There are a lot of the small microSD based, and SD based using the chip tha= t Sparkfun uses, on Ebay. I have a box of them actually, from a project I= did last summer that was a trigger-able audio device, built in trigger del= ays, audio amp, relays, etc and run from a PIC of course. The code was pr= etty simple but several issues. I have a pile of blank boards too if anyone is interested. And a box of t= he microSD players too. Contact me offlist if your interested in the detai= ls. 1. As Mike said, limited to 1 or 2 Gb cards and those are being thrown away= more than sold on ebay. 2. Resets are needed. I basically sent a reset each time I would address, = but even then the audio would not always trigger...sometimes there would be= delays. 3. The files have to be converted from wav or MP3 to the .ad4 format. I wo= uld sometimes have to play with audio levels, depending on the source to ge= t a decent converted sounding file. 4. Audio quality. Its...acceptable. Again if the source is crap...how can= you expect the converted file to be ok. For my application, it was fine. 5. Heat. Mike did the design correctly....in the boards available on ebay.= ....if you run them a lot..continious, the chip overheats and uses the micro= SD as its heatsink. NAND doesn't like getting really hot...and because the= chip was on the other side of the clip it would get really hot and then fa= il. I tried turning down the output level for its internal amp because I w= as using another amp outside it but it didn't seem to help. I'm in the process of changing the design, due to some user controls and mo= unting issues not so much because of the audio player (I was moving to the = SD version http://www.ebay.com/itm/WTV020-SD-20SS-SD-card-voice-module-MP3-= Voice-module-U-disk-audio-player-/131288629263?pt=3DLH_DefaultDomain_0&hash= =3Ditem1e9169800f) because of the heat issue and the cost of this is $7 vs = $20 from sparkfun.) Oh for the audio amp....I used the PAM8403, pretty good chip actually. I n= o longer have access to an Audio Precision to look at the real frequency re= sponse but from a subjective perspective, its pretty good and a easier solu= tion than a TI based class D amp. So I'm quite interested in a sub $10 audio solution, I have no problem layi= ng it down on the board either. I once did a player using the MP3 decoder = from VLSI (?) that was popular a few years ago but again, its not a low cos= t chip. -----Original Message----- From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of= Mike Hord Sent: Thursday, December 11, 2014 8:29 PM To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. Subject: Re: [EE] Sound Module Opinions? That 4d one uses the same chip ours does. It has the same problems. To elaborate on the problems: audio quality isn't great, the part seems to = go off the rails in its internal state machine, requiring a reset. It's har= d to ensure that the audio file will work; sometimes it just...doesn't, for= no apparent reason. The part only supports 2GB and smaller cards, which are getting scarce. That's not to say it's completely useless; obviously plenty of people get i= t to work or we wouldn't sell it. It's just a little hairy sometimes. Someday, when I've solved all the other mysteries in the building, I'll mak= e one that doesn't have these problems. Mike On Dec 11, 2014 6:05 PM, "Josh Koffman" wrote: > On Thu, Dec 11, 2014 at 7:48 PM, David Duffy (AVD) > wrote: > > The ones from Tenda are not too bad to use. You can stop and > > restart an > > mp3 midway. > > David... > > Interesting. I found a source in Canada: > > http://www.robotshop.com/ca/en/4d-systems-embedded-audio-sound-module. > html > > Though they are out of stock at the moment. One of the reviews I read > said that this was extremely quiet when connected directly to a > speaker. Does that match your experiences? > > Regarding stopping and starting, I'm hoping to stop and re-start from > the top. Have you tried this? > > Thanks! > > Josh > -- > A common mistake that people make when trying to design something > completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete > fools. > -Douglas Adams > -- > http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/chang= e your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclis= t ________________________________ PLEASE NOTE: The information contained in this electronic mail message is i= ntended only for the use of the designated recipient(s) named above. 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