Easy Diorama and Book Nook Audio - DFPlayer Mini

Adding sound to your book nook or diorama is easy using a few simple components and the DFPlayer Mini MP3 module. This quick DIY project can be adapted to railroad layouts or other projects that requiring sound at the push of a button.
Blog post
randommakingencounters.com/df...
Supplies:
These are affiliate links and will help support my work and the channel at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
Arduino Nano - amzn.to/3eGBtwP
DFPlayer - amzn.to/3eJljCO
Micro SD card - amzn.to/3eJ4KqD
Electrolytic capacitor - amzn.to/32RtkCY
Terminal block, large - amzn.to/3JCaPmQ
Terminal block, small - amzn.to/3JtVswV
Audio jack - amzn.to/3EHOPDn
Breadboard - amzn.to/3Jxlpvr
Perma Proto Board - amzn.to/3qFEbIy
Power supply - amzn.to/3EOAkxQ
Power jack - amzn.to/3JxnIyB
Wire - amzn.to/3eGtrnw
Soldering iron - amzn.to/3sQZ71Z

[@craigmurrayauthor]

THIS WAS FANTASTIC. Finally a simple, easy, straightforward method. Don't need arduino or anything else. Just want to press button, hear sound. You did it. Best of all it's affordable. Saw another video where the electronics alone were over $100. Could buy a cheap mp4 player for 20 lol

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

This is probably one of the most compact modules out there. I’m tinkering with another module when ya really just gotta have an Arduino but sometimes a button or two is enough! All the best!

[@brickdaddiy]

I needed this today for a book nook I'm working on after the first of the year. Thanks for the tutorial!

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Awesome! I really love these little MP3 players. Sure… you can get all Arduino on them but you can also go a little analog input as well and keep it simple. Have fun with that project!

[@soapygirl5]

Great tutorial !! Thanks so much for this. It makes working with these electronics a lot less intimidating.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

I glad you found it helpful! I have a bad habit of making my projects overly complex so it's nice to find things that are pretty easy to use but add a lot of wow factor. Thanks for watching and thanks for the feedback. All the best!

[@richardalonzo2879]

Excellent Video !! Very Informative ! Love the clarity of your explanations !!

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Thank you for the feedback. This module has a lot of different applications but I love that it can also be as easy as touching a couple of pins together. Cheers!

[@m3lateef]

Thanks a lot. This was easy and to the point. I just did "my hello" world today :)

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Nice! This is a handy module that can be implemented in a bunch of different ways. I'm happy that one of them is easy. Cheers!

[@entoorvlog3784]

thank you, it really worked..

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

I’m really happy to hear it worked out. The DFPlayer is a pretty capable little board. It can be incredibly easy or extremely frustrating to use at times but controlling it with some momentary buttons works really well and avoids a lot of programming and complex connections. All the best!

[@allanandsherralynne]

I built a similar set up many years ago. I use ADKEY_1 to start the sound file. If you long press it, it loops the sound file. Have recently built your thunder/lightning circuit for my railroad module.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

I’m going to have to try that! I had a realization that not everything needs to be controlled by the microcontroller especially since multithreading is something you have to fake a bit on Arduino. I’ve also run into some glitchy behavior when I’m trying to do too many things at once… better to make the sound control more analog control if all ya need is on/off… and now loop! Thanks for the tip!

[@napkin62]

Very nice vedio... helpful for many projects....tnx....

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

You are very welcome! Thank you for your kind words and for watching. All the best!

[@diorama_dad]

Would be helpful to add the button and especially the speaker to the description so we can re-create what you're doing with the same stuff! Also, an explanation of how you have the files arranged on the SDCard would be cool!

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Thanks! I will look into a good way to document the things you noted. I need to do more Arduino videos and this one may have been a bit over-simplified. I appreciate the suggestion!! All the best.

[@benkastle4177]

Thanks a lot for your awesome explanations! How loud does the 3ohm speaker get? Can it still be heard from a few meters away with background noise?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Driving a speaker off of the built-in amp is honestly a little underwhelming. If you really want to have almost unlimited volume, the best way is to skip the speaker outputs on the module and use the line out connections instead. Those are indicated as DAC_R, DAC_L, and a ground connection on this page - wiki.dfrobot.com/DFPlayer_Mini_SKU_DFR0299. Then you could plug in a battery powered speaker using a normal 1/8 cord or run it into a bigger sound system. For my animatronic skull project, I used a small, rechargeable USB speaker and it worked great! Hope that helps! Have fun and all the best.

