Computer Audio Blasphemy, nige tries Another SD Card Player

[jkeny]

OK, it looks like there is such a thing as a WiFi enabled microSD card adapter so we can get WiFi on SLC microSD card - as long as the WiFi adaptor doesn't introduce electrical noise into this setup or cause any speed issues (as these are targeting video/photo transfer from cameras, we should be fine with speed), we are good to go with WiFi enabled SLC SD card

So now to research the best one - just search for "microsd wifi adapter - I guess first we are looking for the fastest WiFi connection - something that supports 802.11ng WiFi

If we are using this SD card as a buffer for the track playlist then we probably don't need that much capacity - maybe a couple of GBs would do?

[Fran]

There are also smaller microSD slc cards too that are cheaper - down to 30e for 1 and 2 gb

[jkeny]

There are also smaller microSD slc cards too that are cheaper - down to 30e for 1 and 2 gb

Right, so maybe a 4GB SLC microSD card with WiFi enabled microSD card adapter would give us all we need if we are using the SD card to just hold the playlist?

[Fran]

Another issue which may or may not matter - I only looked at the ez-share adaptor cards, but the app for it looks a bit sketchy. Doesn't seem to be as "open source" as the flashair cards... but it might work.

[jkeny]

Another issue which may or may not matter - I only looked at the ez-share adaptor cards, but the app for it looks a bit sketchy. Doesn't seem to be as "open source" as the flashair cards... but it might work.

I wouldn't be too worried about the apps as long as we can issue Html/FTP commands to it
The more worrying aspect may be it's WiFi speed
The Ezshare Wireless Transmitting Speed: 1.5MByte/ from here http://www.ezshare.com.cn/bgw032052/eng ... egory_id=8

As a benchmark, the Flashair II card is FlashAir III posted sequential speeds of 18.17MB/s and 5.95MB/s (read and write, respectively)
http://www.storagereview.com/toshiba_fl ... ard_review

If we say average Flac file is 20MB & Wav is 50MB, we are talking about the EZshare taking 7 secs & 35 secs respectively for transmitting Flac/Wav file to SD card
I did a speed test on the Flashair some weeks ago & was happy enough with the time delay - don;t know if 10 times that delay would be so good?

The PQI Air WiFi adapter seems to fare better - from this japanese site http://dc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/revi ... 66199.html
"Instead, the transfer time of the image itself is quite fast. This time we mainly tried with Sony Cyber-shot DSC-RX100 with effective 20.2 megapixels, but the transfer to iPhone 4S finished on average on 2 to 3 seconds (when downloading with the browser). Of course, if you reduce the image size to 10 million pixels or 5 million pixels, you can transfer it faster."

Although this review states that its WiFi ic very sluggish
"Wireless performance was equally disappointing, and even sitting my Touchpad right next to the card offered no resolve."

Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/5496/ ... index.html

[Fran]

EYE-fi are another brand, but also pricey. The ezshare adaptor cards are 15 on eglobal

[jkeny]

Just thought I'd post this as it might clear up Fran's experience with his SD card & high res file playback

What would explain this is if the SD player is reading the SD card in 1-bit mode (as opposed to 4-bit mode)

It appears that the 1-bit transmission speed isn't really tested in higher speed SD cards as it's assumed 4-bit mode will be used.

Makes sense - just need to confirm that the SD player is using 1-bit mode reading off the SD card

If this is correct, we would need to know the 1-bit read speed of an SD card to know if it will work in the SD player & we seldom will find this speed so it's pot luck really!!

[jkeny]

The Chinese developer came back to me with some pricing:
- €2,500 to develop the software for the existing SD card player which does the same job - in other words we get the source code for this SD card player & could possibly modify it ourselves
- €3,000 to develop new hardware & software which gives the base functionality of the existing SD card player i.e playing WAV (not FLAC) audio files off SD card but no screen display

Either of the above options would take about a month

More expensive than I expected, TBH - I'm looking to see what costs can be taken out, like tracing the board connections so we can send him a schematic

What do people think - is there any point in continuing this enquiry?

Edit: €2,000 if we provide schematic
I'm thinking this may form a base level software from which we could develop/enhance it & create our own hardware design?

[nige2000]

Think option a is pointless
Option b is only worthwhile if it incorporates the internet of things control and upload capability
I assume it also leaves use with finished pcb design gerbers and software?
It's too expensive to run like a Kickstarter type project I think
If Commercially there is a profitable enough market for cuinas audio to sell enough of these players as dacs and front ends to recoup the development costs
It could possibly work to take on a few investors?

[jkeny]

Think option a is pointless

I know it may seem that it's pointless but here's the rub - we're not sure what factors in the current SD card player are responsible for the excellent sound. The point being that going with a whole new pcb design (involves different STM chips etc) & new software may not result in the same excellence.

Sticking with the current hardware would allow us to make incremental changes to hardware/software & ensure it retains the same quality sound as the design was improved.

So, I think there is value in this approach but there is one possible stumbling block that is major - is the STM chip locked down so we can't update the firmware with new firmware?

Option b is only worthwhile if it incorporates the internet of things control and upload capability
I assume it also leaves use with finished pcb design gerbers and software?
It's too expensive to run like a Kickstarter type project I think
If Commercially there is a profitable enough market for cuinas audio to sell enough of these players as dacs and front ends to recoup the development costs
It could possibly work to take on a few investors?

Yea, option B is tempting but it is a gamble - will it deliver the same quality sound as what we currently have? There's no way to tie the developer into such a subjective deliverable so the gamble is all at our end.

It may be worth forming some sort of investment group for such a project - Ciunas Audio could certainly be the sales arm for this product. Of course this is assuming that it delivers the sound we want.

The other aspect is that the music library & SD player interface software still needs development!