miniDSP UMA-8 User manual

miniDSP Ltd, Hong Kong / www.minidsp.com / Features and specifications subject to change without prior notice 1
UMA-8
USB MICROPHONE ARRAY WITH EMBEDDED DSP
User Manual

miniDSP Ltd, Hong Kong / www.minidsp.com / Features and specifications subject to change without prior notice 2
Revision history
Revision
Description
Date
1.0
First public release
22 May 2017
1.1
Adding Raw mode details
06 June 2017
1.2
Documenting API command
19 October 2017

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Important Information ...............................................................................................................................................5
System Requirements – Windows..........................................................................................................................5
System Requirements – Mac OS X..........................................................................................................................5
Disclaimer/Warning................................................................................................................................................5
Warranty Terms......................................................................................................................................................5
FCC Class B Statement ............................................................................................................................................5
CE Mark Statement.................................................................................................................................................6
Package Contents ...................................................................................................................................................6
A Note on this Manual............................................................................................................................................6
1 Product Overview ................................................................................................................................................7
2 Hardware connectivity.........................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Board overview...........................................................................................................................................8
2.2 USB (Audio + DC power).............................................................................................................................9
2.3 I2S expansion header pinouts ....................................................................................................................9
2.4 I2S overview ...............................................................................................................................................9
2.5 Additional I2S usage notes ...................................................................................................................... 10
3 Driver Installation and Configuration – Windows ............................................................................................ 11
3.1 Installation............................................................................................................................................... 11
3.1.1 Download the latest driver.............................................................................................................. 11
3.1.2 Connect your UMA-8....................................................................................................................... 11
3.1.3 USB Driver installation..................................................................................................................... 11
3.2 Configuration........................................................................................................................................... 12
3.2.1 Format ............................................................................................................................................. 12
3.2.2 Buffer settings ................................................................................................................................. 12
4 Driver Installation and Configuration – Mac OS X ............................................................................................ 13
4.1 Installation............................................................................................................................................... 13
4.2 Configuration........................................................................................................................................... 13
5 Driver Installation and Configuration – LINUX.................................................................................................. 14
5.1 ALSA Installation...................................................................................................................................... 14
5.2 Raspberry Pi............................................................................................................................................. 14
6 Software installation......................................................................................................................................... 15
6.1 Windows Installation............................................................................................................................... 15
6.2 Mac OSx Installation................................................................................................................................ 16
7 CONFIGURING DSP SETTINGS ........................................................................................................................... 17
7.1.1 UMA-8 DSP MODE........................................................................................................................... 18
7.1.2 BEAMFORMER ................................................................................................................................. 18
7.1.3 NOISE SUPRESSION.......................................................................................................................... 19
7.1.4 DE_REVERB...................................................................................................................................... 19
7.1.5 ACOUSTIC ECHO CANCELLATION (AEC)........................................................................................... 19
7.1.6 AUTO GAIN CONTROL (AGC) ........................................................................................................... 20
7.1.7 EQUALIZER SELECTION / FUTURE NOT ENABLED AT THIS TIME. .................................................... 21

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7.1.8 LOUDSPEAKER COMPRESSOR/LIMITER........................................................................................... 21
7.1.9 Direction of Arrival (DOA)................................................................................................................ 22
7.1.10 Voice Activated Detection (VAD)..................................................................................................... 23
7.1.11 Control Switches.............................................................................................................................. 23
8 USB API / Customization................................................................................................................................... 24
8.1.1 Discovery of UMA-8......................................................................................................................... 24
8.1.2 Voice Activated Detection (VAD) + Direction Of Arrival (DOA) ....................................................... 24
9 Additional Information ..................................................................................................................................... 26
9.1 Specifications........................................................................................................................................... 26
9.2 Firmware Upgrade................................................................................................................................... 27
9.2.1 Windows.......................................................................................................................................... 27
9.3 Obtaining support.................................................................................................................................... 28

