RE: TI-H: MP3 player for cars
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RE: TI-H: MP3 player for cars
Hi Jeff
Did you find any nice inverter schematics or power supplies for the car mp3
player ??
Javier
-----Mensaje original-----
De: jeff dezur <jeffd@wwnet.net>
Para: ti-hardware@lists.ticalc.org <ti-hardware@lists.ticalc.org>
Fecha: Miércoles 6 de Octubre de 1999 02:29 a.m.
Asunto: Re: TI-H: MP3 player for cars
>
>Note: this is on topic for DKs message, and is lengthy. Delete if you
aren't
>interested.
>--------------------------------------------
>
>Yes, you can do it this way(with a rio), but even with 64 MB of flash ram,
>which is EXPENSIVE (if you buy the expansion cards alone) you can still
only
>put on maybe 25 MP3s, with them being 2.5-3 MB each. You might as well just
>go buy a 10 disc CD changer for the price of the rio. No its not very
>portable, but you get a LOT more music.
>
>Also, if you wanted to compare a 10 disc CD changer to an linux MP3 box,
you
>can fit about 150-170(or more) songs onto a CD. Thats about 10-12
>discs(straight audio) per MP3 CD. With the price of hard drives now, you
>might as well just buy a 10 GB, fill it with MP3s, and essentially put a
100
>disc CD changer inside your car. I bought a 10 gb hard drive the other
week,
>and it was only $125. Yes, I could have gotten western digitals 27 GB, but
I
>didn't quite have the extra $150 bucks. You can tell from this that the
cost
>per MB is a TON cheaper than a bunch of CF cards for a rio.
>
>Now, in the way of hardware hacking, I made one myself, which I can convert
>from a car player to a stereo player just by bringing it in the house(how
>convienent). I used pretty much used, leftover parts with it, and its been
>running for about a year or so without any problems. it does use win95, but
>I really hate how long it loads. But, I'm too lazy to customize a kernel
for
>linux. The way I have it set up, isn't anything special. Win95 runs off the
>HD, I've got a little VB program I made up so when it runs, it checks the
CD
>in the drive (if there is one), makes up a playlist (only adds mp3s, that
>way, I can take some of my software/mp3 combo cds, and use them), saves it
>to the HD, runs the mp3 software I made up (its got an LCD control panel,
>and uses a little remote I made up, all together in the same packaging),
>plays and plays, until I go to shut down (option on the remote), when it
>closes everything, and powers down the system. I have an ATX motherboard,
>and use a remote switch on the remote for powering up/down, also, it will
>shut itself off when I go to shutdown. :) The remote lets me select the
>songs, shuffle, volume (for fine tuning), repeat play, and basic functions
>like shutting down, rebooting, etc. The lcd display shows the title of the
>song, artist, time elapsed, the menu system, etc...
>
>For the shock resistance, I didn't do anything much but put the hard drive
>in a 5 1/4" slot in the case, and put it on one of those rubber mounted CD
>holders for cars(got that at radio shack, about 2 years ago). it hasn't
>skipped once yet, and if it did, I would have known it. :) I am a little
>more cautious about driving when its on, because I know that going over a
>set of 4 inch high speed bumps doing 50 would probably trash the hard
drive.
>But its a pickup, so if you drive a lexus, you definitly don't need to
worry
>about shock resistance. Hard drives I've found are pretty stable.
>Temperature changes though are bad for it, I know, and living in michigan,
>the winters are harsh, (worse in alaska where grant lives) but I'm not too
>sure how well the hard drive will do this winter. last winter, on really
>cold mornings (20 degrees or colder) the computer didn't want to work very
>well. but after I was driving for about 20 minutes with the heat on, it was
>fine.
>
>The CD shock protection, I have only one answer: PUT A BIG BUFFER IN
PLAYER!
>with the software I developed, it re-reads a few times if it screws up. :)
>and the chances it screws up twice or 3 times in a row is slim... it's only
>reading maybe 500k at a time, and that lasts a good 4 seconds...
>
>Price wise, this is what I came up with.
>
>LCD, wire, controller = maybe $25.
>MB=$70
>Processor = $50 (a pentium 233 mmx... slow, but efficent, and WAY overkill
>for the box)
>HD=$100 (its a 2gb, but I bought a long time ago. you can get a 8 gb now
for
>that price.)
>CD-Rom = $35 (its a 32x, lots of overkill)
>ram=$50 (its 32 MB, but ram has skyrocketed in price with that earthquake
in
>taiwan)
>case= maybe $20 (its customized to fit my pickup, price comes from the
power
>supply)
>soundcard=$20 (el cheepo)
>Net card=$15 (generic 10base-t)
>power inverter = $40 (a little 140 watt does great)
>cassette adapter = $15 (got it on sale, but I'm sure its cheaper somewhere)
>line filter = $20 (I get this nasty humming noise off the power supply.
>Probably because the inverter is a square wave sine, and the power supply
>doesn't like it much. this cleaned that up VERY nicely.)
>-------
>total=$410 + tax.
>Rio (last I checked) = $230 at beyond.com
>CD Changer = $210
>
>Tell me if this doesn't kick a Rio's ass... No, its not very portable, but
>it serves my purposes well. only bad part with this, is I spent days
writing
>the software for it (i could have just bought the OCX controls for VB, but
I
>wanted this to be inexpensive). it's a bigger shell-out in the beginning,
>but you see how much you spend in AA batteries + CF cards, while mine runs
>off the car... and mine holds 200 files on the hard drive, plus another 150
>on a CD.
>
>Next thing I want to change, is put the GPS reciever I've got into the
>works, and change the LCD to a color touchscreen active matrix LCD panel,
>then run a modified version of Explorer in win95 so it'll be compatible.
Put
>in the DVD & video card, so I can watch movies while in traffic. Then
>replace the radio with the computer display(unfortunatly its a leased
truck,
>so ripping out the factory radio isn't so good), pop in a radio card in the
>expansion slot, lose the cassette adapter, run the speakers into the
>computer, get a better power supply (need to somehow get about 5 amps on a
>+5V signal into the computer... and a 7805 chip only gives 1 amp MAX), and
>make my car able to drive itself... :)
>
>-Jeff D.
>P.S. Anyone know where I can get a touchscreen LCD panel (color of course)
>for a relatively cheap price? it needs to be about 5" high and 7" long.
I've
>been getting prices like 600 to 800 bucks. :(
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Paul Kafasis <punkrock17@home.net>
>To: <ti-hardware@lists.ticalc.org>
>Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 1999 6:48 PM
>Subject: Re: TI-H: MP3 player for cars
>
>
>>
>> David,
>> I'm sure others can point you to lots of specific car MP3 players, but
>> one suggestion is to get a RIO 500, and use a tape adapter, just like
>> with a portable CD Player(assuming you have a tape player). This is a QD
>> method, but it involves zero in the way of hardware hacking.
>>
>> -P
>>
>>
>
>
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