Today I will make a detailed comparison between our Music Player Shield in 1Sheeld, and SparkFun Mp3 Player Shield.
isheeld-vs-sparkfun-mp3-player

I will cover the getting started points for each one, till you can play and pause music using both of them, and I’ve summarized the points of comparison between both shields in the table below:

P.O.C	SparkFun Mp3 Player shield	1Sheeld Music Player shield
Length of code	233 lines	124 lines
Code memory size	16KB	7KB
No. of libraries	4	1
Max no. of tracks	9	As many as your smartphone can handle
File names	DOS 8.3 format (track001~track009)	Any file name
Files must be in root	Yes	No
Call a certain track	Yes	No
Complexity	Many functions built to make certain operation obj.isPlaying() obj.stopTrack() obj.playTrack() the object is taken from the library after initializing it. If you want to make more actions you have to build it’s own function	1 Line of code MusicPlayer.play() MusicPlayer.pause() MusicPlayer.stop() MusicPlayer.next() MusicPlayer.previous() MusicPlayer.seekForwared(byte) MusicPlayer.seekBackward(byte) MusicPlayer.setVolume(byte)
Tracks bitrates	Certain bitrate (192 kbps is recommended)	Any bitrate
Reserved pins	10 pins	2 pins
Soldered pin headers	No	Yes
SD card required	Yes	No
Price	$25	$55

1- SparkFun MP3 Player Shield

The first one is SparkFun Mp3 Player Shield, it depends on the VS1053B MP3 audio decoder which is an IC to decode audio files.

You can buy the shield from here but it comes without pin headers, so I recommend to get the needed ones from here.

After getting them, now we are ready to start the tutorial.

Mp3 Player shield

Step 1: Adjust the shield

As the shield does not come with the pin headers, I assume to give the ability for makers to put it in PCBs, we have to get male-female pin headers and solder them to the shield using a soldering iron and solder.

Mp3 Player shield soldered

Voila! That’s how it looks after soldering it.

Step 2: Mount the Mp3 Player shield on your Arduino board

In my case I am using an Arduino UNO board.

Mp3 Player shield over Arduino UNO

Step 3: Get an SD card

Get a micro SD card of any size and format it into FAT16 or FAT32. The default state of an SD card is to be formatted to one of them, but I recommend formatting it just in case.

micro-sd-card-lg
format

Step 4: Add mp3 files

Now it’s time to add some mp3 files to the SD card, but you have to consider the following:

1- The added files must be added to the root of the SD card not in any sub folder.

2- Only 9 tracks can be added and with a dedicated names in the DOS format of 8.3; 8 for the characters and 3 for the extension. So you have to rename your tracks from track001.mp3 to track009.mp3. Although this is an extra step, it allows you to play a certain file with its name.

9-tracks
3- The mp3 files must be compressed into a certain bitrate which describes your audio file resolution.
Check the datasheet (beginning in section 8 on page 26), to make sure your audio files are supported.

You can compress your audio file online here.
compress-audio

Step 5: Install libraries

There are 4 libraries used to operate the Mp3 Player shield:

1- SPI : This library is already found in your IDE and used for the communication between SDcard and the Arduino.

2- SdFat : This library used to be able to deal with files in Fat format in the SD card.

3- SdFatUtil : This is an extra library added to the SdFat library.

4- SFEMP3Shield : This library simplifies the task of interfacing with the VS1053 and using the MP3 Player Shield.

Download SFEMP3Shield Arduino library, it is written by Bill Porter and it’s an amazing library for that shield and combined with the SdFat library which also included in the Github folder.

SdFat library is the library responsible for dealing with fat files in the SD card.
lib-fold
After downloading the library, unzip the whole folder then you will find two folders having both the libraries, SFEMP3Shield and SdFat. Copy both folders into your Arduino libraries directory then close the Arduino IDE and reopen it again.

