Battery Power for Touch and BM2

[MartinT]

Here are my two made up DC cables using MCRU's excellent Oyaide plugs, a USB solder connector from Maplin, and some spare Kimber PSB cable. Most tricky to solder was the USB plug, requiring a steady hand and some careful cable trimming.

• USB to 2.5mm plug for battery to Touch
• 2.5mm plug to 2.1mm plug for battery to BM2

DC Power Cables by martinwtaylor, on Flickr

If one battery works well, why not try two! The smaller battery is an 8800mAH PowerBank 5V USB extender phone battery for use with Samsung/HTC etc. Has a 2A USB output and runs the Touch very well for about a full day. It all sounds marginally better having split batteries.


Batteries for Touch BM2 by martinwtaylor, on Flickr

[MartinT]

Calling Alex (Magiccarpetride), are you able to summarise your favourite settings for the Touch yet? You really must try it on battery power.

[magiccarpetride]

Calling Alex (Magiccarpetride), are you able to summarise your favourite settings for the Touch yet? You really must try it on battery power.

Some of you know that I've been doing a lot of experimenting with the Touch. I've discovered it is possible to affect the sound quality by tweaking not only the hardware components in the Touch, but also the software. Here is what I did:

1. Apply EDO mods.

2. Apply ALL of the Soundcheck's TT3.0 mods. Very important to turn the screen off and to kill all the daemon jobs (tt -k).

3. Do the following modifications in file /usr/bin/TT (changing Alsa buffer range, tcp, kernel and priority sections):

#Alsa Buffer range
MAXBUF=999999999
MINBUF=3200

#set tcp/ip parameters
tcp () {
echo "42958848" > /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max
echo "42958848" > /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_default
echo "655360" > /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_max
echo "65536" > /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_default
echo "4096 42958848 42958848" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_rmem
echo "4096 65536 655360" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_wmem
echo "10648 11160 11160" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_mem
echo "3000" > /proc/sys/net/core/netdev_max_backlog # tt3
echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_window_scaling
echo "0" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_timestamps # tt3
echo "1" >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_moderate_rcvbuf # tt3
echo "1" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_sack
echo "1" >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_dsack
echo "1" >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_fack
echo "1800" >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_keepalive_time # changed from 3000 to 1800 # tt3
echo "300" >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_keepalive_intvl # tt3
echo "1" >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_tw_reuse # new # tt3
echo "1" >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_tw_recycle #new # tt3
echo "10" >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_keepalive_probes # tt3
echo "32" >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_default_ttl # tt3
echo "10" >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/ipfrag_time # tt3
echo "128" >/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_max_syn_backlog # tt3
echo "40" > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_fin_timeout #new # tt3
echo 2147483646 > /proc/sys/net/core/optmem_max #new
echo 20 > /sys/module/snd_usb_audio/parameters/nrpacks #new
#chmod 666 /sys/module/snd_usb_audio/parameters/index #only do these if you know what you are doing
#echo -2,0,0,-2,-2,-2,-2,-2 > /sys/module/snd_usb_audio/parameters/index #only do these if you know what you are doing
chmod 666 /sys/module/ehci_hcd/parameters/log2_irq_thresh
echo 6 > /sys/module/ehci_hcd/parameters/log2_irq_thresh
chmod 666 /sys/module/ehci_hcd/parameters/park
echo 3 > /sys/module/ehci_hcd/parameters/park
echo 999999999 > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/usbhid/module/parameters/mousepoll
#chmod 666 /sys/module/snd_spdif/parameters/enable #only do this if you are using usb
#echo N,N,N,N,N,N,N,N > /sys/module/snd_spdif/parameters/enable #only do this if you are using usb

}

#set kernel parameters
kernel () {
echo 1 > /sys/class/rtc/rtc0/max_user_freq
echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_compat_yield
echo 1 > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_child_runs_first #tt3
echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio # tt3
echo 40 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio # tt3
echo 5000 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs # tt3
echo 0 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness # tt3
echo 16384 > /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches # tt3
echo "disabled" > /sys/bus/usb/devices/usb1/power/wakeup # tt3
echo 2048 > /proc/sys/kernel/msgmni # new # tt3
echo 65535 > /proc/sys/kernel/msgmax #new
echo 65535 > /proc/sys/kernel/msgmnb #new
echo 40960 > /proc/sys/fs/file-max #new processes * 512 80*512
echo 50 > /proc/sys/vm/vfs_cache_pressure #new
echo 24188 > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_features #new
echo 0 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_app_win #new
#echo "500 516000 256 2048" > /proc/sys/kernel/sem
echo "1000 1024000 512 2048" > /proc/sys/kernel/sem #try different values - these are my current settings
echo 268435456 > /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax # new # tt3
#scheduler
echo 100000000 > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_min_granularity_ns
echo 600000000 > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_latency_ns
echo 300000000 > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_wakeup_granularity_ns
echo 10000000 > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_period_us
echo 9999999 > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_runtime_us
echo 2147483646 > /proc/sys/kernel/sched_migration_cost
}

