# Yet another cheap mp3 board



## David_AVD (Nov 9, 2012)

Someone mentioned a cheap mp3 player PCB here ( I think ! ) so I ordered a few on eBay. They cost me AUD $2.29 each delivered.

I did a quick write up on in on my da-share site to outline what it does, etc.

It doesn't have any trigger inputs and the playback takes a few seconds to start after power is applied so it's not really suitable for triggered effects.

But since it can run from a cheap 3.7V li-po battery and drive a speaker directly I think these modules would be great for stand-alone looping sounds.

I've only tested it with a USB stick as I didn't have any spare micro-SD cards to hand.

Anyway I hope that helps someone out. You should be able to find them on eBay. Search for "TF card U disk MP3 decoder board".


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## David_AVD (Nov 9, 2012)

Oops, forgot to put the picture of it in the first post.


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## ogre49 (Jan 7, 2016)

You might have been thinking of my request for a small player on another board as that is exactly what I got . Thanks for the mini tutorial on it's functions.


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## David_AVD (Nov 9, 2012)

I've had it playing a few songs on repeat for most of the morning, running from a 3.7V 1200mAh li-po cell.

I can hear some distortion at higher volume levels, but that reduces when plugged into a 5V charger instead.

The on-board amplifier is not super loud, but would be fine if it's not competing with other louder noise makers.


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## David_AVD (Nov 9, 2012)

Something else to note; during testing I noticed the speaker volume wavering intermittently. At first I thought it was a symptom of the battery voltage dropping, but changing over to USB 5V offered no improvement.

Nudging the contacts on the line out socket caused it to drop out even more. The 3.5mm socket disconnects the speaker output and the crappy contact was the source of the intermittent audio.

The quick solution is to simply solder a wire between the two pads (one either side of the socket) at the "tip end" of the socket.


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## fogkeebler (Oct 2, 2015)

I have a couple of those boards. I started using these instead. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/64M-...SH-SSOP24-Amplifier-MINI-USB/32367513634.html

and these depending on which i have on hand. I like the first ones i listed better
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PCS...r-MP3-TF-16P-for-Arduino-UNO/32271693515.html


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## David_AVD (Nov 9, 2012)

It's crazy how many mp3 boards there are out there now !


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## mikkojay (Sep 15, 2014)

fogkeebler said:


> I have a couple of those boards. I started using these instead. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/64M-...SH-SSOP24-Amplifier-MINI-USB/32367513634.html
> 
> and these depending on which i have on hand. I like the first ones i listed better
> http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PCS...r-MP3-TF-16P-for-Arduino-UNO/32271693515.html


I have used the second one quite a bit lately. I like the built-in amp, it is actually loud enough for smaller props. That, and it is ridiculously cheap. Lastly, the protocol to play tracks it is the same as the Catalex module. I'll have to try that first one out.

I agree with David, the choices of modules these days is wild!

-Mike


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