And there is the next Raspberry sound project – the HifiBerry Mini. This is a DAC for the Raspberry Pi, that is based on a PCM5102 from Texas Instruments. It has a The chip runs at 3.3V and used the 3.3V provided by the Raspberry Pi. Because this supply is quite noisy, it will be used only for the digital part of the chip. The analog output will be sourced by the TPS7A4901 – also from Texas Instruments. This is a high-end voltage regulator specifically designed for ultra-low-noise analog circuits.

This PCB is also a good device to practice SMD soldering. Both ICs comes in 0.65mm pin pitch. Almost all passive components are 0603 packages. But don’t be scared! You only need some magnifying glasses (I use 2.5x magnification), a good soldering iron and good solder paste (this is really important!). If you don’t believe me, check out the soldering tutorials that I linked here. There is no need for a reflow oven for this circuit.

Unfortunately all passive components are missing at the moment. They should arrive in the next days. Then I will be able to test the device. Stay tuned!