Page 2 - "building" my own flash portable mp3 player...

Originally Posted by sausage

Would like to add tho, that misconceptions bit, I am a bit concerned where they're teaching kids most of those misconceptions... I can understand some of them being taught to younger minds for simplicity's sake, but most of the misconceptions mentioned there surely kids should have gotten rid of by their mid-teens at the latest? Bit concerned about how our education system must have deteriorated... I honestly had no idea! High-level analogies of things are perfectly okay, but I get the impression kids today are being taught some very skewed views on things...

Originally Posted by sausage

Thanks butmunch. I find it a little odd that not one single enthusiast has made a step by step guide though, I never expected it to be plug in and play purely because there isn't a market for those sorts of products, unlike with PCs... but I am bewildered by the lack of tutorials on this sort of thing.

Unfortunately I don't have a whole lot of cash to spare on experimenting, I'll look into your suggesting though.

Thanks again!

Originally Posted by sausage

First post and first thread here!

Okay, so, this is something I've scoured the web for but to no avail.

Here's the situation!

I've built my own pc, no biggie. I fully understand what a leap building a portable mp3 player from that would be. I know java, but I wouldn't consider myself a coder, that is, my job is and never has been that of a programmer, its merely something I'm interested in, and apart from a silly applet or application or two, I've not programmed a full application.

Okay, now, I've got a whole bunch of questions, firstly, how hard?

Secondly, what does the PCB board do. Now, I know you're probably thinking "this guy hasn't got a clue, best tell him to give up" but I'd really appreciate answers just for curiosity's sake. I've got a schematic and PCB designing program, I've found a good company that will manufacture one PCB board for me. The thing is, what does the circuitry need to do? Just link up the ICs? What about capacitors? Obviously I realise I also need to use the circuitry to ground stuff and actually supply power to stuff!

Okay, ICs, I've found a couple of MP3 decoding chips, the thing is, is there anywhere that reviews this stuff? Also, I've looked at the datasheets, but as I'm sure you are aware its important I know the size of the things and so forth before I even start to draw up the PCB schematics.

Basically, what do I need? What ICs do I need? Is it a case of connecting them up? Am I being incredibly naive? I honestly don't even know how to find the stuff I need.

The datasheets do tell me alot of what goes to what, and I suppose I could get all the chips from the one company, hopefully.

Also, lets say I've soldered everything somehow and all is okay, then what? Do these things have some functionality without me doing anything else? I mean, forgetting about input devices and whatnot, well, a play button, what exactly 'tells' the flash card controller to send the stuff to the mp3 decoder and then out to the bit that converts it into an analog signal and sends it off to the headphone jack?

Don't laugh, I may sound like a fish out of water... or a hedgehog shoved in the deep end... but humour me, cos I'd really appreciate some answers!

Thanks, any help MOST appreciated!

Originally Posted by wngyuq001

Hi there,

I am in a similar situation that u in. Have you gotten help? I am also doing an MP3 Player project.