Soundboard for Star Trek Communicator Badges from QMX (TNG Era Only)

Community Projects
1

Hi,

I am new here and didn’t see a category for newbies. Below is what I’d like to do.

I currently have a couple of Star Trek Communicator Badges from a company called Quantum Mechanix (QMX for short). I would like to have the chirp sound effect to be played when tapping on the badge.

What soundboard would you recommend that could work? For power I would like it to be run from either a quarter sized watch battery or a rechargeable battery with micro USB port for charging. With the board and power could be housed in a small project box with a spring loaded belt clip. Coming from the board will be a push button switch that will activate the roughly 1 or 2 second chirp sound effect and a speaker that would be placed either above or below the communicator badge. Both wires for the switch and speaker could come out of the same hole or two separate holes with heat shrink tubing around each set of wires and heat shrink tubing together. Both will be clipped onto the straps on the bib pants. One thing I forgot to mention is I would like to have a few LEDs for power, charging and low battery notice.

2

You might have a look at the Little Soundie or Qwiic MP3 Trigger for something like this. Links to both are below.

  • - [[SparkFun Little Soundie Audio Player](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14006)
  • - [[SparkFun Qwiic MP3 Trigger](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15165)
    • [/list]

    Both can operate independently but adding a microcontroller to the Qwiic MP3 Trigger adds some flexibility in use. The Qwiic MP3 also has a built in audio amplifier eliminating the need for an external amp.](SparkFun Qwiic MP3 Trigger - DEV-15165 - SparkFun Electronics)](SparkFun Little Soundie Audio Player - DEV-14006 - SparkFun Electronics)

    3

    TS-Chris,

    If I were to go with the SparkFun Qwiic MP3 Trigger for my project what battery, speaker and momentary switch would work with the board. I see they have a small speaker that is the size which goes into sound greeting cards but it is on backorder.

    With the SparkFun Qwiic MP3 Trigger, I didn’t see if the USB connector is for data only or data/power.

    4

    If I were to go with the SparkFun Qwiic MP3 Trigger for my project what battery, speaker and momentary switch would work with the board.

    Starting with the speaker:

    The smallest speaker we have would be our [Thin Speaker, but as you’ve noticed, that’s out of stock. Other options would be [COM-11089 or [COM-09151 but both are not very loud when used with the Qwiic MP3. It’s slightly bulkier, but [COM-14023 works well when plugged into the Qwiic MP3 and is fairly loud on it’s own.

    For a momentary switch, really any momentary switch will work. You could go as small as [COM-00097 all the way up to as big as [COM-09339. As long as it’s momentary and has a normally open contact, you can use it.

    For a power, it gets a bit trickier because you need either 5 volt USB power or a regulated 3.3 volt power source. A USB C to USB A cable and a USB power bank would work but the Qwiic MP3 doesn’t use much power and most power banks will shut off when the connected device isn’t using much power. If you have a power bank that doesn’t automatically shut off, that might work for you.

    For a battery, the easiest solution would be to use two AA or AAA sized batteries connected in series in a battery holder. That would give you 3 volts and would be enough to run the Qwiic MP3. [PRT-14219 along with two AAA sized batteries would work for that.

    You might also have a read through the hookup guide for the Qwiic MP3. That will give you a better picture of what capabilities the board has and how to use them.](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14219)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9339)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/97)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14023)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9151)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11089)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15350)