[@DarlingbroughModelRailway]

Thank you for this tutorial! I have been trying to get this working all morning with an Arduino Nano and I had got to the point I was wondering if the DFPlayer mini I had was actually working... I hadn't even got halfway through your video and I suddenly got music blasting from my speaker! Now I know that the Mini Player, speaker etc all works I know it's something I'm doing wrong with the Nano.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

That is truly a shared experience. It can be so frustrating not knowing what the issue is. Some of these boards are so inexpensive that getting a bricked on isn't outta the realm of possibility. Good luck with the rest of your project! A nano and DFPlayer are a great combination for dioramas and model railroads... tons of possibilities. Cheers!

[@DarlingbroughModelRailway]

@@RandomMakingEncounters Since this video I realised that the "PLAY" command was in my setup loop and not my program loop... However once I had figured that out, I managed to get it all sorted as I wanted!

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

@@DarlingbroughModelRailway fantastic! For me, it's usually a missing semicolon!

[@dkdas8689]

Hi, really nice project. What modification is needed to loop the file present in the sd card if only one file is present

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Sorry for the slow reply. Not sure if you sorted this out but I need to test my theory that holding the play pin to ground constantly will do the trick. The documentation for the board wasn't helpful. I'll update you fer sher. Thanks!

[@chatooo]

Great video and so much fun to do, Thanks! But, when I press the button the device does not turn off. The same song starts playing over and over again. Do you know why this happens?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Interesting and completely unexpected! Are you using a momentary push button or one that stays on when pressed? That's about the only thing I can think of. If you're using a button that "latches" and stays on when pressed, the player would loop in theory. With a momentary button, it should only play once. If it continues to loop, it seems like there's something that is mysteriously connecting those pins... a short somewhere. I hope you get this figured out. Cheers!

[@EdG407FL]

LOVE THIS VIDEO! I am looking for a device with a pre-recorded message via an SD card to plug and play. Could I connect this device to a stereo amplifier and then to speakers? I am thinking of getting a Sparkfun Trigger and a stereo amp. Ideally I would like the sound to activate automatically when the power is turned on without the use of any other controllers such as an Arduino. Does something like this even exist? Please let me know, thank you.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Thanks! This is a pretty robust little MP3 player. A couple of thoughts around your questions. There are two ways to wire sound output from this module. The first is to use the built-in amp and wire to speakers. I’ve never found the power to be that impressive so the second option is to use the line out connections. You can wire a 3.5mm jack into the module and then plug it into an amplifier or amplified computer speakers. Here’s a link to the documentation - wiki.dfrobot.com/DFPlayer_Mini_SKU_DFR0299. You would use DAC_L, DAC_R, and ground. This module can be controlled via Arduino but it also has very simple controls using a couple of the pins and some push buttons and resistors. This is documented under the Working section and parts 2 and 3 might be interesting to you. Basically, connecting the pins to ground through varying resistors (or even just briefly connecting them) can control the board. I think the idea is to make it possible to create a very simple MP3 player with just a handful of buttons and resistors. It may be possible to connect the ADKEY1 pin to ground through a resistor to permanently either trigger play or loop all… some experimentation would be required. Most players aren’t specifically intended to play on powering up but hard wiring that connection might do the trick. A few other modules I’ve found are the WayinTop Sound Module, the EZSound Sound Module, KOOBOOK Voice Module (they should pop up on Amazon searches). They all have their quirks and are intended to be simple (with the exception of the KOOBOOK) solutions to adding sound to something. The KOOBOOK module is a more robust variation of the DFPlayer Mini and has more of the connections you need already built into the board. All of these are pretty inexpensive… which is one of the things I like. I’ve fried plenty of $30+ boards experimenting so cooking something that’s under $10 because I wired the wrong pin to power makes it a bit more affordable. I hope this helps point you in a helpful direction! Thanks for the comment and question. Cheers!

