I've got an auxilary input on my car stereo and while it'd be nice to have an iPod to hold MP3's, that's not in the budget at the moment! Hacking together something integrated into my car would be great, but it would take alot of work to do it to my satisfaction. I can't think of any good way to integrate any sort of screen without shelling out some money for a small LCD. Which is too bad, because a Powerbook keyboard and trackpad would fit well on the backside of the glovebox door!
The simplest choice seems to be a Powerbook sitting on the passengers seat. Sure its not that elegant, but its an easy start and will probably be modified as time goes by. It be nice to hide it away, but its already going to be a bit of a pain since I won't be able to really use it to change songs while driving. If it is going to sit out, a stronger enclosure may be needed since it will get tossed and slid around most likely - another reason for keeing this low $ lol.
i need to know what the minimum specs required for a Mac to play MP3's are. I assume a PPC processor is needed.
Any reasonable options for external drives for an older Powerbook for this project (pre-USB)? Being able to mount a 3.5" external drive under the seat would cut down on costs of getting a larger 2.5" drive.
Ideas guys?
Tom
Thinking way beyond my own abilities... Would it be possible to make an MP3 player program that would skip forward and back through songs in a playlist in response to an ADB device? I guess with keyboard shortcuts this is already possible. I'm thinking of something like a steering wheel mounted remote that would give you at least some control of things without having to look at the screen.
best to use a 3400 or better. The nubus PBs are pretty marginal when it comes to responsiveness in use. Even a 3400 isn't great but at least it can react to user interaction in an acceptable amount of time, where the nubus PBs seem to take forever to respond to user commands while playing MP3s.
Drive space is an issue too of course, so you'll need a larger-than-original HD to be of much value. If the PB comes with an original 500/750/1GB drive, you're sure to want to upgrade that to at least 4GBs (even more is better of course.)
hth,
dan k
and since they are pretty much the gold-standard I suggest giving serious thought to going that route. The PB-on-the-seat is doable, but a tad clunky.
I’ve seen good usable examples going for ~US$100. That’s hard to beat with any sort of cobbled-up system. The iPod works great in-car. I’ve got several gen 1 & 2 iPods and use them in-car through my Blaupunkt’s aux input and with a dedicated 12V supply with the iPod clipped to top edge of dash in homemade holder. You can see the bracket'n'cables in this pic:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/macdan/images/sandblaster/vw1.jpg
I cobbled together 2 working iPods from 3 broken/non-working donar units obtained cheaply for parts. Usual faults seem to be bad batteries, bad solder joints at FW connector, bad HDs, broken/cracked LCDs and bad logic boards (messed up firmware.) There’s a very good chance if you pick up 2 dead iPods with differing faults one can make one good iPod out of the pile. Add another dead iPod and maybe make another good one, and so forth.
Once you have enough parts for testing you can easily fix/repair any gen 1 iPod. Non-functional 5 giggers sell for ~$50 or so BTW. Oh, and new batteries are super-cheap these days, ~$25 or so for a better-than-original replacement.
dan k
also I remember that at one time someone wrote a 68k MP3 player. But you had to have a 520/540/190 Powerbook or 68040 desktop. If you want to use the PB 5300, check out the Power Adapter. when i got mine, the casing around adapter started to melt. so apple replaced it. if you can find 520/540 PPC (those I believe were only available in Asia) then go for it. I suggest that if you want compact, get a Duo 2300c. my brother had one and it was light. Heck, if (and is say this embarissingly) get an Pentium MMX and put Windows 2k on it (it's petty reliable and fast enough to browse the web and play mp3's on it (im doing this right now on my dad's laptop that i fixed up for him.) Just make sure you have wireless or ethernet so you can upload the songs easily.
That does sound much better. It might be time to start hunting for broken iPods. How do I spot first gen models? Is that really the one to get? $100 would pretty much be the limit, I suggested the PB idea because I'm sure I've got a 3400 or something around here somewhere. I think there's a Kanga, but I like those too much to risk damage with it just sitting in the car.
While 5GB would probably be plenty for me, is it possible to have a Firewire drive hooked up to the iPod for extra storage? It would be mounted in the car most of the time. I've scratched so many CD's do to carelessness that I'd like to put all the originals away. I could make CD-Rs of all of them but the iPod or PB would be easier.
I've got a Blaupunkt too! I used to have one in my VW Corrado and I liked it so much I got another when I sold that car. Looks good in the Volvo 240, no flip down face or flashy display, just plain black with good controls. My one complaint about it is that its picky on CD scratches! Things that would play just fine in the Mac or home stereo skip like crazy in the car. And I wish it played MP3's, but then its an oooold model (thought not by Blaupunkt standards).
Today is interior add-ons day for the car. i've got auxiliary gauges that have been installed but not connected for over a year. I'm tired of people asking why I have no oil pressure. Then I've gotta figure out how to get new speakers in these d*mn volvo door panels. And where do I put that iPod...or PB...
If I could actually USE the Powerbook in the car that would be one advantage over the iPod. But I'd have to mount it under the dash or something so that it could swing out and open up when I needed it. Hmm what about a wireless card in the Kanga and secondary "network antenna" on the car? LOL I don't know how useful it would be, but a friend who's a salesman says he pulls into hotel parking lots to access the net sometimes.
This reminds me of another question but that should be a new thread.
Tom