Although there are a few out there, I am wondering:
Do they allow the Arduino to control the play list, volume, and other stuff.
Can you display the "now playing" on a screen controlled by the Arduino?
All the ones I have seen are more like "walkman" style, where as much as they use the Arduino, it has no control, it is but the motor.
there are more shields than anyone would sanely try to count, try to elaborate on which mystery shield you are referring to
Well, I a not refering to A particular shield.
I am looking for one.
To describe it another way I shall try putting it like this:
Using the Arduino - with display and buttons - I would like to make something which you could call a juke box.
It displays the songs/tracks available, allows you to select them and play them, or just plays them randomly.
It can exclude songs from this random selection and all sorts of things to do with the play list.
The volume is controlled by the Arduino - though the user has control via buttons.
Is that any clearer?
Something like this SparkFun MP3 Player Shield - DEV-12660 - SparkFun Electronics?
Riva,
Maybe.
I've seen it and still not sure if it does what I require.
I shall look at it again and do more digging.
What does concern me is that it plays MP3 files, but they have to be sampled at a certain sample rate.
Now: MP3 standard says it should not matter the sample rate.
I am not an MP3 master, but I don't know what rates my MP3 files are sampled. It would be annoying to buy it only to find that all my samples wouldn't play.
Yeah, ok, I would check before buying.... but......
What does concern me is that it plays MP3 files, but they have to be sampled at a certain sample rate.
Where did you see that?
I did not see any reference to fixed sample rates. The chip brief says
Decodes multiple formats: Ogg Vorbis, MPEG 1 & 2 audio layer III (CBR+VBR+ABR), layers I & II optional, MPEG4 / 2 AAC-LC(+PNS), HE-AAC v2 (Level 3) (SBR + PS), WMA4.0/4.1/7/8/9 all profiles (5-384 kbps), WAV (PCM + IMA ADPCM), General MIDI 1 / SP-MIDI format 0
If all else fails you could download something like http://portableapps.com/apps/music_video/freac_portable to copy and convert your MP3 files to a suitable format.
hi-
first.. I would decid on the audio format you want to use.. this will help narrow down the hardware choices..
Have you looked at the Adafruit WaveShield?
has SD card, volume knob..etc..
has a customlib for it too.. with examples.. you could probably hack for your liking..
Also.. have you done a search on JUKEBOX here? Im sure there are 100's.. see what they all done/tried.. and see if it fits your needs/wants..
Also, if you want to save money, just get a $5 MP3 player on ebay and hack it, so that you can control its buttons with arduino.
dxw00d:
What does concern me is that it plays MP3 files, but they have to be sampled at a certain sample rate.
Where did you see that?
http://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/295
MP3 File/SD Card Setup:
We're going to need a file to play, so find an MP3 file on your computer. Make sure the MP3 is encoded at 192kbps. To do this, right click on the file, then select "Properties," and then the "Summary" tab. Scroll to the bottom until you can see "Bit Rate." If this rate is anything other than 192kbps, the file won't play correctly with our example firmware, and you should either choose a different file or convert the existing one.
xl97,
The "problem" with one of the shields you mentioned is WAV format.
Most of my stuff is MP3 and I don't want to have to change their format to WAV to suite the card.
Yes, I am thinking of hacking an older MP3 player.
I've actually got one and am thinking of it.
Why I am not too keen on that is that the file names are not "visible" to the user.
And some of the players/shields want the names to be (for instance) 0001.mp3 0002.mp3 0004.mp3 and so on.
Yeah, workable, but not really handy to the person if you are displaying the file names to know what is playing.
Am trying to read that other thread you posted/mentioned. It is long.
(I'll get back to you when I am finished)