AP-16+ Rev. E Board Questions

[IMTim]

There is a jumper by each of the RCA jacks.  What do these jumpers do?  I checked a Rev. C card and it did not have the jumper.

I'm having problems with the SD card socket on the Rev E cards.  The SD card does not seat in it well.  Any ideas?

Is there anyway to get rid of the hiss when the sound file is not playing?  I was thinking about checking with a car stereo shop and see if they had any ideas.

Tim

[JonnyMac]

The jumpers allow you to reconfigure the RCA jacks to auxiliary audio inputs that are mixed into the AP-16+ signal.  Note that there is no control over this; if there is audio coming in when you tell the AP-16+ to play you will hear a mix of both.  When the jumper is to the left (as you look at the board normally), the AP-16+ will be output from the RCA connector. If you move the juper to the right (near the RCA jack) the jack becomes an input; again, this signal will be mixed into the normal audio signal stream.

You can get a 1/8th stereo jack to RCA connectors (male) at any store that carries audio accessories.  Plug this into your device (e.g., iPod, CD player, etc.) and connect to the AP-16+

IMPORTANT: Move the jumpers to the input position (to the right) before connecting your audio device to the RCA connectors; if you connect an audio device to the AP-16+ RCA jacks that are configured in output mode you could damage one or both devices.

You may want to call John B at our TN sales office to chat about the card sockets. We test all the boards there (I'm in CA) and replace anything that doesn't work properly.  JB may have some ideas, and would certainly like to know what you're seeing as we are constantly making incremental improvident to our products.  The AP-16+ sells very quickly and we get lots of feedback and feature requests, hence the new Rev E boards.

Every amplifier will have a noise floor that is unavailable.  Speaker selection will affect this.  The amps that we work best with 4-ohm speakers.

[JackMan]

Is there anyway to get rid of the hiss when the sound file is not playing?

As Jon mentioned, this is the nature of the beast and common with most amplifiers. Depending on how you have your files set up on your AP-16+ you can utilize the onboard relay to eliminate this. Wire an external 3 or 4 pole relay using the N.O. contacts to connect your speaker wires to the AP-16+ and use the N.O. contact of the onboard relay to energize it. When a file is played the onboard relay will energize and in doing so it will energize the 3 pole (or 4 pole) relay which connects your speakers. When the file is finished playing, the onboard relay opens and your speakers are disconnected from the AP-16+. I've done this with one of mine and it works great, dead silence from the speakers until a file is played.

[bsnut]

To add to Jack's good idea, which do myself. Power this relay from a different power supply if you are using the 18VDC to power the AP-16, since most relays are 12 or 24 volts and not18VDC.

Now if you are powering AP-16 with a 12VDC you can use this power, but may take away from the performance.

So, the best move for you is use two different power supplies, one for powering this other relay and one for the AP-16 itself.

[IMTim]

I was thinking about the relay thing earlier today, but not using the built in relay on the AP-16+, I have an extra Prop-1 output open.  Using the AP-16+ is a great idea.  I will probably use it on a couple of critical areas where the guests have to stand close to a speaker before the scare goes off.

I'll get a hold of John B and let him know what I'm seeing with the SD card sockets.  I have several SD Cards from different manufacturers and they all work a little different.

I like the idea of using the RCA jacks as an input.  After connecting the "correct" power supply to the AP-16+ (I finally read the forums on it) I love the sound quality that comes from it.  I was way under powering them last year.

We're really automating the haunted house this year.  Live actors are great but you have to have consistency that a Prop-1 and an AP-16+ gives you.

Thanks for all your help!

Tim