installing Nano board and VMA02 audio shield mayhem...

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

Hi to all,

I bought the complete Arduino Starter Kit - the extended version including the Project book - and I was thrilled from the start. It looked all so complete, and new and thorough...

Downloading and installing the Arduino 1.6.8 IDE was a breeze, hooking up the hardware was plug-and-play; before I knew it, I had the Blink sketch up and running. In the process, I proved that the human eye can see a digital LED blinking at up to 50 frames per second. How is that for a fact? :slight_smile:

Anyway; I did some electronics projects - RC and diode characteristics - and that worked out nice too...

That is where the fun stopped...

I am now having trouble with connecting a Nano board. I installed my configuration with an Arduino/Genuino board, which automatically installed at :COM7. But what ever I try, it wil not let me install a Nano board. The hardware is not recognized by Windows, even when I point to designated drivers. Bummer...

So I realized, that I am running on Windows XP SP3. Which may very well not be suitable for pulling this off, finding the right driver and all. My Nano board is not an original; it's a cheap Chinese remake, I have to be honest with you guys. By now, all I understand is I need a CH341 series driver. That is all I know, and I cannot find it yet...

Should I upgrade to Windows 7, or should I count my blessings with my working Genuino installation? Or might there be a driver somewhere?

Second problem: I bought the VMA02 Audio Shield Kit. The assembling was easy, and the hardware seems to work fine. As far as I can see; I am able to record, play and erase spoken message via the onboard microphone. That is as far as I got...

The accompanying software consists of a contributed library, and a sample program. The library is fine, as far as I can see. The only problem is, there is no manual of all the functionalities, and how to properly operate them. The demo program that goes with this, is a disaster; the programming is faulty (I already solved at least one error) and it does not deliver a working demo...

So I am having a hard time working this all out for myself...

Question: is there anyone, with working knowledge of this Audio Shield Kit? Is there a manual?

I would be much obliged...

Regards to all,

Ron

2

RonVonk:
By now, all I understand is I need a CH341 series driver. That is all I know, and I cannot find it yet...

Here it is: CH341SER.EXE - 南京沁恒微电子股份有限公司

3

holy arduino ships... :o

this works nicely, and many thanks... Nano at :COM8,...

it took some courage, to install this Chinese rubble, but it works... :slight_smile:

very much obliged, and in your debt...

4

as far as the VMA02 project goes, I understand there is another party involved... Arduino cannot take any responsibilty for this...

but I hope, there might be anyone with working knowledge on this...

in fact all I need, is a working full demo and a full manual on this project...

Anyone?

5

RonVonk:
a full manual on this project...

Unfortunately it's all too common to encounter these libraries with no documentation. It's frustrating because it is so much easier for the developer, who is familiar with every part of the code, to document it than for random users to do it. Of course when it's someone volunteering their time you just have to be grateful for their generosity but when it's a company selling a product I expect more. An example sketch is useful but it's no substitute for a command reference. You're expected to just open up the library source files. The file ISD1700/ISD1700.h provides a listing of all the functions and ISD1700/ISD1700.cpp has the detailed workings. Luckily they have made the effort to add some comments so it's shouldn't be too hard to figure out.

RonVonk:
The demo program that goes with this, is a disaster; the programming is faulty (I already solved at least one error) and it does not deliver a working demo...

Please provide details of what's not working.

To save anyone else looking into this the time of making the search, here is the sample code and ISD1700 library:
https://vellemanstore-vellemannv.netdna-ssl.com/downloads/files/downloads/ka02_sample_code.zip
VMA02 shield user manual:
https://vellemanstore-vellemannv.netdna-ssl.com/downloads/0/modules/usermanual_vma02.pdf

6

Pert, what's in a name... :slight_smile:

up until now, you have been very helpful... much kudoos to that... at least you share my frustrations, about not having a decent manual for operating this piece of equipment, which seems very awesome to me... me too, took the effort of going through the ISD1700.CPP file, to at least find out what was even possible...

up until now, I got the hardware and on-board functionality up and running... I can record, play and erase spoken messages from the builtin microphone... but that is it; and I do not know how to test the other functionalities...

as for the software part, the hardware part leads his own life... I can find no functionality in the software to reproduce, what I recorded with the hardware... it will probably have to do with start and stop addresses, but how?

the demo program is far from helpful; nowhere there is any inline documentation to be found... there is no help on how to work the serial monitor... once you figured that out, there is no help on how to record or play anything, via software control...

I know, I will work all this out eventually... but a little help would be nice...

I will share, whatever I can find out...

Regards to all...

7

at least, one very annoying program erro is solved...

as is, the code delivers constant CMD_ERR messages; that is because of a faulty bit of code...

the line: Serial.print(chip.CMD_ERR()? "CMD_ERR ": "OK ");

should be replaced with: Serial.print(chip.CMD_ERR()? "OK ": "CMD_ERR ");

furthermore, I think this code needs a call to chip.wr_apc2(apc), in the setup clause... but who can tell?

and why do I have to call PU() every loop? and why not any PD(), in the loop...

why is this interface base char-based? what does the hardware really do...

a lot of questions...

8

what I found out, about the VMA02 Audio Shield so far...

the ISD1760PY sound recording chip is designed for several operating modes...

  1. hardware operated via onboard MIC; functions REC, PLAY, ERASE... PLAY and ERASE will only affect the current - last recorded message, record while pushed REC... FWD will only forward to the next message, and is not playable; RST returns to the last recorded message... ERASE will delete this, and return control to the previous message, if any... so there is no option, to select anything but the last recorded message... VOL control will bring the volume down, RST restores original max. volume... not sure how to operate it yet...

  2. dito via onboard analog input jack; I haven't tried this yet, but I expect the same behavior here... I am thinking of hooking up a function generator for input, and measuring output channels with an oscilloscope...

  3. software operated via SPI... this requires various changes in the APC mask... which I haven't figured out yet...

what eludes me for now, is why I cannot scroll in hardware recorded messages... only the last recorded message seems available for PLAY and ERASE... this suggests a queued behavior; but what's with the FWD key?

what eludes me also, is why I cannot access hardware recorded messages via software... sending commands via sketch does virtually nothing...

(to be cont'd)