Wave shield opamp question Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

[jbpm]

I recently put together a wave shield kit. Once done, everything was working as it should except I was getting no sound out headphone jack or speaker wires. The Arduino seem to be reading the wave files no problem from the SD card, just didn’t get any sound.

I am thinking that I may have put the opamp chip in the wrong way. My kit shipped with the TLV2462, and there were no notches on the chip to tell me which way to put it. I was able to get the chip out though I damage the chip in doing so . I see it adafruit sells the TLV2462 and I’m gonna get one And try to put it in the existing wave sheild. Any tips about what is the right way to put this chip in? I’m guessing the chip will come with no notches on it. The chip did have a circle on the top. Could that guide me at all?

[adafruit_support_mike]

Yes, the notch and the dimple are two different ways to see how a chip is oriented.

When an IC has a notch, that notch is always at the same end as pin #1. IC pins are numbered counterclockwise, so if the chip's notch points north, pin #1 is the closest pin on the west/left side of the notch.

Chips with a dimple put that dimple next to pin #1, so the dimple goes to the same end as a notch.. basically the northwest corner of a chip with a north-pointing notch.

[jbpm]

Thanks for the reply. Hmmm, now I'm thinking I had the opamp chip installed correctly, cause I did put the dimple side where the notch would have been. Once I get the new opamp chip I'll install it, and see if that was the culprit. Or perhaps there was another issue. Any other thoughts on what I could look at to see why I wasn't gettting any sound out of the wave sheild. As I mentioned, the arduino seemed to be reading the sd card fine. In the waveHC arduino library, I was using the example that plays all wave files in a row, and according to the serial board monitor, the sd card was recognized and was playing the wave files. So not sure what I messed up to make no sound come out of the speakers or the headphone jack.

[adafruit_support_bill]

If you post some photos of the front and back of the board we can check for any assembly issues.

One very common problem is forgetting the very last step in the assembly instructions. Without the jumpers installed, the .wav data will not get communicated to the DAC, so there will be no sound output.

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-wav ... tep-780171

[jbpm]

I had the jumpers installed. I will post some pics when I can. Is it possible that the issue could be software related? While the serial monitor window was showing everything was working fine, I used an arduino uno that I purchased several years ago. I've updated the arduino software on my computer from time to time over the years. Should I do a firmware update on the arduino? Or would a fireware update not be a factor in getting sound out of the wavesheild?

[adafruit_support_bill]

Changing the bootloader firmware on the Arduino would not affect the operation of the waveshield.

If you have a set of earbud-type headphones, you can check for a signal coming out of the DAC. Connect a wire from the sleeve of the plug and touch the tip to either end of R7 while music should be playing. If you hear music, then the DAC is OK and the problem is somewhere downstream from that.

[jbpm]

This is a good tip. I'll try it out and see what happens. Thanks!

[jbpm]

Using the headphone trick you suggested, I was able to hear music when touching R7! So I know the problem is something else. I'm gonna put the new opamp chip in, hoping it's gonna fix the problem. Not sure what else it could be since the DAC is working.

[adafruit_support_bill]

Not much downstream from the DAC. Just the op-amp and your speaker/headphone connections. If the new op-amp doesn't help, post some photos of that area of the board and we'll see if we can spot any problems.

[jbpm]

I swapped out the opamp chip and once the new one was in sound could be heard out the speaker wires and the headphone jack. Whew! Lesson learned, when no notch is present, use the dimple to guide the chip direction. Thanks for all the help!

[adafruit_support_bill]

Good to hear it is working. Thanks for the follow-up.