How come 'looping tracks' like TO1LATCH.WAV dont loop in UART mode?

UART mode is completely manual - only 'button mode' does the 'random/next/latch' behaviors. that's because if you are controlling via UART you can do whatever you like :)

I am having difficultly triggering GPIO #9 and #10

For reasons we haven't nailed down yet, Trigger pins #9 and #10 require more current to trigger (they are set to inputs in the firmware so that's not it) and might not be possible to do so from a logic output device. Using a switch ought to work!

Can I trigger using a Eurorack Output?

No, the board is set to trigger through switch closures. You could make a circuit to perhaps go from a Eurorack trigger to a switching trigger but that's beyond the scope of this guide.

If I hold down a button in 'play once' Tnn.WAV mode, it will repeat!

That's right, after it is done playing the sound it will check the buttons and find that the one you have held down is pressed so it will play it again - this is normal!

If you want to have it play a sound only once through, even if the button is held down, you can try making a sound with very long empty noise at the end, then use TnnHOLD mode so that it will play an empty noise. Then when the button is released and re-pressed it will start at the beginning. OGG type is best for this since it is compressed

I don't have short delays between loops, whats up with that?

The microconroller on board has to look through the entire filesystem every time it detects a button press, so the key to making loops short is keeping the filesystem clean and small.

Once you have your setup the way you want, make sure the SD card is empty, even reformat it with the 'blank' image if you've copy n pasted files around! Use WAV format not OGG because WAV plays faster. Also, make sure you are using T00 slot since that is the first button checked.

Why is there a sharp popping sound when the board is first powered?

If you hear this, it is normal. The board does not include any anti-popping circuitry to prevent this initial transient.

Doesn't show up as a drive on my computer

Check you have a data-capable USB cable, or try another cable just in case

On some computers, give it a minute, the first time it sees the drive it may try to read data from it and its a bit slow (we saw this on Windows 7 in particular)

Make sure the green LED near the microUSB port is lit, that tells you it has power, however the red LED should not be lit

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I can't get audio to play when I trigger the pins

Is the board connected to a computer USB port? You cannot use it as a USB storage device and play audio at the same time, even if you 'eject' the drive, you can only power it from battery or a power-only USB port like a USB wall adapter.

Do you see the red LED blink or turn on at all when you trigger the pin? You should see something blink/flicker when it plays audio.

Make sure nothing is connected to the CS or UG pins!

In case there's something amiss with your audio files, try using our audio file downloads, remember they go in the base directory of the USB drive, they cannot go in a folder or in a compressed zip!

To trigger, connect a wire from a GND pin to a numbered pin

With headphones in the headphone jack (or speakers connected), plug the board into USB. You should hear a beep/tone when it detects that it is connected to a computer

The ADAFRUITSFX folder available space is not showing full capacity?

Some OS's add hidden files for placing various meta information needed for their OS specific features. These may not show up by default and may be taking up space. Try turning on "Show hidden files" in your OS and look for these. Some common ones to look for are:

  • .Trashes on MacOS

This guide was first published on Sep 23, 2014. It was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

This page (F.A.Q.) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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