This board is way overkill for my project, BUT it works. I have wasted a lot of time with the cute little jobs for $5. They are unpredictable and unreliable. The MP3 Trigger does the job. One caveat - if you are waiting for an available character on the RX line for the end of the file - be sure to empty the buffer first. The extra characters that are sent in the "quiet" mode are there, too.

This is super easy to configure, although you need to solder a jumper if you want it to play all files automatically. Perfect for situations where you need to play audio files automatically on power-up, or trigger different sounds depending on which input is grounded. A bit more detail in the users guide would have been appreciated as I found the parts about automatically triggering all sounds confusing, and the setup information in general was confusing. However the tech support provided by Sparkfun was over the top: both fast and very helpful. I bought seven and am very happy with them. Note: if your board seems to be dead when you power it up, you probably have the voltage input switch set the wrong way.

Couldn't be happier with this product such an easy board for starters. The only complaint I have is that its $50. But I guess if I came out with a great product like this I'd charge that too.

This is an amazing device that allows you to add sounds and full music scores to your project. The build quality of the board is excellent and the designers pre-thought it out well with even individual solder points in many cases in addition the the receptacles on the board. (ie: Left and right solder points for audio in addition to the 3.5 mm stereo jack!)

If u wanna use some sort of switches it would do the job. But if i had known that if u wanna use it as a standalone, and trigger some sort of sensors like: motion / pir / temp . Then u need a arduino/ sparkfun board.

I needed it for a project to trigger more then 4 pir sensors And to trigger the sound corresponding to that channel.

So now ill order a shild and a sparkfun bord to do the job And almost the same costs

Makes for an excellent Doorbell system. I wired the doorbell switch's (no lights) to the triggers and the audio output to an audio amp which feeds my speakers. Works fantastic. I can have different sounds for each doorbell and can easily change them anytime I want.

Sparkfun, Your boards and other innovative products are the best. I have centered a number of fun projects around your products. Please keep stocking/developing these wonderful and easy to use modules. And thanks for all the support documentation. Dave Goodsell Contributing Editor, N&V

For museum exhibits, inexpensive, simple, reliable, recommendable. Will purchase more as needed.

This unit has never failed me. I use this board to create sounds for products I make and sell all over the world. It is a reliable and dependable. They ship fast too.

It do exactly what it's supposed to do.

It do exactly what it's supposed to do.

MP3 Trigger brought my full-size R2D2 build to life!!

I have purchased over 30 of these units for various art and music projects. Many of them were installed in what we call, in the Theater Organ field, a Digital Toy Counter. (See Cinnamon Hill Art on Youtube). Others were used in specialized door bells. All of them worked flawlessly. But I did have two problems: 1: the SD memory header connector is too delicate. My present project, The Trump Circus Machine, I had, in my software development, to insert and remove the memory card several times. At about the tenth time the card would not lock in. It developed a fault. I was able to get around the fault by making a strap, held by the two mounting screws, which held the card in place. 2: I needed to get the STATUS info about the number of tracks on a chip. I wasted several days of programming time trying to figure out how that data was presented and in what mode.The manual is not entirely clear on that. I finally found ou,t through experimentation, that the data was presented in ASCII, Tens first, Units second. It would have been nice to see that info in the operation manual. Then I had to convert the ASCII data into a decimal number so that I could use that info in my software. Quite the challenge! And, oh, I almost forgot: I wanted to use only one power supply so I had to isolate the audio output using audio transformers so that the amplifier could use a common ground. Otherwise a great product. Andy LaTorre Cinnamon Hill Art

The package came in a mangled box, my hopes were dashed as I'd been waiting on the board. I opened the box expecting to see a broken board but thanks to the good packaging it survived. It has been tested and works. Thank you Sparkfun

I bought several sensors for a project my family is working on and everything we bought worked great. Until we got to the end of the project. The very last thing we wanted was to add some sounds and we thought we had found the answer with the MP3 Trigger. However, no matter what we tried the sound produced is garbled and sounds like it is playing at less then full speed. We tried using external power supplies from 4.5V to 12V with both external speakers and headphones. We tried the FTDI at both 5V and 3.3V to no avail, the sound was still slow and sounded like garbage. We tried different SD cards and mp3 files, nothing helped. It is so disappointing to reach the very end of a project only to have the most expensive thing you bought for it not to work. My children were crushed, and we are all actively searching for a different solution to add sounds to our project. We were so satisfied with everything else we purchased from SparkFun. Our items were packed very professionally, which is a rarity these days. I wish I were writing a raving review for the MP3 Trigger, but I cannot recommend it under any circumstances.

The board arrived in Portugal in 3 days and it works perfectly. Very simple to use and with super complete support documentation.

Thanks

I am using this with my Arduino. I was going to use one of the triggers to activate a sound file for a Halloween Prop controller I'm building. The serial control was so easy to set up and use, the code minor in nature. I use the Software Serial example so it frees up the USB to upload revisions to the sketches. I find the MP3 Trigger easier to use than the MP3 Shields I've used in the past. I highly recommend this item. It's easy to use, compact and versatile.