#change process priorities
prio () {

rm $LOG2

SEC=0

while [ "`ps -edf | grep jive_alsa | grep -v grep `" = "" ]
do
sleep 1
let SEC=SEC+1
echo "seconds: $SEC" >>$LOG2
done
ps -edf >>$LOG2

PIDJIVEALSA=`pidof jive_alsa` #def: 45
PIDJIVE=`pidof jive` #def: -
PIDSIRQTASKLET0=`pidof sirq-tasklet/0` #def: 89 interrupt handler - should be higher then interrupts
PIDSIRQHRTIMER=`pidof sirq-hrtimer/0` #def: 40 htimer of rtkernel - should be also very high
PIDWATCHDOG=`pidof watchdog/0` #def: 99
PIDLOADAVG=`pidof loadavg` #def: 50
PIDOFPSXCPUTMR=`pidof posixcputmr/0` #def: 98
PIDIRQ47=`pidof IRQ-47` #def: 40 SPDIF -- any impact?
PIDIRQ14=`pidof IRQ-14` #def: 40
PIDIRQ37=`pidof IRQ-37` #def: 40 USB can be put very low
PIDIRQ34=`pidof IRQ-34` #def: 90 dma for processor ?
PIDSIRNETTX=`pidof sirq-net-tx/0` #def: 40 network transmit
PIDSIRNETRX=`pidof sirq-net-rx/0` #def: 40 network receive
PIDEVENTS=`pidof events/0` #def: 1
PIDKRC=`pidof krcupreemptd` #def: 1

#def sched_other
PIDKSWP=`pidof kswapd0`
PIDKMMC=`pidof kmmcd`
PIDKHUB=`pidof khubd`
PIDKBLK=`pidof kblockd/0`
PIDKHLP=`pidof khelper`
PIDDSCH=`pidof desched/0`
PIDKTHR=`pidof kthreadd`
PIDUNIO=`pidof unionfs_siod/0`

##def 40
PIDSIRQH=`pidof sirq-high/0`
PIDSIRQT=`pidof sirq-timer/0`
PIDSIRQB=`pidof sirq-block/0`
PIDSIRQS=`pidof sirq-sched/0`
PIDSIRQR=`pidof sirq-rcu/0`
PIDIRQ10=`pidof IRQ-10`
PIDIRQ42=`pidof IRQ-42`
PIDIRQ41=`pidof IRQ-41`
PIDIRQ22=`pidof IRQ-22`
PIDIRQ57=`pidof IRQ-57`
PIDIRQ29=`pidof IRQ-29`
PIDIRQ33=`pidof IRQ-33`
PIDIRQ17=`pidof IRQ-17`
PIDIRQ123=`pidof IRQ-123`
PIDIRQ122=`pidof IRQ-122`
PIDIRQ7=`pidof IRQ-7`
PIDIRQ102=`pidof IRQ-102`
PIDIRQ8=`pidof IRQ-8`
PIDIRQ11=`pidof IRQ-11`
PIDIRQ12=`pidof IRQ-12`
PIDIRQ25=`pidof IRQ-25`
PIDIRQ45=`pidof IRQ-45`

PRIOJIVEALSA=94
PRIOJIVE=1
PRIOSIRQTASKLET0=97
PRIOSIRQHRTIMER=96
PRIOWATCHDOG=0
PRIOLOADAVG=95
PRIODOFPSXCPUTMR=99
PRIOIRQ47=36
PRIOIRQ14=0
PRIOIRQ37=0
PRIOIRQ34=98
PRIOSIRNETTX=91
PRIOSIRNETRX=91
PRIOEVENTS=1
PRIOKRC=1

PRIOSIRQH=89
PRIOSIRQT=92
PRIOSIRQB=89
PRIOSIRQS=89
PRIOSIRQR=89
PRIOIRQ10=0
PRIOIRQ42=90
PRIOIRQ41=0
PRIOIRQ22=0
PRIOIRQ57=90
PRIOIRQ29=90
PRIOIRQ33=90
PRIOIRQ17=0
PRIOIRQ123=0
PRIOIRQ122=0
PRIOIRQ7=0
PRIOIRQ102=0
PRIOIRQ8=0
PRIOIRQ11=0
PRIOIRQ12=0
PRIOIRQ25=93
PRIOIRQ45=90

