Re-programmable audio playback device for personalized messages

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Hi everyone,

I was helping with the development of an audio playback device that can be programmed via desktop app and wanted to share the progress so far. Any feedback regarding the product would be greatly appreciated!

Introduction video here:

The device can playback any audio uploaded to it and the desktop app allows you to upload MP3 and WAV files, or you can use the computer mic to record personal messages (currently, only available on Windows). We opted for a desktop app for maximum customization and for future firmware upgrades. There are currently two models developed: push button activation and light sensor activation.

The circuit consists of an STM32 uC with USB connection capability and a DAC that outputs to an AB amplifier. The batteries for the device are two lithium coin cells each having 3 V, 600 mAh.

[beeboopbeep]

http://www.nuvoton.com/hq/products/isd-voice-ics/isd-chipcorder-family/?__locale=en

Can you compete those on price? And they are industrial verified for two decades.

Also, there are some much more versatile ones that can directly read flash drives or SD cards as well as decode MP3, but those are only available in China with Chinese datasheet.

From looking at the prices of the ICs in your link (e.g., ~7 USD for 1K units of ISD15102 for 2 minutes of playback which is same as ours), our device would be along the same price point (i.e., device includes MCU + amplifier + flash). The differences I see between the IC in your link and our device are that our device has USB capabilities but our device is not verified for industrial applications. I'll take a closer look at these ICs as I have never came across them before and may be useful in future projects!

I agree that there are devices in China that can provide more capable solutions than our device. We are aiming to provide a desktop app along with the hardware to allow the user to customize the audio playback as much as possible. This includes simple but streamlined audio editing capabilities (e.g., adjusting volume that will be played on the device, audio file trimming, and preview before uploading), direct audio recording from mic without having to use external software, and allowing ordered or shuffle playback (as well as single or continuous playback) modes when the device is activated.

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There are ISD chips that can interface with external SPI FLASH. GigaDevice and MXIC make some really cheap devices.

Would you recommend the flash ICs from GigaDevice and MXIC for low clock rate data transfer requirement such as this project? If you could share any experience with these flash ICs or know someone who've used them without issues, we'd greatly appreciate it.

Regarding our device, we've been using Adesto flash ICs for several months and never ran into any issues during our initial prototyping phase and after continuously running our tests.