Difficulty With New Firmware

[PDoyle]

I just loaded the new firmware (1.7) to my AP 16 and the relay no longer activates when I try to play a sound.  I'm aware of the new NORELAY.TXT feature, but the file isn't present on my SD card.

Am I missing something?  Thanks for your help.


P.S. Otherwise, the AP 16 has been awesome!  Thanks for making such a incredible audio driver!

[JonnyMac]

Edit: I removed the update as another problem was found. Will re-post fix later.


Darn! Problem confirmed.

This is my fault, trying to make code "more pretty" after it's working. I've attached an update file. You'll need to unzip this, save it to your SD, and then rename it "AP16.PGM"

As you're the first to notice this problem I hope you can check it for me.

Jon

[PDoyle]

I'm away from my AP16 for the week, but I'll let you know this weekend.

[JonnyMac]

Okay. It is working on my desk and a I double-dog tested it to make sure the relay operated without the file, and didn't with it. I'd just like to have a "outside view" before posting it on our web site.

[PDoyle]

I tested it this evening and got a mixed result.  The relay activates and only activates when I'm playing a sound (just like it should).  But nothing is coming out of the speakers.

[bsnut]

I have some questions for you.
1) How are you activating the AP16, is manually or is serially?
2) Does the speakers have a volume that is not turned up? Can be common mistake.
3) Are the files on SD card have the correct file extensions?

Since you are beta testing Jon's handy work, these above questions are a start and Jon may add some more questions to what I have already asked.

[JonnyMac]

There were no changes to the audio play portion of the code; as Bill suggests you should check the output pots -- it's easy to set them completely off.

[freakyland]

I also am experiencing some difficulty with the new firmware.  I have 2-AP16s sitting on my desk, one with the newest firmware 1.7 (also tried with the 1.7 "official release"), the other has the original 1.0.  Being able to deactivate the relay is an excellent update as the clicking of the relay can get annoying if not using that feature.   

On the 1.7 AP, it acts like it is playing the track when triggered, (green LED blinking), but just keeps blinking away without playing the track or stopping once the track should have completed.  The only way to stop the loop is to power down and reset the player.  I do believe I was also able to use this player just fine until I updated to 1.7.   

If I swap the SD card directly to the 1.0 AP, (without changing any files), everything works just fine.  To me this rules out the "slow SD card" possibility  and suggests there is a hardware/firmware issue.  Is there a way I can download the original firmware to rule out a hardware issue? 

I have been testing it with serial(Prop1) and manual triggering, and am running into a wall trying to troubleshoot both . 

Is there possibly something in the updated firmware that would demand a higher speed SD card?

[JonnyMac]

A bug sneaked in an bit me! JB also found a problem doing some regression testing for me.  I am presently back to version 1.5 which does the relay handling and will work forward to get back to the other features.

[freakyland]

Is the 1.5 version available somewhere?  If not, could you post it so we can revert until the edited update arrives?

Thanks again!

[JonnyMac]

I've attached the earlier (103b) and the latest (172) to this post.  Note that I changed numbering in the latter, so following that the former should have been 1.3 -- at any rate, this was what we have been shipping.

I confirmed the V171 problem, but cannot explain it (believe it was an errant typo I inserted after testing). I went back to 1.3x and rebuilt all the features up to that and everything is working here (local and remote relay control, etc.).

Note that one of the changes made in 1.7x is an update of the SD buffer size which has shown to IMPROVE performance with slow SD cards; I even got 44kHz stereo files to play from a microSD card (project for Disneyland) using this buffer size.

Thanks for hanging in with us on this. Our goal is to make better products and we can only do that with user feedback

[PDoyle]

Hmmm.  I'm still having no luck with the 1.7 version.  Now the relay and corresponding indicator light flash on for a moment when I press play and then turn back off.  Loading the 1.3 version with everything else the same fixes the problem.

[JonnyMac]

I am at a loss; the only thing that affects SD card access is the size of the playback buffers which is now 4x what it was in version 1.x. Everyone using this upgrade (prior to the problems with 1.7) reported that if fixed "slow card" problems.  John Barrowman is testing in his office today as well.

[JackMan]

I ran V1.03 for my Halloween display last year and it worked perfectly every time. I'm using cheap 1GB Ultra cards which are not very fast and haven't had a problem.

[PDoyle]

RESOLVED!  It turns out the problem was metadata.  After removing the metadata from my tracks I no longer experience a problem.

Thanks for your help!