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IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Please read the following information before use. In case of any questions, please contact miniDSP via the
support portal at minidsp.desk.com.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS –WINDOWS
•1GHz or higher processor clock speed recommended / Intel® Pentium®/Celeron® family, or AMD K6®/AMD
Athlon®/AMD Duron® family, or compatible processor recommended.
•512 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended
•One free USB 2.0 port
•Microsoft• ® Windows® Win7/Win8/Win10
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS –MAC OS X
•Intel Core Duo processor or greater
•256 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended
•One free USB 2.0 port
DISCLAIMER/WARNING
miniDSP cannot be held responsible for any damage that may result from the improper use or incorrect
configuration of this product. Please read this manual carefully to ensure that you fully understand how to
operate and use this product, as incorrect use or use beyond the parameters and ways recommended in this
manual have the potential to cause damage to your audio system.
Please also note that many of the questions we receive at the technical support department are already
answered in this User Manual and in the online application notes on the miniDSP.com website. So please take
the time to carefully read this user manual and the online technical documentation. Thank you for your
understanding!
WARRANTY TERMS
miniDSP Ltd warrants this product to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for a period of one
year from the invoice date. Our warranty does not cover failure of the product due to incorrect connection or
installation, improper or undocumented use, unauthorized servicing, modification or alteration of the unit in any
way, or any usage outside of that recommended in this manual. If in doubt, contact miniDSP prior to use.
FCC CLASS BSTATEMENT
This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions:
•This device may not cause harmful interference.

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•This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired
operation.
Warning: This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device,
pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection. This
equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance
with the instructions, may cause interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that
interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio
or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to
try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:
•Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
•Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.
•Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.
•Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.
Notice: Shielded interface cable must be used in order to comply with emission limits.
Notice: Changes or modification not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the
user’s authority to operate the equipment.
CE MARK STATEMENT
The UMA-8 has passed the test performed according to European Standard EN 55022 Class B.
PACKAGE CONTENTS
Your UMA-8 package includes:
•One UMA-8 USB far field microphone array module
•One USB cable for computer connectivity (1.5m)
ANOTE ON THIS MANUAL
This User Manual is designed for reading in both print and on the computer. If printing the manual, please print
double-sided. The embedded page size is 8 ½” x 11”. Printing on A4 paper will result in a slightly reduced size.
For reading on the computer, we have included hyperlinked cross-references throughout the manual. In
addition, a table of contents is embedded in the PDF file. Displaying this table of contents will make navigation
much easier:
•In Adobe Reader on Windows, click on the “bookmarks” icon at the left. The table of contents will appear on
the left and can be unfolded at each level by clicking on the “+” icons.
•In Preview on the Mac, click on the View menu and select Table of Contents. The table of contents will
appear on the left and can be unfolded at each level by clicking on the triangle icons.

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1PRODUCT OVERVIEW
Thank you for purchasing a miniDSP UMA-8 USB microphone array. The UMA-8 is a high-performance yet low
cost multichannel USB microphone array built around XMOS multicore technology. Seven high-performance
MEMS microphones are configured in a circular arrangement to provide high-quality voice capture for a wide
range of applications.
Leveraging the onboard DSP processing, the UMA-8 supports voice algorithms including beamforming, noise
reduction, acoustic echo cancellation and de-reverb. Non-technical users can enjoy a plug&play experience,
while advanced users can fine-tune all DSP parameters with a realtime Win/Mac GUI for optimum performance.
The UMA-8 is a fully compliant UAC2 audio interface with driverless support for Mac/Linux and ASIO drivers for
Windows.
Depending on the loaded firmware, the UMA-8 has different modes of operation.
For the current release, the interface is running as a 2xIN (2ch Beamforming), 2 x OUT (Stereo out on I2S_OUT_0
/ Pin J3.1) configuration in the DSP mode. In the RAW mode, the unit is advertising as a 8xIN (7 x MEMS + 1 x
PDM input), 2 x OUT (Stereo out on I2S_OUT_0 / Pin J3.1).
The below sections will hopefully clarify how to install and configure the UMA-8. If any doubt/questions, feel
free to contact our technical support team.

