Picade Sound stuck at Max Volume

[ULTRA-MAGNUSS]

I recently bought a Picade Arcade console for my Raspberry Pi4 runing RetroPie and everything works except the volume is stuck at 100 which is very loud. I can't change the volume in Emulation Station. The system volume stays at zero, the Audio Card is set to Default, Audio Device is set to PCM and the OMX player Audio Device is set to ALSA. No matter what I do, it doesn't seem to work. I've looked on the web for solutions and the ones I see don't work or aren't clear. Does anyone have a solution for this?

[mitu]

How does the Picade outputs audio - does it use the analog jack or using HDMI ? Have you configured the default audio output from the Sound menu in RetroPie ?

[ULTRA-MAGNUSS]

@mitu The Picade comes with a Picade Hat which has all the connectors for the buttons, joystick, monitor and speaker connections. The speaker is wired into the speaker wire ports of the Picade Hat.

When you setup, you are supposed to run a curl command that downloads the drivers. It automatically makes changes to various settings (I know that's not specific). When I got into the RetroPie Menu, the system volume shows it's set at 0% and when I change it and come back into the menu, it's back at 0% I've tried changing the default Audio Device and OMX Player settings but nothings seems to allow me to change the volume. When I try to configure the Audio from the Options section of RetroPIe, it doesn't allow me saying it's been disabled. I'm sure you would need specifics to be able to troubleshoot. Let me know what specific things you want me to check and the commands to check. Thanks for any assistance,. I'm happy the sound works but it's LOUD.

[mitu]

Ok, so it has a I2S sound output and the onboard sound is disabled.
If you run alsamixer from the terminal, can you control the volume ?

Run also amixer and post the output.

[ULTRA-MAGNUSS]

@mitu When I run alsamixer, I get this

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── AlsaMixer v1.1.8 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Card: snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac F1: Help │
│ Chip: F2: System information │
│ View: F3: Playback F4: Capture F5: All F6: Select sound card │
│ Item: Esc: Exit │
│ │
│ This sound device does not have any controls. │

When I enter amixer, it doesn't show any output

pi@retropie:~ $ amixer
pi@retropie:~ $

[mitu]

@ultra-magnuss said in Picade Sound stuck at Max Volume:

│ This sound device does not have any controls.

This means there's no mixer for the snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac card, so no volume control (probably that's why amixer also returns nothing). Probably this is how this card works ?

Can you post the contents of /etc/asound.conf and $HOME/.asoundrc ?

[ULTRA-MAGNUSS]

@mitu

/etc/asound.conf contents:

pcm.real {
type hw
card 0
device 0
}

pcm.dmixer {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
ipc_perm 0666
slave.pcm "real"
slave {
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 8192
rate 44100
}
bindings {
0 0
1 1
}
}

ctl.dmixer {
type hw
card 0
}

pcm.softvol {
type softvol
slave.pcm "dmixer"
control {
name "PCM" # Masquerade as the default "PCM" sound device on Pi (for EmulationStation)
card 0
}
}

pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "softvol"
}

---

$HOME/.asoundrc output
pi@retropie:~ $ vi .asoundrc
pcm.!default {
type asym
playback.pcm {
type plug
slave.pcm "output"
}
capture.pcm {
type plug
slave.pcm "input"
}
}
pcm.output {
type hw
card 0
}
ctl.!default {
type hw
card 0
}

[mitu]

@ultra-magnuss From the $HOME/.asoundrc file and see if opening up alsamixer allows you to change the volume.

[ULTRA-MAGNUSS]

@mitu When I run the alsamixer, it shows "This sound device does not have any controls". It shows Functions keys 1 - 6 and the only one that doesn't immediately exit is F6 which allows me to select the sound device (Default or snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac) Whether I pick default or snd_rpi_hifiberry_dac, I don't get any other options.

[mitu]

That's strage, since the /etc/asound.conf creates a soft mixer (since the card doesn't have a hw mixer included) and it should show a PCM volume control.
Have you tried restarting after you removed the $HOME/.asoundrc file ?
What does amixer contents && amixer scontents outputs this time ?

[ULTRA-MAGNUSS]

@mitu I literally just moved the /home/.asoundrc file and it did make a difference but it's temporary. I renamed the file (didn't delete) and I can now change the volume in the the amixer and alsamixer and the volume will be lower until I load a game. The moment I hit a button to add credits or anything, the volume suddenly jumps back to 100%. Strange.

[ULTRA-MAGNUSS]

@mitu

Here is the contents of amixer contents

pi@retropie:~ $ amixer contents
numid=1,iface=MIXER,name='PCM'
; type=INTEGER,access=rw---RW-,values=2,min=0,max=255,step=0
: values=230,230
| dBscale-min=-51.00dB,step=0.20dB,mute=0

Here is the output from amixier scontents

pi@retropie:~ $ amixer scontents
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
Capabilities: volume
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: 0 - 255
Front Left: 230 [90%]
Front Right: 230 [90%]

alsamixer allows me to change the volume, but like I said, when a game loads and I hit a button, suddenly it jumps back to 100% volume

[mitu]

Sorry, I overlooked that. Which emulator are you using ? Did you save its configuration at some point, which might have included the sound volume ?

[ULTRA-MAGNUSS]

@mitu I've tried Mame, FBA, Flycast, Redream so far. I haven't gone through all of them but it seems like the affects them all. When it happens and I check the mixers, the volume is back to 100%. Something is kicking in an overriding the settings.

Where should I go to check the volume settings for each emulator?

[mitu]

@ultra-magnuss said in Picade Sound stuck at Max Volume:

Where should I go to check the volume settings for each emulator?

I was thinking about the Libretro based emulators, which share a common configuration. Redream is not a libretro based emulator, so that excludes this possibility.
Is the volume slider working now in EmulationStation ?

Try lowering the volume, then rebooting, this will save the current volume level. Check if - after the reboot - the volume is saved.

[ULTRA-MAGNUSS]

@mitu So I just checked Redream and it did the same. I used putty to change the volume using the alsamixer and left it open. I would change the volume to a lower volume. It would stay that way for a while then it would jump to 90%. I would change it again and leave it and I would see and hear it jump to 90%. When I leave the emulator, it does the same for all.

When using the retropie volume,right now it's set to 90%. I will lower it and check and it will save it but when I launch anything, it goes back to 90%. So it's not necessarily an emulator. It's not dependent on me hitting a button. If I just let a game run, it will just jump to 90%, If I leave or launch anything it will reset. It's not really saving the settings.

I did try setting the volume lower and rebooting. After reboot, it went back 90% There seems to be a configuration somewhere that keeps kicking in to set the volume.

[mitu]

Besides the configuration of EmulationStation that keeps the volume, there is the ALSA mixer configuration that's saved on reboot with alsactl store/restore.

[ULTRA-MAGNUSS]

@mitu I figured out what is causing it to jump in volume. It's my start and coin button on the picade. The moment I press one of those buttons, it changes the volume. I don't know why. The front buttons (Coin and 1up) which I have mapped as Start and Coin seems to reset the volume to the max. No idea why. They do function properly as the Coin and Start to start a game but they also reset the volume.

[mitu]

It could be something installed by the Picade script, maybe the driver/program that handles the input via GPIO also executes some additional commands.
What's the name of the Picade controller in EmulationStation ?

[ULTRA-MAGNUSS]

@mitu It's named Keyboard.