Tsunami (Qwik) with SEN-14520 Capacitive Touch Breakouts Issue

I am trying to use some SEN-14520 Capacitive Touch Breakouts (momentary no timeout version) with a Tsunami (Qwik version).

I have already used the configurator to set the relevant trigger inputs to Active.

The sensors are powered by a dedicated 3V line (as the instructions said no other voltage was supported), the Tsunami has its own 5V supply.

Vout from the sensors is connected to the trig inputs.

I have tried all sorts of things (including changing power lines and reloading the firmware) but the board just does not like them, it often does not boot properly (short red light flashing continuously = Audio hardware initialization error ) or if it boots it keeps retriggering one file very rapidly.

It only seems to boot properly and works when all inputs are set to ‘contact closure’ in the configurator.

Note that I am using the same approach with the Capacitive sensors on a ‘Wav Trigger’ and everything works as expected.

What could be the issue?

Thank you in advance for your help.

No idea - and I don’t have a Capacitive Touch Breakout to test. Perhaps somebody at SparkFun can do so. I suggest starting with nothing attached to the Tsunami except power and the audio out. Program one of the trigger inputs to be Active and make sure Tsunami still works using a simple contact closure on one of the other triggers. Then see if the active trigger works just using a 3.3V wire jumper. Just keep adding things one at a time until it stops working.

Thanks for the reply

I tried that

it stops working immediately, it only works when all triggers are set to contact closure.

??

I’m not sure what’s going on. Specifically what do you mean by “stops working”?

I just took a Tsunami Qwiic with the latest firmware and set the first trigger to “Active” and “Level”, leaving the other triggers as the default. When I power up the Tsunami, the first track begins immediately because the trigger input is not connected to anything and therefore floating and considered active. When I jumper it to ground, the track stops. The other triggers continue to work normally with contact closures.

The symptoms you describe would suggest a hardware issue with your board, but I can’t explain why such issue would only appear when you modify the trigger parameters. Have you used this board previously and it worked fine?

Hi, thanks for your message

it’s a brand new board, never used it before. As mentioned same

If it was a fabrication issue is there any chance I can try to send it back and get it checked/replaced?

best

How are you connecting the sensors to the board? Photos and a schematic would be helpful in determining what the problem might be.

As I understand the description, the problem occurs without any sensors connected. I asked TINISAND to disconnect everything except power and audio out, program one of the triggers to be “Active” and confirm that the board works properly by using one of the other “Contact Closure” (default) triggers to start audio. I did this myself to confirm that it wasn’t a firmware issue. TINISAND reported that the board “stops working”, implying that it is misbehaving without any external circuitry connected. I requested clarification of what “stops working” means…

TINISAND: I don’t work for, or at, SparkFun, so I can’t help with hardware tech support. Hopefully, someone from SparkFun is monitoring this and will answer your last question.

When you power the board without an .ini file, so that all the triggers are set to the default contact closure mode, does the board work normally?

Apologies… I missed the last replies completely (did not get any notifications either) … I will test your suggestion over the weekend @Robertsonics.

@YellowDog will also send schematics & photo.

Thank you both.