Propeller and Mp3/Data Transfer Methods

T Chap

I need to add voice prompting to a user interface, and would like to be able to walk a user through the steps to enter fingerprints into a system, The idea is, they press a button "Program", and a real human voice says " welcome to bla bla, please select from the following menu i.e. 1. enter new user print

I will produce the voice recordings and store them as mp3 on either SD or a USB drive using the Vinculum Vdrive schematic, controlled by the Prop.

There is a Vmusic circuit, and so far no one has mentioned whether it is a good solution for music playback yet. There are other mp3 modules out there too.

Has anyone looked into a method to play mp3's with the Prop? The requirements are to start a file, and be able to stop it on command should the user abort or select an option.

Post Edited (originator) : 3/20/2007 3:00:11 AM GMT

Harrison.

The mp3 format requires complex math that may not be easy to implement on the Prop. Most designs that play mp3s utilize an mp3 decoder chip such as the STA013 mp3 decoder chip. These chips take in a raw mp3 steam and convert it to a digital form that can be easily converted to analog using a DAC. Supposedly the STA013 chip is so easy that you can feed it a raw mp3 file via an spi interface and it will ignore the file headers and play the file.

What you could do is use wav files. There are a few wav players in this forum, and I believe one has sd card support too. A small 8mb SD card should be able to hold plenty of wav files for you to use.

Spork Frog

There was also a complete voice synthesis package released somewhat lately; I don't remember where it is, but I believe it was in this forum. While it's not perfect, with some work with strings you could come up with something understandable at least.

OzStamp

Hi Org

Parallax have the EMIC text to speech module.
Works well just add a little speaker and your ready to go..



Ronald Nollet·

T Chap

I am more looking for an mp3 decoder/player IC that can be controlled by the Prop. The audio will be real voice recordings at high quality, not synthesized. The Vmusic2 seems to do just the trick at a low cost, the STA looks like a good choice too. Here are some links for anyone interested.

The STA013 has all controls via I2C,

www.st.com/stonline/books/pdf/docs/6399.pdf

www.pjrc.com/mp3/sta013.html


The Vmusic2 uses the VS1003 decoderwith serial uart interface.

www.vlsi.fi/datasheets/vs1003.pdf

Post Edited (originator) : 3/20/2007 7:48:07 AM GMT

Graham Stabler

The VMusic seems like your best bet, a decoder chip needs something to decode and that could end up being a lot of work as well. The question is how quickly it would respond.

Alternatively I wonder if you could use a slightly more raw format like wav, memory might not be such an issue for short pieces of speech.

And finally, I used to have a voice memo that could store about 1 minute of voice in seperate "files", you might be able to hack something like that.

Graham

T Chap

Thanks Graham. I am writing out all the voice prompts now, leaving room for expansion, so I'll ve able to very closely approximate the file sizes in both mono wave and mp3 formats to get an idea of storage requirements. I have pretty much decided to do the Vmusic2 schematic as is, since it is already sorted out. The question you posed is a good one, how long to respond and playback, which is critical. It has to have very little delay, at least not enough to be distracting. The Vdrive2 will playback both formats from what I can tell.

SteveH

Have you considered a voice playback/record IC?· Here is one that supports an I2C interface and is also fairly cheap:

http://rocky.digikey.com/WebLib/Windbond/Web%20Data/ISD5116%20Series.pdf

Steve

T Chap

Hi Steve, thanks for the info.

Yes, I had looked at Windbond products, and due to storage capacity limitations, and the inability to externally store/playback the audio, it did not suit the application. I needed higher bandwidth for high quality mp3's and voice prompts, with ablity to download and update the voice prompts by the user, so I went with a Vmusic2 platform which is based on a VS1033 decoder and the Vinculum USB chip for removable USB drive storage. I had not seen that particular device from Windbond yet , but it is very interesting and I am glad you posted it.

Todd

SteveH

No problem, Todd.

I came across it not too long ago while looking for a cheap audio playback IC I could use·for a phone system application, so audio quality didn't need to be of a real high quality.· The best sampling rate that IC supports is 8KHz, which of course isn't great, but good enough for what I needed.· Hope you find something that works out for you!

Steve

Shane De Catania

This module looks like the go - I haven't tried it though - anyone who has please comment!

VMUSIC2 Module - easily add USB Flash Drive interface and Audio Playback to products.

apple.clickandbuild.com/cnb/shop/ftdichip?op=catalogue-products-null&prodCategoryID=55&title=VMUSIC

Shane De Catania

Just in case anybody's interested, I received a VDrive2 today (similar to above, but without MP3 function), it works like a beauty. Interfaced to the prop demo board it read my 1Gb Rambo USB flash drive no problem. Only had time to test at the default 9600baud, will do more later.
Cheers,
Shane.

AlGorithm

Like me, U may just·want to just get that module up and playing mp3's.
Here is a start for anyone, It uses the Propeller Demo Board Rev D·with a PS2keybord and of course the VMUSIC2 module.
It's my first program for the Propeller so pls don't expect to much.
Happy playing [noparse]:o[/noparse])
PS
·pin connections on VMUSIC2

1-Black,····· VSS on Propeller demo board
2-Brown
3-Red,······· +5V on Propeller demo board
4-Orange,·· (via 100 ohm) to P1 on Propeller demo board
5-Yellow,··· (via 100 ohm) to P0 on Propeller demo board
6-green····· (via 100 ohm) to VSS on Propeller demo board
7-
8-Blue

and UART/SPI connector as picture (Yes I know, it's unlogical, but it's·in UART mode like this)

sharpie

Anyone still using the VMUISC2? I've been playing around with mine, and it works.... however I am wondering if I am the only experiencing the extreme slowness for this device.... On power up and after it accepts something like the playall command, it takes somewhere in the neighborhood of 30seconds or more to start playing, then select something like fast forward or back and it takes just as long..
I am using a 4gb cruzer thumb drive and really haven't tried any other media aside from my 1gb jumpdrive which acts the same way.... Anyone?