I still had some DFRobot Mini MP3 player modules laying around.
A stationary sound decoder, based on Loconet on one hand, and these MP3 player modules on the other hand, became to emerge as a new project.
Those MP3 modules are small, have a slot for an SD-card (to read MP3-files from, of course),
and all they require is a TX and TX connection with an MCU. (Arduino UNO in my case)
Furthermore, I connected a Loksound 3 watt speaker to the “output” of this module, and of we go !
info, tutorial, examples and Arduino library can be found here.
This device can handle upon 99 folders, and 255 MP3-files per folder (at least, the way I’m using it)
It also offers 6 different EQ settings, and some extra functionality for random play, or loop a file/folder/all.
Of course play/pause/stop functionality and volume settings (0 till 30) is also part of the game.
So, I did write a configuration tool (in Xojo, so it runs on Windows/MacOS/Linux), to set the individual Loconet addresses for all functions.
You can read/write the configuration to the device, via simple USB connection, and you can also save/load the configuration, to/from a file on your PC …
When selection a function in Rocrail, the other according activated functions, gets automatically disabled,
via Loconet feedback functionality. So no complex setup is needed in your Model railroad automation software …