[Chris] had made a sturdy mount in his car for his iPAQ. He uses the iPAQ for directions and playing mp3s. After nearly ripping apart his line-in cable every time he took the iPAQ out of its cradle he decided to create a wireless solution. He chopped up a pair of HP FA303A Bluetooth headphones to extract the receiver portion. The headphone’s band is prone to breaking so it might be possible to find a damaged pair for cheap. The receiver was placed into an old mouse. Once the buttons were hooked up to the mouse buttons and a voltage regulator added the unit was ready to start streaming audio directly to the stereo.

Continue reading “Bluetooth Stereo Bridge” →

I’ve seen a lot of MP3 player projects, but this has to be one of the simplest designs yet. Control is from a PIC16LF877. Files are read from the compact flash card’s root directory in the order in which they were copied. This data is streamed byte by byte to the vs1001k decoder chip with a built in DAC.

If this project seems a little hard you might want to check out one of Raphael’s other projects: Alarm Clock of the Short Now [via MAKE]. It’s designed for people that don’t have a regular sleep schedule, like me.

[thanks iamdigitalman]

Continue reading “Simple MP3 Player” →

Here are plans for building a noise canceling headphone circuit. Noise cancellation works by placing microphones close to the ear and then playing the recorded sound out of phase causing destructive interference. Commercial headphones have the mics and power supplies built into the headphones. The page has some other fun suggestions for playing around with the stereo mic setup. If you’re looking for a cheaper route, there is this.

[thanks flybri and h-tech]

Continue reading “Noise Cancelling Headphones” →

They’re supposed to sound great. I swear. Well at least compared to bagpipes. They should only cost you about $5 not including the reeds. I doubt many of you are going to rush to the hardware store to build these, since you need to be pretty familiar with the instrument beforehand. That being said: I’m sure the submitter will get some great mileage out of his pipes without the fear of damage and I do actually like bagpipe music.

[thanks Billy the impaler]

Continue reading “PVC Bagpipes” →

This is a hack by the most basic of definitions. Seriously, the tool list is only two items long and the second item is “butterknife”! No real technical problems here; you just need to format your new 80gb harddrive as vfat and then mirror the RCA files from the original 40gb drive. It’s nice to see someone else try this before you go knifing around.

On the topic of MP3 players: have there been any other network attached players besides the Rio Karma?

[thanks ikka]

Continue reading “Lyra MP3 Player Drive Upgrade” →

Reader David Kristian was annoyed with having to use a full table or other object to support his half-rack effect when playing gigs. Laying the box flat made it impossible to read or tweak the device. He ended up with this mini-tripod. Replacing the pan lock screw and adding a suction cup foot created a really elegant solution. It gives a good viewing angle and it’s easy to pick up and take with you.

Continue reading “Half Rack Effect Stand” →

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.

Continue reading “JuiceBox Messenger Bag” →