Carl music box

This is the firmware repository for the Carl music box. More details will follow shortly.

Carl is featured in the german edition of the Make Magazine in August 2021:

• Hardware
  • Note on DFPlayer Mini Modules
• Build the firmware
  • Configuration
    • DFPlayer driver library selection
    • GD3200B Quirks mode
  • Arduino IDE
  • PlatformIO
• References
• Author

Hardware

TODO

Note on DFPlayer Mini Modules

During the tests of Carl, we encountered different DFPlayer Mini modules, which turned out to behave differently. DFPlayer's with the GD3200B chip for example were found ~~not to work with any of the available libraries~~ to only work in a quirks mode.

The differences can easily be spotted and are described below.

Working	~~Not Working~~ Working with Quirks
24 pins, labelled AA20HFJ648-94	16 pins, labelled GD3200B

The DFPlayerMini with the GD3200B failed reporting correctly the number of songs per folder. A Quirks mode is provided, to get these modules work with Carl.

Besides the mentioned GD3200B model, there are more models out there which may be incompatible, see this site for a testing tool and further information.

Build the firmware

The firmware can be built using the Arduino IDE or PlatformIO.

Configuration

The firmware image can be configured either in config.h (for Arduino IDE) or in platform.ini. The following options can be configured:

DFPlayer driver library selection

Choose one of the USE_*_MP3_DRIVER options. If not set, the PowerBroker driver will be used. When the firmware is build using platformio (i.e. using make) the required libraries are downloaded automatically. When using the Arduino IDE, don't forget to install the actual library used, e.g.:

• DFPlayerMini_Fast and FireTimer for USE_POWEBROKER_MP3_DRIVER
• DFMiniMp3 for USE_MAKUNA_MP3_DRIVER (recommended for GD3200B models)
• DFRobotPlayerMini for USE_DFROBOT_MP3_DRIVER

GD3200B Quirks mode

When using GD3200B based DFPlayer modules, the GD3200B_QUIRKS #define has to be set in order to circumvent some incompatibilities (bugs?) these devices have. I successfully tested a GD3200B DFPlayer using the Makuna-Driver (USE_MAKUNA_MP3_DRIVER) and the quirks mode enabled. Check the log output to make sure that the GD3200B quirks mode is enabled on startup:

0(1412): carl starting.
0(1379): using Makuna driver
61(1321): m scanning folders...
62(1319): m enabling GD3200B quirks mode

Arduino IDE

Check out the repository on your computer. In the Arduino IDE select Open ... under the File menu and select the file carl/carl.ino.

Select Arduino Pro or Pro Mini as the target board under Tools > Board > Arduino AVR Boards. The processor used is an Atmega328P 5V 16MHz.

Install the needed libraries using Sketch > Include Library > Manage Libraries...:

• AnalogMultiButton (1.0.0)
• DFPlayerMini_Fast (1.2.4) (Powerbroker DFPlayer Library)
• JLed (4.9.0)
• log4arduino (1.1.0)

Alternatively, install the libraries with this command:

arduino --install-library JLed:4.9.0,log4arduino:1.1.0,AnalogMultiButton:1.0.0,DFPlayerMini_Fast:1.2.4,FireTimer:1.0.5

Compile and upload the sketch using the corresponding commands in the Arduino IDE.

PlatformIO

Check out the repository on your computer. Then cd carl/carl and run one of

• make upload-dfrobot && make monitor
• make upload-makuna && make monitor
• make upload-powerbroker && make monitor

to build and upload the firmware and to start the serial monitor. The different commands correspond to the different drivers for the DFPlayerMini module that can be used: DFRobot, Makuna and PowerBroker2. Test the different drivers in case you have problems getting your module running. When building with the Arduino IDE, the PowerBroker2 driver is used by default.

References

• DFRobot DFPlayer Mini
• Carl testdata generator
• DFRobot DFRobotDFPlayerMini Library
• Makuna DFMiniMp3 Library
• Powerbroker2 DFPlayerMini_Fast Library
• JLed
• log4arduino
• DFPlayer Analyzer
• GD3200 information

Author

(C) Copyright 2021-2022 by Jan Delgado.