I know this is a long shot, but does anyone have an AP-8 that they no longer need and are willing to sell?
I have an old prop that uses one and it gave up the ghost. It no longer communicates serially with the Prop-1 so my prop is now silent.
Not likely that just the serial RX went south, does it function otherwise? Are you sure it's not the Prop-1?
When things were working and then stop working, the first place to look is anything that has changed since it worked. If nothing at all has changed, go thru your wiring one piece at a time.
Nothing has changed since it last worked. I went through the wiring and isolated it to the communication with the AP-8. Everything else works except the AP-8. There is only a connector between the prop-1 and the AP-8. I also tried another prop-1 so I'm fairly certain it is the serial communication with the AP-8. If I can't find another AP-8, I think I'm going to buy a SparkFun mp3 trigger.
The Sparkfun MP3 Trigger looks like a good replacement. Another user has already figured out how to make it work with the Prop-1:
http://www.efx-tek.com/php/smf/index.php?topic=1634.0
That thread should have everything you need in the last post, but come back and ask if you need help!
Not doubting your conclusion but going back to what I said earlier, it's extremely odd for just that part of the AP-8 to go south just sitting there. Does it work when manually triggered? Does your program have multiple sound files or just one?
I agree that it's odd. I spent a lot of time trying to get it to work, but it does not work manually either. It had multiple sound files. I have moved on and ordered a Sparkfun MP3 trigger.
Oh OK, if it doesn't work manually either, then it's not just the serial communication. A couple years ago I had an AP-16 that suddenly decided it didn't wanna work for awhile and then suddenly started working again. I never did find the problem.