.. based on some tasks I found that caused stuttering:
# Test SD and printing
while True: os.listdir('.')
# Test bulk I/O
while True: len(open('somefile.wav', 'rb').read())
Each of these tasks *WAS* worse and I am improving them in a separate
PR by adding RUN_BACKGROUND_TASKS to them.
This enables the highest level of debug symbols, and all optimizations
except lto that do NOT interfere with debugging, in the view of the gcc
maintainers.
Testing performed: I used a Particle Xenon with a HDA1334 I2S DAC.
I played a variety of mono 16-bit samples at 11025 and 22050Hz nominal
bit rates. With this setup, all the 11025Hz samples sound good.
I tested play, pause, and loop functionality.
During some runs with 22050Hz samples, there were glitches. However,
these may have only occurred during runs where I had set breakpoints
and watchpoints in gdb.
I also tested with a MAX98357A I2S amplifier. On this device, everything
sounded "scratchy". I was powering it from 5V and the 5V rail seemed
steady, so I don't have an explanation for this. However, I haven't
tried it with a SAMD board.
Previously, we depended on allocated channels to always be
"dma_channel_enabled". However, (A) sometimes, many operations
would take place between find_free_audio_dma_channel and
audio_dma_enable_channel, and (B) some debugging I did led me to believe
that "dma_channel_enabled" would become false when the hardware ended
a scheduled DMA transaction, but while a CP object would still think it
owned the DMA channel.
((B) is not documented in the datasheet and I am not 100% convinced that
my debugging session was not simply missing where we were disabling the
channel, but in either case, it shows a need to directly track allocated
separately from enabled)
Therefore,
* Add audio_dma_{allocate,free}_channel.
* audio_dma_free_channel implies audio_dma_disable_channel
* track via a new array audio_dma_allocated[]
* clear all allocated flags on soft-reboot
* Convert find_free_audio_dma_channel to audio_dma_allocate_channel
* use audio_dma_allocated[] instead of dma_channel_enabled() to check
availability
* remove find_free_audio_dma_channel
* For each one, find a matching audio_dma_disable_channel to convert
to audio_dma_free_channel
Closes: #2058
.. otherwise, a sequence like
>>> a = audioio.AudioOut(board.A0)
>>> a.play(sample, loop=True)
>>> a.deinit()
would potentially leave related DMA channel(s) active.