[AAWerding]

Hi everyone, first timer here.

I have an issue with a controller I‘ve built and it‘s for the 2nd time and I wonder if anyone has encountered this before or even knows a workaround…?
Set setup is this:
Arduino Uno with PIR sensor, Serial MP3 Player and relay hooked directly to the Uno. Programmed with Octo Banger with Ambient and Scare sound.
The issue: the sounds only play every other time the controller gets triggered. The relay works fine each time and therefor the wiper motor plays the correct sequence every time, but after boot-up, when the system is triggered for the first time, only the relay works, no sounds. After that first trigger and once the sequence has finished, the ambient sound starts playing and when triggered again, the scare sequence runs with sound and relay… but once that 2nd run finishes, the 3rd time starts without sound again… and so on.
I have tried creating new controllers in Octo Banger, I have re-downloaded Octo Banger, I have changed boards, I even tried programming on older windows systems…to no avail.
Anybody got any idea? I would really appreciate any help.

And one other thing: for this project I really didn’t need the ambient sound, but when I choose that setup from the start, nothing works at all. Therefor I have created an „empty“ Ambient sound as a workaround.
I really think it‘s an issue with Octo Banger but I haven‘t found any other posts on this.

I had the same issue with a werewolf I built last year. Because I was running late, the wolf was mute every other time

 

[Allen_Haunts]

I don’t think it’s the octobanger program per s, it may be the controller selection or the Version of uno you’re using. In the software under about or help is Mike’s email. Write him, he usually answers right away.

 

[AAWerding]

I don’t think it’s the octobanger program per s, it may be the controller selection or the Version of uno you’re using. In the software under about or help is Mike’s email. Write him, he usually answers right away.

I have tried a couple of Nano Versions, several Uno clones and the latest Arduino Uno R3… same thing on all of those.
I already tried contacting the project on the only mail address I found ([email protected]) last year when I had the same issue before, but that mail either got returned by mailer demon or I didn‘t get a reply, not 100% which one it was. I‘ll give it another try tho.
Thanks

 

[Allen_Haunts]

I have tried a couple of Nano Versions, several Uno clones and the latest Arduino Uno R3… same thing on all of those.
I already tried contacting the project on the only mail address I found ([email protected]) last year when I had the same issue before, but that mail either got returned by mailer demon or I didn‘t get a reply, not 100% which one it was. I‘ll give it another try tho.
Thanks

sorry to hear that… he always answered my email.

 

[AAWerding]

sorry to hear that… he always answered my email.

Allen, don‘t get me wrong, I really appreciated the suggestion! But after all, it‘s been a couple of years since Octobanger has been released and I‘m sure, when you make the effort to program and make the result available… it can be a bit demanding to then keep debugging and answer every question, suggestion and issue. I wouldn‘t blame him, if he just stopped all together!
That‘s why I hoped, I could find someone with a solution on here. 😃
Do you remember if the mail I used was the same for you?

 

[corey872]

I don't know much about the Octobanger, but a couple points on electronics in general.

Is the issue happening 'exactly' 'every other time', or 'most' 'every other time'... one or the other might point to an intermittent cause or a logic/programing relation.

Also, are you using a relay to trigger a logic level input on the MP3 player for the playing part? What happens if you take the relay out of the equation and trigger just the player manually - does it play every time it is commanded?

Just wondering if this might be some sort of case where you need an external pull-up / pull-down resistor? Even a tiny amount of stray current might be an issue if triggering a logic level switch with a current carrying device like a relay.

Also, don't guess there is anything weird on the programming / mp3 playing side - something like the first 'pulse' plays a sound, second 'pulse' resets and third 'pulse' plays again? Or barring that a possible hack might be to just double tap the relay each time, so the sound is ready to go for the next run?

Good Luck!

 

[AAWerding]

I don't know much about the Octobanger, but a couple points on electronics in general.

Is the issue happening 'exactly' 'every other time', or 'most' 'every other time'... one or the other might point to an intermittent cause or a logic/programing relation.

Also, are you using a relay to trigger a logic level input on the MP3 player for the playing part? What happens if you take the relay out of the equation and trigger just the player manually - does it play every time it is commanded?

Just wondering if this might be some sort of case where you need an external pull-up / pull-down resistor? Even a tiny amount of stray current might be an issue if triggering a logic level switch with a current carrying device like a relay.

