Replacing the 8-track player in Midway Haunted House with a sound card

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12897

For the past few months I’ve been tinkering with my Midway Haunted House gun game. One of the items on my project list is game sound; the tape player ate my 8-track tape at some point & the belt that drives the tape player is broken. Pinball Pal used to sell replacement tapes and belts, but from what I’ve read that site is no longer operational.

So I found this sound card made by Robertsonics and sold by Sparkfun, the “Wav Trigger”. The card has 16 triggers that can be engaged by a physical switch. Switches can be configured to play .wav files from a Micro SD card, increase or decrease volume, or stop all sound playback. Multiple .wav files (up to 14) can play at the same time and each trigger can be configured to play multiple sounds (random or sequential) if desired. In my case, Haunted House sounds can be downloaded in .mp3 format. I converted them to .wav files and split into individual tracks. I used Audacity (free download) to do the conversion and clean-up some of the static in the .mp3 file sounds…

The sound card comes with software to program each trigger. Basically I have the first switch configured to play the background sound, the second switch randomly plays one of the three cat sounds, the third switch randomly plays one of the 34 monster sounds, the fourth switch randomly plays one of the 42 witch sounds, the fifth switch stops all sound, and the 6th and 7th switch are volume controls. I have 9 switches left! I could use another switch to add gunshot sounds and coin-up sounds but right now I am only working with stock sounds from the original game 8-track.

At this point I’ve added two leaf switches to the game over relay. One triggers the background music when a the game over relay is off, and the other stops all sounds when the game over relay is engaged. I am planning to add leaf switches to the ‘witch hit’, ‘cat hit’, and ‘monster hit’ relays to play those sounds respectively, but my game still isn’t working so I cannot test that yet…

I just wanted to post this so that others could benefit from it. You could use the card to add sounds to any EM game… You need to provide your own power source (6-12vDC), a Micro SD card to hold the sounds, and I soldered some header pins to the board so that I could make a plug for my wiring harness from the card to my leaf switches. The card costs $50. Here’s a link:

and here’s a video I made, bench testing my card with Haunted House sounds:

So far the only limitation I have found is that you cannot loop sounds. So in my case, if a game lasts longer than the background music (162 seconds) the sound would stop. You could overcome this by creating a large .wav file that loops the background sound… All of my .wav files combined are only 27mb and my Micro SD card is 16gb, so I could afford to loop it many times but I don’t think it’s an issue for me since games probably won’t last that long.

I’m not affiliated with Robertsonics or Sparkfun, just passing along info.

#2 5 years ago

Eddie

Pintech

Monroe, NY

12y 92,050 1,562 7 9

Absolute Genius!!!!!!!

You have opened the doors to any EM having sounds including Pinball.

Sound effects, Call outs, Music, etc. This is the Color DMD for EMs!!!!!!!!!!

Now any switch can have a sound including score reel switches and Tilt mechs.

The possibilities for EM sounds are limitless with this.

You can even add sounds to a Gameroom itself this is really clever your the man.

#3 5 years ago

KJH

pinhead52

Pinside member

Colleyville, TX

7y 79,050 3,611 13 2

Yea, my Abra Cadabra will get a sound track very neat!

Or imagine an interactive door bell

#4 5 years ago

DAK

dankme

Pinside member

Colorado Springs, CO

10y 51,850 272

Brilliant! Awesome idea HisboyElroy....I have a few even older (60's) EM rifle games that had no or very primitive sounds. Was thinking of doing something like this to add some life to them...

That sound board seems more than adequate to do the job

#5 5 years ago

EN3

E_N_3

Pinside member

Dix Hills, NY

7y 58,800 960 13

Super smart!

#6 5 years ago

RJS

thepita007

Pinside member

Looking at the schematic you should be able to use the existing 8 track harness to trigger the sounds.

hh.png

#7 5 years ago

???

HisboyElroy

Pinside member

Thanks for posting that schematic!! I wasn't sure whether the 8-track harness passed voltage through those wires... I actually posted on Sparkfun's forum asking whether it was OK to pass voltage through the trigger switches and the reply I got said that normal operation for the board was just contact closure to ground. They warned against passing more than 5v to a trigger input. Maybe I'll coin-up a game and measure with a DMM? It would be much simpler than rigging-up leaf switches.

