Feasibility: Using UNO Hardware Serial with Adafruit Mini Sound Fx Board

Using Arduino Project Guidance
1

Hello Everyone! This is my first post and I don't have a lot of experience posting on forums in general, so go easy on me. :wink:

I've referenced so many other topics that just touch the subject, but I can't seem to put the pieces of the puzzle together to form the big picture.

Question...

I'm having some trouble figuring out what needs to be done to use the only hardware serial port on the UNO in a sketch, when it's already in use with the USB cable connected to the computer. Can I download the sketch as I normally would, while using Serial in my code, instead of an instance of SoftwareSerial (as shown in the example for the Adafruit_Soundboard.h) while pins 0 and 1 are disconnected from the sound board, and then just disconnect the USB, connect pins 0 and 1 to the sound board, and connect an external power source? Or possibly do I need to find an alternative way to download the sketch?

Why...

Using SDFat.h, SoftwareSerial.h, and Adafruit_Soundboard.h has used up quite a bit of dynamic memory (85%). I was hoping to get rid of using SoftwareSerial.h by using the existing hardware serial. I believe it would also solve an issue I have with servo's jerking every time the sound board is activated. I believe the SoftwareSerial.h library is hosing up the interrupts. Could also be a power thing, but I need to test more.

Project Background...

My project involves an Arduino UNO, Adafruit Micro-SD Breakout Board, and Adafruit Mini Sound Fx Board. The SD card holds text files with commands for various different outputs, such as a LED, a Servo, or a sound from the fx board. The command contains an action and a duration. When the duration has lapsed, the next command for that pin is fetched from the SD card. I refer to the text files as scripts, which are played at random, with random delays between scripts. My hope is to develop a generic controller for animatronic props.

Thanks to all who took the time to review this topic and even more thanks to those who take the time answer!

BAR

2

I'd go with a '1284, dual hardware serial ports, 16K SRAM, 128K flash. Having Serial to talk to the PC and Serial1 to talk to the other serial device makes life a lot easier.
I offer '1284P boards in several form factors, this one is like an Uno.
http://www.crossroadsfencing.com/BobuinoRev17/

1094×458 70.8 KB

3

The 12 extra IO vs an Uno come in handy also.

4

Any reason you have to stick to UNO? Use MEGA2560 or Bobuino for more memory.

5

I briefly thought about using other boards. I've also considered purchasing a servo board, such as the Adafruit 16 Channel Servo Driver, which would offload the pulsing of the servos. I can't really think of any prop that would actually need all 16 servos... but that's what goals are for. If memory serves me (it usually doesn't) then they do have an 8 channel too.

Truth is, I have a lot of exposure to electroincs, various programming languages, including some Assembly (it's been 12 - 15 years :o ), but almost zero experience implementing. So thinking of buying a bigger board is easy, knowing if it's really necessary is a whole other story. I'm using an Arduino UNO as a starting point. It's currently the only board I own and unfortunately I don't have a lot of money to throw around. I'll eventually get there, but for now can anyone answer if the hardware serial port on the UNO can be used for anything other than programming it? If so, how?