ACT LED permanently on Audio FX Sound Board

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nextwiggin4
 
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ACT LED permanently on Audio FX Sound Board

Post by nextwiggin4 »

I just received a Adafruit Audio FX Sound Board + 2x2W Amp - WAV/OGG Trigger -16MB. I soldered the pins on and plugged it in via USB to my windows 10 computer. Two LEDs light up when plugged into the computer, the PWR LED and the ACT LED. This seems to be a problem because, from what I understand, the ACT LED should only be on when it's triggering audio. Furthermore, it doesn't show up as a USB drive on my computer, but rather an Audio Device.

My guess is that these problems are connected, but I have no idea how to trouble shoot it from here. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: ACT LED permanently on Audio FX Sound Board

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

As a sanity check, verify your USB cable by using it to connect some other, known-working device to the computer. There's a plague of charge-only cables out there with USB connectors at both ends but no wires for the data signals.

Just swapping cables has no diagnostic value.. it's normal for people to say they had to try three or four cables before finding one that worked. You need evidence of a working USB data connection to rule out the false negative of a charge-only cable.

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nextwiggin4
 
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Re: ACT LED permanently on Audio FX Sound Board

Post by nextwiggin4 »

Thank you, adafruit_support_mike, for you reply. Because the computer was recognizing the board as an audio device, I felt confident the USB cable was working as a data cable. But to verify this, I plugged in my Kindle using the USB cable. I was able to access my Kindle as an external storage device. I believe this confirms that the USB cable I am using is indeed intended for data transfer and is not the issue.

Any further trouble shoot advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: ACT LED permanently on Audio FX Sound Board

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

Can you get device details for the audio device? If so, please post them. That may be some kind of conflict with an older device driver.

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nextwiggin4
 
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Re: ACT LED permanently on Audio FX Sound Board

Post by nextwiggin4 »

Hello, these are the device details when looking at the device properties:

Model: VS1000B
Categories: Audio device

Device Type: Sound, video and game controllers
Manufacture: (Generic USB Audio)

Driver Provider: Microsoft
Driver Date: 7/17/2020
Driver Version: 10.0.18362.997
Digital Signer: Microsoft Windows

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: ACT LED permanently on Audio FX Sound Board

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

That looks like the issue. The VS1000 should appear as a mass storage device instead of an audio device.

The driver says it's for things like game controllers. I'd guess you had some device with a VS1000 connected previously, and the driver for that is preventing the VS1000 from doing what it should. Try disabling that driver, or removing it.

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doylep
 
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Re: ACT LED permanently on Audio FX Sound Board

Post by doylep »

I'm experiencing a similar issue (which may or may not be related). Since this is a recent thread, I'm sharing here in the hopes it will be helpful.

I had a working Adafruit Sound Board (the version with an amp). It was working yesterday with four sounds uploaded (T00-T03.wav).

Today, I uploaded four additional sounds (T04-T08.wav). The original four sounds began to act strangely (switching to static halfway through). I assume the files were corrupted in the transfer, so I plugged it back into my computer.

The device no longer appears as an external drive labeled Adafruit Sound FX. It now appears as an external drive labeled VS1000D_RAM with a single empty file: NO_FLASH. The act LED is also permanently on.

I tried an earlier version of the Linux kernel just in case there was a driver change in the background - no luck.

Powering the device separately (via Vin and Gnd), I'm still able to trigger the sounds.

Does this indicate that the flash image is corrupted or do you believe this is a mysterious driver issue?

Thanks for any tips!

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: ACT LED permanently on Audio FX Sound Board

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

It sounds like your system mounts the VS1000 as a USB Mass Storage device, which is the correct behavior. I have no idea how that would lead to creation of a file named ‘NO_FLASH’ though.

If the board still plays sound when running independently, the VS1000 must have a working connection to the Flash array.

Try connecting the FX Board to a Windows machine or a Mac. Let’s see if the behavior is general, or seems to be related to Linux.

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