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MP3 Player Made From a Router
gergoid writes "Check out this
mp3 player
hacked onto a small router.
The router runs
uClinux/ColdFire,
a port of
Micro-controller Linux
on a
ColdFire processor.
Very neat toy!"
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Raite makes a DVD player that also plays VCDs, MP3 CDs, audio CDs and more, it's
model AV715. It can read CD-R and CD-RW
media too.
Woah. Those things are nice. They even got SPDIF optical output.
Has anyone found a price (USD)?
-d9
I thought that Cisco was working on or using an embedded Linux kernel for some of their products, maybe not uClinux but something.
The heck with putting a Linux boot floppy in that beast, for a real kick put in a Win95/NT floppy!!?!! Now that would be truly wierd.
-- Remember: Wherever you go, there you are!
When I first read it, it made perfect sense to me. I have a video card that is pretty noisy electrically, and if I put it anywhere near the soundcard, I get a terrible hum on the output.
The moral of this story is: always put your sound card as far away from everything else as possible. or get a card with SPDIF out, and use it.
I'm quite amazed at how basement embedded systems projects are finally taking center stage. A couple of months ago it was the tiny webserver which I thought was phenomenal but to utilize a router as a mp3 player is quite interesting. I guess I should dust off the EE degree and put it to use. This project just proves that with a little creativity any hardware is useful when it comes to linux, embedded linux. Good stuff.
I was about ready to bow down to a great master who understood the inner workings of nature and the universe. I was ready for you to teach me that video and audio signals are really the same thing just interpretted in different ways. In a word I wanted to learn about context... but then I realized you had made a typo.
This space for sale
a 486 100 or better with *nix & mpg123 or amp will play mp3s just fine. i expect dos & dosamp would work equally well.
Be kind, rewind.
Stan "Myconid" Brinkerhoff
SB.
You're right! I don't believe you!
////).
.. tell me please.
VHS video tape dosen't stay inside the cassette when it's loaded into the video, but a very complex set of levers moves it a fair way outside the video cassette, and around the video drum, and a few other various heads depending on the particular VCR.
The reason why you won't be able to do this is that you have absolutely no idea where the audio head is inside the video mechanism, so you won't be able to move it there on the end of a lever.
Also, all VCRs (even old beta ones) have light interruptor detectors to detect video tape presence, end of tape (clear window sometimes), and various other black magic that i don't know about.
And finally, there's no way in hell you'll be getting video onto the screen with home playthings, because it has to be helically encoded (like imagine the videotape goes ====, the video information is written across it so:
Now, i'm not a video expert, and I'm only taking this from magazine articles which i've read - but if i'm wrong
neat hack, but why bother for 8 bit mono sound?
Other then pointing at it and going 'neat' it's useless.. I'll listen to tapes before I go back to the Soundblaster8 days..
and an AMD 586 processor.. pulled the case off - thers an IDE header in there too... no video out tho - might be able to boot linux off the hard disk then get a serial console going... All this in a 1inch high 19inch wide package! That costs as much as a family car ;) J101
90 Mhz should be enough to run it, since its probably got a lot less overhead, since its not running a GUI or fullblown operating system.
My 83 Mhz motley former compaq box ran winamp playing mp3s at full 128Khz just fine. You couldn't do anything else though.
kaniff -- Ralph Hart Jr
It's not really that impressive considering the PUMP (Parallel Universal MP3 Player) project has been out for some time. With it you can even play MP3s using an old crappy XT. (Their recommendation is a 286 at 10Mhz!)
Fact is that MP3s can be decoded easily by special integrated circuits. The reason why MP3 playing eats so much performance on Intels is that they do not have the appropriate functions. (Apparently you have to use X commands and complicated calculations to decode the stream)
PUMP however, you plug it onto the parallel port and off you go!
hmm.... if that is patented then I would think outputting data to a cassette tape (not VHS) head would also be, and well, I've seen portable MP3 players come with cassette adapters... oh well lets see if i can get it working right first, if i can and i cant use the direct head output then ill try what you said (having a small loop of tape recording over and over... but wait, after a while the quality will be real bad, o well)
http://members.aol.com/JWSurine/ Many new electronic tools seem to have pretty potent processors inside.