#8 5 years ago

PBH

PinballHelp

Mystic Krewe

New Orleans, LA

9y 65,900 2,856

Am I correct in assuming you can only trigger 14 different sounds with this device? Or is that 14 simultaneously from a palette of many more sounds?

#9 5 years ago

???

HisboyElroy

Pinside member

It's up to 14 simultaneous sounds with a total of 16 switches from a palette of up to 999 different sound (wav) files. In my case, the witch switch has 42 different sounds assigned to it, it will play any one of those 42 sounds randomly each time I close the switch.

If one of the switches plays background music then you'll want to assign one of the other switches to stop all sounds when the game ends, so that would leave you with 15 sound triggers. But you could wire a single sound trigger to multiple switches if they will have like sounds assigned to them (like drop targets or pops).

#10 5 years ago

JJS

slawnski

Pinside member

Eureka, IL

7y 47,900 381 25

Awesome! Thanks for posting!

#11 5 years ago

JNC

jodini

Pinside member

Omaha, NE

7y 53,900 1,002 6

That is awesome! Nice job thinking outside the "8 track box"!

#12 5 years ago

MCD

dasvis

Pinside member

Salem, OR

9y 91,550 4,595 11 14

Wow. Good work! Will save a lot of games.

#13 5 years ago

JDN

futurepinhead

Pinside member

9y 72,800 3,318 25

Really cool project here.

#14 5 years ago

NEO

CaptainNeo

Playfield restorations

Burlington, WI

8y 130K 20,625 43 70 1

I can see this working for many games. I wanted to do custom sounds on Miss World, and this is probably the way i'm going to be able to do it.

#15 5 years ago

RJS

thepita007

Pinside member

OP
Quoted from HisboyElroy:
Thanks for posting that schematic!! I wasn't sure whether the 8-track harness passed voltage through those wires... I actually posted on Sparkfun's forum asking whether it was OK to pass voltage through the trigger switches and the reply I got said that normal operation for the board was just contact closure to ground. They warned against passing more than 5v to a trigger input. Maybe I'll coin-up a game and measure with a DMM? It would be much simpler than rigging-up leaf switches.

yes you would want to measure the voltage to see what is on that line.

#16 5 years ago

MCD

dasvis

Pinside member

Salem, OR

9y 91,550 4,595 11 14

Bump because this is so cool.

#17 5 years ago

???

robertsonics

Inactive member

6y 1,900 6

Robertsonics here. The trigger inputs can be configured for contact closures - basically a switch or button to ground, or for logic level activation, which means 3.3V or 5V signals. Anything over 5V will likely damage the GPIO pin of the processor.

Tracks can be looped using the serial control port, and I'm testing new firmware that supports looping from a trigger input. Keep an eye on my website (robertsonics.com) because I'm regularly pushing out new firmware.

Let me know if you have questions about the WAV Trigger and I'll do my best to answer.

#18 5 years ago

RJS

thepita007

Pinside member

Quoted from robertsonics:
Robertsonics here. The trigger inputs can be configured for contact closures - basically a switch or button to ground, or for logic level activation, which means 3.3V or 5V signals. Anything over 5V will likely damage the GPIO pin of the processor.
Tracks can be looped using the serial control port, and I'm testing new firmware that supports looping from a trigger input. Keep an eye on my website (robertsonics.com) because I'm regularly pushing out new firmware.
Let me know if you have questions about the WAV Trigger and I'll do my best to answer.

based upon the above schematic for the old 8 track player what do you think would be the best way to wire in the wav trigger. I believe the voltage line for each sound on the old 8 tracker player is either 12v or 24v. Don't have easy access to the game at the moment so hopefully the thread author can post the actual voltage.

I can send the complete schematic if necessary.

#19 5 years ago

???

robertsonics

Inactive member

6y 1,900 6

Well, once you know the voltage, you could use a voltage divider to convert to 3.3V. Or you could use a relay to create a contact-closure. Try googling "12V to 5V input" or similar.