Also, don't guess there is anything weird on the programming / mp3 playing side - something like the first 'pulse' plays a sound, second 'pulse' resets and third 'pulse' plays again? Or barring that a possible hack might be to just double tap the relay each time, so the sound is ready to go for the next run?

Good Luck!

Hi
no, it‘s exactly every other time.
The PIR triggers the Uno to engage the scare sequence and that happens reliably EVERY time!
The Uno is powered by a 5V supply, as is the relay and the MP3 module via the Uno. The Uno triggers the relay and the MP3 player module. The relay then only switches the 12V supply on and off to power the wiper motor. The Uno also triggers the MP3 module to play the ambient MP3 sound after boot up and after every scare scene (at least so it should). When the scare scene gets triggered, the relay plays it‘s part each and every time by switching the 12V supply through to the wiper motor as it‘s programmed, but the sounds only play EVERY OTHER time. Only when the ambient sound plays before the scare scene gets triggered, the scare sound then plays when the scare scene does get triggered. It does not play after the first boot up though (although the ambient sound is supposed to start playing right away). The first scare scene then happens as if on „mute“. Only once the first scare scene is done, the ambient sound plays and then, when you can trigger the scene for the 2nd time, the scare sound plays. Once the 2nd scene is finished, the ambient sound for the 3rd scene fails to play and the same circle starts again.
It‘s the most basic setup described in the Octobanger manual. It should be foolproof.
The fact that the relay plays it‘s part of each and every scene tells me, that it‘s not a pull down resistor issue since obviously the Uno is getting the impuls from the PIR to set off the scene and send the commands to the relay each and every time.
The scene setup options and changeable settings are quite limited. There are only options to set the interval before a new scene can get triggered once the previous one has finished playing and a slight delay option to compensate for lag on Uno clones.
I have tried several changes to those settings after the default didn‘t work the way I described but as of now, I‘m back on default since apart from longer gaps between the scenes it didn‘t do anything as far as the issue is concerned.

 

[Batbuddy]

Only a couple of "maybe" ideas come to mind. Loose wires or missing grounds (everything has to have a common ground) also if you run it on power supplies vs batteries, Some power supplies are not very well rectified to DC. A good troubleshooting technique is to try running on batteries for a test. Also if you don't actually need 8 channels try fourbanger it seems to have more community R&D.

 

[AAWerding]

Only a couple of "maybe" ideas come to mind. Loose wires or missing grounds (everything has to have a common ground) also if you run it on power supplies vs batteries, Some power supplies are not very well rectified to DC. A good troubleshooting technique is to try running on batteries for a test. Also if you don't actually need 8 channels try fourbanger it seems to have more community R&D.

Thanks for the advice.
If no sound at all would work, that would be an option in my opinion. But having loose wires or missing grounds only every other time? Unlikely.
I have tried Fourbanger before, but when I uploaded scare sounds into the GUI, they didn‘t play in sync to what was shown in the waveform. So it was a b**** to get the scene events painted into the right places on the four channels. And I‘m not talking just a slight lag… I‘m talking half the waveform is still left in the window while the actual sound file already finished playing.
That I also tried on a couple of computers and windows versions. At least, with Octobanger I do get some result.
Thank you though.

 

[AAWerding]

Only a couple of "maybe" ideas come to mind. Loose wires or missing grounds (everything has to have a common ground) also if you run it on power supplies vs batteries, Some power supplies are not very well rectified to DC. A good troubleshooting technique is to try running on batteries for a test. Also if you don't actually need 8 channels try fourbanger it seems to have more community R&D.

Also…. I have found another person who, since last year, is having the issue that the ‘scare only‘ setup isn‘t working at all for him. He didn‘t mention any other sound issues tho.
The timing coincides with when my issues started, so I wonder if it maybe has anything to do with updates… be it the version of Octobanger thats on the server or Windows updates or firmware updates of the components.

 

[Allen_Haunts]

Allen, don‘t get me wrong, I really appreciated the suggestion! But after all, it‘s been a couple of years since Octobanger has been released and I‘m sure, when you make the effort to program and make the result available… it can be a bit demanding to then keep debugging and answer every question, suggestion and issue. I wouldn‘t blame him, if he just stopped all together!
That‘s why I hoped, I could find someone with a solution on here. 😃
Do you remember if the mail I used was the same for you?