echo "PID - Jive-Alsa: $PIDJIVEALSA" >>$LOG2
echo "PRIO: $PRIOJIVEALSA" >>$LOG2
chrt -f -p $PRIOJIVEALSA $PIDJIVEALSA >>$LOG2 2>&1
#chrt -f -p $PRIOJIVE $PIDJIVE >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOSIRQTASKLET0 $PIDSIRQTASKLET0 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOSIRQHRTIMER $PIDSIRQHRTIMER >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -o -p $PRIOWATCHDOG $PIDWATCHDOG >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOLOADAVG $PIDLOADAVG >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIODOFPSXCPUTMR $PIDOFPSXCPUTMR >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOIRQ47 $PIDIRQ47 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -o -p $PRIOIRQ14 $PIDIRQ14 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -o -p $PRIOIRQ37 $PIDIRQ37 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOIRQ34 $PIDIRQ34 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOSIRNETTX $PIDSIRNETTX >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOSIRNETRX $PIDSIRNETRX >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOEVENTS $PIDEVENTS >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOKRC $PIDKRC >/dev/null 2>&1

chrt -f -p $PRIOSIRQH $PIDSIRQH >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOSIRQT $PIDSIRQT >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOSIRQB $PIDSIRQB >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOSIRQS $PIDSIRQS >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOSIRQR $PIDSIRQR >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -o -p $PRIOIRQ10 $PIDIRQ10 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOIRQ42 $PIDIRQ42 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -o -p $PRIOIRQ41 $PIDIRQ41 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -o -p $PRIOIRQ22 $PIDIRQ22 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOIRQ57 $PIDIRQ57 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOIRQ29 $PIDIRQ29 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOIRQ33 $PIDIRQ33 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -o -p $PRIOIRQ17 $PIDIRQ17 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -o -p $PRIOIRQ123 $PIDIRQ123 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -o -p $PRIOIRQ122 $PIDIRQ122 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -o -p $PRIOIRQ7 $PIDIRQ7 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -o -p $PRIOIRQ102 $PIDIRQ102 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -o -p $PRIOIRQ8 $PIDIRQ8 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -o -p $PRIOIRQ11 $PIDIRQ11 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -o -p $PRIOIRQ12 $PIDIRQ12 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOIRQ25 $PIDIRQ25 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p $PRIOIRQ45 $PIDIRQ45 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p 1 154 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p 1 155 >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p 1 $PIDKSWP >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p 1 $PIDKMMC >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p 1 $PIDKHUB >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p 1 $PIDKBLK >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p 1 $PIDKHLP >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p 1 $PIDDSCH >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p 1 $PIDKTHR >/dev/null 2>&1
chrt -f -p 1 $PIDUNIO >/dev/null 2>&1
}



Now, the above configuration mods are reflecting my individual preferences in how my system should sound. These may not sound optimal on your systems, so I encourage experimentation. Try messing with the above parameters; don't worry, you won't be able to break anything. However, keep in mind that it is very easy to push the Touch to its limits and it will then start hiccuping, breaking up, even refusing to play!

Worry not, reverting to the old config and rebooting will fix everything back to normal

But there are certain combinations of the above parameters that will definitely impart a different character to the sound. It will be up to you to decide if such changes are keepers, or whether it's necessary to move on. But it's a good tool for fine tuning your audio system...

Of course, goes without saying that now, with BM MKII running off Ankaka battery, such tweaks are much more prominent, as it gets much easier to hear the effect of various mods.

Enjoy!

[MartinT]

Many thanks, Alex. I will take them small steps at a time, especially as I have not yet tried the tt -k daemon killer until satisfied that I can control everything from Squeeze Remote and get control back again.

[seoirse2002]

+1

[magiccarpetride]

Many thanks, Alex. I will take them small steps at a time, especially as I have not yet tried the tt -k daemon killer until satisfied that I can control everything from Squeeze Remote and get control back again.

Feel free to experiment to your heart's content, Martin. A simple reboot (i.e. unplug the Touch and plug it in again) will restore everything back to normal. Your biggest issue will be choosing between various types of overall sound characteristics that the config changes will impart on your Touch (i.e. drier, more analytical sound vs wetter, juicier, more 'phat' type of sound). But it's a nice problem to have

[MartinT]

Has anyone, like me, tried a 5V battery to power the Touch yet?

[rep]

Has anyone, like me, tried a 5V battery to power the Touch yet?

Hi,

I have been testing with the Power Bank phone charger on my Squeezebox Touch which have given noticeable improvements in SQ.

Have problems with it retaining charge and am not sure if I have a duff one, also it will not power the Touch whilst it is being charged (a minor inconvenience)

Edit : Problem turned out to be network related which I only found out after applying EDO mods to my Touch, whilst the display was on ( I have TT 3 mods installed) it was obvious the network for what ever reason was losing connection, a homeplug reboot cured it

[MartinT]

Ah - good stuff. My 5V battery is connected to charge from the 12V battery's USB outlet, which works fine (even when it's charging). The Touch gets a great step-up in sound quality, rather like the BM2 itself.

[Covenant]

Ah - good stuff. My 5V battery is connected to charge from the 12V battery's USB outlet, which works fine (even when it's charging). The Touch gets a great step-up in sound quality, rather like the BM2 itself.

Have you compared the Touch with a linear supply versus the battery Martin?