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2HARDWARE CONNECTIVITY
2.1 BOARD OVERVIEW
The UMA-8 has few exposed headers to help for customization of the product. Note that MEMS are up-firing(
through the board) such that SW1/2/3/4 are on top.
J3.1 - I2S_OUT_0
J3.2 - I2S_IN_0
J3.3 - I2S_OUT_1
J3.4 - I2S_IN_1
J3.5 - I2S_OUT_2
J3.6 - I2S_IN_2
J3.7 - I2S_OUT_3
J3.8 - I2S_OUT_4
J3.9 - MCLK
J3.10 - I2S_BCLK
J3.11 - GND
J3.12 -
I2S_LRCLK
J2.1 - GND
J2.2 - 3.3V
J2.3 - GND
J2.4 - 3.3V
J2.5 - N/A
J2.6 - UART_TX
J2.7 - UART_RX
J2.8 -
XMOS_RST
J2.9 - I2C_SDATA
J2.10 - I2C_SCLK
J2.11 - N/A
J2.12 - N/A
90 mm
miniUSB
J9J4
J3
J3 / Audio data & clocks
J2 / Control IO pins
Bottom VIEW

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2.2 USB (AUDIO +DC POWER)
The UMA-8 is USB self powered. A single USB connection to your PC/Mac will suffice to provide power to the
unit and stream bidirectional audio simultaneously.
To record audio from the UMA-8, connect the USB port of the UMA-8 to a USB 2.0 port on your computer using
the supplied cable. The UMA-8 should also be connected for initial driver installation under Windows.
2.3 I2S EXPANSION HEADER PINOUTS
Headers J3 is provided for connection of I/O circuitry via I2S. The pinouts are shown in Table 1.
In the current firmware, only J3.1 / I2S_OUT0 is enabled as “SPEAKER OUTPUTS”
Table 1. J3 expansion header pinout
J3.1 - I2S_OUT_0
J3.2 - I2S_IN_0
J3.3 - I2S_OUT_1
J3.4 - I2S_IN_1
J3.5 - I2S_OUT_2
J3.6 - I2S_IN_2
J3.7 - I2S_OUT_3
J3.8 - I2S_OUT_4
J3.9 - MCLK
J3.10 - I2S_BCLK
J3.11 - GND
J3.12 - I2S_LRCLK
2.4 I2S OVERVIEW
I2S, or Inter IC Sound, is an electrical serial bus used to interface digital audio devices at the chip and circuit
board level. An I2S interface consists of up to three clocks, and a data line for each pair of channels. There are
three types of clock:
MCLK The master clock that the UMA-8 uses internally. This clock is always provided as an output by
the UMA-8, and connected circuitry can choose whether or not to use it.
LRCLK The frame synchronization clock, also known as the word clock. This clock is equal to the
sampling frequency (Fs) of the audio signal.
BCLK The bit clock (also known as shift clock or system clock). This is always equal to 64 x Fs.
Table 2. I2S clock ratios
Firmware
Sample Rate
Master clock (MCLK)
Bit clock (BCLK)
MCLK/LRCLK
2ch DSP
Mode
16 kHz
24.576 MHz
1.024 MHz
1536
8ch RAW
Mode
11.2/16/32/44.1/48kHz
24.576 MHz
1.024 MHz

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The timing of data lines is determined by the bit clock and the word clock, as illustrated in the following diagram:
The UMA-8 board has four I2S input data lines and four I2S output data lines, each carrying two channels of
audio. Note, however, that current firmware do not make use of all I2S in/out lines. The below table will be
updated over time as we add new features to the firmware.
Table 3. Input and output mapping
FW
Recording (PC in)
Playback (PC Out)
2ch DSP mode
8ch beamformed to 2ch
I2S_OUT0
8ch RAW mode
8ch RAW channels
I2S_OUT0
The playback output, also called “SPEAKER OUTPUTS” through out this section is to be connected to an external
I2S amplifier or I2S DAC. Feel free to contact miniDSP tech support if you have some specific questions.
2.5 ADDITIONAL I2S USAGE NOTES
Note that I2S is not a “plug and play” protocol. It requires attention to technical details such as clocking and wire
layout. It is a solution for OEMs and advanced DIYers (or professionals) with suitable knowledge, skills and
measurement equipment.
Be sure to take the following precautions when designing your I2S interface and wiring:
General I2S usage notes
•Unbuffered I2S lines must be kept short to ensure clock and data integrity.
•If driving longer lines, buffers may be required for the clock signals (MCLK, LRCLK, and BLCK).
•Observe correct grounding and shielding, and keep analog and digital grounds separated.
•Ensure that the clock ratios (as listed in Table 2) are compatible with connected circuits.
3.3V logic level
All lines use a 3.3V logic level. Ensure that connected circuits use a compatible level (1.8V, for example, will
not work).