I find the router itself WAY more interesting than the router-as-MP3-player.
I've long been looking for a low-cost dedicated router/firewall suitable for a cable Internet connection, and this box looks VERY nice (assuming it doesn't cost five times as much as a cheap desktop PC); the Moreton Bay people appear to have done a Neat Thing, even without the optional MP3 output.
To those who question the article's relevance, I say that the router is a worthy story in itself. Consider the following:
1) NO ONE with a cable connection and a Windoze PC is safe from script kiddies; the OS just isn't safe. If you have a cable 'Net connection, you need a firewall.
2) Configuring a firewall isn't for the typical PC user, or even for many Linux newcomers. Proper security is tricky. Botched security is worse.
3) Here's a widely useful Open Source based device that does tricky tasks a less-than-expert probably can't do. And oh, by the way, Mr. User, that's Linux running your router and keeping the barbarians out. The Penguin Army marches on!
"My strength is as the strength of ten men, for I am wired to the eyeballs on espresso."
Not really that impressive. And I have a Pentium 120 as my main PC running NT workstation that plays MP3's with about 10% processor usage. What OS were you using???
For the IR remote control, check out LIRC
I've got the box in my stereo stack, and I'm planning on getting the remote working. Then check out the LCD displays at Linux Central. What more could you want?
GRH
I wonder if my VCRs are loop compliant. Hm...what will happen when the digital counters on the VCRs reach their limit on digits being displayed? Could it potentially harm the VCR or will I just get a blue screen error of death and have to restart my VCR every 100 hours. If I rewind the VCR back to -99 hours I will have close to 200 hours of playback but that still isn't enough. And what is going to power the VHS tape? You'd have to get up off the couch and replace the batteries more often than in the remote. Now if you could just find some way to get the remote to change songs on the MP3 player in the tape you'd be all set. Now the MP3 player has to be placed within the tape otherwise why not just hook an MP3 player up to the 'audio in' port the on the VCR so you could at least watch football at the same time instead of a black screen?
he said _and_
I pride myself on being able to write almost any kind of software in almost any language on almost any platform, but sometimes I come across an article like that and I realize that there's people out there, who make me feel like a bloody newbie. Very nice. The coolest MP3 player yet.
It's almost impossible to have a baseless snobbish opinion of the General Theory of Relativity.
Those who are interested in building an MP3 player running Linux should take a look at http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/bchafy/mp3.html, which has lots of similar projects.
So when will I be able to get an mp3 player in my electric toothbrush?
until I get my MAME and mp3 player on the kodak dammit!!
wow, this could be a very cool way to deliver sydicated content to radio stations.
This is pretty impressive for such a low power CPU - a Motorola Coldfire @ 90MHz. My old 586-120 wouldn't play MP3s with that low CPU usage (62%)
I bet everyone will want a kit one to make a MP3 player out of. What I want to know is:
How can I telnet into a Nomad MP3 player? That would be cool! *S* ~joke~
what do you mean? ::scratches head::
or maybe you will, but anyway, im working on an mp3 player VHS tape heh, basically its an mp3 player inside of an empty VHS tape cassette, that you put in your vcr and hit play and it sends blank video data (black screen) and then plays the mp3 on the audio part... sofar it just makes weird noises, but ill get it sooner or later! im also gonna try to make it have some visual thing to it, maybe it will display the current song, or do some FX , i dunno yet, but when its finished, or good enough for people to see, ill set up a webpage for it
- MP3 d00d
Building one from the ground up, reassembling one from odds and ends lying around or adding functionality to an existing product is only really "news" if it achieves something new, whether it be in terms of quality, quantity or uniqueness. I found the previous article about a player with 80 hrs of storage more newsworthy.