[@EdG407FL]

MAGNIFICENT!!! THANK YOU!!! ❤

[@bruhmetsaiharnet6595]

Great,does it play any audio in a SD card or only in mp3 format ?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

To the best of my understanding, it's specifically an MP3 player. I don't think it supports other audio formats. If you're interested in more deets, I've found this to be a great resource - wiki.dfrobot.com/DFPlayer_Mini_SKU_DFR0299 All the best!

[@DennisMurphey]

Outstanding Thank You so much. I want to use a remote button, can the ADA Fruit Radio board work with a button. And put it in a train so can a Buck board set to 5v work OK. Greta sound solution I need this asap. Thank You, Dennis AKA Frankentrain Laboratories

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

All of what you described seems completely doable. I’ve never worked on anything that is remotely controlled but it’s perfectly reasonable to pair a couple of wireless modules together with a button on one that triggers sound on the other. It would be nice to find some sort of Arduino programmable all-in-one board so you don’t have to have a microcontroller, wireless module and sound board as separate items. There are some boards like the ESP32 that have WiFi and Bluetooth and the Adafruit ItsyBitsy. Maybe pairing a couple of Bluetooth enabled boards is another route. Best of luck with your project. I think solving for the wireless bit will be the initial challenge to overcome and then triggering the board will be easy. I’ve seen a ton of tutorials out there on how to control one Arduino wirelessly with another. They usually toggle an led on and off and that code would get you pretty darn close! All the best again and have a happy new year.

[@adhavanp6197]

Superb video....can we use headjack in place of speaker and different buttons for volume???

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Absolutely! This module has two pins for earbud output and you can add buttons for both volume and track skipping using long and short button presses. The best resource for this is here - wiki.dfrobot.com/DFPlayer_Mini_SKU_DFR0299 You could create a personal MP3 player with a few parts. Thanks for watching and all the best!

[@adhavanp6197]

@@RandomMakingEncounters thankyou for ur reply ❤️🤞🏻

[@MagnumPopeye]

Always great videos.. Any way we can get a PCB board on your Etsy store?? Or Gerber file Might be a good idea. Also wondering why you haven't used any low profile TTP 223 touch sensor switches? Have a look might make a good video (torch you can touch, to turn on the lights, or a little light switch, you touch. Even an instrument panel) or just a big laser engraved push here? For your book nooks. I did it for my laser cut camp lamps.. only downside (sorry refuse to say caveot or what not) is they will drain a battery with them on or off.. But I bet you could think of away to fix that one..

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Thanks for the suggestion! I haven’t… but I sure will now! I will post Gerber files. I’m not an electrical engineer so I’m not all that comfortable selling boards. I don’t want to worry about liability around all of the random things that could go wrong. Anyone that’s done any amount of DIY electronics has experienced the smell of hot electricity and burned expensive components 😂. Thanks for the idea! Looking into it all now! Cheers!

[@MagnumPopeye]

Thanks.. Even with a simple Gerber file. I can still just make a simple PCB on the laser cutter just some paint and ferchloride. Can see where liability might be an issue..

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Touch switches ordered! I’ll post those Gerbers to my site and add a link here.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

@@MagnumPopeye I just posted a page to my blog - randommakingencounters.com/arduino-neopixels-dfplayers-and-circuit-boards/

[@msanand7]

I wanted to use this DF Player with a PC. Connecting the PC to a Converter Board: RS232 to TTL. This Player board is TTL, Tx and Rx. Am I right doing so? Do I need to use any resister or can I be directly connecting the ttl Tx of DF Player Board to Conveter Rx and so on...

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Sadly, this is well beyond my experience to answer. I have connected the player to an Arduino and know you need to be careful about voltages on the pins. The inputs on the player are lower than the 5 volts coming out of the Arduino. Hope you've had success with your project! Cheers!

