Slashdot Mirror
Neuros Audio Releases Its Hardware Schematics
iswm writes "Neuros Audio has released the schematics to their Neuros Digital Audio Computer. Now with open source firmware, hardware schematics, ogg support, tons of other cool features, and an amazing price tag, The Neuros is looking like an awesome competitor in the audio player market."
Ogg support is very nice, but I hope this device can play other formats as well. One of the things that is making media-playing consumer devices so popular today is the support for all different formats of media. DVD players that can play every type of file format out there, and car cd players that can play mp3. The key to success is multi format support.
http://github.com/gbook/nidb
I actually like this idea -- in order to "kill" the iPod (or somesuch nonsense) you'd actually need a simultaneous music store/sync software/player package that was so much better than the iPod that it would be worth the switch. I think it makes more sense to add features and hack-friendliness to get the appeal of niche markets. Smaller groups, perhaps, but just as loyal -- hmm...sounds like a popular fruit-flavored computer brand.
Why exactly ?
Their product is awesome ... 'except it's the size of a brick. ... and I'll decide for us all.
Seriously, nobody wants an audio player with a backpack harddrive. At least I don't
It can be the best product ever, because it is geeky... I am not sure it will beat the iPod which has become a de facto standard.
Maybe it's just the iPod name that is becoming a standard with non-geeks. I expect lots of people think they have an 'iPod' made by Creative or Philips. The same way everyone now has these 'mp3 files' that are actually Windows media, AAC or Ogg.
There's stilly plenty of opportunity for iPod to lose its dominant position... especially since MS are in the market.
Homme petit d'homme petit, s'attend, n'avale
So you think by releasing schematics they make it easy for competitors?
Tellyawhat: any other established company that wanted schematics could pay a single engineer a month's contract and would get the compete schematic. It's less likely this would be so easily obtainable in the oss crowd, since that would depend on someone with the skills and equipment needed to perform the operation volunteering their time.
You think you could just take those schematics and go into competition with them? Or better still just go around them and build your own?
I am 100% certain you would quickly discover you could not even begin to compete on price - that is, unless you have the resources to put together a hundred thousand or so.
Opening up the platform like this sets a great precedent. They can evolve the player more efficiently while fostering a loyal community. I wish'em the best... and I think I just found my new portable music player.
I've got a Neuros...the USB1.1 version from about two years back. I gotta say -- it's a sweet device.
-- I like the swappable backpack idea because it makes for cheaper upgrading and the ability for more than one person to use the same device with minimal difficulty.
-- I absolutely LOVE the integrated FM broadcast. This hit the market before everyone and their mother was making add-ons for this functionality, and it's still a really handy feature. It means that _I_ always get to hear my music in other people's cars, because no one else has this ability!
-- HiSi (the song-identifier) is a pretty nifty gimick, too, although of minimal use (more to the point is the built-in FM reciever...something that I think EVERY audio player should have -- it costs about 20 cents to include at this point, why not do it?!?!)
(disclaimer at this point -- mine IS the old version)
!!!HOWEVER!!!
The one failing of the Neuros is in its interface. Navigation is painfully slow. You cannot queue up songs while it's playing. Organizing songs into playlists inexplicably takes about 3 or 4 seconds once you've decided upon a song and selected "Add to my playlist". There is no way to play a series of albums, so you are stuck playing alphabetically by song title, by artist (and then within the artist by song title) or album-by-album. See previous statment about creating custom playlists. Oh yeah, and for some reason, it takes about 3 seconds to boot each time you start it. My PC starts faster!!
So, to put it lightly, the interface plain SUCKS! And ultimately, that's what matters. I love the tech aspect of this device. The open-standards are awesome (ogg support used to require a separate version of the firmware -- dunno if that's still true); there's a thriving developer's community which is fully supported by the company. Their customer service is phenominal (a broken mini-audio jack took 5 days to fix -- shipping time to Chicago included!). But the interface needs a lot of work.
And the interface of an audio player is the make-it or break-it point, IMHO. It's what you see every day. How quickly can you play your music? Good interfaces are invisible. You don't notice that they are there. You just notice that you can get the job done and do it quickly. I think this is more important in the portable-audio market than anywhere else. If I have to make the decision whether or not to turn on my device because there is a 10-second lead-in before music starts and a 5-second end sequence, then they've lost me...
I haven't had a chance to get my hands on a generation 2 device yet, so perhaps there has been a massive improvement. However, as of now, my next audio player purchase will be an iPod -- unless someone can point me to a better interface!
~i = an imaginary being~
It is? With a market-share of less than 1.5% can someone please tell me how on earth they can remotely be a "competitor"?
Hell, HP became number 2 overnight simply by playing nice with Apple. Which just goes to show the sad state of affairs with the quality of competition that Apple is up against.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
These are just the schematics (in PDF form), not gerbers.
If you're thinking of "rolling your own", forget it. It doesn't make economic sense. Even if you did have the gerbers, making the boards would probably cost a minimum of $100. Then you'd have to buy all the components and solder them on. I don't know what the component cost is, but after looking at the schematics, I noticed that they use several highly specialized chips. You probably would not be able to purchase these chips yourself in singular quantities. If you could, you're now looking at a very difficult job in soldering them onto the boards. If these chips are TSSOP packages, you'll need special soldering tools, which cost several hundred dollars, and require some skill in using (which means you might screw up the first one or two). If these chips are BGAs, however, it's not possible to do those by hand. Unless you happen to have access to a BGA rework lab, complete with a reflow oven, and inspection tools, forget it. And I still haven't gotten into all the miniaturized SMD components that also have to be attached.
Finally, this still doesn't provide you with a case, buttons, various custom plastic pieces, etc. The LCD might also be a special part. Also, don't forget the value of your time. A project like this would take a long time to complete.
Your final "roll your own" MP3 player would probably not work, would be ugly, and would cost many times what it'd cost you to just order a Neuros II from their website.
I'm a big fan of building your own equipment, but you have to know where to draw the line. This isn't like building your own Tivo/PVR, or CarPC. With projects like those, you just need to buy pre-made components (motherboards, power supplies, enclosures, hard drives) and slap them together, then install Linux and spend some time with customization. Fabbing your own circuit boards is an entirely different matter, and simply isn't worth your time unless you're doing something relatively simple, or are making something you intend to sell in large quantities.