CamillaDSP RASPIAUDIO USB in to 8-channel out

Turn a Raspberry Pi 5 into a USB 7.1 sound card with 8 analog outputs for active speakers, DSP crossovers, EQ, gain, delay, and phase/time alignment.

The recommended beginner path is the flashable RASPIAUDIO appliance image. The public product/download page is not live yet, so this GitHub README is the current entry point for early testers.

Flash image -> boot -> open http://raspiaudio.local -> choose mode -> test audio

Use this mode if you want a ready-to-use audio box instead of installing Linux packages by hand. It includes CamillaDSP, CamillaGUI, the USB 7.1 audio gadget, RASPIAUDIO 8-output profiles, active crossover presets, TOSLINK output support, and the simple dashboard.

1. Get the RASPIAUDIO CamillaDSP Box .img.xz image file.
2. Flash the image to a microSD card with Raspberry Pi Imager.
3. Mount the RASPIAUDIO 8xOUT or 8xIN+8xOUT board on a Raspberry Pi 5.
4. Boot the Pi and open http://raspiaudio.local.
5. Choose a mode and click the audio test buttons.

Watch the USB gadget + CamillaDSP + 8-output demo: PC USB audio into Raspberry Pi 5 CamillaDSP, then 8 outputs.

Dashboard screenshots:

Beginner flashing guide: docs/flash_appliance_image.md

Draft public page source, for later website publishing: public/camilladsp-box

Detailed appliance/release notes: docs/appliance_image.md

Candidate public images can be checked on a freshly flashed Pi with sudo raspiaudio-validate-release.

Reproducible image-builder files live in image-builder.

flowchart LR
  Computer["Windows / macOS / Linux<br/>music player, REW, DAW"]
  Cable["USB-C data cable<br/>USB Audio 7.1 input"]
  Pi["Raspberry Pi 5<br/>CamillaDSP"]
  Board["RASPIAUDIO 8xOUT<br/>4 DACs on 4 I2S lanes"]
  Outputs["8 analog outputs<br/>to amplifiers and speakers"]

  Computer --> Cable --> Pi --> Board --> Outputs

• Raspberry Pi 5 S/PDIF audio from a GPIO LED: GPIO12 drives a simple LED close to a TOSLINK receiver. The signal is generated by the Pi 5 RP1 PIO + DMA prototype and exposed to Linux as an ALSA sound card. Technical explanation: why Raspberry Pi 5 RP1 PIO matters.
• PC USB audio into Raspberry Pi 5 CamillaDSP, then 8 outputs: a USB-C power/data splitter lets the Pi stay powered while the PC sees it as a USB 7.1 sound card. Audio enters CamillaDSP, then goes to 8 analog outputs or optical TOSLINK.

Copy/paste YouTube descriptions and a community-first Reddit post are in docs/youtube_reddit_posts.md.

Use it when the music comes from a computer and you want the Raspberry Pi to do the DSP work before the amplifiers: crossover filters, PEQ bands, gain trims, channel routing, delay, and time/phase alignment.

The installer starts with simple passthrough so you can prove the hardware first:

• USB input from the computer: 8 channels / 7.1 / 48 kHz
• CamillaDSP processing on the Raspberry Pi 5
• RASPIAUDIO 8xOUT analog output: 8 channels
• Default mapping: USB channel 1 to OUT1, channel 2 to OUT2, up to channel 8 to OUT8

The main CamillaDSP use case is the open miniDSP-style active crossover preset:

• USB stereo input: 2 channels / 48 kHz
• Stereo 3-way + dual subs routing
• Linkwitz-Riley 24 dB/oct crossovers
• 10 PEQ placeholders, gain trim, and delay per output
• Safe startup attenuation: master -12 dB, output trims -6 dB

This project is for Raspberry Pi 5. It uses the Pi 5 audio interface with 4 I2S lanes, so the RASPIAUDIO board can drive 4 stereo DACs, meaning 8 output channels.

• Raspberry Pi 5
• microSD card, 16 GB or larger
• RASPIAUDIO CamillaDSP Box image for the recommended path
• Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit only if you choose the manual install path
• RASPIAUDIO 8xOUT
• USB-C power/data splitter
• Windows, macOS, or Linux computer
• Free Raspberry Pi Connect account only for the manual install path

The same software path also works with the output side of the RASPIAUDIO 8xIN+8xOUT.

For the flashable product-image workflow, use the beginner guide: docs/flash_appliance_image.md

For normal GitHub/manual installation, use the steps below.

1. Flash the Raspberry Pi

   • Install Raspberry Pi Imager.
   • Choose Raspberry Pi 5.
   • Choose Raspberry Pi OS Lite (64-bit) or Raspberry Pi OS with desktop (64-bit).
   • In Imager settings, set hostname, username, password, and Wi-Fi if needed.
   • In the Raspberry Pi Connect tab, enable Connect and link it to your account.
   • Write the image, insert the microSD card, mount the RASPIAUDIO board, and boot.

2. Open a Remote Shell

   • Go to connect.raspberrypi.com.
   • Select your Raspberry Pi.
   • Open Remote Shell.

3. Run the installer

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install -y git
   git clone https://github.com/RASPIAUDIO/CamillaDSP.git raspiaudio-camilladsp
   cd raspiaudio-camilladsp
   sudo ./install_raspiaudio_usb_7_1.sh
   sudo reboot

4. Connect the USB-C splitter

   • Power the Raspberry Pi from the power side of the splitter.
   • Connect the data side to the computer.
   • Select the USB sound card named RASPIAUDIO_8xOUT_USB_DSP_7_1_48k.
   • Configure it as a 7.1 / 8-channel output device on the computer.

5. Open CamillaGUI

   http://<raspberry-pi-ip>:5005/gui/index.html
   

The installer configures the USB audio gadget, the RASPIAUDIO 8-output audio device, CamillaDSP, CamillaGUI, and the default 48 kHz passthrough profile.

The default file is:

/etc/camilladsp/raspiaudio_usb_7_1_48k_passthrough.yml

It starts with direct routing so you can first prove that all 8 outputs work, then add crossover, PEQ, gain, delay, and other CamillaDSP processing.

The Raspberry Pi 5 can also add a validated optical S/PDIF / TOSLINK stereo output without an extra audio chipset. In this mode CamillaDSP sends stereo audio to the RASPISPDIF ALSA card, generated by the Pi 5 RP1/PIO driver, and the signal comes out on GPIO12, physical pin 32.

The first lab tests used a simple standard LED on GPIO12 and a TOSLINK cable held close to the LED. That was enough for the optical receiver to lock and play clean audio. For a cleaner mechanical product, use a ready-made TOSLINK transmitter socket/module with the LED already included; the optical principle is the same, but cable alignment and mounting are much better.

The Raspberry Pi 5-specific part is the RP1 PIO block. The LED is not just blinking from Linux userspace: CamillaDSP sends audio to a normal ALSA playback device, the RASPISPDIF driver encodes it as S/PDIF, DMA feeds the RP1 PIO state machine, and GPIO12 outputs the 48 kHz stereo S/PDIF bitstream. At 48 kHz stereo this needs a 6.144 MHz half-bit stream, which is why RP1 PIO + DMA is a better fit than CPU-driven GPIO toggling.

CamillaDSP -> RASPISPDIF ALSA card -> S/PDIF encoder -> DMA -> RP1 PIO -> GPIO12 -> LED/TOSLINK

Check the demo on YouTube

Read the validated USB-to-TOSLINK guide: docs/usb_gadget_2ch_to_spdif_optical.md

For the full explanation of the Raspberry Pi 5 RP1 PIO + DMA S/PDIF output, including install, GPIO12 wiring, limits, and validation notes, read: prototypes/pi5_spdif_gpio/README.md

For an open miniDSP-style box, start from:

configs/stereo_3way_dual_subs_48k_8xout.yml

After running the installer, the same preset is also available on the Raspberry Pi as:

/etc/camilladsp/stereo_3way_dual_subs_48k_8xout.yml

It maps USB stereo input to:

OUT1 Left tweeter   OUT5 Right tweeter
OUT2 Left midrange  OUT6 Right midrange
OUT3 Left woofer    OUT7 Right woofer
OUT4 Left sub       OUT8 Right sub

Read the preset guide before connecting amplifiers and tweeters: profiles/stereo_3way_active_crossover_8xout/README.md

• Flash the appliance image: docs/flash_appliance_image.md
• Beginner guide: profiles/raspiaudio_8xout_usb_7_1_quickstart/README.md
• Active crossover preset: profiles/stereo_3way_active_crossover_8xout/README.md
• USB gadget details: docs/usb_audio_gadget_pi5.md
• 2-channel USB input example: docs/usb_gadget_2ch_to_8xout.md
• 8-channel USB input example: docs/usb_gadget_8ch_to_8xout.md
• Raspberry Pi 5 GPIO S/PDIF OUT guide: prototypes/pi5_spdif_gpio/README.md
• USB stereo to optical S/PDIF profile: docs/usb_gadget_2ch_to_spdif_optical.md
• Flashable appliance image workflow: docs/appliance_image.md