fast and easy sound option

4194 Views 24 Replies 5 Participants Last post by teslabe, Jun 10, 2012

Grumpy Popeye

Discussion Starter · May 27, 2012

Here's a little something I bought off ebay. Really flexible system, it will definitely open up some sound effect options for our builds!

1 - 20 of 25 Posts

teslabe

· #2 · May 27, 2012

Darph Bobo said:
Here's a little something I bought off ebay. Really flexible system, it will definitely open up some sound effect options for our builds!
- YouTube[/url]

I think someone posted this awhile back but it's good to have it posted again and with a nice review.......:thumbsup: Great price for a sound option that most in the forum would have no problem working with. I'd like to offer a bit of advice, pull the label off the speaker that came with the card and see how many ohms it is, that will give you a benchmark for how much of a load your added speakers should be. Right now you have yours in parallel so if they are 8 ohms each, your load on the card's amp is 4 ohms, if 4 ohms each that's 2 ohms. I point this out to keep you from blowing out the amp by overloading it's output. It's not the number of speakers that's important, it's the total resistance you need to be mindful of.
The two pads you showed look like they had a diode across them, that's a common way to protect against reverse polarity mistakes, so you may be right as to them being power inputs. But what voltage is required ? Just because you have 4.5 volts in battery power doesn't mean that's what you'd apply to these pads. Is there a regulator stepping down the voltage of the batteries?????

If your not sure, I'd just remove the button cells and solder my power leads there, at least you know the requirements here. Just a thought.......

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hal9001

· #3 · May 27, 2012

I've had one for a couple of years now and don't know how to use it. Don't you have to have a special program to down load the sounds? That's where I fail. I do not know how to use a computer very good and don't know if I could handle it. A brother was suppose to help me with it but he moved halfway across the country! Only way I could do it is if someone was holding my hand while walking me through it.

Yes, this is a great way to add sound if you have the know how. That's all these sound boards are that Cult and others are selling. Do-it-yourself sure would be much cheaper.

hal9001-

teslabe

· #4 · May 28, 2012 (Edited)

hal9001 said:
I've had one for a couple of years now and don't know how to use it. Don't you have to have a special program to down load the sounds? That's where I fail. I do not know how to use a computer very good and don't know if I could handle it. A brother was suppose to help me with it but he moved halfway across the country! Only way I could do it is if someone was holding my hand while walking me through it.

Yes, this is a great way to add sound if you have the know how. That's all these sound boards are that Cult and others are selling. Do-it-yourself sure would be much cheaper.

hal9001-

This is for the 200sec/5 button unit but might offer some insight into the unit you have, I'd also send an email to bigDAWGS for software help......:wave:

hal9001

· #5 · May 29, 2012

teslabe, where did you get your Sound Loader Software? All I saw at bigDAWGS was hardware. And tanks for posting the sound loader example!

hal9001-

teslabe

· #6 · May 29, 2012

hal9001 said:
teslabe, where did you get your Sound Loader Software? All I saw at bigDAWGS was hardware. And tanks for posting the sound loader example!

hal9001-

Just send me a PM.

hal9001

· #7 · May 30, 2012

I sent a PM (twice) but didn't get a confirmation. Did you get it?

hal9001-

fxshop

· #8 · Jun 1, 2012

These are nice little units... Easy set up...

teslabe

· #9 · Jun 3, 2012 (Edited)

Finally had some time to look closely at the units I have. First, the speaker's impedance is 32 ohms, so I'd be very careful adding different speakers, most
common will be 8 ohms, some could even be 4 ohms. Using them could shorten
the life of the amp or even blow it out after just a short time.......:drunk: IMHO there is nothing wrong with the speaker or volume of this bad boy...... If you find the volume too low just kick up the gain of the file in your audio mixer utility. Also, to get good sound from any speaker it must be in some kind of enclosure.
The two pads in the lower right corner are for external power, just be sure to remove the button cells or they may explode or leak. I found it works well from 3 to 4.5 volt, without a schematic of this card I didn't what to go any higher. For the price it can't be beat......:thumbsup:

