DESCRIPTION

** Sound Card Specifications**

• Connectivity USB Type B
• Powered by computer via the USB port ( ** Microphone Specifications**
• CUI CMA-4544PF-W, Full range, electret type, omni-directional
• Powered by sound card
• Adjustable gain (Max 40 dB)
• Dimensions : 23 x 23 mm

IntRoLab - Intelligent / Interactive / Integrated / Interdisciplinary Robot Lab of Université de Sherbrooke develops mobile robots performing in various environments. To this end, the laboratory has designed the system ManyEars, an artificial hearing system for a mobile robot to locate, track and separate sound sources in real time. The system requires a multi-channel synchronous audio capture card. Commercial audio acquisition cards are available, but they are expensive, bulky, inefficient and too generic for the needs of ManyEars. Although functional, these cards do not meet the specific needs of mobile robotics and IntRoLab.

Designing a synchronous audio capture card with low power consumption, 8 input channels, 2 output channels and a small form factor is our main goal. The first iteration of the project is an "Open Source" prototype providing wiring diagrams, circuit board, full documentation and source code. Everything is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada (CC BY-SA 2.5 CA). The design is based on the XMOS Mutichannel USB Audio Reference Design.

Please see the summary for pictures & specs.

SPONSOR(S)

IntRoLab - Intelligent / Interactive / Integrated / Interdisciplinary Robot Lab

AUTHORS

• Massinissa Bandou
• Alexandre Béland
• Gabriel Cayer
• Sébastien Choquette
• Frédéric Gosselin
• Diallo Telly Kizito
• Francis Robitaille
• David Abran-Côté
• Dominic Létourneau
• François Grondin
• Vincent-Philippe Rhéaume

DOWNLOADS (REV 3.0.2)

• https://sourceforge.net/projects/eightsoundsusb/files/3.0.2/

  Note : Hardware Design Files can be viewed with Altium Designer Viewer. However, you need a full version of Altium Designer to modify the project.

Regulatory Compliance

Please read :
[Regulatory_Compliance]

SPECIFICATIONS

[Specifications]

FIRMWARE

• Please follow instructions here: [Firmware]

DOCUMENTATION

Block Diagram (REV2)

See technical paper for more information.

ROS

ROS Packages are available for ManyEars / 8SoundsUSB.

ManyEars

We are using this card for audio signal acquisition for the ManyEars Sound Source Localization, Tracking and Separation algorithm.

Mac & Linux

• There is no driver to install, the sound card is supported by the generic USB Audio Class 2 driver. There is no additional configuration of the device required.

Windows

You must configure the Thesycon driver using the TUSB Control Panel to use 4ms Streaming Buffer Size on Windows as shown on the above image. The Windows driver is available from the XMOS web site.