"Unrecognized Bela hardware: is a cape connected?" after removing cape

Elias

Hi,
I recently purchased a CTAG BEAST Starter Kit. it has the two capes mounted by default, and I can sucessfully build and run my project using the IDE. However at the moment I do not need the additional in-/outputs and i would like to run a project without the two capes mounted.
However when I unmount the two capes and try to build&run my project i get the following prompt:

Unrecognized Bela hardware: is a cape connected?
Error: unable to initialise audio
make: *** [runide] Error 1

I tried to flash the SD card using Balena Etcher, which worked flawlessly. However, the Error message still appears. So i assume the config for the capes is not stored on the SD card but rather the Bela board itself.
Is there an easy way how i can switch the configs between using the two capes / BEAST and using the Bela board without the capes?

Elias

Hello again,
Sorry i just realized that when taking away both capes i don't end up with the standard bela starter kit but rather with a Beaglebone black. So i'll need at least one cape mounted on top of the Beaglebone i assume.

I only need 1 input and 1 output for the moment, so would it be beneficial for performance to only use one cape instead of two? I for example see that i cannot use 128 block size if I connect the two capes.

In general i would like to get very low latency for the 1 in / 1 out configuration and then have higher latency when I enable more channels. Is that possible?

giuliomoro

Elias I for example see that i cannot use 128 block size if I connect the two capes.

you should be able to, but you may need a software update for your board.

Elias In general i would like to get very low latency for the 1 in / 1 out configuration and then have higher latency when I enable more channels.

With one CTAG configured as Leader (FACE), you can use 4 in / 8 out with the usual low latency. Using this many channels will have some overhead in terms of CPU time as a lot of data is shifted in/out. We currently have no support for reducing the channel count, but it should be doable with an upcoming big refactoring we'll be doing in the coming months.

Elias

giuliomoro you should be able to, but you may need a software update for your board.

Great, after updating 128 can be selected in the IDE.

giuliomoro With one CTAG configured as Leader (FACE), you can use 4 in / 8 out with the usual low latency.

Thanks it indeed works now. I wasn't aware of the jumpers. So once i set the correctly as leader the error message dissapears. And alright for the channel count, The channel reduction from 8/16 to 4/8 will already help and I'm looking forward to the update for reducing the channels.

One last thing. I used to work with 44100Hz sampling rate. The FACE/BEAST only supports 24khz, 48khz, 86khz from what i can see. I guess there is nothing that can be done about that right? I'll not be able to run at 44100Hz i assume?

giuliomoro

Elias One last thing. I used to work with 44100Hz sampling rate

The CTAG has a fixed-frequency oscillator which only allows 48kHz and multiples. Using it with the Bela environment, it will only use 48kHz. When using it with ALSA you may get to 192kHz (reducing the channel count).

Elias . The FACE/BEAST only supports 24khz, 48khz, 86khz from what i can see.

Those are the sampling rates of the Bela cape's analog inputs (if you also have a Bela cape connected), which are linked to the number of analog channels in use.

Elias

Okay thanks Giulio,

My questions are solved and i got everything up and running now. So I think we can close this ticket.

cheers