So /. isn't only about "news"... but where do we draw the line between something like this being interesting or lame?
cheers
marty
"I can't buy want I want because it's free. Can't be what they want because I'm me." -Corduroy, Pearl Jam
Actually, maybe a DVD Player with the CD and MP3 capability built in would be best; I could add it without having to buy a new cabinet to fit it all in, plus one could build in cool stuff like on-screen programming or song selection. There are a lot of PCs selling these days with CD burners for an extra $50, and you can get a new HP CD Burner for under $100 these days if you know where to look. I'd think that anyone with the know-how to find and use WinAmp and MP3s in general would have the technical level needed to burn CDs, so why is nobody swinging at this one? The DVD players already out must have some substantial processor power under the hood -- I'd be willing to pay $50-$75 more for one that could play MP3s over my stereo.
The things I do to avoid moving my computer closer to my TV... Actually, if anyone has used that X10 device that broadcasts MP3s on a 2.4 gigahertz channel, I'd love to hear if you're happy with it (or if it's fuzzy).
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Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Neat :) I guess if the method of outputting the data for the VHS reader head isn't patented by yourself, it is by someone else? Or are you just using a tape loop and a secondary head for writing inside the cassette
I think, therefore thoughts exist. Ego is just an impression.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Including me. If this bad boy was stereo, I'd buy one. Then run some CAT-5 from my hub to my stereo and have my 700+ songs ready to keep the party jumping all week long (About 2.5 days before you get a repeat on random play).
I was gonna buy an old 486/586 and set it up to do just that, but if we can get this box setero and hook in a remote; we're one step closer to a stereo component every alpha-geek will have to have.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
(sorry if this is flame)
they posted this because it's interesting that someone could, would, and did do it. I, for one, am glad to hear it.. I think it's neat, and the next time someone wants to spontaneously try doin something new like that, let me know... I'll take it. *grin*
Kudos to the creator.
Insert mind here.
www.lik-sang.com sells a DVD/CD/MP3 player for 319$us. Go have a look.
I made a "Covox" board a while back. It's a DAC0800 which hooks to a PC parallel port. Of course the output is 8-bit, but the one I made gave about 6 bits of audio quality (after low-pass filtering). He should have used at least a 12-bit DAC with an 8-bit interface (analog devices makes a dual-output model--stereo!)
What would be the load for that box as a router on, say, a 10Mbit connection? Would it be even remotely possible to use it for both purposes at the same time?
I'm planning to build an appliance for logging in home at door, to hear the mail headers, start MP3's, whatever's in your
I think, therefore thoughts exist. Ego is just an impression.
Where's the news in this?
I remember when we were building mp3 players out of old computer parts and an unregisterd version of windows 95 and an old num pad. Oh those were the days
Sorry, just had to throw that in. >;)
and use the RECORD sound head. Put that head up to the sound pick up head on your VCR, hook the wires on the record head to your sound output and you sould be all set. The only hard part is getting something to output the sound down to the size of an VHS tape :)
I have to return some videotapes...
Meridian 800 series dvd player WILL play mp3 disks, and are labeled mpeg layer III, as well as having mlp, ac3, dts. Not only will you be getting a thx ultra dvd player, you will have solved a problem(too much money) I believe the merid's are like 7k
Not. I could just imagine running into the machine room some morning. "Hey! Why is the network completely down! We have to ship today... and where's that music coming from?"
:)
Of course, it might be neat to tie a router doing it's real job to an MP3 player, so it could play music in keeping with the state of the network... When you have low load, maybe some slow, quiet classical music. When the load is high, play some thrash or heavy metal
Do do the whole DOOM UI thing. When someone is pingbombing you, you get shot. Shoot back, and you ping bomb him... fun fun fun till the network dies.
OK, I've been thinking for some time about how I could get into hardware hacking. I haven't touched a soldering iron for over 15 years though, since I built a crystal radio at school.
Question is, where can I find some good starters material to wet my toes in hardware construction?
I look at the circuit that guy designed and it doesn't look so difficult to put together, but I wouldn't know where to begin.
Any tips at all appreciated.
A little planning goes a long way...
why?