hal9001

· #10 · Jun 3, 2012

teslabe said:
Finally had some time to look closely at the units I have. First, the speaker's impedance is 32 ohms, so I'd be very careful adding different speakers, most
common will be 8 ohms, some could even be 4 ohms. Using them could shorten
the life of the amp or even blow it out after just a short time.......:drunk: IMHO there is nothing wrong with the speaker or volume of this bad boy...... If you find the volume too low just kick up the gain of the file in your audio mixer utility. Also, to get good sound from any speaker it must be in some kind of enclosure.
The two pads in the lower right corner are for external power, just be sure to remove the button cells or they may explode or leak. I found it works well from 3 to 4.5 volt, without a schematic of this card I didn't what to go any higher. For the price it can't be beat......:thumbsup:

teslabe, have you ever seen the larger speaker Cult sells? I've got a couple of them and for the price they are pretty nice. Not sure of the ohms though (too lazy to get up and see). I got them to add to the Enterprise bridge sound board (one of them).The little speaker in this case just doesn't have the volume. And you are right about the enclosure, makes all the difference in the world for sound quality. Plus it adds a tiny bit more volume!

But, it scares me though what you said about shortening the life of the amp. I'll check later today to see if it's marked and then I'll ask your opinion. If I may

hal9001-

teslabe

· #11 · Jun 3, 2012

hal9001 said:
teslabe, have you ever seen the larger speaker Cult sells?
hal9001-

I've only seen that Steve offers larger speakers but that's it, hopefully they are marked. If not just use a Digital Volt/Ohm Meter to check it impedance.

hal9001

· #12 · Jun 4, 2012

teslabe said:
I've only seen that Steve offers larger speakers but that's it, hopefully they are marked. If not just use a Digital Volt/Ohm Meter to check it impedance.

Yo, teslabe. I checked and it's a 3W 16 ohm speaker. Think that's safe to use with the sound board?

hal9001-

teslabe

· #13 · Jun 4, 2012

hal9001 said:
Yo, teslabe. I checked and it's a 3W 16 ohm speaker. Think that's safe to use with the sound board?

hal9001-

Speaking as an engineer, the impedance of the speaker was chosen for a reason, it's not wise without more information to double the load on it's amplifier. But that's just me.......

hal9001

· #14 · Jun 5, 2012

teslabe said:
Speaking as an engineer, the impedance of the speaker was chosen for a reason, it's not wise without more information to double the load on it's amplifier. But that's just me.......

So...no then? Speaking as a non-engineer, double the amplifier load of the speaker or the sound board?

I'd rather take a chance on damaging the speaker than the sound board.

hal9001-

Fozzie

· #15 · Jun 7, 2012

Is it possible to hack this so that you activate a light on the model at the same time as the sound...or am I asking for too much?

hal9001

· #16 · Jun 7, 2012

Fozzie said:
Is it possible to hack this so that you activate a light on the model at the same time as the sound...or am I asking for too much?

Fozzie, check this out. He's using the exact type of sound board in conjunction with a flasher board. Really, really neat. I got mine in today in fact! He's going to come out with a B-9 kit real soon too.

http://www.starling-tech.com/index1.php?id=robby

He makes real quality stuff. Nice guy to deal with also.

hal9001-

teslabe

· #17 · Jun 7, 2012

Fozzie said:
Is it possible to hack this so that you activate a light on the model at the same time as the sound...or am I asking for too much?

Can you give a little more info an what your trying to do?

teslabe

· #18 · Jun 7, 2012 (Edited)

hal9001 said:
Fozzie, check this out. He's using the exact type of sound board in conjunction with a flasher board. Really, really neat. I got mine in today in fact! He's going to come out with a B-9 kit real soon too.

http://www.starling-tech.com/index1.php?id=robby

He makes real quality stuff. Nice guy to deal with also.

hal9001-

Is that what he wanted?

hal9001

· #19 · Jun 7, 2012

teslabe said:
Is that what he wanted?

That's the way I took it. Only he can say for sure.

hal9001-

Fozzie

· #20 · Jun 7, 2012

teslabe said:
Can you give a little more info an what your trying to do?

I'm just thinking it would be nice to be able to press a button and have a starship's warp engines light up at the same time as the warping sound plays...or have a phaser light up as the sound plays. The sound board buttons are momentary switches however and circuitry on the board controls the length of the sound played (based on the length of the sample) so I'm not sure how you'd get the lights to be on the same length of time...

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