# 50 second USB download sound player



## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

Hi all,

I've just taken delivery of a 50 second sound player from electronics123.

Initial assessment was that the sound was poor quality but after downloading the software which allows you to store your own samples on the board via USB, I reconsidered and can state that this unit is well worth the $11 I paid.

The unit comes mounted on white plastic card with a small, poor quality speaker placed face downwards and 3xAG10 batteries on a separate board. This battery set can easily be replaced by a normal 3xAA battery pack or a 5V supply such as the one from DealExtreme (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.612)

Having downloaded my sound sample choosing the high quality option the software offers you I was quite pleased with the quality even with the crappy speaker supplied. I'll be trying to link this with a standard powered computer speaker set and will report back.

Converting this to being prop triggered will be easy as the activating switch is on 2 wires - simply chop the switch off and wire onto your prop relay contacts instead. I'll also be trying to work this with a picaxe using a common ground and seeing if I can trigger it off a normal Picaxe output.

This unit is brilliant for the money - especially if you can't find a modifiable MP3 player.

http://www.electronics123.com/s.nl/it.A/id.2841/.f?sc=8&category=2

I'm just assembling one of their sound to light kits for use as a lightning machine and will report on that as well.


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## Desmodus (Aug 12, 2007)

Cool! Thanks for the link, I wasn't even aware of that site. 

I've gotten a similar device (not USB capable tho) by buying "blank" record-it-yourself post cards at Walmart, they come in a 3 pack for something like $9 or less. 20 seconds per card. Of course, you can rip the electronic guts out of the card if you want and put them in a project box or prop.
Things are so much easier now with chipcorders and mp3 players than they were 15 years ago - I used to have to use big ol' clunky desktop tape recorders, answering machine "loop" tapes, and leaf switches for triggers.


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## 4nntt (Nov 28, 2006)

When you push the play button, do you have to then release the button before it starts playing the audio?


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

4nntt said:


> When you push the play button, do you have to then release the button before it starts playing the audio?


Luckily no. It activates when you hold the button down and doesn't re-activate when you release the button. You can also download 2 versions of the software - the first version just plays once for a button press, the other version repeats for as long as the button is held down.

With regard to the birthday card solution, I've tried these but even hooking up to a better speaker or an amplifier, the quality is so low as to be almost useless.

This 50 second unit seems to have much better quality and the USB download facility allows you to avoid the speaker to microphone scenario on the cheaper solutions.


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

OK I wired this into a cheap guitar amp (from a hock shop) and the quality is great!

MUCH MUCH better than those cheap greeting card units

For $11 this is an absolute steal - order now while you can!


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## Hobie14T (Apr 8, 2009)

Thanks for the tip. Fifty dollars later I left! Had to pickup other stuff also.


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## fritz42_male (May 5, 2009)

Yeah I know - I'm a sucker for stuff like this as well!

Don't ask me to pay any of your costs - lack of willpower isn't an excuse (that's what my wife tells me anyway)!


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## hlmn (Aug 30, 2008)

Very nice find the posable usses in individual props for this are endless


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