Gilderfluke&Co Sd-25 User Manual
Gilderfluke & Co.• 205 South Flower Street • Burbank, California 91502 • 818/840-9484 • 800/776-5972 • fax 818/840-9485
Audio Repeater
Sd-25
Gilderfluke & Company
Burbank, California
B
Left Right
12–24 vdc
Power
Power
12–24
vdc
A
Running
Status
Level
Sd-
Left
Line InLevel Line In Level Level
Sd-
Right
Trigger
Inputs
Speakers
(4! to 8!)
Mixer
Right
Mixer
Left
Power Supply
12 to 24 vdc
Optional Line
Level Source
Switch 'B'
Switch 'A'
Sd-25 Configuration & Installation
! Before the Sd-25 can be used, you will need to load your SoundFiles onto a MMC/Sd flash card, attach a power
supply, speakers, and (optionally) a switch to start the Sd-25. Selecting the operating mode will tell the Sd-25 how you
would like your SoundFiles to be played.
MMC/Sd Card:
Any 3.3 volt Multi Media Card (MMC) or Secure
Digital (Sd) flash memory card
can be used with the Sd-25.
Starting with version 1.16 of
the Sd-25 firmware, Sd HC
cards are also supported.
These will be available with
capacities up to 2048
GBytes. As of this writing, Sd
cards are available in sizes
up to eight GBytes. These
hold about 2000 typical Mp3
songs for about four days of
continuous audio playback.
The Sd-25 supports up to
255 SoundFiles in most operating modes. Some modes
support up to 32,767 SoundFiles.
The flash card should be
formatted ʻFATʼ or ʻFAT32ʼ (it
will probably come that
way). The order in which
the SoundFiles are placed
onto the card is the order
in which the Sd-25 will
play them. You can load
Mp3 and .wav files onto
the card using a flash card
writer attached to a PC or
Mac.
For the Sd-25s to recog-
nize a SoundFile, its FileName must start with an
alphanumeric character, and it must have the extension of either ʻ.wavʼ or ʻ.Mp3ʼ. If a SoundFile meets
these criteria, the Sd-25 will attempt to play it. If the
Sd-25 canʼt play a SoundFile for any reason, it will
give up after about three seconds.
The Sd-25 will play just about all Mp3 or .wav file
formats. Mp3 bit rates up through 320 Kb/second
are supported. .wav files of up to 48 Kbytes/second
page 1 of 16 • © February 11, 2014 Gilderfluke & Co. DCM
and sixteen bit are supported. If a file does not play,
it is most often caused by a large (more than 2
MBytes) ʻid3ʼ tag at its front. These typically
hold the album cover artwork for files downloaded from iTunes and similar sources.
Since a Sd-25 canʼt use album artwork, it
simply takes up additional storage space,
delays the time it takes a SoundFile
to start playing, and (in the worst
case), will keep a SoundFile from
playing at all. Most audio programs
(including iTunes) have an option to
delete ʻid3ʼ tags.
Speaker Outputs:
The Sd-25ʼs amplifier is a ʻClass-Dʼ
design. Its efficiency is near 90%. If
you feed 50 Watts of 24 vdc into the
Sd-25ʼs amplifier, you will get almost 50 Watts into your speakers.
ʻLinearʼ amplifiers have only about
20% efficiency. Fully 80% of
the power you put into
them goes into the
heatsink as waste heat. A
50 Watt linear amplifier
would only feed 10 Watts of
power into your speakers,
and 40 Watts into the
heatsink. This makes the
Sd-25ʼs amplifier roughly
equivalent to what would be
a 200 Watt linear amplifier!
If you are going to run your speakers at high SPLs,
you will need to select speakers that can handle at
least a 125 to 150 Watts or more of continuous
power. Speakers smaller than this may clip or be
damaged if run at too high an output power level
from the Sd-25.
The amplifier outputs from the Sd-25 can be used
with speakers of four to eight ohms impedance. As
with any amplifier, you can series/parallel a number
B
A
Running
Status
Inputs
Switch ‘b’
External power for Switches & Status
Battery
Left
Switch ‘a’
Power
9-24 vdc
Right
Speakers
Left
ʻBridgedʼ
Speaker
Connections
Br-MiniBrick4
Gilderfluke & Co.
Burbank, California
012
3
RecordGoData
Trigger
9-24
vdc
Outputs
Outputs
Triggering from a
Control System
A
Inputs
B
Sd-10
Gilderfluke & Co.• 205 South Flower Street • Burbank, California 91502 • 818/840-9484 • 800/776-5972 • fax 818/840-9485
Sd-25
of speakers, so long as the impedance remains
within limits.
If your speaker seems to clip out at an unusually low
level, it may be that the speaker protection circuitry
inside the crossover is confused by the digital output
of the Sd-25ʼs amplifier. If this is the case, we have
a small filter module available that can smooth the
signal the speaker receives.
