Museum Narrative Push Button Circuit

[jgunter59]

One of my friends caught me today and he needs my help to design a circuit for him. He would like to design a museum narrative push button circuit. (You know one of those things where you press the button near a display and it tells you one of those long boring history stories). Unfortunately, I am only a beginner in the digital electronics world and I only have experience working with LEDs, resistors, capacitors, transformers, 74LSxx IC chips and PLDs. I use MulitSim 10 (from National Instruments) to draw my circuit designs. This circuit will later be breadboarded, and then put together on a PCB.

I was wondering if there was someone who would be telling me how to create and design this circuit, or if someone can design a schematic for me. I need two revisions of the circuit, 1) One revision that runs off of a battery 2) Another that runs from a standard United States household plug-in (110 volts). I need to know a way to program these with the narrative voice (Needs to be tamper-proof, so maintenance or the public could not erase or record over the narrative) and when you push the button it plays back and shuts off when it is finished.

[Or instead of the battery circuit you can help and find some other form of power that would not be costly over time but still be portable]


Thanks in advance,
JayGun

 

[blueroomelectronics]

What are you going to use to playback the audio? How long do you want the audio clip to be?
They make voice record / playback ICs, I think Radio Shack used to carry them.

 

[Torben]

DigiKey has a voice record/playback development board with power supply and headphones etc for ~$53. Something like that would probably be an easy way to get started. It maxes out at 87 seconds of recorded material, though.


Torben

[Edit: I forgot the link: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?name=336-1315-ND ]

 

[ericgibbs]

hi,

A S/H laptop would get the job done.!

Different 'talkies' for different buttons for different exhibits..

 

[Torben]

hi,

A S/H laptop would get the job done.!

Different 'talkies' for different buttons for different exhibits..

Yep, that'd do the job. And it would sound better, have no problems with maximum record time, and so on. Just make a nice lockable box to put it in.


Torben

 

[jgunter59]

For playback I was thinking a standard speaker or headphones, whichever the museum prefers. I believe if I have a schematic going on I can choose between a speaker or headphones when the time comes. As far as the recording limitation, I believe most of the displays will not exceed 5-10 minutes. (Otherwise visitors will bored to tears)

Although I am unsure what the "S/H" part of S/H laptop means..I believe that will be to expensive if a laptop was used in each box. The museum would like about 50 at most made and they don't have a good budget. Unless you are meaning something that I'm not familiar with, I'd love to hear it.

I was thinking about going out and purchasing one of those "voice memo recorders" that record for just a short bit, and examining the guts of that only building one that has a much better quality and I'll remove the record switch after recoding what needs to be stated. I honestly don't know..

JayGun

Edit:

I got to thinking as someone suggested to me, could I take a cheap CD player change it so once the play button is pressed, it turns on plays the track instantly then immediately shuts off? I could wire up the play button to turn it on somehow and use some cheap computer speakers/headphones as an amplifier. It would also be mostly tamper-proof if I place it in a box and maintenance doesn't open it and jack with the CD. This would also let me play with volume control, which I never stopped to really think about for people with limited and sensitive hearing.

Anyone know how to manipulate a CD player like this? I did have an old Sony that was powered through AC and could recharge AA batteries, turned on from the play button, and also had volume push buttons..so I wouldn't have to worry about messing with a switch to replace a potentiometer.

JayGun

 

[ericgibbs]

As far as the recording limitation, I believe most of the displays will not exceed 5-10 minutes. (Otherwise visitors will bored to tears)

Although I am unsure what the "S/H" part of S/H laptop means..I believe that will be to expensive if a laptop was used in each box. The museum would like about 50 at most made and they don't have a good budget.

hi,
Is a common abbreviation in 'ads' advertisments for 'second hand' is S/H.

If you are making 50 off, thats a whole new ball game,, sounds like it could be expensive, especially as you are considering about 5 to 10 minutes talk time.

Cheap CD players could be modified to work in this application.

 

[jbeng]

I would probably use an MP3 player like this one to do this.

Reasons: cheap - readily available - no moving parts - no optics to get dirty - already engineered

By just wiring up a simple parallel pushbutton switch to the "play" button this is a pretty quick way to get the job done. House it in an enclosure with the speakers/headphones and a button on the outside labeled "Play".

Note: This company presumably gets their products in bulk from China and I've never done business with them, so caveat emptor. This is just an example of what one Google search came up with for this type of thing.

Jeff

 

[blueroomelectronics]

It would also be mostly tamper-proof if I place it in a box and maintenance doesn't open it and jack with the CD.

Sounds like a nefarious janitor at the museum.
I take it this isn't the Guggenheim.