DigiRadio/Software/docs/si4684-rf-investigation-report.md

Si4684 RF no-lock investigation — status report

Date: 2026-08-13 Board: PCBWay order W96157ASH49, U6 = Si4684-A10 (confirmed genuine, top marking 4684A10-2112AD254YZ-2112AD-E3)

Symptom

Si4684 (U6) boots, loads the ROM patch and FM/DAB application images, and answers every SPI command correctly (CTS, boot sequence, property reads/writes all succeed). FM and DAB tuning never completes: the STCINT status bit never sets, RSQ/DIGRAD metrics stay at zero (RSSI=0, SNR=0, VALID=0, FIC quality=0, empty service list), on both bands, at every frequency tried.

What has been verified correct (do not re-litigate)

All cross-checked byte-by-byte against the official Skyworks documents (Hardware/DATASHEET/AN649.pdf, AN851_Schematics_Layout.pdf):

• Boot sequence: RSTB# pulse, ROM patch stream, image stream, BOOT — matches the AN649 flowchart exactly, on every boot, both bands.
• Crystal / POWER_UP: XTAL_FREQ = 19,200,000 exact (bytes 00 F8 24 01, little-endian 0x0124F800), CLK_MODE = crystal mode (0x17 → bits 5:4 = 01). Matches the physical ABM8-19.200MHZ-10-1-U-T crystal (U7) and BOM/schematic.
• I2S: Si4684 configured as I2S slave (DIGITAL_IO_OUTPUT_SELECT = 0x0000), 48 kHz; ADAU1701 is bus master. Confirmed via GPIO clock probe (LRCLK ≈ 48000 Hz, BCLK ≈ 3.07 MHz) at every boot.
• Front-end matching properties: FM/DAB_TUNE_FE_VARM (0x1710), FM/DAB_TUNE_FE_VARB (0x1711), and FM/DAB_TUNE_FE_CFG/VHFSW switch (0x1712, value 0x0001 = closed) all match AN851's "Silicon Labs Recommended Front End Network" table exactly (FM: 0xEDB5/0x01E3; DAB: 0xF8A9/0x01C6; switch closed on both).
• FM_TUNE_FREQ command: all six ARG bytes decoded bit-by-bit against the AN649 command table (DIR_TUNE, TUNE_MODE, INJECTION, FREQ, ANTCAP, PROG_ID) — correct.
• INT_CTL_ENABLE / INT_CTL_REPEAT (STCIEN/STCREP, properties 0x0000/0x0001): correct bit positions; confirmed these only gate the physical INTB pin, not the STATUS0 STCINT bit our driver polls directly over SPI.
• STC polling mechanism: the same raw SPI byte (pollRx[1]) that reliably reports CTS=1 (bit 7) across hundreds of successful commands also reports STCINT=0 (bit 0) — the read path itself is proven reliable by the CTS side, so the "never sets" result is a real hardware/firmware-image observation, not a polling bug.

Front-end network component mismatch (found this session, not the cause by itself)

The board's actual front-end network (RF1 → C13(33pF) → L1(18nH) → C14(2.7pF shunt) → L3(120nH shunt) → VHFI, L2(22nH) bridging VHFI↔VHFSW) differs from Silicon Labs' AN851 reference network the VARM/VARB constants were derived from (C1=33pF, L1=56nH, L2=120nH‖L3=120nH). This was flagged as a plausible contributor, then tested directly and ruled out as the sole cause (see below).