[@tigranhunanyan7448]

Hello. This is really helpful video. I just want to ask can we add a volume rotary button to this?. I want to put player in wooden frame. I want it to have power supply, play/stop button, female headphone jack, volume rotary button. It has to play one song up to 3 minutes. Can you please navigate me?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Hey there! I don't think you can add a rotary volume to this chip directly. A volume knob is basically a potentiometer that is wired up to control the voltage to the audio output device. Volume control on this board can be managed using momentary buttons wired to various pins on the board. I think this one has been designed for very compact installations where buttons are a better solution. If you're ok with swapping out a rotary volume control with a couple of buttons, this will be perfect and pretty easy to do. Here's a link to the data sheet - wiki.dfrobot.com/DFPlayer_Mini_SKU_DFR0299 You can see where you would wire a 5 volt power supply to VCC and GND. I would think that 3 AA batteries would be good. Alkaline would provide 4.5 volts and rechargeables 3.6. The board theoretically works on 3.2 to 5 volts. Your headphone out jack would be wired to DAC_R and DAC_L with is either a line out or headphone out and bypasses the built in speaker amplifier. If you wire momentary buttons to IO1 to ground and IO2 to ground, short and long presses on the buttons control playback. I don't see a note indicating what would stop playback?? I don't think there are any limits on track length. Another board you might want to look at is this one - www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YFPBGF8 Documentation on this one is a bit more cryptic but what I do like about it is there is a headphone jack already mounted on the board and solder points to connect a speaker. There's also a potentiometer on the board for volume control which means you could try desoldering that potentiometer and wiring in one that is external but the same value. I don't have as much experience with this one but I really like the fact that it's already on a board with connection points and a few components already in a place. Here's a site with a bit more information - www.icstation.com/music-player-voice-playback-amplifier-module-sdtf-card-integrated-uart-trigger-class-p-13455.html I hope that get's you a bit further down the path on your project! All the best!

[@tigranhunanyan7448]

@@RandomMakingEncounters Thank you very much for your response. I will try to investigate it more deeply.

[@Wa11breaker]

Whats the cap for? Must be this value? Thanks for tutorial!❤

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

I usually add a capacitor to the voltage in to act as a smoothing capacitor to prevent spikes that might damage components when I power things on. I don't have a specific size but generally throw something in the 100 uf to 1000 uf range with an appropriate voltage capacity for the circuit. The capacitor isn't required for the circuit to work. Hope that helps! Cheers!

[@petrnemecek8829]

@@RandomMakingEncounters Thanks for nice tutorial. Is problem that I used there 47uf 25v capacitor, because I had just this one? My dfplayer is pluged to my 5V3A adapter. Is it safe to not use capacitor with this adapter? Thanks for answer.

[@The.Achilles]

Is there any way to possibly add a small flicker LED to this board too. I'm trying to make a set up with 1 button press the audio plays and the LED flickers for the same amount of time and then shuts off after 30 secs or so.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

I don't think there's an "easy" way to add it directly. Here's how I might approach it... Here's the reference for the player - wiki.dfrobot.com/DFPlayer_Mini_SKU_DFR0299. The busy pin on the board switches between low (no voltage... pin goes to ground) when playing, and high (voltage delivered to the pin) when not playing. Normally, I would say you could use a transistor as a switch to turn the LED on and off... there are a lot of tutorials around how to use transistors or MOSFETs to control power. Unfortunately, for the simplest circuit, you usually would need that pin to go high to "switch on" the transistor. I don't know if there is a way to build a circuit that turns the transistor on when the pin is low. I'm sure there is but I'm not wise in the ways of electrons to understand it. If you wanted to add a bit more smarts to the circuit, you could add an Arduino to it. Then it would be pretty easy to do all sorts of stuff. You could connect the busy pin to the Arduino and have it check to see if the pin is high or low and if it's low you could use the Arduino to control the LED and then say "once the pin goes high, wait 30 seconds and turn the LED off". This would require the addition of the microcontroller and a bit of easy programming but the connections would be simple. I wish I had an easier answer but maybe this points you in a useful direction. All the best with your project! Cheers!

[@The.Achilles]

@@RandomMakingEncounters Thank you for the help

[@KOAlleyCat]

I’m wondering if I could use a 3.7v 18650 rechargeable battery for taking this on-the-go. Trying to add sound to a mascot head. 😂

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

This can absolutely be battery powered. The actual demands of the player are small. Where you'll see the most drain is in your speaker/amplifier. A mascot project sounds fun! All the best with it.

