Getting FEZ to generate a tone via Analog out

Archive
1

I ordered a FEZ Panda and have wanted to see if I could get it to generate tones via a morse code rythym. I have the morse code part of the program working with the LED, but I’m having trouble figuring out how to get a tone generated from one of the audio ports.

I saw a project about FEZ being able to play audio: (link removed). Based on what I saw in that project, I hooked a TRS audio connector to the ground and A3 ports of the FEZ Panda. I changed my code to use

new OutputPort((Cpu.Pin)FEZ_Pin.AnalogOut.An3,false);

as the OutpoutPort. All it’s doing is sending true when the morse code is on and false when the morse code is off. I can faintly hear the rythym of the morse code, but only if I hold the speaker up to my ear.

What do I need to do to be able to generate a tone to send to the speaker?

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Ben - The analog out can drive VERY little current… are you connecting this to a “line in” like on a stereo, or directly to speakers/headphones? It needs to be connected to an amplifier.

Also, true/false are not “audio”…

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@ Patrick I’m connecting to a speaker that is self-powered, so I figure that it is its own amplifier (also, it appears that the speaker in the project I referenced wasn’t going through an amplifier before interacting with the FEZ device).

I understand that true and false are not “audio”; that’s why I’m asking how to generate a tone to send. In my initial test, I just wanted to replace the led output with the analog output to see if I could hear [italic]something[/italic]. The true/false was part of the led output. My goal now is to figure out how to send a tone instead of simply true/false, and that’s where I’m stuck.

4

Did you look at the sample code on the page you just posted? That would be a start, since it actually plays audio :slight_smile:

If you want to generate your own tones (vs playing wave files) you should look at how audio files are constructed - they’re literally “waves” (sine waves, for example.)

The speakers in the photo have a power light, so they are amplified.

5

I did look at the sample code. I opened it up and tried to learn how it was sending signals to the analog output port. I ran into stumbling blocks in two places:

[ol]The sample project is playing wave files and I need to generate tones instead. I’m not sure how to do that and what tones “look like” in code.[/ol]
[ol]I was also confused at how to use the AnalogOut out object from the sample code in my application. I think I was missing an assembly reference.[/ol]

I think I’ve found the assemblies I need to add to be able to work with AnalogOut, but I still don’t know what a “wave” looks like in code to be able to generate a tone. Any ideas?

6

I did look at the sample code. I opened it up and tried to learn how it was sending signals to the analog output port. I ran into stumbling blocks in two places:

[ol]The sample project is playing wave files and I need to generate tones instead. I’m not sure how to do that and what tones “look like” in code.[/ol]
[ol]I was also confused at how to use the AnalogOut out object from the sample code in my application. I think I was missing an assembly reference.[/ol]

I think I’ve found the assemblies I need to add to be able to work with AnalogOut, but I still don’t know what a “wave” looks like in code to be able to generate a tone. Any ideas?

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If you just want to generate a tone for Morse code hook your speaker up to a PWM port.

Take a look at this (link removed)

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I was able to find the following assemblies (GHI version 4.1.1.0) and reference them in my project:

using GHIElectronics.NETMF.Hardware;
using GHIElectronics.NETMF.IO;
using GHIElectronics.NETMF.System;

That allowed me to see the AnalogOut object. However, it seems to behave differently in my project than in the sample project. The implementation in the sample project has:

aout.Set(buffer, wav.GetDataIndex(), wav.GetDataSize(), wav.GetSampleRate());

Whereas when I try to use AnalogOut in my project, AnalogOut.Set only takes one parameter, an int named value. I feel like I moved a step forward by referencing the right assemblies, but now I’m confused as to why AnalogOut seems different in my project than in the sample project.

9

Have you downloaded the new SDK Ben?

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I had thought that I had a more recent version of the SDK, but it appears I may be behind a few versions. (EDIT: I must have had the previous [italic]stable[/italic] version of the SDK, which was still several versions behind the existing beta versions).

Great tip on using PWM, by the way. I didn’t realize that PWM was exactly what I needed to generate a tone; I’m still very much a newbie at this stuff :-). I had a little bit of trouble figuring out what to do with duty cycle, but when I set it to 1, it seemed to work fine for generating my morse code tone.

Much thanks!

11

It seems that you have fallen into the same trap as me.
[url]http://www.tinyclr.com/forum/2/1320/[/url]

For some strange reason the analog out pin can’t be addressed as

new OutputPort((Cpu.Pin)FEZ_Pin.AnalogOut.An3,false);

It has to be addressed as

new AnalogOut(AnalogOut.Pin.Aout0);
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Using Reflector:

public enum AnalogIn : byte
{
    An0 = 0,
    An1 = 1,
    An2 = 2,
    An3 = 3,
    An4 = 4,
    An5 = 5
}

public enum AnalogOut : byte
{
    An3 = 0
}
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I didn’t get any of that, -sorry :-[
I just want things to be FEZ :slight_smile: