You want to add voice, music, or sound effects to your project. What do you do? Sure, it is easy enough to plug a Raspberry Pi or some other tiny computer, but that’s not always desirable from a power, space, or cost point of view. [Mellow_Labs] shows a module that makes it simple to add sound to any project. The little board is just big enough to house a speaker and doesn’t cost much. Check it out in the video below.
The device allows you to preload tracks as MP3 files. There are two ways to control it: via a serial port, or using a single pin that can accept commands like you might expect from a MP3 player, like play and next track.
The module was loud, and the built-in speaker can be replaced. The module’s documentation doesn’t seem to include any example code, but [Mellow_Labs] has code for you on GitHub. It probably isn’t going to win any audiophile awards, but you don’t expect that from something just a little bigger than an inch across and not even a half-inch tall. Seems like a good thing for your Halloween props.
It isn’t that we haven’t seen MP3 modules before, but this one is nicely integrated and complete. We wondered if a 3D-printed cone might make this a nice custom bike horn or if it would need more amplification.
Loads to download, the BBC just released a huge library of sounds to the public according to the story I heard the other day on NPR.
I recently had some unexpected super success with a hack. I got this kitchen timer from Amazon, has a big display, goes up to 99 min, magnets on the back for the fridge, the best thing is it’s round and you just rotate the outside to set the time. Very convenient and easy to use. However nowhere near loud enough unless you’re in the same room. I also have one of those wireless doorbells that doesn’t need a battery in the button, and also let’s you pick from like 64 tunes to play. The receiver is just micro usb, other models are a plug. Haven’t decided which is better, the USB one will run off a power bank though. Some have multiple receivers. The button runs on very low power generated by a magnet & coil the button moves.
All I did was chop off the magnet voltage generator and wire that directly to the timer’s speaker, now I have a kitchen timer I can hear ALL OVER THE HOUSE. 3D printed a round addition for the back of the timer with magnets big enough for the 1″ square transmitter module and you can only tell it’s a hack because I used red filament on the black timer.
I could probably dig into the receiver and put custom tunes on it, but I am happy just not burning the food for now, and ding dong works just fine for that.
Why not just carry the ticking timer into whatever room with you?
Walking around with big timer around the house? Not always you have pockets and it’s easy to forget to take it if you carry something one room to another.
May I direct your attention to Flava Flag’s solution to this very issue.
“Flav”, even.
The module is here: https://www.dfrobot.com/product-2862.html