Sean Adams' ethernet MP3 player

[Ian Oliver <ioliver.lists@xxxxxxx>]

Conversation regards Sean Adams' MP3 player.  I've edited some of the
Q&A so you can more easily follow what was asked and what was answered.

Sean would appreciate feedback from people on functionality and
pricing. If the thing really is as open as he says, and if pricing can
be reduced, I could be interested in some of these. But with us all
having the DDAR we'd have to run two lots of server software!

Note that I mentioned the DDAR order, and the possibility of there
being a bulk order of his units, but it was Sean that leapt to the
conclusion we might want 50 off him.  I haven't committed anyone to
anything!

Anyway, all feedback welcome.

Regards

Ian

-----------
Hi Sean,

Any information you can provide on your MP3 player can't come soon
enough for a whole load of people on the UK Home Automation list.
We're currently trying to get 50 of the DDAR players from Dell, but
getting price and shipping organised from the UK isn't easy.  Your
player seems like it could do the same job, though it appears without
speaker outputs or Ir remote.

Once you have the thing ready I'm sure we could work up a bulk order
over here.

Regards

Ian Oliver
------------------

Ian,

I haven't had much time to work on the MP3 player lately. The product
is almost finished, and could be considered "beta" quality.
However, I
was not able to secure the funding necessary to produce them.

You're correct, the player does not have speakers - it has RCA outputs
which you connect to your HiFi or amplified computer speakers. It does,
however, have an IR remote. The MP3 server software runs on Linux, Mac,
and Windows.

If you're really interested in ordering 50 or more, then I could
arrange to have them produced, but it would take about two months.  If
you think this might be possible, email me your phone number, and we
can discuss it further.

Best regards,

Sean Adams
------------

1)Any idea of pricing?
Not likely to be more than 175P - I still don't know exactly what these
first 100 units will cost to produce, but we will probably be selling
them at cost, just to get our volume going.

2) Any overview of feature set?
Supports all MP3 bit rates and VBR, has a very easy to use browser
interface, supports flash firmware update over the network. IR controls
(up down left right to browse through your songs, random mode, next
song, continuous play). Unlimited number of songs on the server.

3) Does it use MS/Samba shares or FTP to get the files?
Streaming protocol is currently proprietary (TFTP-like, will move to
TCP in a future firmware revision). The current server is written in
Perl and runs on any platform - V2.0 will probably be C (open source)
and will initially be Unix only - hopefully somebody can do a Windows
port. Support for MacOS9 will be dropped, but MacOSX will be supported.

4) Which parts will be public and which private (audience are
tinkerers!)
To be decided - there is a good possibility that we will release a
well-documented, open source server for it. What's unique about this
product is that almost everything is done on the server side (handling
the IR, low-level i2c control, updating the display) so there is no
limit to the functionality you can add. The firmware and logic design
will almost certainly remain proprietary, but this will in no way
inhibit the hobbyist's ability to make changes and add features -
everything in the player is -very- low level, hardware-specific stuff.

5) Any plans for case/enclosure?
It's going to be a very simple stand, made of "smoked" acrylic.
It
actually looks pretty nice - I'll send you a picture. Right now, we're
planning to use a rather expensive vacuum fluorescent display - we may
have an option for a less expensive LCD display. I also have some
concept designs and a prototype that I built using parts from a pioneer
home stereo. I'll try to get these photos to you tonight (tomorrow for
you).
----------------
Q: By "175P" do you mean 175 UK pounds?  If so then that seems
high to
me as the Dell unit is only $150.  The batch we hope to import next
week will be costing 140 uk pounds when they arrive in the UK.
-----------------
$150 - wow. Last I heard they were planning to retail for $275 to $300,
so I wasn't expecting to have to come in much below that price. Keep in
mind that we're doing this on a shoestring , and building 100 units at
a time is not terribly cost-effective. At any rate, we can come a lot
closer to the $150 mark, if we were to substitute the less expensive
LCD for the VFD (we'll probably offer both).

I can't commit to a price until we know for sure what the assembly work
is going to cost - I can tell you that our BOM alone is about $130 in
these small quantities, and will drop to about $80 to $90 for 10K
units. This is our status as of today:

1. We have purchased most of the parts for the first 100 units (no
displays and remotes, yet - we'll buy those right before we ship)
2. There is a little bit of firmware work left to do
3. We need to do one more revision of the PCB - just a feminor changes
4. Have not yet found a suitable shop to do the assembly work

We are planning to start out selling these over the web. Documentation
and source code will be publicly availble, hopefully in about 4 to 6
weeks.

By all means forward this info along... any feedback from your
customers would be appreciated. By the way, do you know of a good
wholesale source for IR remotes? We need cursor keys, plus CD plyer
controls... Sony or JVC compatible DVD remotes would work great.

Sorry for the delay getting those pics to you - will send them tonight.

Sean
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