[@user-lm6fw9zq8x]

Is it possible to add lights to the same board? I'm a novice at this so I am wondering if that is possible as well?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

The DFPlayer is just for audio but, if you use an Arduino to control the audio, you can use the same Arduino to control lighting and other things! I really need to get some videos out showing more ways to control these things. It’s been on my list. Thanks for the question and cheers!!

[@user-lm6fw9zq8x]

Thanks so much for the response!@@RandomMakingEncounters

[@gyrenrockz]

Which pin should i put the 3.5mm headphone jack?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Take a quick look here - wiki.dfrobot.com/DFPlayer_Mini_SKU_DFR0299 The pins you're interested in are labeled DAC_L and DAC_R. Those are your headphone out along with connecting to ground. Hope that helps. Cheers!

[@domrellek6666]

is there a way to autostart playback without an button involved?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

This is a tough one. Here's where I generally find the best info - wiki.dfrobot.com/DFPlayer_Mini_SKU_DFR0299. Looking at the docs... you can connect IO_1 to ground to start playing. However, if you hold it to ground (long press), you decrease the volume... so that doesn't work. It's possible to do it with an Arduino and a bit of programming but that is overcomplicating if you're looking for looping playback only. There are a bunch of MP3 modules out there that may have a looping feature built in. This one looked promising - www.amazon.com/HiLetgo-Lossless-Decoders-Decoding-Amplifier/dp/B01DK9SL6C. I've had pretty good luck with the HiLetgo brand. What I like about this module is there are some basic controls built in and you have both line (earbud) and speaker outputs. If you're looking to crank some volume, you can hook the line out to computer speakers and really crank it... the speaker outputs tend to ba a little underwhelming on things like this since the built in amps tend to be a bit meh. It also looks like (based on some comments) it auto-plays and loops when it powers on... maybe that's one of its modes? There are also some out there that look like they are the same type of module used in greeting cards. Those usually have a button trigger though. I hope that helps. Best of luck with your project!

[@livetohash6152]

So, any capacitor is fine? Didn't need any specific size? .. EDIT: DERP, looked in comments n found the link 😬 So... I'm adding one to a project, n this seems like a good Idea... Also, any ideas on how to add 10-20W speaker??

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Sorry for the slow response! If you want to pump up the jam, I would look for a little audio amplifier module. There are a bunch out there and many have a volume control potentiometer. You could connect that to the audio out and then the only limit is how much power that amp can deliver. I haven't used this one (www.amazon.com/Kiro-Seeu-PAM8610-Amplifier-AM8610-MD-1pcs) but it's the kind of inexpensive board I'm thinking of. All the best with your project!! Cheers.

[@shrigmian]

Will a 4 ohm 3 watt speaker be as loud as the one in your video?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

This starts to stray into the land of things that confuse me. My general understanding is the lower the ohm, the more power the amp can and needs to deliver because the speaker has less resistance. If the amp isn't rated for lower ohms, it can be damaged. I looked at the spec sheet and searched for the ratings for the DfPlayer Mini and the general consensus was there are no specs on what the ohm rating is for the amp on the module. The docs just say maximum 3 watts. The speaker I used is 8 ohm 3 watt. It's possible that going down to 4 ohm might be louder but could over drive the amp. Most components like this are really geared towards 8 ohm speakers. Another thing that impacts sound is the size of the speaker. This makes sense because a physically larger speaker moves more air. To play it safe, I would personally stick to 8 ohm, 3 watt speakers and look for ones with larger cone. If you're really looking to crank up the volume, there are two pins next to the speaker pins that are for line out... headphones. You could connect those to a 1/8" audio jack and plug in some amplified computer speakers or even some of those smaller rechargeable speakers designed to plug into mobile devices. This bypasses the onboard amp altogether and allows you to let the external speakers do all of the amplification without worrying about blowing the amp on the module. The pinout is on this page - wiki.dfrobot.com/DFPlayer_Mini_SKU_DFR0299 This has always been a bit cryptic to me. I'm not much of an audiophile. I hope this helped a bit. All the best with your project!

