Poor mans mobile media player.

Posted by: HOT2N

Poor mans mobile media player. - 11/03/2006 02:41

I'm sure most of us are familiar with the linksys NSLU2, after reading up on this Ethernet USB host I've discovered that with the current hardware and software supported on this platform most anyone can implement a basic audio player.

with the following hardware


NSLU2 + USB audio + USB hard drive + hardware hack for power control + interface device.

and the following software

Linux for th NSLU2 + player app

you get an MP3 player that runs Linux on a strong arm processor.

the hardware hack for power controller can be simple or micro controller based, If a uC is used it can also double as the interface controller, or a PDA could be used, or bluetooth device

there are several ways to run Linux on this thing, for the player software could the empeg code be ported? or would that violate any copyrite/user agreements?

costs

I've seen the NSLU2 as low as $75
sound for $30 (granded it may sound like crap)
USB storage 100GB $92
AVR chip < $8.00
VFD display ~$40

total should be ~$400 with extras
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Poor mans mobile media player. - 11/03/2006 02:49

The empeg player application depends on a lot more hardware than just the CPU. It's not going to happen.
Posted by: HOT2N

Re: Poor mans mobile media player. - 11/03/2006 03:38

too bad that would have been sweet.
found a cool display OSRAM OLED Display
Posted by: mlord

Re: Poor mans mobile media player. - 11/03/2006 11:40

Quote:
The empeg player application depends on a lot more hardware than just the CPU. It's not going to happen.


The empeg player software does almost all of it's hardware access via the Linux kernel, so it is not actually very hardware dependent.

But we don't have source code for it, and that's the biggest (only?) stumbling block.
Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Poor mans mobile media player. - 14/03/2006 12:40

Quote:
Quote:
The empeg player application depends on a lot more hardware than just the CPU. It's not going to happen.


The empeg player software does almost all of it's hardware access via the Linux kernel, so it is not actually very hardware dependent.

But we don't have source code for it, and that's the biggest (only?) stumbling block.


From day one I always thought someone at empeg could come up with a way to get the code to you, even if they had to "hire" you in some capacity. At one point, I assumed it happened but that nobody talked about it. That's obviously not true. But it would have been so nice to have someone with your skills in possession of the code. Again, when I'd think about this, I thought maybe you could pass on fixes (such as the one you found for "jiffies"(?), large bookmarks, fidsift, etc) with the understanding that it'd be upto the empeg team to package it and release it as a beta. I doubt they'd have the funds to pay you, and I'm not sure what'd be in it for you other than a better working player, but it was a fun thought.
Posted by: JBjorgen

Re: Poor mans mobile media player. - 14/03/2006 14:53

IIRC, Aren't some of the display routines writing direct to hardware and not through the kernel?
Posted by: mlord

Re: Poor mans mobile media player. - 14/03/2006 22:28

Quote:
IIRC, Aren't some of the display routines writing direct to hardware and not through the kernel?


No.