#20 5 years ago

ETC

ecurtz

Pinside member

Olympia, WA

8y 48,150 711 2

If you're ordering the sound board from Sparkfun you can just grab a level converter at the same time for an extra $3. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12009

#21 5 years ago

???

HisboyElroy

Pinside member

Quoted from robertsonics:
Robertsonics here. The trigger inputs can be configured for contact closures - basically a switch or button to ground, or for logic level activation, which means 3.3V or 5V signals. Anything over 5V will likely damage the GPIO pin of the processor.
Tracks can be looped using the serial control port, and I'm testing new firmware that supports looping from a trigger input. Keep an eye on my website (robertsonics.com) because I'm regularly pushing out new firmware.
Let me know if you have questions about the WAV Trigger and I'll do my best to answer.

Thanks for the info Robertsonics. I didn’t know you were a Pinsider. I’m really happy with your card… Glad to hear that you’re developing the ability to loop sound from a trigger input, I’ll keep checking your site.

If that comes to fruition I was thinking about putting one of your cards into an EM pinball and disconnecting the chime unit & taking it to Pinball Expo this year for the exhibit hall. May I humbly suggest that you also consider the ability to “loop” through a series of .wav files while a trigger is engaged? That would open up a lot of possibilities for background sounds/themes during a pinball game.

As for my Haunted House project, my game has been banished to our storage room for my daughter’s slumber party. You may have noticed in the bench test video that my game was in the kitchen. For some reason, not everyone in my family thinks it’s a good idea to have a project shooting gallery in the kitchen when guests are over. Go figure… I hope to pull the game out Saturday and resume work on it. I can measure voltage on that 8-track harness, if there is enough voltage to drive a coil then I have several relays with small coils laying around from past pinball projects. I’ll post some pics of my existing setup with the leaf switches that drive the background sound, and if I am ever able to sort-out my score motor/reel issue I will get the rest of the relays hooked-up and post back here with pics.

#22 5 years ago

???

robertsonics

Inactive member

6y 1,900 6

Keep in mind that if you set a trigger to "level" type, instead of the default "edge" type, then a track will loop as long as the trigger is held active. This works in the existing firmware. If you also set the trigger function to "Next", then holding the trigger active should continuously cycle through the selected track range, which I believe is what you are asking for.

#23 5 years ago

PAC

PACMAN

Pinside member

San Diego, CA

7y 94,050 3,812 35

Cool thread. Would be great if you could make kits that are ready to drop
In.

#24 5 years ago

NEO

CaptainNeo

Playfield restorations

Burlington, WI

8y 130K 20,625 43 70 1

you know, an awesome product for someone to produce would be a little self contained switch that can just piggy back on regular leaf switches and make this board easy to implement on any pinball machine. So EM's and Early SS games can easily be customized for sounds.

#25 5 years ago

CCC

ccotenj

Inactive member

Collingswood, NJ

7y 67,150 7,228 6

Quoted from CaptainNeo:
you know, an awesome product for someone to produce would be a little self contained switch that can just piggy back on regular leaf switches and make this board easy to implement on any pinball machine. So EM's and Early SS games can easily be customized for sounds.

yes, that would be rather cool...

it would be cool to make "royal guard" (for example) play a few bars of "god save the queen" when you hit a special...

and so on... i can think of lots of things to do with something like this that will really annoy my em brethren...

#26 5 years ago

CJM

EM-PINMAN

Pinside member

8y 108K 5,197

Quoted from ccotenj:
it would be cool to make "royal guard" (for example) play a few bars of "god save the queen" when you hit a special...

Sounds good to me!

Ken

#27 5 years ago

CCC

ccotenj

Inactive member

Collingswood, NJ

7y 67,150 7,228 6

you know me altogether TOO well...

#28 5 years ago

MCD

dasvis

Pinside member

Salem, OR

9y 91,550 4,595 11 14

Quoted from ccotenj:
yes, that would be rather cool...
it would be cool to make "royal guard" (for example) play a few bars of "god save the queen" when you hit a special...
and so on... i can think of lots of things to do with something like this that will really annoy my em brethren...