[@shrigmian]

@@RandomMakingEncounters Thank you so much for your reply! 😁 The chip ended up finally coming in the mail and I got to test it out, sounds absolutely perfect with a 4 ohm 3 watt speaker. I don’t understand this stuff that much either lol so I’m glad it worked. Thanks for the tutorial too 😁

[@limebulls]

@@shrigmian thanks for your reply!

[@asici2]

hello, thank you for this video! i have a question: i used this player to make a diorama, but the circuit is always on and the battery discharge really fast. IS THERE a way to make a circuit with battery which is triggered when i push the button and then turn simply off to prevent battery discharge? thank you! (i prevented the battery drain adding a ON-OFF button, but it is annoyng to push two buttons to make this work. Also, my friend usually forget to turn off power before leave the diorama...so, this is a problem

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Sorry for the late reply. I've noodled this a bit and I'm not sure I have a brilliant solution. What you're looking for is a way to have the connection to your battery be open (not connected). When you push a button, it closes the connection and triggers the audio AND keeps the power connection until the audio file ends and then it opens the battery connection again. Something like this - randomnerdtutorials.com/latching-power-switch-circuit-auto-power-off-circuit-esp32-esp8266-arduino here's a video showing a similar thing - kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6Obl4almsaNepIsi=Pd4cLo347uDXaWni I didn't do a huge deep dive but it looks like in both of these examples the microcontroller keeps the power on using a transistor. When it's done doing it's thing, the pin controlling the transistor goes low... effectively cutting power to the circuit. If you're just using the DFPlayer by itself, I'm not sure if there is a way to do this. There is a "busy" pin that goes low (to ground or zero volts) when playing and high (~5 volts) when it's not playing... exactly the opposite of what you want to do. Sadly... I'm not an electronics expert and I'm sure there is a solution to this. Looking at both examples, it may just be easier to make your friend buy batteries... that may get them to remember to turn the power off! I hope this gets you pointed in a direction. The thing I looked for was "latching power circuit". Cheers!!

[@asici2]

@@RandomMakingEncounters ma, Thank you for this reply. I will study. Thank you. Alessandro

[@asici2]

@@RandomMakingEncounters i saw the tutorial. Actually it uses Arduino, wich for my project is way too expensive. I am working with condensators and ne555 IC wich i believe it could work for my purposes. (or i hope so.)

[@asici2]

@@RandomMakingEncounters i managed to make a circuit with a NE555P IC circuit and a 1w speaker. It work smooth. When i push it actually stay on for 30 sec and then turn off. ty

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

AWESOME@@asici2! I love it when it all works out. Nicely done!

[@SteveJones172pilot]

I'm having problems connecting these boards like this.. I have one working in a project connected to an arduino where I used the "Play all random" feature, but now I'm trying to do a project w/o the microcontroller. Docs say I should be able to play 14 different files (actually it says "segments" so I am hoping I am understanding this to be different files?!?) but I can't get it to play any, even when just using the basic shorting out the pin that you did. What file naming did you use on the SD Card? I have tried 0001.mp3, etc.. and I've tried w/ 3 digits (001.mp3, etc..) because I've seen different documentation, but neither is working for me. I am getting what I'd call a quick "squeek" and that's it.. Any help definitely appreciated!!

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Your naming seems fine. One thing to check for is hidden files on the SD card. If you're working on a Mac, there may be issues with system generated files that are hidden but share similar file names. The player isn't smart enough to tell the difference and may be trying to play those files instead. On both Mac and PC you can "show hidden files" and delete everything that's not your MP3s. Fingers crossed!

[@SteveJones172pilot]

@@RandomMakingEncounters Thanks for replying.. I did end up getting it to work. turns out the filenames were fine, and it works exactly as documented, but the whole problem was that my voltage was a little low and it was rebooting when the song started playing and the amp started taking too much current. I had a breadboard power supply that I was feeding w/ 5v and so 5v into the 5v regulator wasn't able to work properly.. Feeding 9v into it (even at less miliamps) it is working great!

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

@@SteveJones172pilot really happy to hear that! It's always frustrating when you have a mystery glitch. All the best with your project!