The Sd-25ʼs amplifier is well protected from short
circuits and overheating. You can stick a screwdriver
right across the speaker terminals, and the Sd-25ʻs
amplifier will go back to work an instant after a fault
is removed. If the speaker impedance is too low and
you are running at a high volume level, the amplifier
may start to cut out. If you hear this, check the
power supply voltage. If the input voltage is dropping, you might simply be drawing too much power
for the power supply and a larger supply may fix
your problem. If the power supply is OK, and you
canʼt increase the speaker impedance, then you
might simply be asking too much of the Sd-25ʼs
amplifier, and need to turn down the volume a tad.
If you wish to comply with FCC and CE standards
for radio frequency emissions, you should use
shielded speaker wires with the Sd-25. The shield
should be attached to the power supply ʻnegativeʼ
terminal, which is immediately adjacent to the
speaker terminals. This will not affect the sound
quality from the Sd-25, but will make the FCC and
CE folks happy. Shielded speaker lines were used
during all CE/FCC certification testing.
Bridged Amplifier: If you need a mono output with
more ʻoomphʼ, the amplifier in the Sd-25 can be
ʻbridgedʼ. Bridging will only have an effect with lower
impedance speakers You wonʼt hear a bit of difference if you are using an 8 ohm speaker. The only
audio which is amplified comes from the ʻleftʼ
sources (mixer and repeater). The wiring to ʻbridgeʼ
the amplifier is a little different than on a
linear amplifier. The speaker is wired in
parallel to both speaker outputs, and the
jumper inside the Sd-25 is moved to the
ʻbridgedʼ position. Wiring the speak-
ers for a ʻbridgedʼ output without
moving this jumper can damage the
Sd-25ʼs amplifier.
Trigger Inputs:
The trigger inputs can be used with any
switch. This can be a pushbutton, motion
detector, IR beam, step mat, a digital signal from a control system, or anything
else that will give you a ʻpowered switch
closureʼ. The trigger inputs are nonpolarized (they donʼt care which terminal
is positive or negative) and opto-isolated.
You must feed a DC voltage into them.
Just touching a pair of leads from a nine
volt transistor radio battery is a good test
of the inputs. As shown at the middle of
the last page, you can ʻborrowʼ some of
the power that is running the Sd-25 using
the adjacent screw terminals, or use a
separate isolated supply (as shown at
left). The power supply is shown as a battery, but can be any power supply from 9
to 24 vdc.
Not surprisingly, all Gilderfluke & Co. control systems are easy to attach to a Sd-25. A Br-
miniBrick4 is shown, but all of our systems are
wired in exactly the same way. The common positive is run to one side of both Sd-25 inputs, and the
control system outputs are wired right to the Sd-25
inputs.
The ʻInputʼ LEDs that are next to
the two Sd-25 inputs will light when
each input is active.
Power Supply:
The Sd-25 will run on any
voltage from 12 through
24 vdc. Whatever voltage
you use will also be used
to run the amplifier. If you
arenʼt using the amplifier,
the Sd-25 will run on less than 50 ma. Size your
power supply so it will provide enough current for
the volume you are planning to run at. The amplifier
will put out more power at 24 volts than it can at a
lower voltage. If using all 50 Watts of the amplifier
power, you will need to use a 24 volt supply rated at
least 60 Watts. If you hear clipping, the speakers or
power supply may be undersized for your application.
The power supply can be attached through the 2.1
mm power jack, or the screw terminals. Power Supply voltages higher than 24 vdc can damage the
amplifier on the Sd-25.
page 2 of 16 • © February 11, 2014 Gilderfluke & Co. DCM
Gilderfluke & Co.• 205 South Flower Street • Burbank, California 91502 • 818/840-9484 • 800/776-5972 • fax 818/840-9485
Volume Controls:
A pair of small trimpots on the Sd-25 are used to set
the maximum audio output level from the MMC/Sd
card. The operating modes which ramp the audio up
and down can never exceed the level set by these
pots.
An additional pair of pots is used to set the levels for
the ʻmixerʼ inputs.
With the case top on or off, you can adjust these
pots using a small ʻtrimmerʼ screwdriver.
These trimpots are smaller than you. Do not use a
big screwdriver on them. Do not apply too much
force. They will break!
Mixer Inputs:
Two line level ʻmixerʼ inputs are available on version
1.6 and later Sd-25s. A line level audio signal from a
Sd-10 audio repeater, pre-amplified microphone or
any other line-level audio source can be plugged
into these two RCA jacks. Two trimpots can be used
to adjust the levels of the mixer inputs.
the line level outputs, just run a pair of RCA cables
to your amplifier (or amplified speakers), just as you
would if you were connecting a CD player. The line
level outputs are robust enough to drive headphones and small speakers directly.
