ACS Compact FLASH III User manual

Revision 3.13
Thursday, February 08, 2007
6233 E. Sawgrass Rd Sarasota, FL. 34240 [phone] FAX[phone]
www.acscontrol.com
Copyright(c)1992 - 200 7 by ACS, Sarasota, FL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System
Copyright©1992 - 2007 by ACS, Sarasota, Florida
2
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Table of Contents
Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 4
Features .................................................................................................................................................... 4
Connections ............................................................................................................................................. 5
Main Connector ................................................................................................................................ 5
Power Supply Connection ......................................................................................................... 5
Built - in Contacts Connection .................................................................................................... 5
Speaker Connection ................................................................................................................... 6
Serial Connector ............................................................................................................................... 6
Remote Volume Connector .............................................................................................................. 7
Line - Level Audio Outputs ................................................................................................................ 7
Compact Flash Card Re quirements ......................................................................................................... 8
Programming the Compact FLASH Card .................................................................................... 8
Installing and Removing the Compact FLASH Card .............................................................................. 8
Audio Rates Supported ............................................................................................................................ 8
Formatting th e CF Card ........................................................................................................................... 9
Modes of Operation ....................................................................................................................... 9
CFSound Mode ........................................................................................................................................ 9
Filename Formats ............................................................................................................................. 9
Sample Filenames ...................................................................................................................11
Compact FLASH Card Loading and Scanning .......................................................................12
Background Audio Tracks .......................................................................................................12
CFSOUND.INI File .................................................................................................................12
Quiz / Kiosk Mode ...................................................................................................................15
Sequential Sound Playout ........................................................................................................ 17
RS - 232 Serial Port Protocol ................................................................................................... 18
Basic Mode ............................................................................................................................................19
Diagnostic LED Codes (Red & Green LEDs) ............................................................................. 20
Green LED .............................................................................................................................................20
Red LED Error Flashes ..........................................................................................................................20
Power Requirements ................................................................................................................... 20
Digital Audio Recording .............................................................................................................. 21
Recommended Recording Procedure .................................................................................................... 21
Optional Plug - in Modules ............................................................................................................ 22
CFSound III Contact Sense 8 Module ................................................................................................... 22
CFSound III Contact I/O 8 Module .......................................................................................................23
CFSound III Contact Sense 24 Module ................................................................................................ . 25
Contact Wiring ......................................................................................................................................26
Frequently Asked Questions ...................................................................................................... 27
Sample Messages ........................................................................................................................ 31
Sample Power Up Message, no CF card ...............................................................................................31
Sample Power Up Message, CFSound Mode ........................................................................................31
Sa mple Power Up Message, Basic Mode ..............................................................................................32

Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System
Copyright©1992 - 2007 by ACS, Sarasota, Florida
3
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Mechanical .................................................................................................................................... 32
Firmware Revisions ..................................................................................................................... 33
Upgrading the Firmware ............................................................................................................. 34

Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System
Copyright©1992 - 2007 by ACS, Sarasota, Florida
4
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Overview
Thank you for purchasing the Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System; be assured that it will
provide you with thousands of hours of trouble free, solid-state operation. You will also find that it is
simple to change audio themes or tracks and is easy to make your own recordings o r program the device.
End users can change the audio themes or tracks simply by inserting another, different Compact
FLASH Card, as easily as the changing of a cassette tape. Multiple cards can be programmed with
different audio themes or tracks allowin g daily, hourly, weekly or monthly changes. It truly is as simple as
removing the old card and plugging in the new one. Depending on the manufacturer, Compact FLASH
Cards may be re - used up to 10 0 ,000 times.
Sound files are easily copied onto the card via your PC or laptop, using a Compact FLASH to
PCMCIA, Compact FLASH to USB or parallel port adapter. As the files are copied to the Compact
FLASH Card, they are renamed. This process instructs the Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System
how and when to pla y the copied files.
Features
The Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System incorporates the following features:
Uses inexpensive, industry standard Compact FLASH (CF) Cards up to 4G in size.
RS - 232 Serial Port for controlling audio play out via an attached computer or PLC.
Diagnostic LED s to indicate operating status.
Two b uilt - in contact input s to activate sounds .
Push To Talk (PTT) dry relay contact output that can optionally close whenever a sound is played.
Digital Up/Down volume control push buttons wi th remote connector.
Built - in 20 Watt Class D Stereo Amplifier.
Optional board for contact inputs to activate sounds.
Optional board for contact outputs activated with sound for other control.
Scriptable via built - in ACS Basic

Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System
Copyright©1992 - 2007 by ACS, Sarasota, Florida
5
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Connections
Front View
CF Card Slot
Diagnostic LEDs Optional Contact
Module
RESET
Button
Rear View
LINE OUT
RCA Jacks
Serial RS-232
DB-9P
Power
PTT Relay
Contacts
SPEAKERS
OUT
RIGHT LEFT
Contacts
25 & 26
Up / Down
Volume Buttons
MAIN
Main Connector
Most of the connections to the CFSound- II I are supplied to the unit with a ten pin, 2-piece pluggable
terminal block style connector at Main .
Power Supply Connection
The CFSound III requires a regulated or unregulated voltage of 10V to 18V DC. The unit has
resettable fusing internally to protect the Power input. Should the fuse trip, remove power, correct the fault,
wait a moment for the fuse to reset, then re-apply power. The non-OEM version of the CFSound III is
supplied with a wall mounted transformer rated at 12 VDC @ 1.0 A.
ACS supplies two different versions of the wall-mounted transformer power supply for the CFSound-
II I . The version in the black enclosure has a white stripe on the positive lead which should be connected to
pin 9 of the Main connector with the other lead to pin 10. The version in the beige enclosure has a black
stripe on the negative lead which should be connected to pin 10 of the Main connector with the other lead
to pin 9.
Built - in Contacts Connection
The Push - To - Talk (PTT) relay dry contact output on the Main connector may be activated whenever a
sound is playing. The contact output is implemented with a relay whose contacts are rated at 1A @ 30VDC
maximum . The C ommon and Normally Open relay contacts are a vailable on the Main connector.
The contact inputs on the Main connector appear logically to the CFSound- II I as Contact #25 & #26,
and may be activated by momentarily applying ground to the Input Contact #xx pin on the Main
connector. The contact inputs are implemented with an optocoupler. The Cathodes of the LEDs in the
optocoupler are connected to the Contact #25 and #26 Input pins. The Anodes of the LEDs in the
optocoupler are connected to an internal 12VDC power supply, with a 680 ohm current limiting resistor in
series. The output transistor of the optocouplers have 10K pullup resistors on their collectors, with the

Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System
Copyright©1992 - 2007 by ACS, Sarasota, Florida
6
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
emitters connected to ground and are buffered by an inverting gate. The following diagram is
representative of the Contact #25 input and is similar for Contact #26:
Contact #25
GROUND
VEE
+5v
680
ohm
10K
ohm
The input is activated by sinking current from the Contact input pin to ground. A Ground connection is
supplied on pin 10 of the Main connector for this purpose. The input current sink requirement is
appr oximately 15 mA.
Speaker Connection
The speaker terminals on the Main connector provide connections for the two external left and right
speakers. These may be either 4 or 8 ohm speakers, with 4 ohms providing higher output power. The
speakers should be capable of handling up to 20 watts. NOTE THAT THE SPEAKER OUTPUTS ARE
NOT REFERENCED TO GROUND EACH SPEAKER REQUIRES ITS OWN PAIR OF WIRES ,
AND NEITHER WIRE MAY BE CONNECTED TO GROUND .
GROUND
10V-18VDC
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
PTTContactN.O.
PTTContactCOM
InputContact26
InputContact25
RightSpeaker+
Left Speaker-
LeftSpeaker+
RightSpeaker-
Pin # Signal
1 Left Speaker +
2 Left Speaker -
3 Right Speaker +
4 Right Speaker -
5 Input Contact 25
6 Input Contact 26
7 PTT Contact COM
8 PTT Contact N.O.
9 10VDC 18VDC
10 Ground
Serial Connector
A standard RS-232 serial interface is provided on-board via a DB-9 style male connector. The
CFSound III provides diagnostic messages about CF card insertion and removal events and sound contents
over the serial port. Additionally, the playing of sounds may be controlled by messages issued to the
CFSound III via the serial port. The format of the serial data is 2400 baud, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit, and
the baud rate may be changed using a configuration file entry or NVM setting. Only three of the nine pins
are used. The configuration of jumper block JB2 on the CFSound III controls whether the serial port looks
like a Modem (DCE) or a Terminal (DTE). As shipped, the CFSound III is configured to be DCE so that a

Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System
Copyright©1992 - 2007 by ACS, Sarasota, Florida
7
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
one - to -one cable from a PC serial port may be used. The Windows HyperTerminal accessory may be used
to view the diagnostic messages and manually issue commands to start/stop/queue sounds :
Pin # Signal Name
JB2 = DCE
Signal Name
JB2 = DTE
2 TX (from unit) RX (to unit)
3 RX (to unit) TX (from unit)
5 Ground(GND) Ground(GND)
Remote Volume Connector
The sound volume level is controlled by two pushbuttons on the front of the CFSound-III: one for Up
and one for Down. A momentary button press of the Up button raises the volume level, a button press of
the Down button lowers the volume level. Pressing and holding the button for ¼ second starts an automatic
volume increase/decrease until the button is released or the maximum/minimum volume is achieved. The
volume is essentially db linear in sixty - four, 1db increments from 0db - 66db.The current volume level is
remembered in non-volatile memory on the CFSound-III and is restored to it s last setting upon power-
up.
The Up and Down button inputs are also available on the VOL connector along the front edge of the
printed circuit board. Connecting a momentary button between the input and ground parallels the operation
of the on - board volume controls :
Pin # Signal
1 DOWN -
2 GND
3 UP -
Line- Level Audio Outputs
The volume controlle d sound is also available at an audio line level (1V RMS at 0db , 47K ohm ) at the
RCA jacks on the rear of the CFSound - III.

Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System
Copyright©1992 - 2007 by ACS, Sarasota, Florida
8
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Compact Flash Card Requirements
The Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System was designed to use only Compact FLASH Cards
(CF Cards) that support the True IDE ATA mode at 3.3 volt operation. Tested cards include San Disk,
Kingston, Techworks, Dane-Elec, Memorex and Hitachi. The San Disk card was tested, since they
manufacture 90% of the retail cards on the market. Compact FLASH Cards are available in many local
electronics or camera stores or can be ordered directly from ACS.
LEXAR Media Compact Flash cards are not 100% compatible in True IDE mode and as such
are NOT COMPATIBLE with the Compact Flash III Digital Audio System.
Programming the Compact FLASH Card
The Compact FLASH Card is programmed by inserting it into the PCMCIA slot of a Compact FLASH
to PCMCIA adapter or a Compact FLASH adapter connected to your parallel port. Sound files are copied
to the Compact FLASH Card just as if it were a disk drive. The files used are the standard *.WAV files
typically employed by Windows and DOS audio applications for years.
When a new Compact FLASH Card is first installed into your computer, Windows (95 or later) should
recognize the device and install the software necessary to access the card. After the software installation is
complete, the Compact FLASH Card appears as a disk drive icon under My Computer. You may then use
Windows Explorer to drag and drop the sound files from your computer s hard disk directly to the
Compact FLASH Card icon. It really is just that easy.
Please take care not to use audio tracks that are copyrighted. If you wish to avoid this issue, you will
find that many computer software outlets have CD s with non-copyrighted music and audio sound effects
that you may use without limitation. They are commonly found in the multimedia section. Please be
advised that you as the user are solely responsible for audio that you record and play from the
Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System.
Installing and Removing the Compact FLASH Card
Care should be taken when installing or removing the Compact FLASH Card. Please be certain to
insert the card with a straight and level motion. Please do not force the card to insert. Otherwise, some of
the 50 pins in the socket may become damaged and the card and/or Compact FLASH III Digital Audio
System may become unusable.
Before REMOVING the Compact FLASH Card under Windows 95 or later, Microsoft recommends
that you double click on the PCMCIA icon at the bottom of your computer screen. This will bring up the
pc card [PCMCIA] properties window. Click on socket status tab, then select the card you wish to remove
by clicking on it. Finally, click on the stop button. Windows will then tell you that the card socket
services have been stopped.
On the Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System this will all happen automatically simply by
removing the card.
Audio Rates Supported
The Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System supports 16 - bit mono or stereo Windows PCM
format (.WAV) sound files at a sampling rate of 44.1 KHz ( 44,100 Hz) only . The Compact FLASH III
Digital Audio System reads the sampling rates and formats encoded in the .WAV sound files whenever a
card is first inserted or a sound playout is triggered. The Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System will
not play any file that does not meet these requirements. Further, this error condition should be identified
by the red led flashing twice every six seconds.

Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System
Copyright©1992 - 2007 by ACS, Sarasota, Florida
9
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Formatting the CF Card
Compact FLASH cards must only be formatted using the FAT12 (floppy) FAT16 or FAT32 file
system. NTFS file system formats are not supported. The maximum supported partition size is 4G. The
CFSound -III will attempt to locate a valid, active partition on the formatted card in order to be able to
access the files. CF cards that have been previously used in some digital cameras may not be correctly
formatted, or have valid partitions defined.
By default, Windows XP will format any Compact Flash card of 64MB or more with FAT32 format.
The ACS Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System uses the FAT (FAT16 or FAT32) format and can not
operate with a NTFS formatted card. You must select FAT file system to format your Compact Flash card
in a Windows XP PC.
Modes of Operation
The CFSound - III can operate in one of two different modes:
1. Conventional CFSound where the sound playout is controlled by the association of contact
numbers and sound filenames. This is referred to as the CFSound Mode .
2. Scriptable CFSound where the sound playout is controlled by the execution of ACS Basic
programs. This is referred to as the Basic Mode .
Upon power-up, reset or whenever a Compact Flash card is inserted or removed, the unit determine s
its operating mode as follows:
If a CF card is not present, th e unit runs in Basic Mode by starting the ACS Basic interpreter and
accepting/executing a subset of Basic commands that don t require file I/O via the serial port.
If a CF card is present , the unit looks for a file named CFSOUND.BAS and, if found , starts t he ACS
Basic interpreter, loading the file and executing the Basic program within in Basic Mode .
If a CF card is present , and the file CFSOUND.BAS is not found , the unit scans the card looking for
sound files that follow the conventional CFSound Mode Filename Format. If at least one correctly named,
valid sound file is found, the unit runs in CFSound Mode. If no valid sound files named in the conventional
CFSound Mode Filename Format are found, the unit starts the ACS Basic interpreter and accepts/executes
the complete set of Basic commands via the serial port in Basic Mode .
These two modes of operation are detailed in the following sections.
CFSound Mode
In CFSound Mode, the operation of the CFSound-III is controlled by the names of the sound files on
the CF card. Sounds are associated with contacts by the leading numeric portion of the filename, and the
controlling state of the contact is specified by additional trailing non-numeric character attributes. Sounds
may be played when a contact closes, opens, or only while a contact is closed or open. Sounds may be
flagged as non- interruptible , or to only play when no other contact controlled sounds are playing. In
addition, a small configuration text file may be placed onto the CF card along with the sound files to
further control how the unit plays sounds.
Filename Formats
The filenames of the individual Sound files on the Compact FLASH Card control how and when the
sounds are played out by the Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System. The filenames must start w ith
the optional input number they are associated with expressed as a two digit HEX number .

Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System
Copyright©1992 - 2007 by ACS, Sarasota, Florida
10
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The HEX numbering system has a base of 16 as compared to the decimal system which has a base of
ten. A HEX numeric digit is 0 through F, 0 being equal to decimal 0, and F being equal to 15. The first
digit (MSB) of the two digit hex number is multiplied by 16. The second digit (LSB) is added to the
adjusted value derived from the first digit. The number 10 in HEX is thus equal to 16 decimal. The
number 20 in HEX is 32 decimal, 21 in HEX is 33 decimal, and 7F in HEX is 127 decimal. For your
convenience, a decimal to hex conversion table is provided below:
LSB
MSB
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15
1
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
2
32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47
3
48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63
4
64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79
5
80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95
6
96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111
7
112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127
8
128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143
9
144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159
A
160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175
B
176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191
C
192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207
D
208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223
E
224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239
F
240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255
For example, a sound file associated with optional contact input #1 would be named 01.WAV, a
sound file for input #10 would be named 0A.WAV, a file for input #16 would be 10.WAV and a file
for input #36 would be 24.WAV . There is no input #0 and so 00.WAV is reserved and should not be
used.
The two digit hex input number must be the first two characte rs in the filename.
Additional letter tokens are appended to the input # in the filename to determine when and how the
audio sound is played. The Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System provides one input in its standard
configuration and, by adding an opt ional board, can be expanded to either 10 or 26 total inputs. The inputs
can be wired to switches or other such devices, either normally opened or normally closed.
You can also connect the RS-232 port of the Compact FLASH III Digital Audio System to the RS-
232 port of your computer or PLC to control up to 255 sounds using serial commands.
The filename letter tokens are described as follows: