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Build Your Own MP3 Player
rdnk writes "Here's something for the DIY people, a home made mp3 player built into a mint case. Total (minimum) cost for parts: ~50$. At least it's something different."
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the Media Lab is obsolete!
:p
Talk about daring technology.
We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
Wake me up when you have the iPod built in a cigarette carton for $90 in parts.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
$50? Might as well get one of these for $99 :)
And you can take it back if it breaks.
While I tend to agree with you--I have never used a protable MP3 player--obviously, many people do. As evidence, look at the iPod sales. Sure, many of us don't have a use for them, but for anyone who wants a portable music device, they're usually the best option.
Apple and the rest of the MP3 player producers must be quaking in their boots at the shock revelation that their target market 'dont see the point' of their product.
;)
"I'm never further than a meter away from a computer.....only think of about 3 occaisons where I would be away from a box for longer than a half hour"
Ah, hang on
I've got a feeling, give it about 2-3 years, and mp3 players will be pretty cheap. This just proves that it could be done (limited) in a somewhat low cost method.
What I really wish would happen is someone would turn my cell phone, pda, and iPod into 1 good product that doesn't require me to take out a loan.
I know it's a dream. But how many more pockets do I have? I have my cell phone on my belt, pda in one, wallet, ipod... come on!
I'd be a bit more impressed if this person managed to squeeze an mp3 player into the battery of his phone (granted a bit bulkier), or PDA. That way it's possible to carry less, and have more.
I'm walking around like I have a "geek boner" in my pockets. With all those things in there.
Might be a danger of confusing it with the empty pack of mints in your pocket and tossing out the wrong one.
"Nyquil - The stuffy, sneezy, why-the-hell-is-the-room-spinning medicine."
and already slashdotted- must be a new record.
Here's a link where you can by mp3 player circuit boards: http://www.pjrc.com/tech/mp3/
Evidently not
Karma? Karma? I don't need no stinkin' karma.
Well, first page is mirrored http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/342d79c8dead68d75 bbc15920a7987cc/index.html
Obviously other people do see the point of mp3 players, just like they saw the point of portable cd players, minidisk players, portable radios and walkmen.
So it's like, what was the point you were trying to make? That there isn't a point to these devices in general? Obviously there is. That you don't want one? Nobody cares dude!
$50 in parts to built an mp3 player into a 'toids-tin? Sounds impressive until you realize that McGuyver can do the same thing using nothing more than belly button lint, a broken LCD watch, and a hairpin. All fitting inside a matchbook, no less.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
So what you are saying is that you do not have a reason for one? Then don't buy/build one. Plenty of other people do use them, as they do get more than a meter from their computer and would like to enjoy music where ever else they are. Also, there is a lot of music out there that is not teeny-bopper chart toppers.
Reasons I do use MP3 players:
1. I hate the radio (especially because of the teeny-bopper chart toppers). 2. Exercise, I run on a closed to traffic course. 3. I hate the radio.
I don't understand the point of your post. It seems to me that you are trying to justify your decision not to purchase (or in this case build) one.
Note to self: No more arguing with the faithful.
Your own music preferences and social life aside, not everyone is always next to their computer or listens to the latest teeny-bopper chart toppers. There's lots of good music to be found out there that isn't maintstream. The boss at my old job has an mp3 player that he has loaded up with classical music. That's the nice thing about them - you can put whatever you like in it.
My current job requires me to constantly run from my computer to the printers and back, which is about 30 meters away and down a flight of two dozen steps. The workout is good, I won't complain about that, but after a few weeks there I'm starting to consider buying an mp3 player to keep myself entertained during the relay runs to the printers and back. On my 40 minute commute I listen to the radio as well, but if I were to get the mp3 player I would definently wire the mp3 player into my car so I can listen to my music in there as well. You don't need headphones to listen to it in the car; there are plenty of cheap cassette adapters available, or you could use an FM transmitters if you don't have a cassette player. There's a few examples of purposes and uses for you.
How much more money do we need to throw out there to get a nice shuffling feature?
