April 2, 2004 • Alcorn McBride MP3 Audio Machine User’s Manual • Rev H •
Page 31
Q1:
I hear parts of one file while I’m playing another.
Q2:
I hear popping or blank spots in my audio playback.
A:
You need to defrag your Compact Flash Card. Place it in your PC, and open a DOS window.
Make sure you’re not in the same drive as the flash card, and type:
C:
\defrag F:
Press Enter, and allow it to complete defragging the drive (watch the status LED on the flash
card’s socket, if you have one.)
Q:
Do you have a basic checklist I can go by in order to figure out what’s wrong?
A:
Here’s a checklist we have compiled of typical things you can check to make sure all the bases
are covered:
•
Is the unit plugged in? (bear with us)
•
Does the unit have a Compact Flash card in it at all? (remove the front metal plate &
check)
•
Is the Compact Flash card pressed in all the way?
•
Validate you’ve used the speaker cables/line level cables somewhere else successfully.
Verify your speakers work, etc…
•
If you are using a serial cable, is it straight through (not null modem)?
•
Are your audio files valid? Check them on your PC using Cool Edit (.WAV files) or
WinAmp (or another MP3 audio player).
•
Are your file name formats valid? See the
File Names
section to be sure.
•
If copying files from your PC, did you use DOS? If you used windows, save the audio
files somewhere. Reformat the card in the Audio Machine using AMI Explorer. Follow
the list of steps in the
Copying Files
section
•
Take every other piece of control equipment away from the unit, making it stand alone
until you get it running. Try to make it operate now either with contact closures (paper
clips will work) or serial commands from a laptop or PC.
•
If the unit shows
no response
to serial messages typed by hand or from another system:
o
Have you validated you are communicating through the serial port correctly?
Chosen the right PC comm. port? Using 9600, 8,none,1? If you want to validate
the comm. port is right, use a paperclip to short together pins 2 and 3 on your
computer’s serial port cable. It should echo back to you the keys you type from
a terminal emulator like Hyperterminal.
o
If your test material plays on the unit when you press the test button, you can use
this to verify your serial connection is good. The unit transmits a capital ‘R’
every time you tell it to play a file, including pressing the test button. Simply
press the test button to start a file playing to see if you receive any characters on
your terminal.
o
Are you using the correct commands listed in the Advanced Serial Protocol
Section? Can you get a version number from the box by using a terminal
emulator?
•
Is the Compact Flash Card damaged? Do you have a second Compact Flash card you can
temporarily use to make sure the Compact Flash Card isn’t just damaged? Go through the
file copying process with the new Compact Flash Card, and try to play the file.