Step 6: Write the code

Write the code then upload it to your board, but you have to check the library first if you are not using the Arduino UNO board to check if the library is compatible with your board and if yes, you have to change some parameters in it and you can find all of that in the library documentation here.

If you faced any trouble with the code, you can visit Bill’s webpage which offers a lot of troubleshooting hints.

Code: –

You have to initialize two functions one to initialize the SD card and the other to initialize the Music player
and then call them in your void setup after taking an object from both SdFat and SFEMP3Shield libraries
Then you have to check the order of the pressed switch and for every order play the corresponding track to it after stopping the whole music player and if you pressed the last ordered switch it will stop the music player.

/*

  MP3 Shield Trigger

  by: Jim Lindblom

      SparkFun Electronics

  date: September 23, 2013


  This is an example MP3 trigger sketch for the SparkFun MP3 Shield.

  Pins 0, 1, 5, 10, A0, A1, A2, A3, and A4 are setup to trigger tracks

  "track001.mp3", "track002.mp3", etc. on an SD card loaded into

  the shield. Whenever any of those pins are shorted to ground,

  their respective track will start playing.


  When a new pin is triggered, any track currently playing will

  stop, and the new one will start.


  A5 is setup to globally STOP playing a track when triggered.


  If you need more triggers, the shield's jumpers on pins 3 and 4

  (MIDI-IN and GPIO1) can be cut open and used as additional

  trigger pins. Also, because pins 0 and 1 are used as triggers

  Serial is not available for debugging. Disable those as

  triggers if you want to use serial.


  Much of this code was grabbed from the FilePlayer example

  included with the SFEMP3Shield library. Major thanks to Bill

  Porter and Michael Flaga, again, for this amazing library!

*/


#include <SPI.h>           // SPI library

#include <SdFat.h>         // SDFat Library

#include <SdFatUtil.h>     // SDFat Util Library

#include <SFEMP3Shield.h>  // Mp3 Shield Library


SdFat sd; // Create object to handle SD functions


SFEMP3Shield MP3player; // Create Mp3 library object

// These variables are used in the MP3 initialization to set up

// some stereo options:

const uint8_t volume = 0; // MP3 Player volume 0=max, 255=lowest (off)

const uint16_t monoMode = 1;  // Mono setting 0=off, 3=max


/* Pin setup */

#define TRIGGER_COUNT 9

int triggerPins[TRIGGER_COUNT] = {0, 1, 5, 10, A0, A1, A2, A3, A4};

int stopPin = A5; // This pin triggers a track stop.

int lastTrigger = 0; // This variable keeps track of which tune is playing


void setup()

{

  /* Set up all trigger pins as inputs, with pull-ups activated: */

  for (int i=0; i<TRIGGER_COUNT; i++)

  {

    pinMode(triggerPins[i], INPUT_PULLUP);

  }

  pinMode(stopPin, INPUT_PULLUP);


  initSD();  // Initialize the SD card

  initMP3Player(); // Initialize the MP3 Shield

}


// All the loop does is continuously step through the trigger

//  pins to see if one is pulled low. If it is, it'll stop any

//  currently playing track, and start playing a new one.

void loop()

{

  for (int i=0; i<TRIGGER_COUNT; i++)

  {

    if ((digitalRead(triggerPins[i]) == LOW) && ((i+1) != lastTrigger))

    {

      lastTrigger = i+1; // Update lastTrigger variable to current trigger

      /* If another track is playing, stop it: */

      if (MP3player.isPlaying())

        MP3player.stopTrack();


      /* Use the playTrack function to play a numbered track: */

      uint8_t result = MP3player.playTrack(lastTrigger);

      // An alternative here would be to use the

      //  playMP3(fileName) function, as long as you mapped

      //  the file names to trigger pins.


      if (result == 0)  // playTrack() returns 0 on success

      {

        // Success

      }

      else // Otherwise there's an error, check the code

      {

        // Print error code somehow, someway

      }

    }

  }

  // After looping through and checking trigger pins, check to

  //  see if the stopPin (A5) is triggered.

