A DIY Audio Player For When All That Matters Is The Music

orange-mepod

[Grissini] hasn’t had the best of luck when it comes to personal audio players. He estimates that he’s gone through about half a dozen iProducts/iKnockoffs over the years, which ultimately adds up to a lot of money poured right down the drain. Rather than lay down his cold hard cash for yet another music player that would succumb to a dead battery or cracked screen, [Grissini] decided that he would be better off if he built one himself.

His Orange mePod isn’t exactly the most attractive or sleekest music player out there, but [Grissini] says it works like a charm. An Arduino Uno powers the device, and he uses an Adafruit Wave Shield to handle the audio playback. Power is supplied via 4AA batteries which keep the tunes going for a reasonable amount of time, and afford him the ability to swap them out for recharging without much fuss.

The player was encased with some leftover cardboard and wrapped in bright orange duct tape, before being mounted on [Grissini’s] belt. He says he gets plenty of looks when he’s out and about, which you would expect from such a unique design.

Stick around to see a quick video of the audio player in action.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/32241824 w=470]

16 thoughts on “A DIY Audio Player For When All That Matters Is The Music

  1. it look more a fireworrk pice or bom whit a usb port in it. i naam it the Ibrick its not a player that you can put in your pocket its way to big for it.
    you must make it smoll and not a case made of ducktape.

    1. well hack is a bit of a stretch here, it’s more construction of something which is actually the bulk of the projects posted here. There aren’t that many “hacks” where they took something made it do something it wasn’t intended to.

      If it doesn’t suit your fancy, skip the article.

      It’s nice to have projects for all skill levels.

  2. I need to build a vacuum-tube version of this item, something of which I’ve been dreaming for quite some time. Mmmm…warm, tubey goodness…and it’ll even keep ya warm in the winter. :)

  3. I don’t get it; I’ve never been particularly careful with it, but my iPod’s lasted six years and still works great. And it’s not for a lack of use. What does he do, throw them at brick walls for fun?

  4. If all that matters is the audio, why are you using the adafruit wave shield? The best quality it produces is 22KHz, 12 bits. At least put a real MP3 decoder in there!

    I can understand building your own even if off the shelf products are cheaper – since when it breaks you have the ability to repair it.

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