a2b audio bus data into teensy4

L

lokki

Well-known member
hi there,

is it somehow possible to read a a2b stream of audio-data into teensy4 and work with the data?

here is a link of the technology: https://www.analog.com/en/applications/technology/a2b-audio-bus.html

I am unsure if I would need additional hardware for this, and if it would be at all feasible.

my goal would be to read the data from the all new Roland GK-5 pickup. It is a hexaphonic pickup (one for each string of a guitar), and it allows for all sorts of interesting effects, since one can change the sound of individual strings independently.

Earlier generations of the pickups (GK1 to GK3) had an analog output for each string, control voltages, supply voltage, and the normal guitar pickup output in one 13 pin cable.

The new GK-5 works with a TRS cable, so it only has 3 pins, and the audio data is digitised on the pickup unit and sent as a stream to devices (fx units) down the line via the a2b bus protocol. It would be cool to read the six audio channels into a teensy and have some audio fun with them on the teensy...
 
This looks pretty interesting. It also looks like it (probably) doesn't really exist just yet, at least in any form where someone not well connected to Analog Devices could make a shield or other board with it. All roads seem to lead to needing to sign a NDA just to get basic technical info, and needing to request a special quote just to get an idea of pricing and how to buy.

For example, Digikey has 2 part numbers for AD2430, without inventory or pricing.



The datasheet you can download is just 2 pages, without even a pinout. It says "Complete technical specifications are available for the A2B
transceiver. Contact your nearest Analog Devices sales office to complete the nondisclosure agreement (NDA) required to receive additional product information."

Likewise the "Buy Now" page on Analog Device's website doesn't seem to eager to just simply sell. It's pretty clear you have to contact them.


They have an eval kit that looks like a protocol analyzer. It has this footnote about NDA.

1704165710579.png


I did see a mention that the eval kit costs $2912.

Maybe I'm reading too much into all this, but it really leaves me with an impression Analog Devices is looking for "partner" (large) companies and probably won't make these chips generally available to anyone like PJRC for the sake of developing a shield or accessory for Teensy. I could be wrong about all this, and if you know anyone at Analog Devices (any they're willing to allow someone like me to publish open source driver code) please invite them to reply here or contact me directly.
 
ok, thanks for your answer. I found these a2b/teensy posts around the net:

Master_ AD2428 with Teensy - Q&A - A2B - EngineerZone

I have a fully working setup of Master (ITD1024) and slave nodes with AD2428 combined with ADXL317. From the software side, I have working on the sigma studio and
ez.analog.com ez.analog.com

https://forum.pjrc.com/index.php?threads/cs42448-tdm-input.53369/ (post nr. 13)

I was under the impression that the a2b standard had been out for quite a while, but I don't know anyone at analogdevices unfortunately
 
Is A2B a "standard"? Like anyone can get the info, perhaps not for free but with a reasonable payment and without signing a NDA?

Everything I saw looks like it's a proprietary to Analog Devices.
 
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