Connecting the daisy board to speakers

Getting Started
#1

Hi, I’m wondering if there is any advice on how to connect the Daisy to various kinds of speakers?

I see that the “drum” example connects a speaker directly to the AGND and Audio Out R pins. What sort of speakers could I buy that are suitable for this?

Another possibility would be to add a “line out” audio jack so I can connect the board to self-powered speakers. What sort of circuit is needed for this?

#2

You got it, sorta. You will need to create an audio circuit first. You can do this on a breadboard. You would connect the audio out pins of the daisy via wire to this audio circuit. From there you could go to active (powered) speakers. There are some simple yet very effective audio circuits that use a small amount of parts. Try Googling NE5532 circuit.

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#3

The Daisy output is line level. So in cases like the Daisy Pod, an audio jack can be connected directly to the Daisy Pins, and can send signal to a powered speaker, audio interface, or mixer.

Other circuits would come into play for driving headphones or unpowered speakers. There is an example of a headphone amp with volume knob in the Daisy Pod schematic.

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#4

Thanks. I’m also wondering about grounding. What is the relationship between AGND and USB Ground?

In the schematic there is a note: “unpopulated resistor for connecting grounds internally. Grounds should be connected outside the Daisy Seed device”. What does this mean for someone getting line-level audio working?

#5

I’m having trouble finding the daisy pod schematic. Which repo and directory is it in?

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#6

@skybrian The Pod schematic files are now live on the hardware repo!

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#7

Thanks. I see that the pod connects AGND to GND. Since I’ll be using a breadboard, do I need to add a jumper wire for this?

I also don’t understand what U7 refers to in the schematic. What part is this? (I’m trying to figure out how power is supplied to the seed when using the pod.)

#8

Yes, the AGND and DGND need to be connected to a common ground outside of the Daisy itself. The unpopulated resistor you pointed out was vestigial from previous revisions, but there was better noise performance when connecting the grounds externally.

As for U7, it is essentially a filter/protection IC for the USB lines.