  if (digitalRead(stopPin) == LOW)

  {

    lastTrigger = 0; // Reset lastTrigger

    // If another track is playing, stop it.

    if (MP3player.isPlaying())

      MP3player.stopTrack();

  }

}


// initSD() initializes the SD card and checks for an error.

void initSD()

{

  //Initialize the SdCard.

  if(!sd.begin(SD_SEL, SPI_HALF_SPEED))

    sd.initErrorHalt();

  if(!sd.chdir("/"))

    sd.errorHalt("sd.chdir");

}


// initMP3Player() sets up all of the initialization for the

// MP3 Player Shield. It runs the begin() function, checks

// for errors, applies a patch if found, and sets the volume/

// stero mode.

void initMP3Player()

{

  uint8_t result = MP3player.begin(); // init the mp3 player shield

  if(result != 0) // check result, see readme for error codes.

  {

    // Error checking can go here!

  }

  MP3player.setVolume(volume, volume);

  MP3player.setMonoMode(monoMode);

}

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MP3 Shield Trigger

by: Jim Lindblom

SparkFun Electronics

date: September 23, 2013

This is an example MP3 trigger sketch for the SparkFun MP3 Shield.

Pins 0, 1, 5, 10, A0, A1, A2, A3, and A4 are setup to trigger tracks

"track001.mp3", "track002.mp3", etc. on an SD card loaded into

the shield. Whenever any of those pins are shorted to ground,

their respective track will start playing.

When a new pin is triggered, any track currently playing will

stop, and the new one will start.

A5 is setup to globally STOP playing a track when triggered.

If you need more triggers, the shield's jumpers on pins 3 and 4

(MIDI-IN and GPIO1) can be cut open and used as additional

trigger pins. Also, because pins 0 and 1 are used as triggers

Serial is not available for debugging. Disable those as

triggers if you want to use serial.

Much of this code was grabbed from the FilePlayer example

included with the SFEMP3Shield library. Major thanks to Bill

Porter and Michael Flaga, again, for this amazing library!

#include <SPI.h> // SPI library

#include <SdFat.h> // SDFat Library

#include <SdFatUtil.h> // SDFat Util Library

#include <SFEMP3Shield.h> // Mp3 Shield Library

SdFat sd; // Create object to handle SD functions

SFEMP3Shield MP3player; // Create Mp3 library object

// These variables are used in the MP3 initialization to set up

// some stereo options:

const uint8_t volume = 0; // MP3 Player volume 0=max, 255=lowest (off)

const uint16_t monoMode = 1; // Mono setting 0=off, 3=max

/* Pin setup */

#define TRIGGER_COUNT 9

int triggerPins[TRIGGER_COUNT] = {0, 1, 5, 10, A0, A1, A2, A3, A4};

int stopPin = A5; // This pin triggers a track stop.

int lastTrigger = 0; // This variable keeps track of which tune is playing

void setup()

{

/* Set up all trigger pins as inputs, with pull-ups activated: */

for (int i=0; i<TRIGGER_COUNT; i++)

{

pinMode(triggerPins[i], INPUT_PULLUP);

}

pinMode(stopPin, INPUT_PULLUP);

initSD(); // Initialize the SD card

initMP3Player(); // Initialize the MP3 Shield

}

// All the loop does is continuously step through the trigger

// pins to see if one is pulled low. If it is, it'll stop any

// currently playing track, and start playing a new one.

void loop()

{

for (int i=0; i<TRIGGER_COUNT; i++)

{

if ((digitalRead(triggerPins[i]) == LOW) && ((i+1) != lastTrigger))

{

lastTrigger = i+1; // Update lastTrigger variable to current trigger

/* If another track is playing, stop it: */

if (MP3player.isPlaying())

MP3player.stopTrack();

/* Use the playTrack function to play a numbered track: */

uint8_t result = MP3player.playTrack(lastTrigger);

