ULTRA++ installation guide

sil · April 26, 2023, 9:48pm

This seems to work on 64 bit: GitHub - Sybility/WM8960-Audio-HAT: The drivers of [WM8960 Audio HAT] for Raspberry Pi

Raspiaudio · April 27, 2023, 8:54am

thanks I’m going to try

djohnson · May 3, 2023, 12:16pm

Any results to your test/attempt?

poulio · August 1, 2023, 11:03pm

Same issue here, did you solve it? I have the same project needs
thanks

Raspiaudio · August 3, 2023, 9:33am

I have made it work with a 64 bit OS with:

Have you tried that?

nodemand · November 16, 2023, 7:46pm

I’m running a Pi5 4GB on Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm 64 bit and I tried everything mentioned here including the Sybility drivers, but NOTHING works. This is my aplay -l output:

aplay: device_list:274: no soundcards found…

And these are the last lines from the sudo ./install.sh command output:

Job for wm8960-soundcard.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See “systemctl status wm8960-soundcard.service” and “journalctl -xeu wm8960-soundcard.service” for details.

When I run sudo dkms status I get:

wm8960-soundcard/1.0, 6.1.0-rpi6-rpi-2712, aarch64: installed

The output of systemctl status wm8960-soundcard.service is:

 Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/wm8960-soundcard.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
 Active: active (exited) since Thu 2023-11-16 20:32:47 CET; 17min ago
Process: 699 ExecStart=/usr/bin/wm8960-soundcard (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Main PID: 699 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
CPU: 236ms

Please help me out!

atom · December 27, 2023, 8:17am

Continuing the discussion from ULTRA++ installation guide:

Hello, I am setting up a fresh project on a raspberry pi 4, so I have a fresh install of raspberry pi OS 64 bit full with everything up to date. I have gone through the simple install script because the on board mic and speakers are good enough for development of my project.

I think that I “successfully” installed the driver. The mic and speaker show up on the select-able list at the top right corner of the OS. However I am not getting any sound from the speakers and I think that the mic is also not working because arecord made an empty file.

I also do not see the red LED light turning on.

What do you think is going on?

nodemand · January 18, 2024, 1:46am

Where are the alsactl preset files? They are not in their listed location. I really need them!! Please put them back up!

nodemand · January 18, 2024, 6:16pm

Helloooo, RaspiAudioooo. Anybody still here or have you abondoned support for this product?

Raspiaudio · January 25, 2024, 5:34pm

Hello,

We have updated method 1 and it is working now with the last Raspi OS

Method 2 is broken for now and it seems harder to solve. We are looking into it.

Wizrd23 · February 20, 2024, 11:14pm

I tried installing the driver but it did not work for me.
I’m using Ultra++ with pi 5 on 64bit OS version 12.5

Everything appears to install correctly, but when I restart I don’t see the audio device listed in the audio menu. I have the pi 5 plugged into an external touch screen which has speakers and it plays over HDMI.

Other wise my only choice is HDMI out or Pro Audio. I don’t know what Pro Audio is but it doesn’t seem to work.

Wizrd23 · February 27, 2024, 4:58pm

Bump. Any suggestions or updates?

Stefe · March 31, 2024, 12:21am

Mine also does not work with a fresh install and following method 1 precisely. I do not understand why this is so difficult considering the ULTRA was anything but cheap
Error is the same as with you, except I am using a 3b+ and installed Bulleyes 32bit.

I haven’t even tried to get working on the MIC+ V2 yet and I dread doing so after the pain and wasted time so far.

Stefe · April 1, 2024, 7:59pm

I have sent mine back now. I am not paying 75€+ for two pieces of unusable garbage. It’s ridicolous, that this is even being sold if it is non-functional.
There is literally nothing I could have done wrong with the instructions as short as they are.

rec · April 22, 2024, 1:28am

Greetings –

I have to say that this is the worst installation guide I can remember encountering, which means I probably forgot several instances worse or equally bad.

I just finished wirewrapping my new MIC++ into my Raspberry Pi 4 pseudo tablet, it’s working well enough. I get sound out of the speakers, and also out of the panel mount headphone jack that I connected to the headphone jack on the board. I haven’t tried any inputs.

The install script for Method 1 did not do anything when I ran it. I used the script as a guide and performed the necessary changes in an editor. I have no idea why the script failed to perform as promised. The manual changes were enough to verify that the board worked as a hat.

– rec –

Wizrd23 · April 22, 2024, 3:54am

Any progress. I’d like to use this device at some point

rec · April 22, 2024, 8:41pm

I think I have method 2 working again. I’m runnig an rpi4 on raspian bookworm, updated this very morning to a new verson of pipewire, though that is probably irrelevant. I cloned GitHub - waveshare/WM8960-Audio-HAT: The drivers of [WM8960 Audio HAT] for Raspberry Pi and ran ./install.sh

There were two problems with the use of alsactl in /usr/bin/wm8960-service.

if I call sudo alsactl restore it generates the errors:
alsa-lib main.c:1541:(snd_use_case_mgr_open) error: failed to import hw:0 use case configuration -2
alsa-lib main.c:1541:(snd_use_case_mgr_open) error: failed to import hw:1 use case configuration -2
alsa-lib main.c:1541:(snd_use_case_mgr_open) error: failed to import hw:2 use case configuration -2

I can fix this by calling sudo alsactl --no-ucm restore instead, I don’t know what UCM is or why alsactl decided to make it the default. (Thanks to stackoverflow for remembering this for me.)

if I call alsactl --no-ucm restore with the waveshare supplied asound.state file, I get the errors:

No state is present for card vc4hdmi0
Found hardware: “vc4-hdmi” “” “” “” “”
Hardware is initialized using a generic method
No state is present for card vc4hdmi0
No state is present for card vc4hdmi1
Found hardware: “vc4-hdmi” “” “” “” “”
Hardware is initialized using a generic method
No state is present for card vc4hdmi1

I can fix this by using alsactl to merge the wm8960 settings with:
sudo alsactl --no-ucm restore hw:wm8960soundcard -f /etc/wm8960-soundcard/wm8960_asound.state
and then saving the merged settings via: sudo alsactl --no-ucm store

It’s not clear that these errors are significant, they do cause alsactl to exit with non-zero status, which causes wm8960-service to fail. But I think that the wm8960 settings get done anyway.

Anyway, I can bring up alsamixer, it has the ridiculous number of controls, I can mute the speakers and unmute the headphones (using the gain sliders) and it works as expected. Again, not really interested in inputs, so I hope this helps.

You really need the wm8960 data sheet to figure out what all those controls do.

– rec –

Wizrd23 · April 22, 2024, 8:55pm

Thanks rec. I’ll give your version a try. I don’t care about inputs other than the onboard microphones. And being able use the speakers.

jchamp · May 1, 2024, 2:50am

Method 1 is not working for me using Volumio 3.6.31

I see snd_rpi_googlevoicehat_soundcar as an output device, but when I select it, I don’t get any audio from the speakers that are built into the Ultra++

How can I get this working?

Splot · June 19, 2024, 1:07pm

Has anyone got this working with the headphones jack? Im running a raspberry pi 5 64 bit os. I’ve sunk a good 6 hours into trouble shooting this I feel like its a bit of a piss take spending all this money endorsed by home assistant. I got Wyoming with wake word working using with home assistant using the on board speakers but the headphones won’t work.

Job for wm8960-soundcard.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status wm8960-soundcard.service" and "journalctl -xeu wm8960-soundcard.service" for details.