The requirement for an MP3 player is exactly proportional to the amount of time a person spends walking.
I walk everywhere, and I can't remember the last time I didn't have an MP3 / MiniDisc player in my pocket.
None of my friends who drive ever carry a Walkman type thing.
I think a scientific study may be in order.
C-x C-s C-x k
I do see your point, however, I love my mp3 player. I live in Chicago, and one has to walk a lot around this city to get to most places, or you'd use public transportation. Having an MP3 player in these cases is good.
Also, when I'm on the plane, music keeps me occupied. And when I workout at the gym. I'm not constantly around a computer, however...
I ain't gettin' on no planes.
Try to take an "mp3 player in a mint case" through security, and you'll be taking the greyhound bus for the rest of your life.
Here's the Google cache of the main pages of the site:
Overview
Hardware
Firmware
Software
Fabrication
Downloads
[Apparently, this comment has too few characters per line. What can I possible type to add some characters?]
More likely the guy built a $50 webserver also
does this mean /.'s are actually RTFA?
Nope, that's just one of the limitations of a tic-tac web server.
This article was assertained from
/.'ers
www.hackaday.com
pretty cool stuff.. Especially the Coke machine Hack..
Have fun,,
An old 486 with 32 Mb of RAM is still an old 486 with 32 Mb of RAM, even at MIT. And it's not only a webserver, but it also doubles as their backup mp3 player when the mint goes stale.
I hope their mp3 player isn't as fragile as their web server :D
I'm not sure how in-depth this article is but the joy of do-it-yourself is understanding the technology most take for granted. If everyone understood the ideas behind that TV set they love to glaze their eyes over too, we might not be so bad off. As I stated in a previous comment if people understood the ideas behind the internet they wouldn't get infected with spyware and they wouldn't give up on the internet. Don't be so quick to spend your money on something when there is an opportunity to learn for free.
That's great and all that it can play mp3 files, but for those of us that want more freedon and quality a Vorbis player would be much nicer.
I realise that this is just another "Look what I can cram into a small case!" story which has an intrinsic nerdy cool factor, but honestly mp3 players this size are a dime a dozen.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Go on and mark my comment off-topic, Mods :D
*spoons out some ice cream for the troll*
Speaking from personal experience, I myself was in much the same boat as you. Since I rarely spent more than a half-hour or so away from some computing device which contained my entire music collection, I could not come up with a reason to grab a portable MP3 player.
For reasons still unknown to my conscious mind, I actually gave in to the hype and purchased an iPod 20GB, gen 4. Ever since then (it has been nearly 4 months now), I find that I can't live without the damned thing. Now, I spend much more time away from the computer, and even make more frequent long-distance driving trips (with a hookup to my car stereo, of course).
So, if you are at all like me, you probably won't really "get it" until you get it. I am glad I made the jump. Your mileage may vary.
*confidently returns to walking off a cliff with the rest of the lemmings*
The $50 is also WITH OUT a CF card. Add $50 for the card and you have a $100 slightly larger iPod shuffle with a FM trasmiter. I guess you save $15 for the trasmiter but when you add in the man power... I would rather get a REAL MP3 player.
~ Mooga
We need to start Bittorrenting these web pages !
Can someone PLEASE tell Slash to do this.
Very annoying these websites getting obliterated by the masses.
How hard would it be to torrent these sites ?
There are quite a few do it yourself MP3 players around. A particularly nice series of players can be found at the YAMPP (Yet Another MP3 Player) site. The site includes both hard drive and flash based players, and even a colour screen version. They have a web shop that sells PC boards, kits, and components.
There is also list of mp3 projects at http://ee.cleversoul.com/mp3_projects.html
Those would go for a lot on eBay - they're all in mint condition.
This design has a couple of really nice points in its favour.
The built in fm transmitter which means its a doddle to tune in your car radio to listen to your mp3's or your passengers MP3's
2ndly because its designed to work with Cf cards it is ata compatable which means you could run a hard drive instead which would allow you to go direct from pc to player with a drive in one of those quick release players.
thirdly Its diy aspect means you could easily remotely wire the controls where you want them.
