Port to NTC CHIP?

It’s a small $9 computer with onboard Bluetooth and Wifi… seems like the perfect candidate!

This tiny thing has the perfect specs for its size :slight_smile: connecting this to any DACs and then your integrated amp would make it much perfect

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No i2s interface if I understand correctly though

Actually it has two I2C buses.

“*)The XIO GPIO pins are provided by an I2C Expander at address 0x38 on the TWI bus 2, as such, this address is not available on bus 2.”

docs.getchip.com/#pin-headers

It’s not I2C you need its i2s you need for audio.

It has analog 3.5 out (don’t hate me :slight_smile: )

I got one, and I will work on it during august :wink:

Hi,

I’m interested in this too. Any updates? Is there any guide to port volumio to new platforms? I have both the CHIP sdk and a volumio build env ready !

I’d like to build a wireless speaker with :

  1. vintage radio box
  2. a disassembled Genelec 8040a (amp+loudspeakers)
  3. volumio
  4. CHIP computer

By the way, does the audio output of the CHIP worth it?

Any updates one volumio 2 for ntc CHIP?

I’m very interested as well. I’ve got Volumio 1.5 running on a couple of chips and it’s great, but a little wonky. I can’t attach to a network share via the interface, so I do it via the OS. But for some reason it won’t automatically connect when the CHIP is booted and I have to manually mount the share. I don’t normally turn off the CHIP, so not a big problem.

Volumio2 is a huge step forward and I’d love to see a port or some guidance on how to install on a non-supported system. I’ve seen something about porting Volumio2, but given my limited Linux expertise, they’ve been confusing.

Could you point me to this ?

Basically you can port Volumio2 to any linux-supported sbc.
Prerequisites are

  • Kernel with overlayfs supprt (if missing and the kernel is not too old I could help with that)
  • Knowing how to compile a kernel with configuration options I could supply
  • Knowing how to make an sd/ image bootable
    obtaining/ compiling u-boot
    defining boot configuration
    putting the lot in the correct sd/ image offsets
    partition the rest of the image
    Then clone http://github.com/volumio/Build and check the scripts.
    You would need to build an ntcimage.sh and ntcconfig.sh, use odroid, cubox or pine64 as an example.
    -Gé-

If anybody succeeded in porting Volumio 2 to NTC Chip i would be very interested in a tutorial.
Unfortunately my linux scills are far away from good, so i need to wait.
For me the NTC CHIP+USB DAC is really the best and cheapest base for Volumio project.
Would love to see volumio 2 running on it (Volumio 1 would also be a nice step), at the moment it is running nearly blank with shairport sync. BUt i would love to have spotify connect also;)

I would know if there was any development in that direction, unfortunately there is none.
Demand is lower than low, so it is unlikely the team is going to do anything.
But, in case someone with the necessary skills (good bash/sh scripting skills and general kernel knowhow and ability to cross-compile one) and an NTC chip is willing to help with this , I will guarantee any support he needs.
Note: you do need a kernel with overlayfs support. If it hasn’t and is a 3.10 or 3.14, I might be able to help with backporting.
Anything starting with 3.18 and later has it built in already.

Needless to say, that person must also be willing to act as the NTC chip platform maintainer, we can’t maintain all of them ourselves…

– Gé –

I’m very interested in getting Volumio2 running on ntc chip. I have a chip and limited linux scripting skills. It looks like the most recent chip update does have overlayfs support (according to bbs.nextthing.co/t/new-kernel-l … line/12963 ). Here’s output of uname -a from a chip flashed with the latest OS:

chip@chip:~$ uname -a
Linux chip 4.4.13-ntc-mlc #1 SMP Tue Dec 6 21:38:00 UTC 2016 armv7l GNU/Linux

One thing I’m a little confused about is that I thought Volumio provided it’s own OS image - apparently I misunderstood that.

What I’ve done so far:

  1. Cloned the git repository ('git clone github.com/volumio/Build")
  2. Created a ‘ntpchipconfig.sh’ and ‘ntcchipimage.sh’ by copying raspberryconfig.sh and raspberryimage.sh
  3. Updated ‘ntcchipimage.sh’ for chipby replacing place all ‘pi’ entries with ‘ntcchip’

I’m stuck now trying to update the ‘config.sh’ file. The pi apparently uses a bcm2835 chip, but I need to update it to support the Allwinner R8 audio and I can’t figure out what to put there, then I’m lost when it comes to the remainder of the file: Repo Key, ‘specific binaries’, and ‘kernel from Rpi-Update’… (see excerpt below).

Any advice?
Thanks,
-sh

echo “Adding NTC Chip Modules”
echo "
snd_bcm2835
i2c-dev
i2c-bcm2708
" >> /etc/modules

echo “Alsa Raspberry PI Card Ordering”
echo "
options snd-usb-audio nrpacks=1

USB DACs will have device number 5 in whole Volumio device range

options snd-usb-audio index=5
options snd_bcm2835 index=0" >> /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

echo “Adding Raspberrypi.org Repo”
echo "
deb archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ jessie main ui
deb-src archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ jessie main ui
" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/raspi.list

echo “Adding Raspberrypi.org Repo Key”
wget raspberrypi.org/raspberrypi.gpg.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -

echo “Installing R-pi specific binaries”
apt-get update
apt-get -y install binutils i2c-tools

Commenting raspi-config, not sure it is really needed

#apt-get -y install libnewt0.52 whiptail triggerhappy lua5.1 locales

echo “Installing Kernel from Rpi-Update”
sudo curl -L --output /usr/bin/rpi-update raw.githubusercontent.com/Hexxe … rpi-update && sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/rpi-update
touch /boot/start.elf
mkdir /lib/modules

Does anyone know of a European supplier? I’m interested in the concept but when the shipping costs more than the device …

Great work sndhkr!! It looks like you are on right track. Have to tried talking to the guys over at NTC to see if they could be of any assistance? My knowledge is non-existent in the scripting dept and my linux is probably subpar at best, but I’ll help out anyway I can. I’d love to get NTC Chip working on volumio v2. I know I saw a post on over on the NTC forums about someone getting volumio work. This was back in June 2016. Not sure if you’ve taken a look at what they posted.

link to NTC about volumio
https://bbs.nextthing.co/t/installing-volumio-on-chip/2181/20

  • Drew

I have 3 c.h.i.p.s on a backorder (of which one was reserved for doing the volumio work on).
Apparently shipping is taking place within the next 3-4 weeks. But with NTC you can’t be sure though.
Wouldn’t have the time for it just now, but in a month from now it could be perfect to start a volumio 2 port.
We still have other priorities and not all current portings are finished, so don’t expect miracles.

– Gé –

Drew -
If you’re interested, Volumio 1.55 runs currently on NTC CHIP - I got mine running by following this:
bbs.nextthing.co/t/installing-v … -chip/2181

Hopefully we’ll soon be able to get Volumio 2 running on it as well :slight_smile:
– sndhkr

gkkpch -
Great news that you’ve got CHIPs on the way. Please let us know if you need help with anything - testing, hacking, documentation, anything!
Thanks for the reply!
– sndhkr