Pic Control With Software

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- 14th October 2006, 19:38
Agent36

Pic Control With Software

Hi,

Does any one know of some software for xp that will play audio files and give an output from say the serial port to a pic when it starts playing, and another signal when it stops?

This is what I would like to do; select an audio file. When it plays, a signal is sent from pc to pic to start recording. When the audio stops another signal is sent to the pic to stop recording.

I thought about sending the audio out on the left channel and sending control pulses out on the right channel from the stereo jack; but I could not find any audio software that would allow me to do this.

Any help/ideas would be a great help, I'm sure I'm not the first to have this problem.

Thank you for your time

Nick
- 14th October 2006, 21:07
mister_e

I know a program wich allow you to edit left/right channel. SoundForge and/or Vegas. But there's certainely tons of other who will allow that too.

For your specific need, i guess you will have to do your own app in VB or else. Send the Start message on the Serial PORT, play the wav, when it stop, send the Stop message on the serial port.
- 15th October 2006, 19:17
Agent36

Mister_e,

Thanks for the audio editing software names; I have just got a copy of sound forge, looks like I might be able to use one channel for control.
I am hoping to put all the audio on one channel and the start/stop recording on the other using a filter.

I am also looking at the dedicated software option too, any one know how much it would cost to write a small application? I've never tried that sort of programming, pic basic is my limit at the moment!

Kind regards
Nick
- 16th October 2006, 15:05
mister_e

Drop me a message on my e-mail. We could look at that together.
- 17th October 2006, 05:43
sougata

If you want to avoid programming on the PC Side

Hi,

If you use one track (of a serial file) for your control signal then you could use a couple of tone decoders http://www.x-robotics.com/downloads/...67_SE567_2.pdf to do the job. Take two frequencies for a 0 and 1. You could even use a DTMF decoder chip like MT8870. As most audio software would let you generate DTMF tones your life would get easier. Get the trial version of Adobe Audition Pro (formerly Cool Edit Pro).
- 18th October 2006, 18:18
Agent36

Hi Sougata ,
Thanks for the info on the DTMF decoder chip MT8870, I will get one and try it. I only need to record and stop record at the moment, so it covers that with the 4 bit output.

Nick