiberry-dac,
details are here https://www.hifiberry.com/docs/software/moodeaudio-installation-guide/
I will add official support to mood audio soon.

Kind regards

20

i am using jumper cables to connect rpi3 and mic+
(because it’s too thick if i insert shield on rpi)…

do i need to connect only highlighted gpio in the pinout picture and power?

21

Hi Jay, and welcome.

The MIC+ should be able to be inserted directely on the RPI3.
But if you need to connect the MIC+ away form the RPI you can off course just plug every pins mentioned in the documentation. Or I personnally like to use a 40 pins ribbon cable like that that will connect on top of the MIC+ :

image
image927×674 72.6 KB

22

Hello, I purchased several MIC+ on Amazon.
MIC+ basically works. However when I plug the cable into the LINE OUT jack, the speakers still play sound. Is it the designed behavior?
Typically when the line out is plugged the speaker should mute. It is confusing that the speakers are not muted.
Is there any way I can mute the speaker when LINE OUT is plugged in?
If there’s no way I can do it can I return the products?

23

Hi Wangpy,
updated :08/07/23
The MIC+ have no jack detection system (unlike the ULTRA+) so it’s not possible to mute the speaker by software. Nevertheless it is possible to disconnect the hardware, to do so on the back of the board you have 2 labels on the back of the board ‘JP3’ and ‘JP4’, using a sharp blade cut the track, if you need to revert the modification use a soldering iron to reestablish the connection.

24

Hello Raspiaudio,

Thanks for your prompt response and confirmation. I know you have provided the information to turn off the speaker. Just an additional question regarding this: Does unsoldering CUTL and CUTR disconnect the external speaker ports as well?

Thanks again!