Tympan RevE Physical Layout, HowTo?

#1

Hi Everyone,
Received RevE 2 days ago… Charged, Added EarBuds, Powered on, working nicely with preloaded firmware. Question: Just what code/example is preloaded??

BUT: RevE as I received it is not the same as in Getting Started with Tympan · Tympan/Docs Wiki · GitHub

I can find no photo / layout graphic or info on What Is What Where. On the RevE.

There is no blue led on power-on. There is an LED visible if you look in a small hole on the Top Right Side (Looking at TYMPAN name on Case. That was red when charging, green when charged??

There are two leds (Green top, Red below next to TYMPAN name.) Alternate blinking. What does that mean?

What is the small object between the audio jacks?

What is the led center-right of case, blinking fast red-green? Might be following audio?

I understand most of the docs and am setting up development environment; I know audio, electronics, Arduino etc.

Any pointers appreciated!

Regards, Terry King …In The Woods In Vermont

OH: I got a ‘clip’ I assume, in my shipment. But what is the long Spiky thing (seen on the RevE page) ??

#2

Hi Terry, thanks for pointing out the Getting Started page does not cover the Rev-E. We’ll work on that!

In the meantime…

  • The RED and GRN round LEDs on top are user programmable. The initial program sets them flashing to a set pattern (not related to audio). You can program them to do what you like.
  • The small square RED LED on the side indicates charging.
  • The small square BLU/RED/WHT LED on the top indicates the Bluetooth status, and should flash in different colors until you make a connection.
  • The small button between the audio jacks is the program button. When uploading firmware using Arduino, the Teensy Loader sometimes requires you to reset the device using this button.

Others…

  • The round holes on top are ports to the onboard microphone
  • the slot underneath the audio jacks is for a microSD card.
  • The potentiometer wheel on the side is connected to an analog input. It is user programmable.

Let me know if you have any other questions. We’ll try to post a visual diagram to clear this up.

Thanks for trying out the Tympan!

#3

As you follow the getting started page, it will have you upload the Audio Passthru example.

This digitizes the input audio from the onboard mic, making the audio stream accessible on the Tympan, but then just passes the stream back out on the headphone jack

#4

Hi Eric,

THANKS very much for the good information! The diagram here is great: (DIAGRAM)

Happy to see the I2C brought out; I do a lot with it for displays and sensors. An Arduino derivative I worked on has a 4-pin I2C connector (see lower right0;
File:RoboRED-Annotated-1024-0220 -2.jpg - ArduinoInfo (mywikis.net)

I’m about to try uploading code. What is the file for the firmware shipped on RevE?? I have a long dedication to “Start with working code you can regress to”. OMG that started 43 years ago in my second career! I might be Old…

Eric where are you located? Love the “we can be anywhere” era. I am in an off-the-grid camper on the Withlachoohee River in north Florida USA.

Regards, Terry King

#5

Hi Terry, Looks like you have a great team you work with and fun projects. I used to be a museum educator, which is how I got started in microcontrollers.

I am out of Hanover NH so close by! But our fabricator is in Brooklyn. We would love to see photos of the Tympan in action if you find a worthy project.

Good luck!

#6

Hi Eric,
So many coincidences…

Home is over in Topsham, VT. Our son went to Hanover High School.

Mary Alice is a librarian (and later library designer)… From Vermont to Africa, China, Saudi Arabia, Italy… After those 9 years overseas, back to Vermont and she took a years job as librarian at… Hanover High School.

I know you have a common last name, but my friend and partner in China is Peng Jun Yuan so it is familiar.

A large and small world all at the same time.

Regards, Terry

#7

Hi Terry,
Thanks for all your questions!

Yes, we have broken out the I2C_2 bus form the Teensy 4.1. We also have a very discreet QWIIC/Stemma connector that breaks out the I2C_2 bus to make it easy to integrate any products in those families. Enclosure design mods welcome, but you can easily cut a piece from the bottom to access it.

The tutorial has valid info on it. Download the Teensyduino from PJRC, and download the Tympan Library. Make sure you are targeting Teensy 4.1 as your board variant, and use the Serial, Midi, Audio setting in the Tools drop down.

The out of the box code is the Audio Pass Thru code with LED blinks added for effect.

The long spiky thing is a spudger (spunger?) and it’s a non-conductive thingamobob that helps to poke, pry, and etc. It can help to remove the SD card, or it can help to pry off a shield, for example.

#8

Hi Murph,
Thanks for the I2C info. I’ll take the RevE case apart sometime.

Meanwhile, I’ll probably use the 100 mil connector for now… Fits with my existing I2C stuff like THIS

I have development stuff installed and compiles work…I’ll try some uploads soon. Just want to be able to revert to works-for-me code at end of session because I AM using RevE with earbuds for daily hearing support with good results.

Hey! Now I have a spudger in my on-the-road toolbox…

Regards Terry King

#9

OffTheWall question: How much memory/cycles left on Teensy 4.1 when running good multiband EQ and compression? Could TextToSpeech work?? Just enamored of the idea of sensors reporting to the HearingAid customer. Maybe.

