Using different inputs to access mp3 player's different tracks

[patsroom]

Hello, being that I am not that good of designing circuits I am in need of help to be-able to hack a mp3 player.

I would like to be-able to access a mp3 player's different tracks by using a separate inputs for each track. For example input device one would play track one, input device two would play track two and so on.

So in another word using X number of different input devices to be-able to access X number of different mp3 player track according to which input is used to play the proper track.

Any help would be of great valve and I Thank All for any Help to be received..........Pat

I forgot to add the following:
1) if possible to use a IC chip circuit to do the switching
2) use the lease amount of components
3) 5 to 15 volts operating volts

 

[HellasTechn]

Hello and welcome to Electronics Point.

First of all what mp3 player are you trying to hack ? (Brand, model).

I think what you are asking is just impossible to do. MP3 players use many different microprocessors and software written for each one of them according to manufacturers needs.

I can really not imagine of a way to hack the software and change it so it can play different tracks at each output.

 

[HellasTechn]

if possible to use a IC chip circuit to do the switching

Does your MP3 player have 1 output that you wish to cycle through many different devices that will play the audio ?

Again i dont see how you can alter its software to achieve this.

 

[davenn]

I think what you are asking is just impossible to do. MP3 players use many different microprocessors and software written for each one of them according to manufacturers needs.

I can really not imagine of a way to hack the software and change it so it can play different tracks at each output.

and I agree with that .... couldn't begin to envision how that could be done ... it can only play one track at a time

 

[patsroom]

I was thinking of hard wiring to the mp3's 5 push control buttons that are on the face of the player. By removing the cover there is 5 bullseye contact switches that can be soldered to that could be use to control the play/pause, track selection, volume, on/off functions of the machine.
I would only like to play one track at a time as each input device is selected for a preferred track.
I suppose that the input needs to turn the player on select track then play. The sound would only use just the one speaker. Playing just one track only. Thank you for your replies and i hope the add information helps..............Pat

 

[Gryd3]

I was thinking of hard wiring to the mp3's 5 push control buttons that are on the face of the player. By removing the cover there is 5 bullseye contact switches that can be soldiered to that could be use to control the play/pause, track selection, volume, on/off functions of the machine.
I would only like to play one track at a time as each input device is selected for a preferred track.
I suppose that the input needs to turn the player on select track then play. The sound would only use just the one speaker. Playing just one track only. Thank you for your replies and i hope the add information helps..............Pat

Well... there is a bit of a problem you are facing here...
The buttons on an MP3 player are configured to operate in a very specific manner... As you mentioned.
You can wire these buttons to any other button you want, but you can't hit the 'Vol+' button and have the MP3 player auto-play a specific track number.*

There is a very very slim chance that you could disassemble the MP3 player and find a microcontroller inside that you can 'update' with a modified firmware. This would be a solution, but the difficulty of doing so is incredibly high.
Modified firmware on the MP3 player could in theory allow you to re-assign the function of the buttons to play specific track numbers.

I would recommend looking online for some very cheap audio 'shields' or modules that let you pre-load one or more audio tracks to be played back based on the input. They are often used for sound effects of simple arcade machines for example. >> https://www.adafruit.com/product/2133
The other recommendation requires a little more work, but you can find lots of resources online... is building your own. You can buy an inexpensive flash IC, or interface directly to an SD or microSD card which you will store your audio on. Your microcontroller will then be responsible for selecting and playing the specific track. >> https://learn.adafruit.com/trinket-audio-player/overview

The links I shared are not the only solution... and the 'audio player' link is to give you an overview of the type of work required to build a DIY audio player... You can either play uncompressed audio in a 'raw' format, or you may need additional work or components that can do 'decoding' of MP3, Ogg, and other audio formats.

 

[patsroom]

I sorry to said that this subject has even confused me. I must not have explained it right.
Located outside of the mp3 player there are 3 buttons that are wired to a IC then the mp3 player. Each button run thru a IC input circuit the IC ciruit then sends out a turn power then the proper bounce logic number(?) on to play proper track (1,2 or 3 depending on which input button is pushed). Maybe when I said hack people begin thinking of go into the software of the mp3 player, but that was not what I was thinking. No decoding just pushing the buttons to turn it on then hear a certain track.

 

[Gryd3]

I sorry to said that this subject has even confused me. I must not have explained it right.
Located outside of the mp3 player there are 3 buttons that are wired to a IC then the mp3 player. Each button run thru a IC input circuit the IC ciruit then sends out a turn power then the proper bounce logic number(?) on to play proper track (1,2 or 3 depending on which input button is pushed). Maybe when I said hack people begin thinking of go into the software of the mp3 player, but that was not what I was thinking. No decoding just pushing the buttons to turn it on then hear a certain track.

I do not understand the green highlighted portion of this text...

And... it's not the 'word' hack that is making people think this... it's the fact that you want to manipulate an *existing* mp3 player.

Hello, being that I am not that good of designing circuits I am in need of help to be-able to hack a mp3 player.