[@cadillacescalade5428]

How can i use df mini player with my code and use with my existing ir sensors ?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

You should be able to incorporate the DFPlayer sample code that comes with the library. I would approach it this way... it's kinda how I always kludge stuff together... I start by installing the library through the Arduino IDE and then go to the examples and grab the simplest one for the module. It will depend on what you're trying to accomplish but the basic idea would be to have your IR sensors doing their thing. You probably have some sort of conditional statement (IF or WHILE) running that is testing for something to happen. Once that condition is met, it's relatively easy to have the DFPlayer play. I should have mentioned this at the start... this video is really the simplest way that just drops a pin to ground. The DFPlayer can be completely controlled via code. Hope that helps and apologies for the slow reply! Cheers!

[@johnhaggas3244]

board is max 5 volt .i used a power bank putting out 5.13v and blew the board ....just a warning for anyone thinking oh an extra bit of power cant hurt

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Thanks for the comment. Yes! This board is a bit sensitive when it comes to voltages. If you’re hooking this up to an Arduino, you need to dial the voltage down from the Arduino pin to the RX pin on the player. There is a lot of conflicting information out there but it seems like the voltages on the board are 3.3 volts. Some documents say “5 volt tolerant” but I would be careful not to exceed that and that’s only for the VIN to power the board. I always use a couple of resistors to create a voltage divider to bring drop the voltage down on the RX pin from the Arduino 5V to 3.3V for the DFPlayer. You advice is well said… always work within the specs of the board and err on the conservative side! Cheers!

[@person_83049]

I did the exact thing but it gave me 9v……… MY BORED AND CAPACITOR BLEW UP

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Sorry to hear that. Due to some of these challenges, I’ve been looking for alternatives. This is a compact solution. But it takes additional voltage regulation to keep things from going up in a puff. I hate that smell of melted chip!

[@person_83049]

Do u have any ways to use a external power supply and get 5v

[@johnhaggas3244]

@@person_83049 a 3 x AA battery box like you get on cheap xmas leds could work 4.5v output

[@relyk226notnroht4]

I'm looking for an option for a toy I want it to sound a little better and idea's

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Sorry for the late reply. I hope you found a solution to your question. The main issue will always be the amp and the speaker. I've been playing around with this module as well www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07YFPBGF8 because it's more of a plug and play solution. The amp on the DFPlayer is pretty limited on what it can drive so I usually use an external powered speaker when I need better sound quality. The DFPlayer has both a speaker out (which runs through the onboard amp) and a line out (which requires powered speakers). The line out gives you the option to use the board to simply decode and play the MP3 file letting the quality of sound be determined by the quality of the speakers. Another board I've used is from Adafruit - www.adafruit.com/product/2217 It doesn't use an SD card and requires either WAV or OGG audio files. It's a pretty solid design and easy to use... Adafruit's documentation and tutorials are top notch! I wish you the very best on your project. Cheers!

[@mikeberger1688]

will the player run from 4.5v? (3) 1.5v cells?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

The specs seem to say 3.2 to 5 volts so I think you’re in good shape! Cheers!

[@mikeberger1688]

@@RandomMakingEncountersthank you. hate to be a pest but do you see any current draw figures for it? I don't have any data.

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

I’m not sure if this will help but here’s what I’ve been using for reference documentation - wiki.dfrobot.com/DFPlayer_Mini_SKU_DFR0299

[@mikeberger1688]

@@RandomMakingEncounters thanks !

[@limebulls]

Isn't it possible to play a sound without accidentally setting the volume down?

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

The sound is changed with a long press of the button or by holding the pin to the ground for too long. The trick is to just tap the connection or give a quick tap to a momentary button. However... it IS a bit twitchy. I'm not completely sure I understand exactly how the maker of this player really, really thinks they should be used. I've been playing around with a different board that is similar but different and may be easier to use. I'm hoping to make a video of that one soon. Cheers!

[@gravalpichaironynor2932]

You can increase volume by connecting switch in between pin nos. 10&11. Long press volume up and short press next track.

[@qsdrfghgujfddyffguff]

this is ayyorama

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Thanks for the comment! Cheers!

[@napkin62]

Code not given 😅😅😅😅

[@RandomMakingEncounters]

Code not given… code not needed 🙂. That’s the beauty of this analog approach. Cheers!