Arduino MP3 Pause after 10 seconds - arduino

Question

I am working on an Halloween prop and would like to play an MP3 file for about 10 seconds and then pause. As of now, the file plays, but it never pauses and just plays the whole MP3 file. I have the code below as basic where the setup is just starting the function. I am sure I am missing the HEX code and doing it wrong. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
#define ARDUINO_RX 3//should connect to TX of the Serial MP3 Player module
#define ARDUINO_TX 2//connect to RX of the module
SoftwareSerial mySerial(ARDUINO_RX, ARDUINO_TX);
static int8_t Send_buf[8] = {0} ;
#define CMD_PLAY_W_INDEX 0X03
#define CMD_SET_VOLUME 0X06
#define CMD_SEL_DEV 0X09
#define DEV_TF 0X02
#define CMD_PLAY 0X0D
#define CMD_PAUSE 0X0E
#define CMD_SINGLE_CYCLE 0X19
#define SINGLE_CYCLE_ON 0X00
#define SINGLE_CYCLE_OFF 0X01
#define CMD_PLAY_W_VOL 0X22
unsigned long PauseMusic;
void setup() {
mySerial.begin(9600);
delay(500);//Wait chip initialization is complete
sendCommand(CMD_SEL_DEV, DEV_TF);//select the TF card
delay(200);//wait for 200ms
//timer settings
PauseMusic = millis() + 10000;
AudioPlay();
}
void loop()
{
}
void AudioPlay()
{
if (millis() <= PauseMusic) {
sendCommand(CMD_PLAY_W_VOL, 0X0F01);//play the first song with volume 15 class
} else {
sendCommand(CMD_PAUSE, 0);
}
}
void sendCommand(int8_t command, int16_t dat)
{
delay(20);
Send_buf[0] = 0x7e; //starting byte
Send_buf[1] = 0xff; //version
Send_buf[2] = 0x06; //the number of bytes of the command without starting byte and ending byte
Send_buf[3] = command; //
Send_buf[4] = 0x00;//0x00 = no feedback, 0x01 = feedback
Send_buf[5] = (int8_t)(dat >> 8);//datah
Send_buf[6] = (int8_t)(dat); //datal
Send_buf[7] = 0xef; //ending byte
for(uint8_t i=0; i<8; i++)//
{
mySerial.write(Send_buf[i]) ;
}
}

Answer 1

I do not recommend calling the AudioPlay() function inside the setup() function. The way you are implementing it will not update the elapsed time, as you are executing it only ONCE. Therefore it will never be paused. This is because at run time millis() will invariably be lower than the value from pauseMusic and the conditional clause to pause the music (CMD_PAUSE) won't be satisfied.
if (millis() <= PauseMusic) {
sendCommand(CMD_PLAY_W_VOL, 0X0F01);//play the first song with volume 15 class
} else {
sendCommand(CMD_PAUSE, 0);
}
I would rather set a couple of boolean flags:
bool playDone = false and bool musicPlaying = false, where the first stops the execution of the whole routine while the second tells the controller to send the command to play music only once.
then, the AudioPlay function can be rewritten as:
bool AudioPlay(unsigned long t)
{
// Send play command only ONCE
if (musicPlaying == false) {
sendCommand(CMD_PLAY_W_VOL, 0X0F01);//play the first song with volume 15 class
musicPlaying = true;
}
// Once we reach the 10 seconds mark, pause it
if (t >= PauseMusic){
sendCommand(CMD_PAUSE, 0);
return true; // here the execution and forces the loop to exit
}
return false;
}
then in the main loop() I force the function to run only for the specified time:
void loop(){
while(playDone == false){
unsigned long now = millis();
playDone = AudioPlay(now);
}
} // end of loop
EXTRA thought:
You could also work with elapsed times, as follows:
unsigned long elapsed;
unsigned long startTime;
void setup(){
// initial declarations
startTime = millis();
}
and inside your main loop() you work with elapsed times like:
void loop (){
elapsed = millis() - startTime();
// pass elapsed to my proposed AudioPlay function
}
}
The advantage of using elapsed timings is that you can always restart execution by resetting the value of the startTime variable and the boolean flags.
I have not tested this but I believe that it will work, however, I do not know your whole hardware configuration. It's worth giving it a try