My SD card arrived and here is Phase 2:
PHASE 2 - MP3 Trigger Installation:
This phase was pretty easy and straight forward. Transferred my completed audio files to the SD card and also transferred the .ini file. Hooked up the MP3 trigger to power and headphones for a test run and everything worked. Did find one issue however with the initialization code as presented in the downloaded instructions. When setting up the unit to play a random group of mp3 files "N" in the #RAND N command needs to be the file number of the first random mp3 you want to be part of the group. Not the last mp3 you want excluded. For example in my case I did not want the mp3 file 1&2 included in the random group. According to the instructions the code should be #RAND 2. This did not work as it included mp3 file 2 as part of the group. So I changed it to #RAND 3. That fixed the problem as now only mp3 file 3 and higher are included in the random playing group. Here is the code I used:
#RAND 3
#TRIG 01, 0, 0
#TRIG 02, 0, 0
#TRIG 18, 2, 0
After the successful test I then went ahead and soldered the 3 pairs of switch wires to the MP3 Trigger. The drain hole switch to trigger 1, the plunger lane switch to trigger 2 and the drop target assembly reset switch to trigger 18. Tested the unit again and had no problems or issues with the wire lengths. Everything working as planned!!
I used #4 screws with a 1/4 inch nylon spacers, as shown below, to mount the MP3 Trigger board to the bottom of the playfield cabinet.
Screws.jpg
And here is the MP3 trigger mounted in the Pin.
MP3.jpg MP3_Cab.jpg
For now I am just using a set of headphones to test and listen to the playback. Also just have the MP3 Trigger plugged into the aux service outlet in the cabinet. Phase 3 will be the installation of the Altec Lansing Computer Speakers. Phase 4 will be installing a new on-off-on master power switch so that I can select, on power up, whether to have the music or not.
More to come!!