Waveforms

Espruino contains both Analog Inputs (ADC) and Analog Outputs (DAC). Functions such as analogRead and analogWrite can be called at around 1kHz (although with PWM you can get higher frequency outputs). While that's fast enough for control it isn't fast enough to play and record audio.

Instead, you can use the Waveform Class to play back or record waveforms.

Note: When dealing the large amounts of elements in Waveforms you'll start to notice Espruino's relatively slow execution speed. We'd recommend using E.sum, E.variance, E.convolve and E.FFT to work on large arrays wherever possible, and Array.forEach and Array.map to iterate over their elements.

Waveforms can use up so much CPU that they make render Espruino unresponsive if you create a repeating Waveform with a frequency that is too high (above 10kHz input or 20kHz output).

Input

Record 128 x 8 bit samples from A0 and then print the result:

var w = new Waveform(128);
w.on("finish", function(buf) {
  for (var i in buf)
    console.log(buf[i]);
});
w.startInput(A0,2000,{repeat:false});

Do the same, but with 16 bit values:

var w = new Waveform(128, {bits:16});
w.on("finish", function(buf) {
  for (var i in buf)
    console.log(buf[i]);
});
w.startInput(A0,2000,{repeat:false});

Record Audio continuously (with a double buffer) and output a bar graph to the console depending on the variance of the audio signal:

var w = new Waveform(128,{doubleBuffer:true});
w.on("buffer", function(buf) {
  var l = buf.length;
  var v = E.variance(buf,E.sum(buf)/l)/l;
  console.log("------------------------------------------------------------".substr(0,v));
});
w.startInput(A0,2000,{repeat:true});

Type w.stop() to stop recording (or playback).

You can also use continuous recording plus the built-in FFT to measure frequencies. The following code will record at 1024Hz, perform an FFT once a second, and will report back the highest frequency detected between 100 and 500 Hz.

var w = new Waveform(1024,{doubleBuffer:true,bits:16});
var a = new Uint16Array(1024);
w.on("buffer", function(buf) {
  a.set(buf);
  E.FFT(a);
  var m=0,n=-1;
  for (var i=100;i<500;i++)if(a[i]>n)n=a[m=i];
  console.log(m.toFixed(0)+"Hz @ "+n);
});
w.startInput(D2,1024,{repeat:true});

Note: The FFT will only work on 2^N sized buffers, and the index in the buffer equals the frequency in Hz only because each buffer contains exactly one second's worth of frequency data.

Output

To output a sine wave to the DAC on A4:

var w = new Waveform(256);
for (var i=0;i<256;i++) w.buffer[i] = 128+Math.sin(i*Math.PI/128)*127;
analogWrite(A4, 0.5);
w.startOutput(A4, 4000);

Or to output via PWM, and repeat for 4 seconds:

var w = new Waveform(128);
for (var i=0;i<128;i++) w.buffer[i] = 128+Math.sin(i*Math.PI/64)*127;
analogWrite(A0, 0.5, {freq:80000});  // PWM freq above human hearing
w.startOutput(A0, 4000, {repeat:true});
setTimeout(function() { w.stop(); }, 4000);

You can even output synchronized waveforms on two outputs:

var w = new Waveform(128);
var w2 = new Waveform(128);
for (var i=0;i<128;i++) w.buffer[i] = 128+Math.sin(i*Math.PI/64)*127;
w2.buffer.set(w.buffer); // copy w's signal to w2

analogWrite(A4, 0.5, {freq:40000});
analogWrite(A5, 0.5, {freq:40000});
var t = getTime()+0.01; // start in 10ms
w.startOutput(A4, 4000, {repeat:true, time:t});
w2.startOutput(A5, 4000, {repeat:true, time:t});

You can output a Sound file that you define in-line, with data created using the File Converter page (from a 4kHz RAW wave file):

var wave = atob("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");
var w = new Waveform(wave.length);
w.buffer.set(wave);
analogWrite(A0, 0.5, {freq:40000});
w.startOutput(A0,4000);

From 2v25 onwards you can output a file directly from Storage (as long as your Storage is on-chip):

var f = require("Storage").read("sound.pcm");
var w = new Waveform(E.toArrayBuffer(f));
w.startOutput(H0,8000);

Or to output a 4kHz 8 bit unsigned sound file loaded from the SD card:

var wave = require("fs").readFile("sound.raw");
var w = new Waveform(wave.length);
w.buffer.set(wave);

analogWrite(A4, 0.5, {freq:40000});
w.startOutput(A4,4000);

It's not advisable to load files more than 8kB long in one go, as you will quickly start to fill up all of Espruino's available RAM.

However if you want to play longer files, you can use the double buffer and can then stream data directly off the SD card:

var f = E.openFile("music11025.raw","r");

var w = new Waveform(2048, {doubleBuffer:true});
// load first bits of sound file
w.buffer.set(f.read(w.buffer.length));
w.buffer2.set(f.read(w.buffer.length));
var fileBuf = f.read(w.buffer.length);
// when one buffer finishes playing, load the next one
w.on("buffer", function(buf) {
  buf.set(fileBuf);
  fileBuf = f.read(buf.length);
  if (fileBuf===undefined) w.stop(); // end of file
});
// start output
analogWrite(A4, 0.5, {freq:40000});
w.startOutput(A4,11025,{repeat:true});

In the example above, we use a third buffer: fileBuf. This helps to remove any glitches that might be caused by delays reading the file.

Creating Audio Files for Espruino

Audacity

• Install Audacity
• Open it and open a sound file
• Down the bottom-left, change Project Rate (Hz) to 4000 or whatever your target playback rate is
• Click Tracks -> Stereo Track to Mono if the track is stereo
• Highlight the bit of sound you want to export
• Click File -> Export Selection
• Choose Other Uncompressed files
• Choose Options then RAW (header-less) and Unsigned 8 bit PCM
• And save to the SD card
• If you don't want to use an SD card, you can load small sound snippets (less than 8kB) directly into Espruino's memory using the File Converter page.

FFMpeg

You can simply use the command:

ffmpeg -y -i your_sound.mp3 -acodec pcm_u8 -f u8 -ac 1 -ar 4000 output.pcm

• -ar 4000 is a 4kHz output rate
• adding -t 00:00:08 will crop to 8 seconds
• adding -ss 10 will start the audio at 8 seconds in

Using Waveforms

Pixl.js Spectrum Analyser Pixl.js Oscilloscope Pico Piano LED Volume (VU) Meter