Modulation LEDs:
The two ʻmodulationʼ LEDs, which are located in
front of the speaker screw terminals, blink to show
audio being reproduced. They pick up the audio signal coming from the repeater before the two volume
control pots, so they are not affected by adjusting
these pots or by the auxiliary ʻmixer inputs. Reducing the audio level through one of the ʻrampingʼ
functions will reduce the intensity of these LEDs.
Audio at too low a level will cause these LEDs to
completely extinguish. Normalize your audio before
loading it on the Sd-25 so that it is near 100%
modulation.
Sometimes additional safety system assurance
above and beyond monitoring the ʻStatusʼ output is
needed to confirm that the Sd-25 is actually playing.
An external solid state relay or optoisolator can be
attached in place of these LEDs. The safety system
can then monitor this to confirm that an audio signal
is indeed being generated. Contact Gilderfluke &
Company for more information on this sort of application.
In this example, a preamplified microphone is fed
into the mixer inputs of the Sd-25. The ʻPush to Talkʼ
button on the microphone is fed into the ʻbʼ input of
the Sd-25. The Sd-25 is configured to ʻduckʼ the
audio from MMC/Sd card to a lower level when it
sees a closure on the ʻbʼ input. When the microphone button is pressed, the Sd-25 ramps the prerecorded audio down to a lower level, and the microphone is used to make an announcement. When
the button is released, the prerecorded audio ramps
back up to the normal playback level.
Sd-25s earlier than hardware version 1.5 features
line level outputs instead of mixer inputs. If you need
line level outputs, these are available as a no-cost
factory option when you order a new Sd-25. To use
Status Output:
A single uncommitted optoisolator output is available
for remote monitoring of the Sd-25. It is ʻonʼ only
while the Sd-25 is playing a triggered or ʻforegroundʼ
SoundFile. It can be used to control ducking mixers,
relays, or whatever you need.
To turn on a light, motor, or other electrical device
while a triggered or foreground SoundFile is playing,
just wire a solid state relay to the status output.
Then wire the light, motor, or whatever you are controlling to this relay. This can be used in a museum,
trade show, Point Of Sale (POS) and other applications.
In applications where a background audio SoundFile
that doesnʼt stop when a foreground SoundFile is
playing, the BGM SoundFile can be played from a
Sd-10 which feeds its audio into the ʻmixerʼ inputs of
the Sd-25.
page 3 of 16 • © February 11, 2014 Gilderfluke & Co. DCM
Gilderfluke & Co.• 205 South Flower Street • Burbank, California 91502 • 818/840-9484 • 800/776-5972 • fax 818/840-9485
a high rate of speed. The faster the flicker, the
higher your SoundFileʼs bit rate.
When the Sd-25 plays a triggered SoundFile or a
timed announcement (using modes 16, 17 or StoreCaster mode) the status output will go active. This is
wired into an input on the Sd-10 which has been
configured to duck, or fully mute its audio output. In
this way, the Sd-10 will duck (or mute) the BGM
SoundFile (without stopping it) while the foreground
SoundFile plays.
ʻBackgroundʼ looping SoundFiles, like those in
modes 16 and 17 will not turn on the ʻStatusʼ output.
When in these modes, the ʻStatusʼ output will only
be turned on when a triggered SoundFile is playing.
In StoreCaster mode, the ʻStatusʼ output will only be
turned on when playing SoundFile #1.
In a safety related application, such as a fire or
emergency annunciator system, the safety system
can monitor this output to confirm the Sd-25 is receiving commands and playing SoundFiles. For absolute surety, you can monitor that this output goes
active when a SoundFile is triggered, and goes inactive at the end of the SoundFile.
Status Output LED:
The LED which is next to the ʻStatusʼ output does
not reflect the current state of that output. Instead, it
flashes to show accesses to the MMC/Sd flash card
by the Sd-25.
This LED will flicker when a Sd-25 boots, as it
counts each SoundFile on the card1. When not playing, it will be very dim. While playing, it will flicker at
1
The speed at which the Sd-25 counts the SoundFiles is perhaps the best indication of how ‘fast’ a SD flash card is. Fast cards will count up to ten SoundFiles
each second. Slower cards may only count one SoundFile per second.
