Tuning GUI

Overview

CONFIDENTIAL
Overview
• The Tuning GUI is a tool to make configuring and tuning the Falcon device
more user friendly .
• The package will have the name evk-falcon-x.x.x
• The Tuning GUI is located in the tools folder. You can verify that it is the
Tuning GUI for Falcon by the glm file with the correct naming.

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Tuning GUI: Block Diagram

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Tuning GUI: Configurations

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Tuning GUI: Tunings

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How to connect the Tuning GUI
• The Tuning GUI communicates to
the Linux Driver through the Thin
Client.
• In order for the Tuning GUI to
function, the Thin Client must be
running on the Raspberry Pi.
• Recall: To install the Thin Client, the
host demo code is needed.

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Hands on: How to connect the Tuning GUI
1. Verify that the thin client is installed and
running.
2. Open the Tuning GUI executable on your PC
and go to File  Connect Using  TCP/IP
• Your PC must be connected to the same network as
the RPi in order for the GUI to connect successfully.
3. Input the IP address and Port # shown in the
Thin Client window on the Pi
4. Click ‘Connect’. A message of ‘Client
Connected’ should appear on the Thin Client
terminal.

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Selecting a default configuration/tuning
Once the Tuning GUI is connected via TCP/IP,
there will be two prompts asking whether
Falcon Tuning or Configuration will be done.
In order to be able to configure the
configurations window, a default config script
must be selected. Same for the tunings
window.
• Note: By selecting a default config/tuning
script, it will overwrite the existing Falcon
registers.
• Note2: the default setting in the
initialization of the driver should match the
default shell scripts provided in the tuning
GUI

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Selecting a default tuning
If any changes to the Tunings window are
needed, the user must click ‘Yes’ on the ‘Do
you want to do Falcon Tuning?’ prompt.

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Selecting a default configuration
If any changes to the Configurations window
are needed, you must click ‘Yes’ on the ‘Do
you want to do Falcon Configuration?’ prompt.

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Configurations: Speaker Characteristics
• Used to set the DAC gain and HWPID values
• Need information about the speaker used. This can be found in the speaker
specification document
• Speaker Impedance
• Speaker Long-Term Rated Power
• Speaker Short-Term Max Power

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Speaker Characteristics: Example 1

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Speaker Characteristics: Example 2

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Speaker Characteristics: Example 3

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Configurations: SpeakerShield PID

When the ‘Calculate DAC gain’ button is

clicked, the DAC Gain in the DAC gain block
will change.
• It is possible to change the DAC gain
beyond what is recommended but this
increases the risk of speaker distortion and
going beyond the power threshold set.

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Configurations: SpeakerShield PID
When the ‘Calculate Power Threshold
Coefficients’ button is clicked, the
power threshold coefficients using the
values from the Speaker
Characteristics box will be generated.
• You can chose to apply the power
threshold values immediately, or
save them for future use.

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Configurations: High Pass Filter
• The High Pass Filter (HPF) is used
to prevent DC energy from reaching
the Class-D drivers. Also protects
the speaker against low frequency
content which can cause distortion,
especially in smaller speakers
• HPF is set independently for the
L/R channels
• What cutoff frequency should the
HPF be set to?
• Speaker spec recommendation
(uncommon)
• THD v. freq plot provided in speaker spec
• Target application, voice or music

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Tunings: EQ
The Equalizer (EQ) adjusts the frequency
characteristics of the output in order to
compensate for unwanted frequency
characteristics in the loudspeaker. It can also
be used to tailor the response according to
user preferences
• Falcon supports 7 Band/CH EQ
• Can have separate EQ tunings for each channel or
the same EQ on both L/R channels
• In the current Falcon chip, when EQ is enabled the
audio output become a mono signal.

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Tunings: DRC
Dynamic Range Compression (DRC) is used
to compress or expand audio content for a
better listening experience. It reduces the
crest factor in order to increase loudness
without damaging the attached speakers.
• Falcon has a 3band DRC and an overall DRC. Note
that the 3band DRC and the overall DRC are in
series. From the DRC window, all of these DRCs can
be configured independently.
• In the current Falcon chip, only single band DRC +
overall DRC is supported. (In single band DRC mode,
the DRC-Band1 contains the parameters applied.)

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Echo reference
Echo reference is taken after the DRC
block.
• After the non linear processing
Note that the tunings done may affect
AEC performance, this will be covered
in a later presentation.

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Saving/Loading
• With the Tuning GUI, the settings for the
Configuration tab and Tuning tab are
saved/loaded independently.
• When saving the configurations, a prefix of
CODEC_CX9000Config is necessary.
• When saving the tunings, a prefix of
CODEC_CX9000Tune is necessary.
• It is important that the configs/tunings are
saved before the Tuning GUI is closed,
once the tool is closed they will be lost.

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Save Falcon Configuration/Tunings to the asound.state
• To save the created configs/tunings as the new defaults on the RPi, there are
several additional steps
• You will need to transfer the created shell scripts to the RPi and execute
them.
• In the documentation folder of the fcp, refer to the ‘Sample Tuning of CX9000
Conexant Codec from a host PC and Creating New Tuned Firmware’ section
of the FirmwareConfigurationPackageApplicationNote.pdf

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Dump registers from the Linux driver
Open a terminal and run the following command:
• sudo pico /sys/kernel/debug/regmap/1-0033/registers >> /home/pi/registersDump.txt
This will output a file located on the /home/pi/ directory.

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Hands on!
1. Change the HPF in the Configs tab.
2. Save the config and tuning shell script.
3. Transfer the config and tuning file to the RPi
4. Make the shell script executable
• chmod +x *name of shell script*
5. Do end of line conversion
• sed –i ‘s/\r//’ *name of shell script*
6. Execute
• bash *name of shell script*

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Offline Configuration
• The Offline Configuration is an useful
option when a hardware is not connected
but you would like to:
• create the configs/tunings for a setup.
• See the parameters for an existing tuning without
applying them to a setup
• When checked, you will be asked to select
an existing config/tuning file.
• When finished configuring/tuning, the script
must be saved manually (see previous)

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