Rockbox Player - Project to design and build a Free/Open hardware audio player

[gevaerts]

[wireless connectivity?]
Bluetooth is a good option. For hardware all we may need is a SPI bluettoth chip. i dunno how r we gonna implement the bluetooth software stack on the player. It will be challenging.

WiFi is way faster, and easier to program. Plus we can implement internet radio.

I think WiFi and bluetooth have different uses. Where can you buy WiFi headphones for instance ?

[techforumz]

Good point. So WiFi and Bluetooth?

[Llorean]

Or neither. The goal is low cost. Bluetooth is engineered to be low cost and low power consumption, and with it included, Wifi is *almost* redundant anyway, so the best idea is probably "neither" followed by just one, with Bluetooth offering more overall flexibility.

[casainho]

I did update the page with the schematic of the Custom secondary board:
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/RockboxPlayerPrototype

I will start now working on design that PCB.

[techforumz]

Or maybe we should just offer 'kits' like a PC. Plug in a Flash chip or HDD, a 2.5" color TFT, or 4-line monochrome, etc...

[casainho]

Hello :-)

Next week I will buy material to make the Custom_secondary_board, I would like to know how many developers want that board, I can buy material, make PCB and assembly it, then I can send it by mail to worldwide. Please answer to this message.
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/RockboxPlayerPrototype#Custom_secondary_board

I don't have the board designed yet but I hope to finish it, right after I have the material on my hand.

Now is also time to buy the development board. Also buy the LCD+carrier board and the JTAG cable, from Sparkfun, as I did.

Very soon we can start coding :-) :-)

---
Here is a notice with title DIY Robotics: The Rise of Open Source Hardware:
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2008/03/etech_hardware

Recently I am being reading about Arduino and others Open Hardware projects :-)

[techforumz]

I know a thing or two about electronics, but when things get to having more than a couple ICs, things get WAY out of hand for me.

Example attached.

[casainho]

I know a thing or two about electronics, but when things get to having more than a couple ICs, things get WAY out of hand for me.

Example attached.

Why did you post that message? :-) :-)

As you can read on wiki page of the project, for this prototype, we don't need to care about power circuits, as we will buy that already made on the development board.

Do you have any question about hardware of Prototype?
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/RockboxPlayerPrototype

--
version control system
I would like to start coding and have the program online for public access, like RockBox have. Anyone can advice a good service for that? - Sourceforge? Google code?

I am new to this technologies, I need to read some tutorials :-)

[Bagder]

I would like to start coding and have the program online for public access, like RockBox have. Anyone can advice a good service for that? - Sourceforge? Google code?

Since you're talking in a rockbox forum I can only assume you're talking about rockbox code here, and then I suggest you post your patches in a patch tracker entry to get people to test it, review it and commit it as soon as it fits.

[casainho]

I would like to start coding and have the program online for public access, like RockBox have. Anyone can advice a good service for that? - Sourceforge? Google code?

Since you're talking in a rockbox forum I can only assume you're talking about rockbox code here, and then I suggest you post your patches in a patch tracker entry to get people to test it, review it and commit it as soon as it fits.

Bagder, the first think I will do is the bootloader, working with u-boot. What do you suggest me to do? Until now we are just 2 developers(who will buy development hardware and code on it), me and Spark. How will other people test It If they don't have hardware to test it?

[Bagder]

Bagder, the first think I will do is the bootloader, working with u-boot. What do you suggest me to do? Until now we are just 2 developers(who will buy development hardware and code on it), me and Spark. How will other people test It If they don't have hardware to test it?

My suggestion still stands for the reasons I gave. If there's only one person who can test them, so be it.

[casainho]

Bagder, the first think I will do is the bootloader, working with u-boot. What do you suggest me to do? Until now we are just 2 developers(who will buy development hardware and code on it), me and Spark. How will other people test It If they don't have hardware to test it?

My suggestion still stands for the reasons I gave. If there's only one person who can test them, so be it.