page 4 of 16 • © February 11, 2014 Gilderfluke & Co. DCM
Mode Name
Mode
#
Trig-
gers
Input ʻAʼ
Input ʻBʼ
DipSwitches
1 thru 5
Options
Looping SoundFiles with Mutes
0
0
Ramps to Muted
Ramps to -3dB
off/off/off/off/off
1,8,10
1
Ramps to -6dB
on/off/off/off/off
1,8,102Ramps to -9dB
off/on/off/off/off
1,8,103Ramps to -12dB
on/on/off/off/off
1,8,104Ramps to -18dB
off//off/on/off/off
1,8,105Ramps to -24dB
on/off/on/off/off
1,8,106Ramps to -33dB
off/on/on/off/off
1,8,107Ramps to -48dB
on/on/on/off/off
1,8,10
Fast access to 1st SoundFile
8
2
Play 1st SoundFile only
Play All SoundFiles
off/off/off/on/off
2,6,7,8,9,10
Exclusive access to 1st SoundFile
92Play 2nd thru Last
on/off/off/on/off
2,6,7,8,9,10
Two Triggers and One Reshuffle
A
2
Reshuffle & Play 1st SoundFile
Play All SoundFiles
off/on/off/on/off
2,6,7,8,9,10
Two Triggers with Exclusive access to 1st
SoundFile/Reshuffle
B2Play 2nd thru Last
on/on/off/on/off
2,6,7,8,9,10
Single trigger with Reshuffle
C1Play All SoundFiles
Reshuffle
off/off/on/on/off
2,6,7,8,9,10
Single trigger with Mute
d
1
Play All SoundFiles
Ramps to -6dB
on/off/on/on/off
1, 8, 9, 10
E
Ramps to -12dB
off/on/on/on/off
1, 8, 9, 10
F
Ramps to -24dB
on/on/on/on/off
1, 8, 9, 10
10
Ramps to Muted
off/off/off/off/on
1, 8, 9, 10
Single trigger, Mute or Reshuffle
Short Pulses on ‘B’ Reshuffle SoundFiles, Long
pulses on ‘B’ ramp audio levels.
11
1
Play All SoundFiles
Short = Reshuffle
Long = Ramps to -6dB
on/off/off/off/on
1, 8, 9, 10
12
Short = Reshuffle
Long = Ramps to -12dB
off/on/off/off/on
1, 8, 9, 10
13
Short = Reshuffle
Long = Ramps to -24dB
on/on/off/off/on
1, 8, 9, 10
14
Short = Reshuffle
Long = Ramps to Mute
off/off/on/off/on
1, 8, 9, 10
Two Playlists
152Play 1st Half SoundFiles
Play 2nd Half SoundFiles
on/off/on/off/on
2,6,7,8,9,10
Two Playlists, First SoundFile Loops between
Triggered SoundFiles
16
2
1st Half SoundFiles
(except First SoundFile)
off/on/on/off/on
2,6,7,8,9,10
Two Playlists, Last SoundFile Loops between
Triggered SoundFiles
172Play 1st Half SoundFiles
2nd Half SoundFiles
(except Last SoundFIle)
on/on/on/off/on
2,6,7,8,9,10
Two Triggers, SoundFiles 3 thru Last Loop be-
tween Triggered SoundsFiles
182Plays 1st SoundFile
Plays 2nd SoundFile
off/off/off/on/on
2,6,7,8,9,10
Store Caster/Safety Messages/Music On Hold
19
0
Mutes All Audio
Ramps to -24dB
on/off/off/on/on
1, 8, 10
IR Normal Mode
1A0off/on/off/on/on
1, 8, 9, 10
IR Odd Mode
1B0on/on/off/on/on
1, 8, 9, 10
Doug’s Doorbell Mode (v1.16+ only)
1C1Plays All SoundFiles
Reshuffle
off/off/on/on/on
2,6,7,8,10
Two Playlists, Last SoundFile Loops between
Triggered SoundFiles
1d
2
Short = Reshuffle
Long = Fade Out then Play 1st
Half of all SoundFiles
Both A & B = Fade Out to level
set by Option #3
Short = Reshuffle
Long = Fade Out then Play 2nd
Half of all SoundFiles
(except Last SoundFIle)
Both A & B = Fade Out to level
set by Option #3
on/off/on/on/on
3, 8, 9, 10
Two Triggers, SoundFiles 3 thru Last Loop be-
tween Triggered SoundsFiles
1E
2
Short = Reshuffle
Long = Fade Out then Plays 1st
SoundFile
Both A & B = Fade Out to level
set by Option #3
Short = Reshuffle
Long = Fade Out then Plays 2nd
SoundFile
Both A & B = Fade Out to level
set by Option #3
off/on/on/on/on
3, 8, 9, 10
Reserved
1F
tbd
tbd
tbd
on/on/on/on/on
tbd
Gilderfluke & Co.• 205 South Flower Street • Burbank, California 91502 • 818/840-9484 • 800/776-5972 • fax 818/840-9485
Sd-25 Configuration
! The Sd-25 is configured using a ten position DipSwitch. The cover of the Sd-25 must be snapped off to
reach this DipSwitch. A ball point pen or any other pointy object can be used to flip the switches once the cover
has been removed. Do not use a knife or other sharp object, as it might damage the switch.
page 5 of 16 • © February 11, 2014 Gilderfluke & Co. DCM
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