A problem with the microphone (and speaker) in Multisim

[Whatt]

Hello

I want to use the microphone in Multisim, the only problem is that, once I double click the microphone, all the buttons are greyed out (I can't press them). I tried to change several things in the control panel, but it still doesn't work, and I really need it. What should I do?

By the way, only the speaker can convert the sound to a voltage signal, right?

Another thing, I searched and saw someone else had the same problem as I had, but it didn't help me.

Thank you

[I.Foldvari]

If micropohe and/or speaker instruments are greyed out, you simulation is probably running. The instruments are written that they only work when the simulation stops. It wouldn't makes sence otherwise because the timebase of the simulation and the real world are not matching.

Use the instruments this way:

1. Aquire data via microphone first
2. Run the simulation (data are collected at the input pin of the speaker)
3. Stop the simulation
4. Run the speaker instrument

Note: Keep an eye on the transient time at the bottom right corner of the Multisim environment and make sure you simulation runs for the desired time.

Message Edited by I.Knoblich on 02-08-2008 04:56 PM

[Whatt]

Thank you, but I already knew I am supposed to record before I run the simulation.

[xrayspex]

I have finally gotten the microphone to work, but no luck with the speaker.   Does the minimum step time of the simulation have to sync up with the sample rate?

If I have the speaker set to play for 1 second, I make sure the simulation runs for at least 1 second...  but when I press "play sound", nothing happens.  (I would expect the control to "gray out" for one second while it plays.)

Is there an example showing the use of the speaker and microphone?  Do the levels matter?  It seems that the output level on the microphone instrument is only a few microvolts....    Is there a voltage or wattage required to activate the speaker instrument?

Help me obiwan.

[lacy]

There is a situation where the Speaker component will not work depending on your hardware. Nestor  explained this to me. What he told me is that if your sound card driver "controls all the sound, speakers, equalizer, etc... windows communicates to that driver in order to generate sound...  this is the thing that is not supported in LabVIEW. LV controls sound devices that are directly controlled by Windows only"

This is how he explained it to me and I hope he doesn't mind me posting this, but I couldn't explain it better than he did. This may be what is happening in your situation where the speaker is concerned.

I do not believe, based upon Nestor's explaination, that there is much that we can do about this on our end. It all depends on your hardware driver and if that driver is doing what Nestor says then unless you change your hardware to something compatible (which I am not willing to do) then we are both just stuck with what we have. I could be wrong about this last statement, but that is the way I am understanding what is happening.