Seemingly Brick or DOA ESP32 A1S Audio kit board - any advice?

[MichaelPNolan]

I'm just putting this out there in case anyone has similar experience.
So, i have the v2.2 Audio kit ESP32 A1s board and i made it work, even made a kind of midi-hat for serial midi and got the organ running (earlier version).
Order another one - arrives, looks fresh - but nah, can't get it to talk to my computer(s) at all via USB to load anything. It seems like its bricked/failed hardware. It is apparently a different version of A1S with the ES8388 audio chip (now I finally know why this is featured in the code so much lately) because on the back it has ESP32 A1S 2974 (weird how a whole different chipset doesn't warrant a different version number).
I remember having issues until i changed the dipswitches on the other one (don't even remember where I read to do that) so I made those the same 1 down 2,3 up, 4,5 down. I don't see any solder bridges.
What would you do ... i mean i build my own boards and wire stuff together but i'm not that far from just a breadboard hobbiest. I don't tend to do anything like hot air paste reflows. The pins are so tiny. The serial comms USB chip (if that is what it is) nearest the USB data input looks fine, those pins are so small i would need a microscope to see. Is there any hack or video about repair or do I just throw in the bin and order again (makes me not really want to order again).

[marcel-licence]

Hi, the DIP configuration sounds right. You could cause shorts with a wrong configuration.
Does your board be recognized as a serial USB device? I have one Audio Kit (with AC101) which stopped to be recognized as USB suddenly.
There is also another possible problem where you can get upload issues. For that there might be a soluation.
In case the USB-Serial chip does not work you can use an external USB-Serial device for programming. In that case the reset should be pressed while holding the boot button to get the ESP32 into the boot state which is done by the Audio Kit automatically.

I had one audio kit with a solder bridge in the past. The ESP32 had a short between two of it pins.

[MichaelPNolan]

It says there is an error with it not giving an id on windows. On linux it really doesn't show up.
I was looking for pins soldered together but didn't see it so far.

I will try to figure out which pins to use with an external USB serial programmer - i have one i never used yet ... i did wonder but I didn't know where to start so the tip about holding boot and press reset - thanks.

I am just ordering a few new micro-controllers. Seems that the ESP32 A1S variant is called version 2.3 - Ali Express said "After the audio codec chip of ESP32-A1S is replaced from AC101 to ES8388, the version of ESP32-A1S module is also updated from ESP32-A1S-V1.3 to ESP32-A1S-V2.3. The module interface of version V2.3 is still compatible with the interface of version V1.3."
Hopefully this time its in good order.

Thanks for your reply
Michael

[marcel-licence]

Yeah it seems this thing is always a suprise. I have listed 3 versions of the Audio Kit with the ES8388.

You can also try to hold reset all the time when connecting to USB. In case there is some problematic code on the ESP32 it will set all pins to input / floating.

[MichaelPNolan]

A USB serial interface arrived so I patched it to the serial/power pins and I can receive data from the board. So i'm thinking I can program this ESP32 A1S - will see.
Ok, not ready to program - looking at esp32 wroom ... it seems you have to gnd IO0 [this doesn't matter if you use good button press magic] for it to go into that mode at boot.
Then also slowed serial to 115200 and
reset while boot held then let go of boot

Now having ES8388
0x00: 0x00
0x01: 0x00
failed messages

Looking around I see people talking about new I2C and I2S pin definitions ... comments like this
"It seems the board is not faulty rather a new one with new design. I2C are now on different pins (23,18 now, before 32,33). Also the I2S pins are different."
So wondering where I could change things like that?
I see this in your setup_i2s()

#ifdef ES8388_ENABLED
    REG_WRITE(PIN_CTRL, 0xFFFFFFF0);
    PIN_FUNC_SELECT(PERIPHS_IO_MUX_GPIO0_U, FUNC_GPIO0_CLK_OUT1);
#endif

also this part is where it's erroring

 while (not ES8388_begin(ES8388_PIN_SDA, ES8388_PIN_SCL, 400000))
    {
        Serial.printf("Failed!\n");
        delay(1000);
    }

I've tried combos of these and even thought at first it didn't work ... with anything, i started other tests and then it did work?!

#define ES8388_PIN_SDA 33//18  //23,18 now, before 32 scl,33 sda
#define ES8388_PIN_SCL 32//23
/* ES8388 address */
//#define ES8388_ADDR 0x20  /*!< 0x22:CE=1;0x20:CE=0*/
#define ES8388_ADDR 0x10  /*!< 0x22:CE=1;0x20:CE=0*/

Connect to ES8388 0x00: 0x05 and 0x01: 0x40 ... printed a long list of regs
So I guess this is a middling version not v2.3 on a v2.2 board as some said.

[marcel-licence]

Hey,

yes there are different possibilities available and configureable in: https://github.com/marcel-licence/ML_SynthTools/blob/main/src/boards/board_audio_kit_es8388.h

You can change the numbers behind:

#define ES8388_CFG_I2C  1
#define ES8388_CFG_I2S  4

ES8388_CFG_I2C <- this can be used to try out the different I2C configurations. The project code does not need any changes.

Hope this helps

[MichaelPNolan]

Thanks, i'll put it back to normal and try those settings tomorrow.

[MichaelPNolan]

So for my ESP32 Audio Kit A1S
#define ES8388_CFG_I2C 2 - is correct (it seems) for I2C and that has the same SDA/SCL - so i removed my defines to use code as written
However, for #define ES8388_CFG_I2S
4 (set by default) i don't get sound with test note,
1 sound but crackle and breaking up no musical tone, 2 no sound - a quick hiss, 3 reboot loop

You do hear a click of the audio being engaged ... ie the DAC being turned on .. so maybe 1 is not exactly right OR
My board is just broken .... i'll see if I can find options suggested beyond your possible settings.
So based on this https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/25237870/138208231-3750bf78-479b-4673-a955-2811dcb8aee2.png
I made a change that maybe you'll add to board_audio_kit_es8388.h
with comment that its for "esp32 audio kit v2.2 build 2974"
THIS makes the software work and I can play music now.

#elif ES8388_CFG_I2S==5
#define ES8388_PIN_DOUT 35
#define ES8388_PIN_DIN  26
#define ES8388_PIN_LRCK 25
#define ES8388_PIN_SCLK 27
#define ES8388_PIN_MCLK 0

Its very similar to 1 - which is probably why you get random crackle ... and there was another variation where I got a continuous hiss (that was also wrong).

I have known that you can program things via the serial but to be honest I wasn't getting far with this ESP32_Audio_Kit until I arrived at your projects and persisted slowly - one step at a time as you put it. Then this "brick" one - it was hugely supportive.
I am not very financially sound - but if I can donate things or buy your ML board or support your channel I want to indeed.
In some way I hope that my community engagement and forking is helpful for the time you have taken to share on github.

[marcel-licence]

Hey, I am happy to hear that it does work now. The different variations are very confusing. Sure I will include this into the file. That helps a lot.

At the moment there is no donation etc. possible. Once I've finished the board I can give it a try and put it on the market (including finishing the german paper work).

You feedback helps a lot. Thank you.

[marcel-licence]

Now included in: https://github.com/marcel-licence/ML_SynthTools/blob/main/src/boards/board_audio_kit_es8388.h