NanoPlayer mkII

Interfacing and Connectivity

• Status LED
• 2 tactile switches (volume + / volume -)
• Infrared sensor – Protocol: Sony SIRC, 12 bits, 38 kHz carrier
• SD card slot
• Unbalanced line-level stereo audio output on a standard 3.5 mm (TRS) jack
• 2 headphone stereo audio outputs on a standard 3.5 mm (TRS) jack
• Class D amplified speaker stereo audio output on 3.5 mm wire-to-board terminal block
• An input contact on a 3.81 mm pluggable terminal block (typical debounce time: 100 ms)
• Power supply output on 3.81 mm pluggable terminal block
• 1 × 10 pins header (2.54 mm): volume +, volume -, power supply output, input contact (typical debounce time: 100 ms)
• 1 × 4 pins header (2.54 mm): amplified speaker stereo audio output
• External DC power supply chassis socket – Plug Ø 2.1 mm / 5.5 mm

Audio File Formats Supported

• MP3 (.mp3): MPEG-1/2 Audio Layer III, stereo, 16 bits, 44.1 kHz, from 32 kbit/s to 128 kbit/s, CBR (Constant Bit Rate) or VBR (Variable Bit Rate), with or without ID3v1/2 tags¹
• WAV (.wav): stereo, 16-bit LPCM, 44.1 kHz, WAVE_FORMAT_PCM

¹ Some ID3v1 or ID3v2.4 footer tags might cause unexpected noises at the end of the files.

Storage Devices

• File system supported: FAT32
• Accepted storage device types:
  • SDSC cards
  • SDHC cards
• Accepts 2 folders maximum at the root, containing up to 999 files each

Audio Amplifiers

• Speaker output:
  • 2 × 8 W – 8 Ω, THD+N = 1 %, 1 kHz
  • 2 × 10 W – 8 Ω, THD+N = 10 %, 1 kHz
  • 2 × 13 W – 4 Ω, THD+N = 1 %, 1 kHz
  • 2 × 16 W – 4 Ω, THD+N = 10 %, 1 kHz

Power Supply

• Player power supply input:
  • Nominal voltage: 12 V DC
• Supplied mains adapter input:
  • Voltage: from 100 V to 240 V
  • Frequency: from 50 Hz to 60 Hz

Current Consumption (12 V supplied)

• Typical consumption in playback with a SD card, without amplifier: 140 mA
• Recommended power supply for full use of the device – output current: 3.45 A

Thermal Information

• Operating ambient temperature: from 0 to +60 °C
• Storage temperature: from -20 to +60 °C

Dimensions

• Width: 70 mm
• Height: 17 mm
• Depth (with the pluggable terminal blocks): 83 mm

Weight

• 108 g (with the pluggable terminal blocks)

NanoPlayer mkII is a flexible audio source which can be used for large kind of OEM installations :

• Integrate the NanoPlayer mkII into pieces of furniture to create musical items.
• Add the sound dimension to objects triggering broadcast on presence detection.
• For industrial applications, create an automated message box.
• Install audio information posts in gardens and parks. The low power consumption allows to use a power supply system with solar panel and battery.
• Add interactive audio to models, games…

• Sample content files:

• • Guidelines for using sample content (English/French)
  • Basic sample content files (playback at the power on and playback at the input contact triggering)

• Wiring diagrams:

• • Wiring diagram with a Senso Pad
  • Wiring diagram with a IR Pad

• FAQ:

• • The WAV file I created with Protools makes an odd noise each time it starts up.

WAV files created with Protools as well as with certain types of audio software are not standard WAV files. These are WAV Broadcast files which contain ‘metadata’ as well as the standard audio data. The player plays the ‘metadata’ zones in the same way as the audio data, which causes an odd noise at the start of the file reading. To resolve this problem, you can make your WAV files conform by taking out all ‘metadata’ so that only audio data useful to the player is kept. If you do not possess the necessary audio editor to carry out this operation, you can make a copy of your audio file using the software Audacity. This software is under a GPL licence and is free to use whatever your operating system (Windows, Mac OS X or Linux).

• • Some MP3 files are not correctly play by my player.

At first make sure that the audio file characteristics are same as the specifications of your player (bit rate, number of channels, resolution, encoding types). If everything looks correct, make sure that all metadata (TAG ID3v1 and ID3v2) of your MP3 file is deleted to keep only useful audio data. Some types of TAGs can prevent to playing the file. There are many utilities to manage and remove tags of your files, but if you do not have a reference application, you can use Winamp (Windows) software.

• • I carefully followed the instructions to naming files and folders explained in the manual but the files and folders do not seem to follow the desired logic.

The problem probably comes from the names of files and folders that you used. Names of files and folders use three characters, neither more nor less. Each character must make a sense according to the user manual and be entered in uppercase. Otherwise, the player apply the default function.

• • Can I use a Mac OS X system to prepare the contents of my SD card or USB flash drive?

When using a Mac OS, the hidden system (. DS_Store, etc.) files generated by this system and which interfere with the proper operation of your player must be deleted manually:

• • • On the MAC computer, insert the storage device.
    • Format the storage device as FAT 32 and give it a volume name.
    • Store on it useful files according to the organization demanded by the player.
    • In the terminal of MAC OS X (folder « Applications » -> « Tools »), enter and execute the following command: dot_clean -m /Volumes/(volume name)
    • Eject the storage device with the ejecting process of the system.
    • Turn the player on with the storage device prepared as follow.

• • I don’t know how my file is encoded. Which software can i use to know precisely which are the caracteristics of my file? (format, type, encoding, bitrate…)

If you have not any software for this, you can use MediaInfo software (http://mediaarea.net/fr/MediaInfo). This software, provided under BSD license, is free and opensource on all operating system (Windows, Mac OS X or Linux).

• • I hear drop in the sound when I read some MP3 files. What is the problem?

With some audio players of the « NanoPlayer » range of products, your MP3 files must not be encoded more than 128 kbps. This is sufficient in the large majority of uses. It is not recommended to use files encoded at 192kbps, 256 kbps or 320 kbps. If you need a higher quality 128 kbps, use the WAV format instead of the MP3 format.