Damn - I gotta find the guts for the head of my Royal guard!

4 months later

#29 5 years ago

???

Badlanz

Pinside member

5y 8,750 3

Hello. Is this something that can be purchased? My HH is running perfect except sound gets cutoff, like most machines.

#30 5 years ago

KSN

2manypins

Pinside member

Hanover, VA

8y 61,650 1,427 7 2

great idea. Most HH gun games sounds are missing. Would be great to add sounds to a lot of EM machines or even to newer DMD games. The possibilities are endless.

#31 5 years ago

BED

smokey_789

Inactive member

Greenville, OH

8y 50,150 1,642 11

We are currently programming a raspberry pi for my Captain Kidd. We are programming switches on the game like if you hit a pirate he says"argghh" and a parrot says "squak". This game did not come with sounds. I will keep you posted. For more info. email zapdbf.com.

#32 5 years ago

JON

jonnyo

Inactive member

Oakland, CA

11y 52,150 2,873

If I can find a cheap, counter-top pre-flipper this might be a cool little art project. I could wire basic switches into the scoring holes. I was thinking I could take some music that matches the theme and era and then split it out into its individual parts (drums, bass, horns, etc). Then you create a unique song every time you play.

4 months later

#33 5 years ago

NDA

parkway

Yorktown Supply

Yorktown Heights, NY

8y 52,700 314 6 9

Elroy,

Any progress with this? I have a Haunted House coming to me soon and even though it's fully working, I am always on the lookout for solutions when one day it *isn't*.

-1

#34 5 years ago

NIC

NicoVolta

Roanoke Pinball Museum

Roanoke, VA

7y 126K 3,246 27 1

Quoted from ccotenj:
yes, that would be rather cool...
it would be cool to make "royal guard" (for example) play a few bars of "god save the queen" when you hit a special...
and so on... i can think of lots of things to do with something like this that will really annoy my em brethren...

I understand why purists dislike meddling with original pins because the vast majority of custom mods, painted cabs, goofy rainbow LED's, etc. just look like ass. It's depressing to see a piece of classic art fall victim to a poorly executed plan.

However, that being said, I'm a huge proponent of upgrades "done in the spirit of the original vision". Color DMD's, mirror blades, stealth LED's, even some custom rethemes improve upon the original formula. Always exciting to see that happen. The creative spirit is what gave us pinball in the first place, yanno?

I like the "God Save The Queen" idea. The key is to make it a short ditty and use a vintage instrument for the sound samples. Or, if you are really serious, install a small xylophone or mariamba to play the notes!

2 months later

#35 5 years ago

RJS

thepita007

Pinside member

I am working on a plug and play solution designed for haunted house but should work for others which use same pinout.

Stayed tuned for details

Thanks to HisboyElroy for sending me the converted audio files!

#36 5 years ago

MVJ

shimoda

Pinside member

7y 69,650 3,574 6 23

Quoted from thepita007:
I am working on a plug and play solution designed for haunted house but should work for others which use same pinout.
Stayed tuned for details
Thanks to HisboyElroy for sending me the converted audio files!

Got a friend that will be happy to see this. mp3 triggered?

#37 5 years ago

RJS

thepita007

Pinside member

mp3 trigger is not polyphonic (multiple tracks at same time) so likely wav trigger.

1 month later

#38 4 years ago

SWP

luckyman

Inactive member

4y 7,500 1

AWESOME!!! would love to install something like this in my haunted house or wild kingdom.. mabey add some real animal sounds instead of electronic noises...

Has anyone already install this and have it running???

2 weeks later

#39 4 years ago

MAG

yonizzell

Pinside member

Chambersburg, PA

7y 61,200 619 3 1

Any updates on this project yet?

#40 4 years ago

RJS

thepita007

Pinside member

soon still putting my game back together had issues with the horizontal witch motor but got that sorted now.

#41 4 years ago

MAG

yonizzell

Pinside member

Chambersburg, PA

7y 61,200 619 3 1

Sounds good thanks!

3 weeks later

#42 4 years ago

RJS

thepita007

Pinside member