JuiceBox Messenger Bag

juicebox boom box

Henry sent this in just in time for us to ignore Slashdot’s terrible story on JuiceBox hacking. The JuiceBox is a simple personal video player designed for people who don’t care about resolution or framerate, supposedly kids. Major retail chains have started dropping the prices of these units so you can pick one up pretty cheap. Probably the cheapest MMC based MP3 player you’ll find. To get more info on the hardware and the uClinux OS that it runs check out the JuiceBox page at the eLinux wiki. Details and pictures of Henry’s boom bag after the jump.

The speakers and grills were scavenged from a pair of cheap computer speakers. He picked the JuiceBox up on eBay and got the messenger bag from American Eagle. The components were wired to a pair of rechargeable batteries. Add one gratuitous knife switch and you’re done. All told the project cost about $30. Click for hi-rez.
juice1

juice1bigjuice2
He also sent along a video just prove that it turns on.juice1big

Related:
Backpack Boombox
JuiceBox Photo Frame

19 thoughts on “JuiceBox Messenger Bag

  1. Looks like you need a new switch there! That old blade-type switch needs a better look… You need a little plastic IC-mount switch, and you can put it in an old plastic thing (like a tic-tac container. It’ll look a lot better. Very cool tho.

  2. That’s hilarious (read: slashdot’s terrible story). I ready Hackaday and Slashdot rituallisticly every day, but you’re right, that was terribly lacking. If anyone knows a real easy way to just get A/V in on the juicebox, that would be sweet becuase I have a few ideas to work on

  3. Cool. This is alot better than the story on Slashdot (not saying much though).

    Definately check out the forums on http://www.linux-hacker.org it you’re interested in the device (most data has been added to the wiki, but not everything, and it gives you a place to talk about it easier). It runs UCLinux, and the source for everything but the built-in media player app has been released (the media player isn’t GNU). Alot of potential in this device, if you don’t mind soldering SMT components and setting up cross-compiliation environments. Only minimally different than the Samsung S3C44B0X developement platform.

  4. Target does have these on clearance right now for ~$13.00, $12.00 or so for the mp3 addon.

    I found 3 of them on one of the end shelves in the toys section (near other electronic toys).

  5. Well the slashdot article linking back to Make:blog’s juicebox story explains almost 1400 hits a day back to my page (listed on Make’s trackbacks)… good thing I’m using dreamhost or I’d have been screwed on bandwidth.

    When I bought mine at walmart over a month ago, they were on clearance for $11 bucks. They were out of them in a matter of days.

  6. i totally found about 30 of these for 12.80 and the mp3 photo viewer starter kit for 11 somthing both marked down from 50 bucks at target… the mp3 kit comes with a 32 mb card too, crazy, i was tempted but im just too dumb to know what im doing with this hack. so i didnt buy anything…

  7. make this thing 802.11 wireless, and we’re talking! i got maybe 20gigs (and growing) of photos on my file server waiting for something like this…

    maybe a light-weight browser requesting pics from a photo-randomizer cgi.. mmm…

  8. Hey check out K-b toys Just got a complete kit for $15.00 Box, 2 movies, sd card kit, head phones, pouch. Really CHEAP MP3 player. I think thats what mattle paid for the LCD alone.

  9. he he — don’t take this one as a carry-on at the airport… whew… that will be a long wait to get on the plane… if you are ever able!

    (I had a friend with a Titanium Mac Laptop– tibook– and the wires were busted coming out at the hinge — classic mac laptop hinge problem ugh — anyway – he took it to the airport and the goons ended up having him sign a waiver since the screen didn’t come on and then they proceeded to screw with it until they cracked the screen and you know, since he signed the waiver, he was basically screwed.

    the moral of the story: don’t take electronics with bare wires into an airport planning to board a plane with them! — including this hack!

  10. any ideas on how to make 1 work on usb…. so as to hook it up to a harddrive and play mp4 off a harddrive..say maybe in the car?…. or at a friends house that dont have anything to play mp4 or mp3 from usb?… infoe on this would be awsome..

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