Audio FX Sound board playing some Star Wars sounds but not o

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eric_w_page
 
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Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 2:12 am

Audio FX Sound board playing some Star Wars sounds but not o

Post by eric_w_page »

Hi, my Star Wars sweater is in need of some help. I can't seem to find a pattern to the seemingly random acceptance of wav files to the Audio FX board. Sometimes the files will load and the correct sound will play. Mostly, it won't. All kinds of troubleshooting and testing has left me absolutely baffled.

Steps I took
1) Load the sample files. This worked out just fine
2) Download some (Star Wars related) wav files from the web. Rename per Adafruit instructions. Copy/paste those into the sound board. All 10 pins should now play Star Wars music. It still played the sample files
3) Delete all files from the sound board (according to my mac Finder). Unplug. Plug in. Reload the Star Wars files. Try again. It still played the sample files
4) Try again (nothing different from what I can tell). Pin 4 is now playing the Star Wars T04HOLDL.wav file. Chewbacca roars. Every other pin plays the sample
5) Copy/paste T04HOLDL as T01, T02, etc. so it should play, on all pins, Chewbacca roaring. Only pin 4 plays the right file. Everything else plays the sample
6) Delete everything. Copy/paste all the sample files back. Pin 4 now plays the sample file
7) Delete all files. Reload the custom T04HOLDL that I created, that was working previously. Pin 4 still playing the sample file
8) Try to load files one at a time. T09 and T10 somehow load and Pins 9 and 10 are playing the Empire theme music and Chewbacca roaring.
9) Copy/paste T09 and T10 to T08 and T07. Reload. Pins 7 and 8 continue to play the sample file
10) Try this in a variety of copy/paste/modify techniques e.g. rename the files on my macbook then copy. copy to the soundboard then rename. delete all files first then copy. Leave files on and select Replace when prompted. etc.

At this point I am absolutely stumped. This should be easy, right? What am I missing? My Star Wars sweater should be arriving any day and it really wants to be paired up with some more Star Wars music.

Other Notes: the circuit diagram is really simple. the speakers are soldered in and working. Pins 7-10 are triggered by a keypad. The others I have been testing manually by connecting the pin and ground with a wire.

Thanks in advance for any help.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Audio FX Sound board playing some Star Wars sounds but n

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Connect the FX Board to your Mac and empty the Trash.

Moving files to the trash doesn't actually remove them from the filesystem, it just puts them in a hidden directory. The code that reads the filesystem looking for tracks to play doesn't know it isn't supposed to look in that hidden directory, so it still locates files with the appropriate names.

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eric_w_page
 
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Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2015 2:12 am

Re: Audio FX Sound board playing some Star Wars sounds but n

Post by eric_w_page »

Mike, I forgot to respond and let you know that your solution was perfect. Worked like a charm. Thanks

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zachwire
 
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Re: Audio FX Sound board playing some Star Wars sounds but n

Post by zachwire »

Hi, thanks for posting this extensive info...i too am confused by the load system on this board and recently started noticing that it is pulling stuff out of the
trash, very strange...why would it do that? Seems on-intuitive, but at least you brought the answer out.

I am still trying to figure out the pattern of how to load files onto the board from downloaded on the web...cant get any of that to play... is the board supposed to have
a certain number of files to operate correctly....like 10? I tried just one because i want to just play one sound in a bunch of different ways...but that won't load.

There seems to be a tricky method of how the battery is hooked up as you load as well....should it be plugged in...on/off?

Thanks for any help
Z

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm

Re: Audio FX Sound board playing some Star Wars sounds but n

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

All of the modern GUI operating systems use Trash/Recycle as a last-chance recovery option to keep people from deleting files by accident. It was a feature demanded loudly during the early evolution of GUIs, and has resisted change ever since. If anything, modern OSes provide even more layers of "oh wait.. I want that deleted file back again" protection.

To make basic Trash/Recycle work, the GUI just moves files into a hidden directory instead of actually deleting them, then actually deletes everything in that directory when a user selects Empty Trash/Recycle Bin.

The FX Board's firmware isn't smart enough to know about hidden directories, so it still sees any files that haven't been actually deleted.

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