// An alternative here would be to use the

// playMP3(fileName) function, as long as you mapped

// the file names to trigger pins.

if (result == 0) // playTrack() returns 0 on success

{

// Success

}

else // Otherwise there's an error, check the code

{

// Print error code somehow, someway

}

// After looping through and checking trigger pins, check to

// see if the stopPin (A5) is triggered.

if (digitalRead(stopPin) == LOW)

{

lastTrigger = 0; // Reset lastTrigger

// If another track is playing, stop it.

if (MP3player.isPlaying())

MP3player.stopTrack();

}

// initSD() initializes the SD card and checks for an error.

void initSD()

{

//Initialize the SdCard.

if(!sd.begin(SD_SEL, SPI_HALF_SPEED))

sd.initErrorHalt();

if(!sd.chdir("/"))

sd.errorHalt("sd.chdir");

}

// initMP3Player() sets up all of the initialization for the

// MP3 Player Shield. It runs the begin() function, checks

// for errors, applies a patch if found, and sets the volume/

// stero mode.

void initMP3Player()

{

uint8_t result = MP3player.begin(); // init the mp3 player shield

if(result != 0) // check result, see readme for error codes.

{

// Error checking can go here!

}

MP3player.setVolume(volume, volume);

MP3player.setMonoMode(monoMode);

}

And as you see in the code which is written by Jim Lindblom, we are using 10 pins as 10 Push buttons (0,1,5,10, A0~A4) for playing the nine tracks in the SD card and the push button on A5 to stop the music player.

Since these are the only available pins for programming in the Arduino Uno, as the shield has reserved all the rest of the 10 pins, whether in the communication with the SD card or with the speaker, or even with the Arduino as you see in below picture.

Mp3 player shield pin out

Step 7: Setup the hardware

Connect the circuit as shown in the picture below. I’m not using any resistors as I am using the internal pull-up resistance in the code, so the push buttons are connected directly to the ground.

Mp3 player shield schematic fritzing

2- 1Sheeld Music Player Shield

Now, moving on to our super Arduino shield: 1Sheeld, accessing the music player shield.

For anyone who does not know about 1Sheeld, it is a board that connects your smartphones sensors and peripherals to the Arduino, allowing your smartphone to control Arduino and Arduino to control anything on your phone.

The most important thing in 1Sheeld, is that you can make a lot of amazing things with only 1 line of code!
So, here we are going to control the music player shield in your smartphone and we will show you how you can play music with only 1 command and how to stop it with another one.

You can get your 1Sheeld on Amazon.

You will find two versions of it the 1Sheeld for Android phones and the 1Sheeld+ for iOS and Android phones from 4.3 and above.

Now let’s get started with the 1Sheeld

Step 1: Adjust 1Sheeld

Warning! If you have an Arduino that works on 3.3V then you must make your 1Shield
to work on the 3.3V mode since it may damage your board.

Step 2: mount the 1Sheeld over the Arduino UNO board

You can check how to mount 1Sheeld to different Arduino board from this tutorial.

Step 3: Install Arduino library

Download the 1Sheeld library from here and after unzipping it, copy the folder to your libraries directory.

Step 4: Get the mobile app

Download the 1Sheeld mobile app from the website or you can visit Apple play store or Google play store to get the app.

Step 5: write and upload your sketch

The code here is using 3 push buttons one to play and the second to play the next track and the third one to stop the music player and to get more experienced with the music player shield you can check the shield documentation here.

code:-

You only need to initialize the communication in the void setup then you can play a track or the next one or stop it
with only 1 line of code for each operation.

/*


Music Player Shield Example


This example shows an application on 1Sheeld's music player shield.


By using this example, you can play and pause music from

your smartphone or playing the next track using 3 hardware push buttons.


OPTIONAL:

To reduce the library compiled size and limit its memory usage, you

can specify which shields you want to include in your sketch by

defining CUSTOM_SETTINGS and the shields respective INCLUDE_ define.


