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Quick Start

In this Quick Start guide we'll connect the SparkFun Audio Player Breakout - MY1690X to a SparkFun RedBoard Plus and use the SparkFun MY1690X MP3 Decoder Arduino Library to play audio stored on a connected microSD card.

If you're not familiar with using breakout and development boards or the Arduino IDE, refer to the Hardware & Software sections for a detailed overview of the board along with instructions on soldering to and connecting the breakout, installing and using the SparkFun MY1690X MP3 Decoder Arduino Library.

Basic Assembly

Start by soldering your preferred connector or wire to the to the power and serial pins (GND, VIN, RX and TX) on the Audio Player Breakout. We opted to just solder to all the pins to plug it into a breadboard for easy prototyping like the photo below:

Photo showing header pins soldered to the Audio Player Breakout

Next, make the following connections to your Arduino development board:

Audio Player Arduino
Ground Ground
VIN 5V
RX D9
TX D8

Photo showing Audio Player Breakout connected to RedBoard Plus

With everything wired up we can move on to preparing the SD card and uploading the example code.

Prepare SD Card

The MY1690X works with standard SD cards up to 32GB capacity and formatted to either FAT16 or FAT32. Users can upload files to an SD card mounted on the shield by plugging it into a computer over USB-C or can load them directly onto the SD card using a USB Card Reader or the SD card slot on their computer. Files and folders on a connected SD card should match the following naming conventions:

  • .MP3/.WAV files in the root directory must begin with a four digit number (eg. 000#) starting at 0001 and can have characters following the numbers
  • Folders should begin with a two digit number (eg. 0#) starting at 01 and can have characters following the numbers.
  • .MP3/.WAV files stored inside folders must begin with three digits (eg. 00#) starting at 001 and can have characters following the numbers.

Make sure to load the audio tracks onto the SD card, insert the card into the microSD card slot and then proceed to the Arduino Example.

Arduino Example

With the audio player breakout connected to your development board, let's upload Example 2 - Kitchen Sink to the board to start playing and controlling audio. This example will start playing the first track once it's uploaded and also includes a serial menu to access all of the UART commands using simple text commands. Follow the steps below to upload the example.

  • Open the Arduino IDE.
  • Open the Library Manager tool, search for "SparkFun MY1690X MP3 Decoder" and install the latest version
  • Open "Example 2 - Kitchen Sink".
  • Select your Board (SparkFun RedBoard or other board) and Port and click "Upload".
  • After the code compiles and finishes uploading, open the serial monitor with the baud set to 115200.
  • The code prints out a menu of available commands to control the MY1690X's playback. Type in the command you'd like to do and hit Enter or click Send.
  • Have fun playing around controlling track playback, volume and other features.

Screenshot of example 1 in Arduino

Code to Note

  • Serial Setup 

    #include "SoftwareSerial.h"
SoftwareSerial serialMP3(8, 9); //RX on Arduino connected to TX on MY1690's, TX on Arduino connected to the MY1690's RX pin

//For boards that have multiple hardware serial ports
//HardwareSerial serialMP3(2); //Create serial port on ESP32: TX on 17, RX on 16
    The code has options for both Software Serial and Hardware Serial depending on your dev board. The code defaults to use pins D8 and D9 for software serial

  • MY1690X & Track Checks

if (myMP3.begin(serialMP3) == false) // Beginning the MP3 player requires a serial port (either hardware or software)
  {
    Serial.println(F("Device not detected. Check wiring. Freezing."));
    while (1);
  }

  int songCount = myMP3.getSongCount();
  if (songCount == 0)
  {
    Serial.println(F("Oh no! No songs found. Make sure the SD card is inserted and there are MP3s on it. Freezing."));
    while (1);
  }
On setup, the code checks to detect the MY1690X over serial and also checks to make sure the SD card has audio tracks

  • Get Track Numbers, MY1690 Version and Play First Track 
      Serial.print(F("Number of tracks on SD card: "));
  Serial.println(songCount);

  Serial.print(F("MY1690 Version: "));
  Serial.println(myMP3.getVersion());

  myMP3.play(); //Will play the lowest numbered song in the folder

The example will print out the number of tracks detected on the SD card, the MY1690 version and then will play the lowest numbered song on the card. Note, it takes ~30ms for a track to start playing so the code waits 50ms before requesting play status.

  • MY1690X Menu Options

This menu shows the available commands to control playback. Type in the matching character in the serial monitor and hit Enter to send it. The Set EQ and Set play mode commands cycle through the available equalizer and play mode options. Refer to the Arduino Examples section of this guide or section 6.1 of the datasheet for more information.

void mainMenu()
{
  Serial.println();
  Serial.println(F("SparkFun MY1690 Menu:"));

  Serial.println(F("s) Stop play"));
  Serial.println(F("x) Reset IC"));
  Serial.println(F("a) Volume up"));
  Serial.println(F("z) Volume down"));
  Serial.println(F("f) Fast forward"));
  Serial.println(F("r) Reverse"));
  Serial.println(F("p) Play/Pause toggle"));
  Serial.println(F("e) Set EQ"));
  Serial.println(F("m) Set play mode"));
  Serial.println(F("<) Play previous"));
  Serial.println(F(">) Play next"));
  Serial.println(F("#) Play track number"));
  Serial.println(F("c) Current track number"));
  Serial.println(F("t) Track elapsed time"));
  Serial.println(F("T) Track total time"));
  Serial.println(F("Enter command:"));
}