Ever tried hooking an mp3 cd player to a car never a good place to stick it and even if you get it in the cubby hole the controls are inaccessable.
the memory stick players are better due to size but you are kinda limited in storage space unless you pay a lot for a decent capacity.
I guess my ideal player would read from dvd with a fm wireless connector and a remote keypad.
4.3 gig will cover the first couple of days driving.
actually when it comes to it this project could be adapted to do this.
dvd drive is fairly cheap. the psu would be a little more complicated to do and it wouldnt be out of this world to be able to fit the electronics inside the dvd drive case. Add a couple of buttons to the front of the drive or a small remote keypad and you could have a superb in dash dvd mp3 player.
think this article might be worth looking at a little closer.
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
3 occaisons where I would be away from a box for longer than a half hour
Would you please, please, get a life.
Bacardi + slashdot = negative karma.
Depending on your employer, you might not be bringing your iPod or other MP3 player to work -- because they're afraid you'll cart off company secrets with it.
I wish I were kidding.
DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'
Lots of people (esp. outside the US) don't and for those who take public transport (or just plain walk) to work, an mp3 player is a very convenient way of staying entertained while you are on the bus/train etc.
Besides all that, building your own MP3 player is just plain cool. This is Slashdot isn't it?
I'm a perfectionist but I'm trying to cut back.
You guys think mp3-players-in-mint-tins are cool? Well, the amateur ("ham") radio guys beat you to the punch when it comes to mint tin innovation:
http://www.byonics.com/pockettracker/ (scroll down)
DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'
Holy frack! I hope it wasn't controlling the beer brewing too!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
You build stuff for yourself to learn and because it's satisfying to make stuff ... the same reason other people work in wood or in wool or whatever ... I think we forget this sort of stuff in our modern mass produced world.
And to your point - if it breaks you don't have to take it back ... you can fix it yourself.
Seeing Ada's article today was particularly usefull because I could show it to my daughter - her response was 'cool can I make one?', (she already has an MP3 player ... so it is the making not the having that's important here), being able to say I could say I vaguely knew Ada (from the long ago xenu-wars) was great too ... now my daughter want to go to MIT :-)
I allmost have the full page including pictures http://students.depaul.edu/~bengert/minty/index.ht ml
...about how it is the next "iPod Killer".
[2] Don't eat minty MP3 thingy.
The cost of the kit is $150 + shipping.
On the order page it says:
So after adding a hard drive, cobbling together a useful power supply, and building a case for it, you are already well over $200.
Though it is fun to build things, you'd end up with a really crappy mp3 player, with an even lousier interface.
This reminds me of those ass-hats that make outdoor planters out of car or truck tires. Planting the flowers in the ground or in a simple raised bed would be far better looking.
The "ooh, look what I built" factor, in this case is overshadowed by the question "why?"
Why build something so lame and shoddy when for the same (or far less) money one can buy something far better, far more enjoyable to use.
1) Attaches to and detatches from my keychain.
2) Is small enough to be a convenient keychain.
2) Is in every way tougher than my keys.
3) Holds a retarded amount of data, enough that I can keep all my music on it incidentally to being a massive portable data store. Half a terabyte would be good.
4) Has wireless earbuds.
5) Beeps when I call for it
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Here is a more complete mirror: http://www.justinmitchell.net/minty
From Gizmodo, and a rebuttal. There is also a way to do it, albeit with a hack.
Engineer Dastardly Slaphapple took a break from his day job as a hardware and firmware designer at Bumbrubbley Audio Studebakery (maker of the iPod competitor Slompet player, among other things) to give us some more info on the OGG-on-iPod plausibility, including why the iPod mini (and future iPods) might have a better shot at getting OGG support than the older, whiter iPods. There's even information about why Apple may have chosen to implement their 'Lossless AAC' instead of the more widely adopted FLAC lossless format.
