Support and General Use > Hardware
Free/Open digital portable audio player
casainho:
UPDATE: New page on RockBox wiki was started about this idea, please contribute: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/RockBoxPlayer
Hello! I am new to Rockbox and full of ideas...
Why not start designing a Free/Open digital portable audio player? - I remember to see others that rely on MP3 IC decoder and a 8 bits Atmel AVR microcontroler. Looks like that now we can buy a 32 bits AVR32 Atmel that runs Linux - with this we don't need MP3 decoder IC and can have Rockbox (as an application on linux kernel) do the decoding of MP3, OGG, Flac, etc...
My guess is that we just need processor AVR32, RAM, DAC, LCD, BUTTONS and any COMPACT FLASH (or other) for store files.
USB and audio decoding done in processor! A Player that plays almost any audio codec and that can read from flash cards or HDD!! and that acts as an host - meaning that would be possible to copy music from player to player, nice to share music with friends.
I believe that today players are complex in software because of need to protect DRM music and things like that. But times are changing, there are a lot of free music over internet that should be shared, for example www.Jamendo.com site that provide music with CC licenses and a lot of artists are sharing their own music on theirs own sites!!
saratoga:
--- Quote from: casainho on November 11, 2007, 12:53:26 PM ---Why not start designing a Free/Open digital portable audio player?
--- End quote ---
Because that would be expensive and probably not result in a very attractive player compared to existing commercial ones.
--- Quote from: casainho on November 11, 2007, 12:53:26 PM --- with this we don't need MP3 decoder IC and can have Rockbox (as an application on linux kernel) do the decoding of MP3, OGG, Flac, etc...
--- End quote ---
Rockbox is an operating system, not a linux app. Only the sim works with linux, and its not really usable as a player (yet).
--- Quote from: casainho on November 11, 2007, 12:53:26 PM ---USB and audio decoding done in processor! A Player that plays almost any audio codec and that can read from flash cards or HDD!! and that acts as an host - meaning that would be possible to copy music from player to player, nice to share music with friends.
--- End quote ---
Rockbox already does this except for the USB host, and I don't see how having different hardware would help any of this.
casainho:
--- Quote from: saratoga on November 11, 2007, 01:13:03 PM ---
--- Quote from: casainho on November 11, 2007, 12:53:26 PM ---Why not start designing a Free/Open digital portable audio player?
--- End quote ---
Because that would be expensive and probably not result in a very attractive player compared to existing commercial ones.
--- End quote ---
But we could win somethings with this player tailored by us - for example, have all hardware working and perfect rockbox port, quick and easily done!!
--- Quote from: saratoga on November 11, 2007, 01:13:03 PM ---
--- Quote from: casainho on November 11, 2007, 12:53:26 PM --- with this we don't need MP3 decoder IC and can have Rockbox (as an application on linux kernel) do the decoding of MP3, OGG, Flac, etc...
--- End quote ---
Rockbox is an operating system, not a linux app. Only the sim works with linux, and its not really usable as a player (yet).
--- End quote ---
Ok, I understand, I read somewhere in site that Rockbox should be made as application, maybe because that are portable devices like phones that could run RB. Anyway, its possible to made a native port of RB for AVR32 since there are a free software GCC-AVR32 for him - thanks Atmel ;-) :-)
--- Quote from: saratoga on November 11, 2007, 01:13:03 PM ---
--- Quote from: casainho on November 11, 2007, 12:53:26 PM ---USB and audio decoding done in processor! A Player that plays almost any audio codec and that can read from flash cards or HDD!! and that acts as an host - meaning that would be possible to copy music from player to player, nice to share music with friends.
--- End quote ---
Rockbox already does this except for the USB host, and I don't see how having different hardware would help any of this.
--- End quote ---
What I am trying to say is that now we can have a lot of portable digital music player made in software, because now we have fast and powerful processors, not like in the past that should have also MP3 IC decoders and USB ICs.
Maybe I am dreaming - a lot of what I do ;-) :-)
casainho:
I found for seel AVR32(AT32AP7001) at Digikey for 20$ - http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail?name=AT32AP7001-ALUT-ND
So for $20 we get:
32 KB on-chip SRAM, .... Peripherals include a 16-bit stereo audio DAC, ..., 480 Mbps USB 2.0 ...
For the hardware player we would just need the AVR32 ($20) + LCD (Nokia LCD $5) + BUTTONS ($2) + BATTERY ($10) + COMPACT FLASH CARD ($25).
I have found one player as I thought :-) - http://dspdap.sourceforge.net/index.html
The concept is the same however that player is old and uses a TMS320C55x DSP from Texas, which don't have any GCC version for it :-(
The guy from Daisy MP3 sells It's own kits for soldering and they are not expensive. Also there are Makezine and others that sells projects already assembled...
There are others players that uses IC MP3 decoders:
Daisy MP3 - http://www.teuthis.com/html/daisy_mp3.html
The Sakura, The World’s Simplest Open Source DIY MP3 player! - http://www.teuthis.com/html/mmc_mp3.html
Yet Another MP3 Player - http://www.myplace.nu/mp3/
saratoga:
--- Quote from: casainho on November 11, 2007, 01:30:19 PM ---
--- Quote from: saratoga on November 11, 2007, 01:13:03 PM ---
--- Quote from: casainho on November 11, 2007, 12:53:26 PM ---Why not start designing a Free/Open digital portable audio player?
--- End quote ---
Because that would be expensive and probably not result in a very attractive player compared to existing commercial ones.
--- End quote ---
But we could win somethings with this player tailored by us - for example, have all hardware working and perfect rockbox port, quick and easily done!!
--- End quote ---
Yes but because you've moved the complexity from software development to hardware development. A better approach would be to simply start a port to an mp3 player that uses mostly documented hardware.
--- Quote from: casainho on November 11, 2007, 01:30:19 PM ---Ok, I understand, I read somewhere in site that Rockbox should be made as application, maybe because that are portable devices like phones that could run RB. Anyway, its possible to made a native port of RB for AVR32 since there are a free software GCC-AVR32 for him - thanks Atmel ;-) :-)
--- End quote ---
Yes but it would probably not work as well as players using an established arch like ARM.
--- Quote from: casainho on November 11, 2007, 01:30:19 PM ---What I am trying to say is that now we can have a lot of portable digital music player made in software, because now we have fast and powerful processors, not like in the past that should have also MP3 IC decoders and USB ICs.
--- End quote ---
This is true of many (most?) of the hardware platforms rockbox already runs on. If this is what you're trying to say, then my response would be that you should buy a Sansa and develop for that.
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