u/Accomplished_Pop7901

Let me apologize in advance if my questions belong in a different forum. I sincerely appreciate any advice you are willing to share.

I need to create a small (deck of playing card-sized) device capable of playing specific audio files upon a triggering event (think: multiple button presses like the electronic kids' game Simon Says above). I don't need lights or switches like the above. When a button is pressed (or a sensor measures a change), I need a random audio file to play from a group of specific files.

In the example above, pressing the blue button would play BlueSound102, pressing it again would play BlueSound85, etc. Pressing the red softly would trigger RedSound15 and pressing it hard would trigger RedSound44, etc.

I know little about the Arduino/esp32 space (other than it seems incredibly cool!) but I'm trying to learn enough to make a very basic prototype. Some LLM prompts suggested esp32 with a microSD card and a speaker. Does that seem right?

A few questions:

1. Is an esp32 setup ideal for device production at any reasonable commercial scale or is it best suited for prototyping and hobbyist applications only?

2. Can you recommend an inexpensive approach to doing what I mentioned above - that is, playing specific audio files via a small speaker upon a triggering mechanism like a button push. This "tech" needs to be capable of fitting into a small housing that measure 10 in x 4 in x 2 in.

I'd be grateful for any component or part recommendations. Thanks so much for any knowledge you're willing to share. I've always found Redditors so terrific in sharing their incredible knowledge on such unique topics.

Hello painters - can anyone explain to me why this surface looks like it does after painting?

I bought a piece of furniture that is a really nice sage green gray metallic color. The top was damaged so I used some Kwikwood and sanded to 320 grit to fix.

I found a paint match at an automotive paint supplier and I used Transtar Gray Primer (2 coats) per his suggestion. No matter how I tried, I could not get the top of this media console to take an even layer of color coat. Went through 3 rattle cans of the stuff he custom mixed. 6 very thin layers. It's like it won't build up so I finally stopped. The doors and fluted sides of the same piece painted up perfectly. One coat of primer, two light color coats of th exact same paint. Flawless finish. But this top surface is just a bear and kicking my *** for some reason. I gave up on the green gray and decided gold would look nice.

I let the top dry completely and sanded again and wiped clean with mineral spirits and a clean white rag. Then I hit it with some Behr Champagne Gold spray paint. Shook the can for more than 2 minutes. Nice even strokes about 8 inches away with a 75% overlap.

Looks like absolute garbage lol.

Is my best bet to sand off as much as I can and re-prime with Bin 321 and try again with the gold? Not sure what's happening but I cannot get a uniform coat. The blotchiness is just "there to stay".

The rest of the piece is perfect so I know the approach I used can work. It just hasn't worked on the top surface at all. At first I thought I was dealing with unsealed MDF but the top had the exact same paint job as everything else. I did a light sand everywhere but I could add a dozen more thin coats and I'm pretty sure it will look like this.

These pics are taken about 20 min after the gold coat. But I've been down this road before with the green gray. The dark spots only lighten up a tiny bit when it's totally dry.

Thanks for any advice or telling me what I'm doing wrong!