[gopanthersgo1]

Not DIY. I only have the amp board (PCB) but not the full amp to play with, but the PCB is not something you can solder with hand. The guy works in a company called Critical Point Engineering, but I don't know much about the company nor about the scale of this project.

Sorry, never listen to any Audinst before.

Does it have a serial connection like like c5? That's a great feature on it, they released the source and everything.

Also, do you know the msrp?

 

[ClieOS]

Serial connection? Not sure what that is.
 
I don't know about the pricing.

 

[casanova]

Quote:

Sorry, never listen to any Audinst before.

 
Oh, I thought I could hear a few words from you regarding this portable amp.
But that's fine, ClieOS.
Always appreciated your reviews.

 

[gopanthersgo1]

Serial connection? Not sure what that is.

I don't know about the pricing.

Data pins to program it's hardware and chips, it should be a 6pin connection. C5 has it where you have to pins on to it.

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

Data pins to program it's hardware and chips, it should be a 6pin connection. C5 has it where you have to pins on to it.

 
The reason why C5 can be programmed is because it has a digital volume control that uses open source firmware. It is the only kind that I know of. Most other digital volume control uses closed source firmware. So in short, no, no programmable part in Project Woodwind. In fact, it doesn't have a volume control at all. In any case, it is not likely many will find programmable volume control to be particularly useful since you need some degree of understanding in programming as well as DIYing to make change to something that is already fairly well implemented.

 

[gopanthersgo1]

The reason why C5 can be programmed is because it has a digital volume control that uses open source firmware. It is the only kind that I know of. Most other digital volume control uses closed source firmware. So in short, no, no programmable part in Project Woodwind. In fact, it doesn't have a volume control at all. In any case, it is not likely many will find programmable volume control to be particularly useful since you need some degree of understanding in programming as well as DIYing to make change to something that is already fairly well implemented.

I think it;s board was actually arduino based, allowing the change of governors of battery and stuff, I've already seen a mod where someone put an S3 battery in it making it last much longer...

 

[ClieOS]

Quote:

I think it;s board was actually arduino based, allowing the change of governors of battery and stuff, I've already seen a mod where someone put an S3 battery in it making it last much longer...

 
Most of the things that you can program are already set to optimum, so changing it most likely will make it less than optimum, thus defeat the point of trying to improve it. Putting a bigger battery doesn't need to change the firmware in anyway. Just solder it in and you are done.

 

[gopanthersgo1]

Most of the things that you can program are already set to optimum, so changing it most likely will make it less than optimum, thus defeat the point of trying to improve it. Putting a bigger battery doesn't need to change the firmware in anyway. Just solder it in and you are done.

I see... I thought you might if it had a different voltage or amperage,,, (Just starting to DIY)

 

[TrollDragon]

Have a read through the C5 firmware sketch, there really isn't a whole lot in there for modification in it's current state unless you add parts to the unused I/O pins on the ATMega168.
https://github.com/jdslabs/c5_v100_MasterFirmware104/blob/master/c5_v100_MasterFirmware104.ino (Opens in a viewer)
 
I can see people easily adding that Apple style slow breathing glow to the power LED.
 
You'll need a PogoPin board like this if there is not enough room to solder header pins directly to the board.
You will also need an ISP Programmer to put the code there, either an Arduino Board, a LauchPad MSP430 or anything like the Sparkfun AVR Programmer. 
 
 
The DS1882 dual log digital pots from Maxim talk I²C, two wire addressable devices have to be controlled by an I²C master which is what the ATMega168 is doing.
 
From what I read in the source code, the ATMega168's functions are:
 
Turns on Power
Reads saved Gain & Volume values from an EEPROM.
Sets Gain
Sets Volume
Monitors Battery Low
Changes LED's to reflect low battery or normal condition.
 
The only libraries loaded at compile time are Wire.h for the I²C functions and EEPROM.h for talking to the EEPROM.
 
I was hoping for more but that is all the 'duino chip does... around the Arduino community they would say that the ATMega168 was just put in there for "Blog Cred." (HaD joke...

)
 
My 2 cents.

 

[gopanthersgo1]

Have a read through the C5 firmware sketch, there really isn't a whole lot in there for modification in it's current state unless you add parts to the unused I/O pins on the ATMega168.
https://github.com/jdslabs/c5_v100_MasterFirmware104/blob/master/c5_v100_MasterFirmware104.ino (Opens in a viewer)

I can see people easily adding that Apple style slow breathing glow to the power LED.

You'll need a PogoPin board like this if there is not enough room to solder header pins directly to the board.
You will also need an ISP Programmer to put the code there, either an Arduino Board, a LauchPad MSP430 or anything like the Sparkfun AVR Programmer. 


The DS1882 dual log digital pots from Maxim talk I²C, two wire addressable devices have to be controlled by an I²C master which is what the ATMega168 is doing.

From what I read in the source code, the ATMega168's functions are:

Turns on Power
Reads saved Gain & Volume values from an EEPROM.
Sets Gain
Sets Volume
Monitors Battery Low
Changes LED's to reflect low battery or normal condition.

The only libraries loaded at compile time are Wire.h for the I²C functions and EEPROM.h for talking to the EEPROM.

I was hoping for more but that is all the 'duino chip does... around the Arduino community they would say that the ATMega168 was just put in there for "Blog Cred." (HaD joke... )

My 2 cents.

I know it has enough room inside to solder ISP pins, so probably no need for a pogopin board. It would be cool to add a red and green LED to it for battery level, or a multicolored one that oscillates... or changes colors every 5 minutes or something... Also, maybe you could make the volume knob less sensitive for easy to drive IEMs... Noot too much you can really do with it though... that's too bad.

 

[TrollDragon]

All those mods you've mentioned could be applied, change LEDs add more etc. The volume control chip has 63 steps, so you could slow down the action of the volume switch or have you move it twice in the direction that you want for finer stepping. It would still be in 1db increments though as that is the way the DS1882 works.
 
When I say there is not much you can do, I mean that besides the volume, gain, LED's and battery stuff you'd have to add parts somewhere inside.

 

[gopanthersgo1]

All those mods you've mentioned could be applied, change LEDs add more etc. The volume control chip has 63 steps, so you could slow down the action of the volume switch or have you move it twice in the direction that you want for finer stepping. It would still be in 1db increments though as that is the way the DS1882 works.

When I say there is not much you can do, I mean that besides the volume, gain, LED's and battery stuff you'd have to add parts somewhere inside.

I know... Would still be fun though...

 

[Makiah S]

I've been wanting to try the c4 for a while I hope the c5 is even cleaner

 

[gopanthersgo1]

I've been wanting to try the c4 for a while I hope the c5 is even cleaner

We're talking about the C5 amp... the C5 headphones are a lot bassier than the C4s according to their website, so they shouldn't be as clear sounding...

 

[ukaudiophile]

I need to decide which one will suit my B&W P5's the best.