Ah, YearsAgo I used to give a little talk at IBM called “Fantasy As An Engineering Design Tool”… Maybe that applies…

Regards, Terry

#10

Terry, here is an example program that reports CPU and memory usage.

@chipaudette Have you documented CPU usage with the Rev-E running the hearing aid app? Terry was interested in implementing TTS and wanted to know what extra capability it had.

#11

Hi Everyone,
THANKS for all the ideas…
I am actively using RevE for hearing assist. What would be a good example for me to start with that has multiband EQ and compression?

If a person has an audiogram available, is there an example of using that data to customize EQ etc. for the indivdual.

I will keep learning more about this!

Regards, Terry

#12

Hi Terry,

Here is an app to start with. You can use BT from your phone to control the compression in real time.
WDRC_8BandFIR_Stereo_wApp

Here is how to connect over BT from your phone: Getting Started with TympanRemote App · Tympan/Docs Wiki · GitHub

I’ll preface these suggestions… We work with audiologists, but I have no training in audiology, nor am I prescribing that the Tympan be used as a personal hearing aid.

…

There are four segments to the gain that is applied. Here is a simple tool to visualize this. WDRC Input-Output Calculator

  • Low-level expansion, which reduces ambient noise
  • Linear gain
  • Compression, which prevents high input sounds from distorting
  • Limiter, which prevents extremely high input from clipping abruptly.

Order of operations:

  1. Disable all compression (by setting the ratios to 1 to achieve linear gain). Adjust the linear gain to match your hearing thresholds at some nominal input level.
  2. Increase the input to a higher level (say +20dB). Use the compression kneepoint and ratio to prevent these higher inputs from distorting.
  3. Reapply the limiter, which is the last line of defense that squashes output that would clip. Find out the max value of your headphone output and set the limit to squash this.
  4. Use the low-level expansion to reduce ambient noise. With higher gain, the ambient noise is also amplified. Well, if you are sitting in your car and there is low-level humming, you can squash that using low-level expansion. Lower level inputs receive less gain until they hit the defined kneepoint.

FYI: We are developing a BTE (behind-the-ear) hearing aid that should be in stock in a few months. The earpieces are wired into the Tympan and there are two mics per side. The output is a RIC (receiver in canal) typical of a hearing aid.

#13

To simply things, perhaps start with 3 bands, using this app, which let’s you adjust the number of bands.
Tympan_Library/examples/05-FullSystems/WDRC_NBand_Stereo_Earpiece_Prescrip_wApp at main · Tympan/Tympan_Library · GitHub

#14

Eric, PerFect!

This is talking my language:

I did a lot of that thinking back in AncientHistory when I was a Broadcast Engineer.

I’ll be back… Sometime later I may indulge an OldGuyDangerousWithStories thing about Paul Stookey, Carole King (no relation) and Charlie Larkey’s Emmy award.

Thanks! Terry

#15

Hi Again, enjoying learning more about Tympan. Two questions today:

(1) Something rattles in my RevE. Seems to have some mass; so probably battery. Can you suggest how to support / damp it?

(2) travelling so talking with MaryAlice while either of us is driving (2012 Tahoe pulling 20 foot camper). I have put the Tympan with internal mike close to her but that is obviously omnidirectional. Can you suggest a type of noise-cancelling / directional microphone we might use? Back in ancient history I did engineering for football and basketball broadcasts and used several different microphones of that era. Hope there are some good possibilities today. Thinking mike clipped on the visor in front of the other front seat driver.

Any suggestions, comments welcome!

Regards, Terry

#16

HI Terry,

You should not have a rattle. But you do, and it does sound like the battery.
You can open the case (philips tiny head on those screws. Jewelers or glasses tools are best.
You can afix it with double sided tape if it’s sliding around. I had foam under compression.

As for the mic, I think you could use a lapel mic?

#17

Hello TympanGuys!
Wow, what a good long-lived project…

@biomurph Bio Murph Thanks and I will open the RevE tomorrow.

Unusual for me to get something ElectronicCool like Tympan and NOT open it for this long. USING it every day and MaryAlice says “THANKS!”… just received two different earbuds with "sports earclips’… and I will review them soon. Also got an Olympus ME55W noise cancelling Mike and I will be trying that out in the car environment. After doing audio since 1951 I get to Play With Mikes again! Yes, I do have a 77DX :slight_smile:

Chip Audette: Thanks for your wonderful work. Years ago I was fortunate to have a discussion about “Engineering” with Buckminister Fuller. We settled on two things: Persistence and “Dare To Be Naive”. I suspect you have both of those, but following your posts back to 2015 or so, you do have the persistence part!

I’ll try to start to contribute more to all this…

Regards, Terry King

#18

Hi Everyone, Back home in Vermont and about to dig into Tympan more…

@obeko thanks for the updates to RevE Getting Started…
QUESTION: Arduino iDE is at 8.19 … Page shows up to 8.15. Can I assume 8.19 is OK for the Teensyduino add-on??

THANKS! Regards, Terry

#19

UPDATE: Teensyduino download page now says:

Teensyduino 1.56 supports Arduino versions 1.8.5 and 1.8.9 and 1.8.12 and 1.8.13 and 1.8.15 and 1.8.16 and 1.8.19.

So 1.8.19 looks OK…