Posts by trent

Saving energy is always worthwhile, even if the existing power consumption is already low.

Quote from Monie

After using bcmstat.sh it seems my RPi4 idles at 65-70c. Even while playing a 1080p x265 video the temp stays almost the same or increases only by 2C or so.

It has been running continuously at this idle temperature for several weeks as I never bothered to turn it off. How much of a problem will this be?

Also even after 9.1.002 update there still seems to be a very minor amount of stuttering on a 1080p x265 video. Is there any way to generate a report on this and upload it here?

So I found the details: currently Pi4 does not have the 'soft limit' of Pi3B+

Raspberry Pi Documentation

This means you are will not experience any downclock until 80C. Therefore if you are having stuttering it is unrelated to temperature.

65-72C operating temperature is not a problem. Personally I would like it cooler (for longevity) but I would not lose any sleep.

If you were using the Pi for something else (eg using it for daily duties via Raspbian) then I think your temperatures would be a problem because for sure you will sometimes do things that cause the processor to throttle.

Quote from Monie

I haven't checked the temperature for my RPi4. To the touch, it's somewhat hot even under idle. However, I haven't actually seen the thermometer symbol in Kodi at any time under load. Does that mean that the temperature is under safe limits and I can continue to use it?

I'm also getting minor random stuttering on HEVC videos. I feel like I didn't get this problem initially when I first got it. I'm still on 9.1.001 so I have to update and see. For some reason it hasn't auto updated on its own.

If you're never seeing the thermometer symbol then you are below 80C.

Although this is 'safe', many users desire to keep temperatures below 60C for longevity purposes and to avoid throttling.

I do not know the throttling behaviour of Pi4.

Pi3B+ does a 200MHz downclock at 60C (they call it 'soft limit' and user can change to 70C if he wants).

Then at 80C it begins to do heavy throttling.

I do not know if Pi4 has this 'soft limit' behaviour. If it does not currently, I suspect it will be added soon due to the reports of high temperatures.

Quote from FeFiFoFum

Based on the amount of issues I've seen with the Pi4 (heat, USB power delivery, USB power issue with GPIO) I am 1000% waiting for Pi 4.1 edition in 3 to 6 months.

Also, sadfly, I wouldn't use one without a fan, period.

A small fan seems to be the most effective solution, you don't even need a heatsink. However I find all small/cheap fans to be junk with low-quality bearings which will not last very long. Of course, you can buy high quality fans like Noctua but they are too expensive to justify on a RPi.

Quote from TOM

Moin

My Raspi has apparently a small heat problem ... I use the original Raspi case and already have a passive heat sink on the CPU. Can someone recommend a housing and cooler. Is this a general heat problem?

It is a known problem. Every generation of Pi has been a little bit hotter than the previous. Pi4 runs very hot - not just the CPU but several other components on the board are generating more heat than previous generation. The result is that many people consider active cooling necessary.

Flirc case will help to cool the CPU a little bit but it is a bad design because it's a mostly-sealed metal box and only sinks heat from the CPU. With many other components generating more heat, the air inside will heat up something terrible and it will slowly cook your RPi. The material also makes it much harder to cut holes for venting or add a fan.

Some Pi4s seem to run very hot, even outside a case. 70C idle is crazy. However others seem more reasonable.

It is several weeks since launch and still quite confusing. Is this the 'norm' or are we just seeing some defective units?

VLI firmware only makes a 3C difference so something else is causing some units to run way hotter than others.

Quote from Adr3nal1n

Some further feedback on idle temps,

RPI4 2GB idling in official case: 70c (room temp 20c)

RPI4 2GB idling with top half of official case removed: 61c (room temp 20c)

RPI4 2GB idling with top half of official case removed and new firmware applied: 58c (room temp 20c)

Interesting feedback.

The new firmware seems to reduce power consumption of USB controller. 3C is better than nothing but the idle temps are still too high for my liking.

I think the official case is unfit for purpose - they did not consider the higher temps of Pi4. 70C idle temp is not acceptable. What seems crazy to me is that the official case is part of the £115 'desktop' bundle... a use case scenario where it will definitely not be idle. I expect it will throttle immediately from light browsing.

Sure, I will post it shortly.

I notice in your settings above that you have the close-tag <defaultaudiosettings /> but I cannot see a correspoding start-tag. (line 358)
I don't know if it is in any way relevant.

Maybe just get a spare SD card and do a fresh install. It will save a lot of time and if you were so inclined you could even try some older versions of LE to see if you are experiencing a regression.

I will post my guisettings.xml if it helps.

Quote from Adr3nal1n

I have the official case on my rpi4 2GB. I run it with the top part removed and it drops the idle temp by 5c. The board is still protected by the bottom half of the case.

Hopefully the devs can identify the cause of the high idle temp issue and fix it through a firmware update.

The new case offers less protection if you want to leave the top open for venting. That is self-evident. It is simply a worse case... better for RPi of course because two pieces of plastic are cheaper to make than 5.

There are many reports on various forums of Pi4s idling at 70C. Very worrying.

Equally of course there are many people saying their Pi4 is fine and idles at 50C.

Perhaps we are seeing early software/firmware problems. Or perhaps some percentage of hardware is defective.

Combined with the bad USB-C implementation, I think best approach is to wait and see. Don't rush to buy yet.

The new official case seems to be a step backwards, just two piece and thus no removable panels. At least with old case you could take top panel out to allow for better cooling while still keeping the board somewhat enclosed/protected.

Here is a log of DD+ successfully passthrough-ing for me.

https://pastebin.com/uRrRTAYW

Understanding exactly what is happening in the logs is above my abilities but to me it seems like your Pi is sending out DD+ in exactly the same way as mine. Perhaps your receiver is at fault? Is there an update for it?

novalis

I suggest update to LE 9.0.2

I do not have reason to suspect this is the cause, but it is better to update so we can rule it out as a cause

Novalis confirmed to me that the sample did not achieve DD+ passthrough when played. (It plays with DD+ passthrough for me)

This rules out the possibility that your video files are at fault.

I will send you a sample to test in a few minutes, please test it. Perhaps send me one of your files which do not play and I will test.

This thread shows a man with same problem.

DD+ stopped working on my AVR since 9.0.0 - Kodi - CoreELEC Forums

As best I can tell, his issue seems to be a combination of two things:

1) files with DD+ encoded in some non-standard way

2) Old version of Kodi handled the non-standard DD+ stream okay. New versions do not

My signal chain is

Raspberry Pi 3 -> Yamaha RXv581 -> LG TV

(I don't go from Pi directly into the TV first because most TVs have passthrough limitations)

LibreElec latest stable (9.0.2 ?)

Kodi > System > Audio settings: (perhaps need to enable expert view)

Audio output device: PI: HDMI
Number channels: 7.1
Output config: optimized
....
PLL adjustment : Off
Allow passthrough: ON
Dolby Digital capable receiver: YES
Dolby Digital Plus capable : YES
DTS capable : YES

In the Kodi "Player" settings, Sync playback to display is OFF.

I am not suggesting that all my settings are correct or right for you. However you should match the settings and signal chain first, so we can determine if DD+ works for you.

Quote from novalis

So if this is not a general issue LE has with the Raspi 3, how can I try to resolve the problem. Because I have no issues whatsoever passing any audio to my AVR. Only DD+ and only on LE Raspi. Kodi on Windows works fine.

I have checked all the Settings I think, so what can I do?

I will post my settings and signal chain tomorrow. You can compare and then maybe we work from there to determine the problem.

It works for me. Pi3 running into Yamaha receiver. DD+ passthrough works