Music Maker shield hissing sound

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Corker
 
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Music Maker shield hissing sound

Post by Corker »

Hello,

I have purchased two "Music Maker" shields (PID 1788) and both have come down with the same problem - they produce a hissing sound when powered on. I have been using them with a couple Arduino Uno boards to play MP3s using 4 ohm speakers (PID 1314). Everything is powered from the PowerBoost 1000 (PID 2465) using a 2500mAh battery (PID 328). It appears that this issue has come up before from what I found on the forum:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=99199&p=497137&hilit=1788#p497137

Were you able to determine what causes this problem? I really like the Music Maker shield but can't use them with the continual hissing sound.

Thank you.

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mikeysklar
 
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Re: Music Maker shield hissing sound

Post by mikeysklar »

@Corker,

Are you able to try the volume suggestion from the forum thread you linked to. Lower the volume down a bit from the source to reduce the noise?

Code: Select all

void setVolume(uint8_t left, uint8_t right) - Set the output volume for the chip.
No resolution was reached about the changover from the ST --> TI part.

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Re: Music Maker shield hissing sound

Post by Corker »

Lowering the volume has not shown to get rid of the hissing noise.

I discovered, for better or worse, that this problem is intermittent. Both devices exhibited the same behavior, regardless of volume level. But after leaving one of the units alone for a few days and turning it back on the hissing was no longer present. With the hope that this meant it self-resolved I went back to using it only to have it start making the same hissing noise as before after a few hours of use.

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Re: Music Maker shield hissing sound

Post by Corker »

I turned the board back on today to see if the problem persisted. What I found was that the shield did not make any noise but was still drawing close to an amp of current. When I touched the amplifier IC it was very hot to the touch. After removing the amplifier IC I was able to use the board as usual with the headphone jack.

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Re: Music Maker shield hissing sound

Post by mikeysklar »

@Corker,

You have two Featherwing Shields. Originally both of them had the noise issue. Did they both also exhibit the overheating? It sounds as though you had modified one of them by removing the amp IC. Is that correct?

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Re: Music Maker shield hissing sound

Post by Corker »

I have two Music Maker shields. Both of them have had problems making a hissing sound regardless of whether they were playing an audio file. One of the two boards I turned on today to attempt more troubleshooting but found that the board was consuming an abnormally high amount of power, which also prevented the rest of the system from starting up properly. The amp IC turned out to be quite hot. I removed the amp IC and the power consumption decreased substantially. After the amp IC was removed the rest of the system was able to start up appropriately. Since I no longer had the amp IC I had to use headphones to determine whether the rest of the board was still operational. It is; with the amp IC removed the power consumption is at a normal level and the MP3 decoder IC can play audio files and output the audio to the headphone jack. I have not yet attempted to turn on the other Music Maker shield to see if I experience the same amp IC overheating.

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Re: Music Maker shield hissing sound

Post by mikeysklar »

@Corker,

Thank you for the clear summary.

I looked at the schematic for the amplifier on the MusicMaker Shield you are using. It does offer a suggestion in terms of speaker resistance in regards to noise and thermal performance. Have you already tried using a speaker with resistance more than 4 ohm?
8388DA23-94E2-482C-9FCB-1831A9F3FBCE.jpeg
8388DA23-94E2-482C-9FCB-1831A9F3FBCE.jpeg (451.82 KiB) Viewed 1483 times

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Re: Music Maker shield hissing sound

Post by Corker »

@mikeysklar

The higher resistance speakers did not provide sufficient volume for my application so I procured a separate amplifier with more power.

Additionally, the product description of the Music Maker + amplifier shield should be updated; the amplifier that is on the shield is 2.1W instead of the 3W that is stated in the description.

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Re: Music Maker shield hissing sound

Post by mikeysklar »

Corker,

Congratulations on finding a setup that works for you.

The Music Maker is using the TS2012 Class D amp which can go to 2.8W per speaker.
ts2012.jpeg
ts2012.jpeg (475.88 KiB) Viewed 1227 times

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