Because he wanted to. Why do college students build cars that can average 60mph, carry one person and run strictly on solar power and a small battery for several days? Because they learn from it. Just because it's unpractical or even useless doesn't mean it's without benefit. I'm sure the gúy that made it has learned _alot_ and if not, it at least kept him busy for a while. It's these kinds of creative minds that makes technology happen.
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Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
Historically, we've had Linux ported to small embedded devices - fine. This week on
Here's my predictions for the next devices running stuff you'd never think they would:
PNG viewer on a toaster (this is what your toast should have looked like... But it's mostly carbon now instead)
Flame simulator on a Cisco PIX firewall
MAME on one of those Japanese supertoilets (I like this idea!)
GIMP on your videophone. (Hmm, just add some horns to your PHB's head, a pitchfork, get the firewall to do the background....)
Windoze NT running stably on a PC (naaah - I'm kidding :)
Strong data typing is for those with weak minds.
I dunno what you were smoking when you wrote that, but I want some too...
Probably not the best or most feasible solution, but you could use the spinning of the (the name escapes me right now, that thing that turns the tape while it's playing) to generate a little power. Not too much though, because if you put too much stress on it the player would stop, thinking the 'tape' is at the end.
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Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
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16bit Mono baybe.. yeah! Of course that was after you'd disconnect from the bbs.. but.. anyway I'd like to see somebody get linux to run on my Echostar satillite system... so I could play mp3s. Oh yeah.. have a nice penquin screen saver.. WOO
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I don't think you posted twice on purpose.
:-(. Basically, a single 486 is out of the question if you want to play mp3s at any decent quality (note that you can use downsampling or play it mono and it won't skip quite so much).
:-).
:-(.
The fact is that MP3's and 486's don't mix. I'm using a 486/66 as my Internet gateway, and it's slow at that simple task. I have a PIII/450 desktop, and if I start doing other stuff while I'm playing an mp3, the audio skips like mad. Sure, it depends on what else you might be doing at the time, but with a 486, just about anything could mess it up -- like, say, output to the sound card
That's not to say a 486-based architecture is completely out of the question... Get 2 486's and either an SMP board for it (good luck finding that... I don't think that they made such a thing) or put them on two boards, make a tiny Beowulf cluster on them, which might increase the speed enough if you find a way to do it without too much overhead, and hack your mp3 player to take advantage of the speed by doing at least 2 work threads (or get somebody else's hack
What I'd do if I had a spare 486 and ethernet card would be to use my desktop computer to decompress the mp3 I want and then stream it or otherwise transfer it to the computer that's a little closer to the stereo system. But that would be really bad in terms of wiring because I have no ethernet cables running anywhere near my stereo
Forget all that crap above... I would either do one of two things: use my computer to play it and redirect my sound card's output through my house speaker wiring (but you probably don't have any speaker wire going anywhere near your main computer) or (my best suggestion) say "Heck with it!" and play mp3s on your desktop computer. Who cares if it isn't through your $1000 stereo system... a good set of computer speakers can do the trick without noticible difference for 99% of us without all the hastle and at a greatly reduced risk of having a "significant other" in the household tell you to shut it off.
That was probably a lot more than anyone expected. What the heck...
Some sort of closing remark besides Sincerely, (who really is when they say that?)br>
Kenenth
Raite makes a DVD player that also plays VCDs, MP3 CDs, audio CDs and more, it's
model AV715. It can read CD-R and CD-RW
media too.
When playing MP3's, it can show
the lyrics on the TV set(if you burned a
lyrics file onto the CD)
The www site for them is:
http://www.raite.com.tw/
Oh well. I guess there goes my idea for a neat ColdFire technology demo. I was going to use RTEMS rather than uC/Linux and an eval board rather than a NetTel router board.
What's so special about using a ColdFire? They are very cheap, very powerful and very flexible embedded micro-controllers. There is excellent Open Source tool support with TWO operating systems (RTEMS & uC/Linux) and of course a bug free, high performance gcc implementation. Visit the link above for details...