Birduino: A Card-Triggered Audio Player for Learning Bird Calls

The Birduino is a DIY audio player that plays bird calls when you tap NFC-tagged cards. It's built on the open-source TonUINO platform, which is normally used for audiobooks and music for kids. The creator, Hannahilea, repurposed it for birding education.

The hardware includes an Arduino-compatible Nano V3, an RC522 RFID reader, an MP3 module, a speaker, and a rotary potentiometer for volume. The software is the TonUINO application, which is written in C++ and configured via preprocessor defines. The audio comes from the Cornell Guide to Bird Sounds, a curated collection of over 4,900 MP3 files covering 908 species.

The card deck is a set of bird playing cards with NFC stickers on the back. Each card is programmed to trigger a specific bird's vocalizations. The mapping is done using the TonUINO Cards Manager, which generates byte strings that are written to the NFC tags via an Android app.

The enclosure is a laser-cut acrylic box designed in Cuttle.xyz, with a second box for the cards and a tray to hold both. The project is open-source, with scripts and manifests available on GitHub.

This project is a great example of how open-source hardware and software can be combined with creative repurposing to build educational tools. It also highlights the importance of good documentation and community support, as the TonUINO FAQ and community were crucial for troubleshooting.