I would like to be-able to access a mp3 player's different tracks by using a separate inputs for each track. For example input device one would play track one, input device two would play track two and so on.

So in another word using X number of different input devices to be-able to access X number of different mp3 player track according to which input is used to play the proper track.

Any help would be of great valve and I Thank All for any Help to be received..........Pat

I forgot to add the following:
1) if possible to use a IC chip circuit to do the switching
2) use the lease amount of components
3) 5 to 15 volts operating volts

The only way you can do this *reliably* is to alter the software or to make your own MP3 decoding audio player.
The alternative is doing this in an *unreliable* method... which will essentially result in you building a 'state' machine that will 'simulate' presses on the track selection buttons.
The problem with this unreliable method is that :
A) Pressing 'track 5' will result in your custom circuit pressing the 'skip' button x amount of times based on what song it *thinks* is currently playing.
B) The transition from one track to another will have a delay as your circuit simulates the key-presses to move from track A to track B.

Please let us know what you want to do for your project...
I strongly suggest using https://www.adafruit.com/product/2133
It has 11 'triggers' or tracks you can individually trigger, and a reasonable amount of storage.

If you want more tracks, or more storage then we can explore other options.

 

[BobK]

I think this is what the OP means (please correct me if I am wrong)

He has an MP3 player, with a 5 button interface. He can manually select and play one of multiple tracks by pushing a sequence of these buttons (such as home, down, down, play) to play track 3)

He wants to make a device that connects to the 5 buttons and has 1 button for each track. Pushing this one button will cause the sequence of presses on the MP3 player to play the designated track.

This could be done fairly easily with a microcontroller (the IC he says the buttons would go through.)

But there is a much easier way. There are MP3 modules out there already designed to do this. They have multiple buttons, each of which plays a specific track.

Bob

 

[BobK]

Here is an example of the type of module I referred to.

It has 9 inputs that will play 9 different tracks. With encoding, it can play 31 different tracks.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Voice-Playb...806660?hash=item4d35c86284:g:8zcAAOSwopdXMVzm

Bob

 

[patsroom]

Sorry about the long delay in getting back. But my computer is acting up.
BobK I think you are on the right track, Thank You.
Went looking at decoders and was thinking it might help if I knew what I was doing. Something like the CD4028.
With four inputs and 10 outputs. Just how would one go about hooking up three push bottons to get three different tracks on a mp3 player (one at a time of course)?
I must thank all of you guys for the time you spent tring to help me, Thank You...........Pat

 

[patsroom]

 

[BobK]

You don't need an encoder with the module I linked. It says it has 9 inputs,. each of which will play a different track when activated. I requested a data sheet from the seller, and I got one. In Chinese.

It looks like you ground A1 to play the first file, or A2 to play the second file, etc up to A9. So, what you need is a switch from each of these to ground, and possibly a pullup resistor for each.

The lovely wife Morticia, of course, speaks Chinese (via Google Translate), and helped me out with this.

Here is the Google translated manual:



Bob

 

[patsroom]

Bobk That is what I am wanting to do. And will use this if it is the best I do. I was hoping to gain a little by building a circuit that could handle the problem. Thank You for the hard work you put into researching as I did not know where to look or what it would have been called even..............Pat

 

[patsroom]

Not wanting to beat on a dead horse, but below should show what I was wanting to do. Still not sure if this would work. I am hoping to turn just one MP3 player on and making sure that the other one can not be turn on even if it wants to. If any one can help I would thank you very much................Pat

 

[BobK]

Sorry, but I cannot even imagine what you are trying to do with that circuit.

It certainly does not allow you to select one of 4 clips on an MP3 player by pushing 1 of 4 buttons, which is what I thought you were trying to do.

Bob

 

[patsroom]

Bob, what I started with was an ideal very close to what you said. I was going to use three or more messages but opted for just two. As I progressed this is what formed. Hoping to keep the cost down was one goal I am hoping for, by using diodes and NPNs that I have on hand.
I am very sorry if I am confusing you as to what I want the thing to do, and I hope I can clear it up a little.
Going from the power source to R 3, I hope to turn the 10 sec timer on. And only if both switches are turn within the time limit (one sec), will it sent power on to the rest of the circuit.
T 1 and T 2 must be turn on together to send power to T 3 and T 6. If power is sent to T 6 I hope to stop the 24 Hr time so that it can not play its recorded message(the far right MP3 player), and at the same time to turn the first MP3 player on to deliver it pre recorded message.
If someone fail to activate the two on buttons within the set time limit it will lock the two buttons from being able to be used again( only if one of the switches is turn on and not the other one at the same time). Then the main timer will continue until it plays message two.
This is going to be used in a airsoft game where there is a time limit to reach the finish line in time by 2 or more people. One could think of this as a missile abort key set up, with just one chance to stop launch.
I know that this circuit will still not work as hoped, but I consider this a starting point to build from.
And Bob Thank You, for all you have done and said. It has help me a lot to clear what I needed to do making me think a little more on what I wanted .................................Pat