Discussion about strengths of Wave Shield

Adafruit Ethernet, Motor, Proto, Wave, Datalogger, GPS Shields - etc!

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
Locked
User avatar
joshkpeterson
 
Posts: 5
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2010 2:44 am

Discussion about strengths of Wave Shield

Post by joshkpeterson »

I recently ordered a couple of wave shields for use in a project, but I'm super swamped with a lot of other technical stuff and haven't had the time to read through the examples thoroughly or really think about what this thing can be used for.

I think it would be useful to have a more straight-forward discussion about when you really need this board, when it's just nice and makes things easier, and when you have other options as far as integrating sound into your project.

Here's what I can think of, but I'm sure there's lots of other applications, please add -
-If you're already are using a computer with your project, you don't really need this, right? (unless you're using lots of channels of audio and don't want to use an audio interface)

-You might need it if you want something standalone - no computer.

- Sometimes you could get away with having an mp3 player constantly looping file(s), and you just choose with the arduino when you want to open that line and allow the sound to reach the speakers. if you want to run totally on battery power, however, the shield does save you from fussing with a battery powered amp for them.

- if you want to play certain files when certain things happen, you pretty much need this. but beyond this simple application, what else is there to do? you can play files at random, sure, but is there anything else?

- some situations you might be able to get away with hacking a mp3 player or a cheap "voice memo recorder." you might be able to take it apart and play, hit next track, even record audio, and program your arduino sketch it according to how the device does this. how difficult is this to do?

the reason i ask this last part is that i'm trying to finish a project with a deadline coming up very soon and part of me is wondering...would it be more fool-proof just to hack an mp3 player for what i want to do? i'm essentially just triggering one file now and then. maybe it is riskier or more time consuming to solder an entire board or two and learn how to program with them. i think it would be useful to include this type of discussion on the product's page for people who are trying to very quickly find out what the purpose of the device is without reading through the tutorials, etc.

~ geek love ~

User avatar
adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88093
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Discussion about strengths of Wave Shield

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

i think it would be useful to include this type of discussion on the product's page for people who are trying to very quickly find out what the purpose of the device is without reading through the tutorials, etc.
That depends on how you define 'purpose'. The device was engineered to play WAV files. So you could say that is it's purpose. But the purposes are limited only by imagination. The kit can be educational, entertaining and/or utilitarian. It can play WAV files, it can store data, it can amplify signals it can hacked to do an infinite number of other things. The tutorials are only the tip of the iceburg. If you search the forums you will see a wide variety of 'purposes'.

I don't speak for Adafruit, but in my opinion, the ultimate purpose of the kit is to be hackable into whatever you want it to be. (But then, I think that way about most things... :wink: )
would it be more fool-proof just to hack an mp3 player for what i want to do?
Maybe. Some devices are easier to hack than others. But if you toast some unmarked IC encased in a blob of epoxy, do you have the schematics? Is there a support forum to help you troubleshoot? If your soldering skills are good enough to work on the insides of an mp3 player, you shouldn't have any problem putting together a WaveShield.

Good luck with your project!

User avatar
richms
 
Posts: 558
Joined: Tue Jan 20, 2009 3:05 am

Re: Discussion about strengths of Wave Shield

Post by richms »

I have in the past tried hacking a dirt cheap MP3 player - was an old iposd shuffle sized thing that took micro SD cards.

Total failure. The buttons would often not respond or respond more than one time, I guess if I messed around with some power control to it etc to get it into a known state it would have been more reliable.

Also it would play thru everything, so even stopping, play, pause, three tracks foward (not too fast or it would sometimes only go 2) then pause again would get it playing the third sound on it, but there was about 3 seconds till it got there with all the waiting while pressing buttons on it, and unless you timed it and pressed stop it would go onto the 4th sound. Lots of silence at the end of each MP3 helped with that so timing was less critical, but it was a lot of unreliable messing around.

Waveshield should just do what you ask of it. Wasted a lot of time on the cheap MP3 player - cheap isnt always the cheapest way to do things. If I was doing 100s, then a cheap MP3 player would be better since the purchase costs would be lower, but for a one off, waveshield would be how I would tackle it again.

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “Arduino Shields from Adafruit”