USB Stick Speaker

[georgem]

Hi People

I am new here.
Really don't want to annoy anyone with my post. I am essentially an amateur looking for some simple advice so please bear with me.

My project involves tweaking a USB memory stick so that it plays a sound when its inserted into the USB drive.

I am a novice at electronics and just wandered if anyone could give any ideas on how this could be achieved. Do you think this is achievable?

I am working on getting the circuity schematics which I will post up when I get them.

Cheers

 

[jackorocko]

so you want a speaker mounted to an existing usb flash drive? How small is this speaker ?

 

[georgem]

Hey Jacko

I wanted the speaker which will be as small as I can find to be wired into the circuit of the stick so that it plays when its inserted into the USB drive.
Imagine one of those electronic birthday cards that plays a sound when you open it.
Essentially I want the same but with a USB stick when you insert it into the USB drive.
Sound possible?

 

[davenn]

The USB stick basically needs a small computer ( processor) to operate
its not going to do anything on its own

USB stick - USB drive basically the same thing just different terminology

cheers
Dave

 

[jackorocko]

Well I could think of one way to make it work. But small, I doubt it... When the usb drive is plugged in there will be power, Just like turning on a switch. You could use this to drive the speaker as it is 5v. But that is where it essentially stops being easy and gets more complicated as you would expect more from the circuit. For instance you won't get a beep if you supply a constant power source to the speaker.

 

[georgem]

@davenn - My assumption was that when the stick is placed in a usb dock on the pc then a small current is placed through the stick. I would be using that current to play a small sound clip stored on the stick via a small speaker (very small speaker). It would only be a second or so long.

@jackorocko Yeah that was my assumption. What do you mean you wont get a beep? I was thinking the circuity in the birthday cards I mentioned might be applicable along with the circuitry that is used as well. Its worth noting I want a short clip of relatve quality to play only once when the usb is plugged in.

I am working on getting the circuit schematics if that would help.

Cheers

 

[davenn]

@davenn - My assumption was that when the stick is placed in a usb dock on the pc then a small current is placed through the stick. I would be using that current to play a small sound clip stored on the stick via a small speaker (very small speaker). It would only be a second or so long.

The audio isnt stored as sound on the USB memory stick. 5V onto the stick doesnt produce sound out. you get DATA in and out of the memory stick when it is address appropriately by a microprocessor to read or write to the stick. Then running software eg. windows media player converts that data stream into audio.
It would be the same as saying... I will stick a couple of wires onto the I/O pins of my hard disk drive (USB memory stick) that is full of MP3's and when I put power onto the drive it will play them.
no you wont get anything,like the USB stick, it has to be addressed by a processor to recover the data.

@jackorocko Yeah that was my assumption. What do you mean you wont get a beep? I was thinking the circuity in the birthday cards I mentioned might be applicable along with the circuitry that is used as well. Its worth noting I want a short clip of relatve quality to play only once when the usb is plugged in.
I am working on getting the circuit schematics if that would help.
Cheers

Those birthday card units are very different to memory sticks. Memory sticks are basically just "dumb" storage no processing. The audio greeting cards have memory which the sound clip is stored on and a small processor to read that stored data and produce an audio output. What you really want is a voice recorder chip that you connect a microphone etc to, and record a sound clip (ie converts it into data) the unit can then on command read that data and play back the clip. those units are in quite small packages these days. The chips themselves are available through various electronics stores. They have the memory storage and processing all on one chip

do some google searching on "voice recorder modules" etc

cheers
Dave

 

[georgem]

Hi Davenn

I wasn't hoping that the stick would play any music or sounds stored on it when its plugged in luckily I am not that stupid to think its possible

Its quite hard to explain what I want. I was hoping to have a stock sound ie not changeable or re-recordable just stored on an auxiliary board that is powered when the stick is plugged into the a usb drive. So going back to the birthday card analogy. Rather than the card being opened and a short sound being played once. When you plug the usb stick in a board with a stored sound is activated and played once. This could be a sound effect someone saying hello or something cheeky etc.

Its worth mentioning that this could potentially become a product range and I am just trying to understand what is required to make it practical, if it is.

I will check out the other information you have shared.
Cheers

 

[Digital_Angel_316]

Hi Davenn

I wasn't hoping that the stick would play any music or sounds stored on it when its plugged in luckily I am not that stupid to think its possible

Its quite hard to explain what I want. I was hoping to have a stock sound ie not changeable or re-recordable just stored on an auxiliary board that is powered when the stick is plugged into the a usb drive. So going back to the birthday card analogy. Rather than the card being opened and a short sound being played once. When you plug the usb stick in a board with a stored sound is activated and played once. This could be a sound effect someone saying hello or something cheeky etc.

Its worth mentioning that this could potentially become a product range and I am just trying to understand what is required to make it practical, if it is.

I will check out the other information you have shared.
Cheers

I can envision the concept - not sure what actual merit or marketablilty that it has. I have integrated device sensing, control or conditioning into connector housings in the past. You may experiment with a USB adaptor you cut open (.99 cents jameco) with a 'one-shot' at power on chime or tone IC. There would seem to be better applications for the USB ports that you could embed in a memory stickcase.

Scroll to bottom of page of this link -- select 'View Page'
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Cat=3670173&k=usb connector

One Example:USB-RS422-PCBA

 

[(*steve*)]

I wasn't hoping that the stick would play any music or sounds stored on it when its plugged in luckily I am not that stupid to think its possible

Reading all of this with fresh eyes (well, actually bleary eyes, but that's not important) it seems that what you may want to do is take the module from a greeting card (or similar) and have that play when the USB stick is inserted.

This is actually quite trivial as long as the module can run from 5V. The power to the module can be connected tot he USB power pins (the outer one). If the module starts playing as soon as power is connected (or can be rigged to do this) then you have essentially solved the problem.

Fitting it inside the USB case may be another issue.

 

[georgem]

@Digital_Angel_316 - Thanks for the link. Pretty informative supplier.

@Steve - That sounds promising.
I should be getting the circuit schematics soon and I will hunt down the module from said birthday card. After that I will post up my findings.

Thanks for all the help.