Empirical sweeps (all negative — zero variation)

• IBIAS/CTUN (crystal startup calibration, POWER_UP ARG3/ARG8): 8 candidates across the practical range, full reboot between each. No change.
• ANTCAP (FM_TUNE_FREQ ARG4/5, bypasses FE_VARM/VARB auto-tune entirely and forces the on-chip antenna varactor directly, per AN851 Appendix A): ~100 of 128 possible values swept, across three antenna conditions (disconnected, loose contact, directly soldered 70 cm — correct quarter-wave for FM). Every single attempt returned byte-identical RSQ raw data (00 80 00 00 c0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00, RSSI=0/SNR=0/VALID=0). If the RF path were electrically functional, at least one of ~100 forced varactor values across the full physical range should have produced resonance. None did.
• Reset type: software RSTB# vs. full USB power-cycle (15 s cold) — no change.
• PCB continuity: RF1 (antenna connector) → C13 → L1 → U6 pin 10 (VHFI) confirmed intact with a multimeter (tested each leg separately to work around C13's DC block). No broken trace/via.

Leading hypothesis: QFN-48 exposed pad (EP) solder defect

U6 is a 7×7 mm QFN-48 with an exposed thermal/ground pad (pin 49, tied to GND). Insufficient solder or voiding under this pad during reflow is a well-documented QFN assembly failure mode that produces exactly this symptom: digital I/O (peripheral pins, less ground-sensitive) works perfectly, while the RF/analog front end (which references the exposed pad for a clean ground) fails entirely. ESD was considered and set aside — the antenna input has ESD clamp protection (D3, BAV99) ahead of the RF path, and no digital-side symptom consistent with ESD damage (SPI glitches, crystal instability) has ever appeared.

Action taken: a technical report was sent to PCBWay (order W96157ASH49) requesting an assembly quality review of U6's solder joints, specifically the exposed pad, laying out the same evidence above (firmware ruled out by the ANTCAP-bypasses-firmware argument).

Action pending: a manual hot-air reflow of U6 (re-melt only, no added solder/paste) was planned as a lower-risk first attempt before considering full chip removal and re-paste. Outcome not yet recorded in this document as of this report's writing — update this section once attempted.

Separate finding this session: audio profile save was broken, now partially fixed

Independent of the Si4684 investigation, while testing the internet radio streaming feature (components/services/webradio), audio profile changes via PUT /api/audio/profile and POST /api/audio/reset were found to fail (store_failed) — which is why the ESP32 mixer channel (needed to hear the web radio stream through the DSP mixer, muted at -96 dB by the default "radio-first" mix) could not be un-muted via the API.

Root-caused and fixed: sigma_i2c_write() (components/drivers/adau1701/src/SigmaStudioFW.c) had no retry on I2C transaction failure. A full EQ apply chains ~55 sequential I2C transactions (5 bands × safeload block); a single transient NACK anywhere in that burst aborted the whole sequence, while short bursts (e.g. the 2-write beep toggle) reliably succeeded. Added a 3-attempt retry with a 2 ms backoff.

After the fix, DSP-side writes (mixer, EQ) succeed. A second, separate failure remains: NvsAudioProfileStore::saveProfile() still fails, now isolated to the NVS write step itself (not the DSP). Diagnostic logging was added (nvs_open/nvs_set_str/nvs_commit error codes) to pin down the exact esp_err_t; the leading suspicion is NVS partition space/fragmentation (the nvs partition is only 24 KB, and this session alone did many repeated writes across streaming config, beep toggles, Wi-Fi, and station data). Not yet confirmed with the actual error code — re-run the diagnostic build and capture the log line to close this out.

Open items

1. Confirm the exact NVS error code for the audio-profile save failure and fix accordingly (likely: erase/compact the audio_profile_json key, or address partition fragmentation — do not perform a full NVS erase without explicit confirmation, it would wipe Wi-Fi credentials, stations, and the saved BT speaker pairing).
2. Record the hot-air rework outcome (RSSI response test) once attempted.
3. If rework doesn't change the symptom: escalate to full chip removal + re-paste, or treat the PCBWay claim as the primary path forward.
4. Blob/firmware-image integrity check (in progress, separate task): verify GET_FUNC_INFO/GET_PART_INFO revision strings and blob byte counts/hashes for the FM and DAB images actually loaded, to rule out a corrupt or wrong image as an alternative explanation to the EP hardware hypothesis.