*/


#define CUSTOM_SETTINGS

#define INCLUDE_MUSIC_PLAYER_SHIELD


/* Include 1Sheeld library. */

#include <OneSheeld.h>


/* A name for the button on pin 12. */

int buttonPin1 = 12;

/* A name for the button on pin 11. */

int buttonPin2 = 11;

/* A name for the button on pin 10. */

int buttonPin3 = 10;


void setup()

{

  /* Start communication. */

  OneSheeld.begin();

  /* Set the two buttons pins as input. */

  pinMode(buttonPin1,INPUT_PULLUP);

  pinMode(buttonPin2,INPUT_PULLUP);

   pinMode(buttonPin3,INPUT_PULLUP);


}


void loop()

{

  /* Always check button 1 state. */

  if(digitalRead(buttonPin1) == HIGH)

  {

       /* Turn on the music. */

       MusicPlayer.play();

       /* Wait for 300 ms. */

       OneSheeld.delay(300);

  }


  /* Always check button 1 state. */

  if(digitalRead(buttonPin2) == HIGH)

  {

       /* Turn on the music. */

       MusicPlayer.next();

       /* Wait for 300 ms. */

       OneSheeld.delay(300);

  }


  /* Always check button 2 state. */

  if(digitalRead(buttonPin3) == HIGH)

  {

      /* Turn off the music. */

      MusicPlayer.pause();

      /* Wait for 300 ms. */

      OneSheeld.delay(300);    

  }

}

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Music Player Shield Example

This example shows an application on 1Sheeld's music player shield.

By using this example, you can play and pause music from

your smartphone or playing the next track using 3 hardware push buttons.

OPTIONAL:

To reduce the library compiled size and limit its memory usage, you

can specify which shields you want to include in your sketch by

defining CUSTOM_SETTINGS and the shields respective INCLUDE_ define.

#define CUSTOM_SETTINGS

#define INCLUDE_MUSIC_PLAYER_SHIELD

/* Include 1Sheeld library. */

#include <OneSheeld.h>

/* A name for the button on pin 12. */

int buttonPin1 = 12;

/* A name for the button on pin 11. */

int buttonPin2 = 11;

/* A name for the button on pin 10. */

int buttonPin3 = 10;

void setup()

{

/* Start communication. */

OneSheeld.begin();

/* Set the two buttons pins as input. */

pinMode(buttonPin1,INPUT_PULLUP);

pinMode(buttonPin2,INPUT_PULLUP);

pinMode(buttonPin3,INPUT_PULLUP);

}

void loop()

{

/* Always check button 1 state. */

if(digitalRead(buttonPin1) == HIGH)

{

/* Turn on the music. */

MusicPlayer.play();

/* Wait for 300 ms. */

OneSheeld.delay(300);

}

/* Always check button 1 state. */

if(digitalRead(buttonPin2) == HIGH)

{

/* Turn on the music. */

MusicPlayer.next();

/* Wait for 300 ms. */

OneSheeld.delay(300);

}

/* Always check button 2 state. */

if(digitalRead(buttonPin3) == HIGH)

{

/* Turn off the music. */

MusicPlayer.pause();

/* Wait for 300 ms. */

OneSheeld.delay(300);

}

After writing the code, make sure to set 1Sheeld UART switch to the upload mode before you upload your code on Arduino.

After uploading the code, the 1Sheeld is not ready to work until you switch it back to the operating-mode.

Operating mode is turned on when the UART switch is pushed towards 1Sheeld logo.

Step 6: Use the 1Sheeld application

Open 1Sheeld application on your Android phone or iOS device.
The application will first scan over bluetooth for your 1Sheeld, it will take a few seconds and the phone will find it.
Once it appears on your screen as 1Sheeld #xxxx, you will be required to enter the pairing code (the default pairing code is 1234) and connect to 1Sheeld via bluetooth.
music-payer-choos