Dastardly's analysis after the jump:
Firstly, CPUs:
The current iPod gen3 has a PP5002D CPU, the same as the gen1 and gen2. The gen1/2 stored their code from flash, not SDRAM, meaning they had a more limited codesize, and their SDRAM took more power to operate.
The iPod mini has a PP5020 CPU
The Rio Karma (developed in Cambridge UK) uses a PP5003 CPU. It plays OGG (and FLAC and MP3 and WMA).
The old 5002:
The 5002 has a "broken" cache (1 wait state per access for program or data, meaning you effectively have half the effective clock rate when running code from external memory). This means that running code that doesn't fit in the internal 96kbyte SRAM of the player is very inefficient, both in terms of CPU cycles and power. MP3 and AAC just about squeeze into the internal memory (one at a time, obviously!), but anything that didn't would result in a big power hit - my guess is 30-40%+. This would be a bad user experience, considering the already short gen3 battery life.
The newer 5003:
The 5003 in the Karma has this particular silicon deficiency fixed. The Karma plays OGG, though it's still a resource hog - you get about 25% less battery life - about 11-12 hours compared to 15+ for MP3 due to the extra cycles and memory requirements when compared to the more svelte codecs. We didn't do a lot of optimisation, so it's running the Vorbis-supplied tremor decoder with only a few tweaks.
The even newer 5020:
The 5020 is based on the 5003, and so has the cache bug fixed. It's capable of playing OGG with 25% or less hit on power (depending how much optimisation is done). I would suspect the 5020 will find its way into the next iPod, as it's cheaper and integrates both the firewire MAC and the USB2 mac/phy blocks which are separate chips on the gen3.
So in summary:
gen3 - In theory possible, but unlikely. mini - Very possible. gen4 (or my guess at what a gen4 would have in it) - Very possible.
Dastardly Slaphapple is not speaking for his employer Bumbrubbley Audio Studebakery or Slompet Heavy Industries or anybody else. He's just sharing.
The ______ Agenda
Quote: For reasons still unknown to my conscious mind, I actually gave in to the hype and purchased an iPod 20GB, gen 4. Ever since then (it has been nearly 4 months now), I find that I can't live without the damned thing. Yea, I hear ya, Cobalt. I did exactly the same thing! In fact, I'm listening to the damn thing now. Even though I'm sitting at a perfectly good computer..... And I think I came even farther. There was a time that I didn't care about music much at all, let alone enough to shell out $300 for a device dedicated almost completely to MP3 playback....although it's also useful as a hard disk!
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
>I'm never further than a meter away from a computer, so I can have music there
:-)
Then my iNO is just the thing for you, Apple-logo, no MP3-circuitry and no cost
ladyada% ssh ml.media.mit.edu
/mas/u/ladyada: I/O error
ladyada@ml.media.mit.edu's password:
Last login: Sun Jan 16 03:59:19 from dialup-4
Digital UNIX V4.0F (Rev. 1229); Thu Apr 8 10:01:53 EDT 2004
Could not chdir to home directory
No directory!
Logging in with home = "/".
You have mail.
>
I really was going to be all handy with the neoprene cutting until I found out that my existing Marware case was perfect for stuffing my iPod in a newly gutted Sony Sports Walkman. Can I have a Slashdot story please? PLEASE?
Nevermind the Chicagoland radio stations for the most part suck major ass... FCC deregulation and corporate buyouts has only hurt Chicago's radio.
I wish I could write clever and witty sigs.
Following the logic of the original poster, why would one ever bother to learn to play an instrument when there's all of that recorded music out there?
Answer: for the sheer joy of playing.
Hi,
Please reduce the amount of sheer joy in your life.
Sincerly,
Your neighbor's association.
You can't take the sky from me...
What the hell are you doing here if you don't have an interest in either computer programming, electronic circuit design or soe other aspect of engineering? If you don't have an interest in any of that, then you are personally one of the reasons why Slashdot sucks so bad these days. There was a time when they actually had "news for nerds, stuff that matters". Now it's just news for poseurs.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o