Fix Raspberry Pi Zero Sound Not Working - GPIONext pin clash!

I've been building up a Raspberry Pi Zero handheld games console. But when adding the sound circuits the system would crash every time it tried to play a sound. Testing each part individually worked, but when put together the console would not run.
It turned out that the software I was using to implement the GPIO game controller (GPIONext) was clashing with the audio functions on the GPIO header.
The solution was to restrict the GPIONext code to only tamper with the pins used for the controller and to leave the rest alone!
GPIONext commands
Run the config utility with restricted pins :-
sudo python3 /home/pi/GPIOnext/config_manager.py --pins 3,5,7,8,10,11,13,15,29,31,32,33
Restrict the driver daemon to the controller pins :-
gpionext set pins 3,5,7,8,10,11,13,15,29,31,32,33
gpionext reload
Make sure you check out my project pages at
bytesnbits.co....

[@cheat_steve10]

Thanks for the video, had a problem with my diy handheld with the fbcp ili9341 driver and gpionext. If using both there was a huge amount of stuttering, but now it's completely gone. Mostly likely a clash between the two drivers

[@BytesNBits]

Great to hear you got it working.

[@cheat_steve10]

@@BytesNBits thx even made a video in my channel about it. Thanks again

[@alanrobinson6661]

Thanks, this saved me a real headache !

[@BytesNBits]

Great to hear. Hope the project goes well.

[@andersonand3720]

Explica muito bem !

[@BytesNBits]

Obrigado. Espero que você faça o seu trabalho.

[@meray6811]

THANK UUUUUUU!

[@BytesNBits]

No problem. I hope it helped.

[@Vincent_Serpico]

Thanks for these videos, they have been helpful. However, I just wanted to share with you an issue I had with the GPIONext and Sound. Just like you said in this video, my sound would not work as soon as the GpioNext would run. I tried to isolate the pins like you had directed, but found that after doing this if I had the sound circuit plugged in the gpiopins would not recognize the game pad. I ended up taking the sound pins out of the Alt 5 state and found that the sound now worked as well as the gamepad. Not sure why this is the case, but thought I'd get your opinion. I'm making a handheld Atari2600 game system for fun. I have found that the sound works well if the game only has sound effects for actions, however if a background sound/music is playing it tends to skip or echo. Any suggestions to fix? Thanks

[@BytesNBits]

That's a strange one. You should be able to set the alt 5 state for just the pins you need so it shouldn't affect the other connections. I'll have to admit that I haven't looked at this for a couple of years so haven't got any insight into the issue. I'd check that you're only setting the alternate state on the sound pins you're using and that the rest of the inputs are all still acting as inputs. The gpio readall command from wiringpi should let you see their states.

[@Vincent_Serpico]

@@BytesNBits Thanks for the info, for now I have it working, still trying to figure out why the sound channels tends to fight with each other. I am using an old version of the stella emulator so that I can incorporate a rotary encoder as a atari paddle for certain games. The newer versions do not allow that type of input. Thanks again!

[@nightrider8496]

Can you pls show how you build an connected the gamepad with the pi?

[@BytesNBits]

Hi. The gamepad is just a set of switches with each one connected to a digital input on the Pi.

[@Ryan-cx2fn]

when I set the pins for the controller like you showed I didnt have a problem with sound. but the frame rate of my lcd dropped drastically where is does like a slide to side load as opposed to being a smooth transition like it once was and also a response lag as well. any idea of what could be the issue. I am using the same tft screen like you have just a 2.2in

[@BytesNBits]

If you disable the gpionext driver does the screen get better? Make sure gpionext is not messing with any of the LCD pins.

[@Ryan-cx2fn]

It seems when i download the driver it’s still fine.but when i go in to add what pin does what and reboot the frame rate drops. I also tried doing the GPIO set pin option and when I do that and go into retropie to do the controller layout only one to two pins work then. And frame rate stays dropped

[@IvanKanevskyi]

I am having a massive problem with sound output, I am not even using buttons or screen. Using MAX98357 amp and tried multiple speakers, but none seems to work :( I have been trying to solve it for weeks and asked my EE friends. I was wondering if you know what could be an issue?

[@BytesNBits]

Have a look at my I2S video here - kzbin.info/www/bejne/bXO7gGyLm7mZj6s.

[@studioeight4571]

I've been using your tutorials to get through some issues, and they've been really helpful. But I'm still getting problems once I get to using GPIOnext. When I start the screen up it may or may not work, but if it does, certain button presses eventually cause it to go off. I'm getting DMA errors, regarding Tx and Rx using channel 1 and 7, I've tried moving Tx and Rx to other channels, but still the same thing happens. Any ideas?

[@BytesNBits]

Hi. In this video I cover restricting GPIONext to only using a specified set of GPIO pins. Have you done that in your code? I had a similar issue with my sound pins being scanned by the GPIONext code. Can you get the screen working without the controller and can you get the controller working without the screen? If so it looks like it's definitely some sort of clash between the two. Try restricting the GPIONext controller to a single button to see if that works, then add more buttons in until you find one that causes the issue. This might give more insight into the problem. I hope this helps.

[@studioeight4571]

Yeah I'd restricted the GPIOnext to only the pins it's using. I'll try the single pin at a time thing, see if I can sus it out. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@studioeight4571]

Update: Noticed that my screens RS and RESET pins were different to yours, and that meant some buttons were elsewhere too. Moved them over to the same pins you used, and no more conflicts! Can only assume that wherever my buttons had ended up was causing the conflict, maybe due to a pins alternate function?

[@umutkayacan7659]

What is going to be the name of the console? I thought of "Bytes boy"😄

[@BytesNBits]

To be honest I hadn't given it any thought! BytesBoy sounds great. Any more suggestions?