Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Let's talk a moment about The True DC Board.
Is it the end all of audio?
Is it the thing audiophiles have been waiting for?
Simply said; no, but here's what it is...
As an audiophile and someone who grew up listening to FM stereo broadcasts I loved hearing music of different styles and from different broadcast stations.
This method of enjoying music has moved to the Internet with more music, both free and paid for, than most people have time to listen to. It's a wonderful resource.
As I started looking for solutions to capture this music and enjoy digital broadcasts like I used to enjoy radio broadcasts I rapidly became disappointed in the music streaming hardware and software options available.
What I found was proprietary software and overpriced hardware that in most cases had a definitive life attached to it as they are not up gradable in the hardware. Many have fixed computers, memory, and Digital to Analog Converter inside.
What bothered me is I saw more money spent on the appearance with no consideration or road map for the future other than obsolescence and end of life as technology advances.
The FM Tuner has been replaced by the Internet Tuner so the first goal was to build a easy to use Internet Tuner targeted to enjoy music, ideally keeping the geek to a minimum. To accomplish this we scrapped the thought of touch screen displays as the operating system's used on this Tuner provides full graphical control and tuning between stations using a smartphone or tablet screen.
I spent my career in IT and have experienced the benefits of not spending money on proprietary software when there is Open Source software available in many vertical markets. I have found there is a wealth of free Open Source music server software available, so this makes it possible to try many, if not all, to find the one that fits you best.
As in the second driver, I wanted to know if the computer gets outdated it can be updated. Not just plugging in more memory but a complete easy to afford upgrade. This makes it possible but is the road track to never becoming obsolete.
We wanted 100% flexibility in the DAC. This solution allows the use of a USB DAC, and external DAC, a DAC hat on a PI computer, the world is open for do as you please with no restrictions.
We wanted to have the beautiful high class, high end, thick metal face plates with engraved construction in the chassis, with design elements we enjoy, without the break the bank expensive cost that comes with the off-the-shelf offerings.
To accomplish our goals we looked into Do It Yourself but got turned off rapidly as we found many required soldering, the cabling was generally a mess to deal with, finding and working with multiple suppliers was a pain, and finally we wanted the final product to look professional and not home brew.
In this we also found to buy a clean audiophile power supply had the cost going up quickly. We wanted to solve these issues take the pain out, making it fun, easy to assemble, resulting in a piece of audiophile gear we'll be proud of, fully up gradable with no end-of-life attached to it.
We did the footwork, found the suppliers, made a circuit board that allows it all to plug together easily. Offers a power supply that deliver True DC power to the components of the system, and supplied all the CAD material required to construct a full working high end Internet Tuner.
The True DC Board is intention on is to provide you a means to connect and use a battery to power the small board computer running your Internet Tuner to eliminate the noise from public power sources.
The True DC Board enhances use by supplying connections for LED backlighting with options for resister loaded or no resister backlighting for different types of panel meters, power LEDs, the ability to add a DC meter to monitor both the battery condition and battery charging condition. Finally switches to turn all these features on and off independently or together.
The True DC Board has been designed using two separate circuit boards on one printed circuit board in order to isolate the charing and battery power delivery from each other.
We also wanted to provide the ability to turn off the charging circuit while listening to The Internet Tuner.
The True DC Board traces are built to support the maximum current for USB of 5 amps.
The battery size is the determining factor in what size small board computer you can use, and if you have the ability to power the DAC too.
Do keep in mind the backlighting is using power from the battery also.
Depending on the battery charger used you can charge the battery while not listening and it will stop charging once the battery reaches 100%
Ok, it's not impressive, but it's not meant to be.
It was our first working model of The Internet Tuner.
It was ugly but it sure sounds good.
The True DC Board design is not a one and done deal.
We went through 5 different versions in 3 different board layouts to get where we are at today, but it has paid off.
We found what worked good and bad, and ended up with a very nice circuit that has some useful features, is fully passive, and delivers a solid plug & play DIY solution for
The Internet Tuner.
Copyright © 2023/24 Everythings' Internet LLC - All Rights Reserved.