He has an account on this forum, MIKKOJAY, is his username. He emails me with his personal account which I don’t wish to publish here but you may get him through the forum. I originally wrote him through the info email address and he answered with his personal account. I hope he’s OK. I haven’t seen him post in a while and I last communicated with him last year.

Also, some people have had issues with certain mp3 boards not being compatible. Run a search on the “octobanger” in the forum. There is a lot of info there. Good luck.

 

[Batbuddy]

Sounds odd for sure. I have not had any issues with my various uses of the Fourbanger or Octobanger and I have used them a bunch in lots of projects and for years. Maybe there are bugs in the newer versions, but I have not experienced them. Hope you find a solution and keep us updated what you find. Good luck.

 

[jdjuggler]

Wacky suggestion. Can you try a different MP3 file just to see if there something weird going on there.
JD

 

[AAWerding]

He has an account on this forum, MIKKOJAY, is his username. He emails me with his personal account which I don’t wish to publish here but you may get him through the forum. I originally wrote him through the info email address and he answered with his personal account. I hope he’s OK. I haven’t seen him post in a while and I last communicated with him last year.

Also, some people have had issues with certain mp3 boards not being compatible. Run a search on the “octobanger” in the forum. There is a lot of info there. Good luck.

Thank you very much!
I really do appreciate it.

 

[scary rick]

I had some issues in the past using 5vdc to power everything. bumping the uno to 12vdc solved it.

 

[AAWerding]

I had some issues in the past using 5vdc to power everything. bumping the uno to 12vdc solved it.

Hi Rick, thank you very much for that advice.
That is most certainly worth a try. I must admit, I was surprised when I read your suggestion but after I just googled Arduino power supply, it actually even states on the Arduino home page that it should be powered between 7 and 12V but can run on 5V to up to 20V (but might overheat then).

And here I am, running the whole controller on a 12V power supply but using a step-down board to lower the voltage to 5V for the Uno… DUH!
If nothing else, you just saved me some money in the future, so thank you very much already

 

[AAWerding]

I had some issues in the past using 5vdc to power everything. bumping the uno to 12vdc solved it.

Hi ScaryRick,

first of all, thank you very much for the suggestion to bump up the uno to 12VDC. Indeed, that resolved the issue that my sounds only played every other time.

But it came at a cost.
I‘m posting this to make others aware of what happened when I did bump up the voltage in the first two cases I tried:
at first, I tried just to implement the change to the setup I already put together by just taking out the step-down board and hooking up the Uno clone I did used to the 12 VDC block directly. The Uno worked fine, but the MP3 player got fried.

So I breadboarded a new setup using a different brand of Uno clone (AZ Delivery), and the same thing happened.
As it turned out, (some) Uno clones don‘t step down the input voltage and send the 12 VDC straight through to the 5 VDC pins!
The original Arduino Uno actually lowers the voltage to 5 VDC… so that‘s what I‘m using now.
In the end, it‘s gonna be more expensive having to use original Arduino Unos, but at least they do work as intended.

Again, thank you very much for the help!

 

[Batbuddy]

The Uno/nano clones I have used, (never bought an authentic Arduino board) do step down the voltage so they are out there, you just have to shop carefully.

 

[corey872]

Not sure how you have everything set up, but also beware that arduino voltage regulators are typically pretty 'weak' - they may only regulate a few hundred milliamps, of which the arduino may take a hundred or more. If you're only running another logic circuit or a few LEDs, this is typically fine. But trying to run something taking actual current/power...your relay coil, large lights/LEDs, anything containing a motor, etc through the arduino voltage regulator - this will pretty quickly kill the regulator on the arduino and may pass 12V power straight through ...or blow the chip off the board completely. (Don't ask me how I know - lol )

Also be careful if you have your relay wired on the same power rail with any of the sensitive 'logic' style boards... arduino, MP3, etc. When the relay opens/closes, you can get a voltage spike/inductive kickback out of the coil which can spike hundreds or even thousands of volts on the line. If this is the case, it would be ideal to have a 'freewheeling diode' and/or other snubber set up on the coil.

 

[AAWerding]

The Uno/nano clones I have used, (never bought an authentic Arduino board) do step down the voltage so they are out there, you just have to shop carefully.

I suppose so… thing is is though, you won‘t know until you have already bought one and the issue presents itself. I‘m a bit disappointed that the AZ Delivery one doesn‘t step it down, though. They are a pretty big company after all.