I got answers to my questions about SVN of RB on IRC:
- can anyone please explain to me how can I code and have my code online, on the SNV of RB?
- You write code, create patches, put them on the patch tracker, and if they are OK, then developers with SVN access will commit them. After a while you may be invited to get SVN access yourself so you can commit changes directly.
- I will be working on a port that just me and other developer have the hardware, none of us have SVN access, so, how will someone with SVN access test the code?
- They can't. But they can read the code, and make sure it complies with the coding guidelines, and that it looks OK. But people working on new ports are normally given SVN access quite quickly, once they show their code is OK.

[drowe67]

Hi,

My name is David Rowe, and for 2.5 years I have been working with a team of hackers on open hardware IP-PBX designs, for example:

http://www.rowetel.com/ucasterisk/ip04.html

We have moved thorugh many of the stages you are now working through so I wanted to encourage you and let you know that community based open hardware projects really can work.  We have reached the stage where about 500 IP04's have been made, both via home construction and commercial production.

While checking out your wiki I noticed that your RockBoxPlayer and the IP04 are very similar, e.g. NAND flash, u-boot, gEDA even similar SDRAM choices.  Main difference is choice of CPU and of course your main I/O is stereo audio, wheras we are interested in telephony.

FYI have I blogged on the fun behind open hardware assembly

http://www.rowetel.com/blog/?p=20

Best of luck with your project :-)

Cheers,

David

[casainho]

Hi,

My name is David Rowe, and for 2.5 years I have been working with a team of hackers on open hardware IP-PBX designs, for example:

http://www.rowetel.com/ucasterisk/ip04.html

We have moved thorugh many of the stages you are now working through so I wanted to encourage you and let you know that community based open hardware projects really can work.  We have reached the stage where about 500 IP04's have been made, both via home construction and commercial production.

While checking out your wiki I noticed that your RockBoxPlayer and the IP04 are very similar, e.g. NAND flash, u-boot, gEDA even similar SDRAM choices.  Main difference is choice of CPU and of course your main I/O is stereo audio, wheras we are interested in telephony.

FYI have I blogged on the fun behind open hardware assembly

http://www.rowetel.com/blog/?p=20

Best of luck with your project :-)

Cheers,

David

Hello David :-)

I appreciate your words and time. You registered and this were your 1st message - thank you.

I did read quickly your blog post and I saved the link on RB Player project page. I loved the familiar touch on the post, with image of your son and wife. I really like to see others works, I can learn with them - thank you for sharing.

I didn't read the all things about your project, I have one quick question: how did you guys get the plastic case? you did buy it, draw it, etc?

At RB Player project, we can easily buy electronics material online, we have free software online, we have tools to draw the schematics, to build software, we already have positive feedback from potentials online shops to sell the player, we just don't have yet good options for the plastic case...

I also read that about "VOIP for the Deaf" :-) - at RB we have good options at software level, for the Visual impaired people and I would like to make this Free/Open hardware thinking on them also.

Thank you.

[drowe67]

Hi,

Yes the case can be an issue.  For our project, we teamed with a Chinese company (Atcom) who had the case designed and fabricated.  You see Atcom were familiar with manufacturing issues, as they already sell many electronic products.  So the case was fairly easy (and relatively) inexpensive to get designed/built.  Atcom were interested in helping us as they want to sell the IP04 commercially (which is fine with us).  So it has been a win-win partnership so far.  

Open Hardware is a new area, especially when it reaches the commercial stage so we are sort of feeling our way a bit.

BTW I have a video presentation from a recent conference that talks about the project:

http://www.rowetel.com/ucasterisk/index.html#newnews

If you have some friends (or project members) in China, it is a great place to buy your parts or organise volume manufacture.  For example through a friend in China I could buy prototype PCBs at $3 each, locally (I live in Australia), to get prototype PCBs made was several hundred $.  The PCB quality was excellent, better for example that the low cost on line PCB vendors in the US.

The idea of using your player hardware for the blind is a great idea.  I have blogged on a similar concept (low cost PC for the blind):

http://www.rowetel.com/blog/?p=29

Cheers,

David