Cloudmaster's mobile mp3 player status

viewed times since , yet still no exciting progress...

  • 4-30-00

    "Hmmm, cloudmaster's not getting much done, these days..." Well, worry no more, loyal followers. I've done my research, and have gotten the set up of custom systems down pretty well now. I'm putting together the filesystem and initial scripts right now, and will very soon (maybe by mid-may) will have the first download available. Yay! I've got my surround-sound processing algorithms set up, and am converting the complicated stuff to C so it won't have to wait for perl to do it all. Also, I got the headers on my car last week and got the engne bugs worked out, so I'll finally be able to actually work on the computer some more. School getting out helps too...
    By The Way: If any of you would like to see me set up a script to auto-mail you when there are updates to the project, semd me some cdproject@cloudmaster.com e-mail. I'll do it, but only if someone asks. (blatent request for one of those 3,000 people to send me an e-mail)


  • 3-07-00 (8:04 AM)

    I suppose I should actually put some news up here so people know I'm still working on this... :) I'm currently fine-tuning the new engine in the car, so I haven't been spending a lot of time on the software. Hoewver, I've been researching audio algorithms, and have gotten most of the custom distribution working. My goal is to have a marginally friendly install program and provide a few generic kernels so users can set up their mobile system fairly easily. On a related note, I'm looking at a nicer layout for this page - 'cause it looks ugly and unprofessional now. Hopefully within a month or 2 I'll get the core distrib out. Around the same time, I should have the effects engine working, and I should have the spectrum analyzer at least partially working. I'm considering doing something with a microphone and some pink noise so the system will auto-tune an eq for your car's environment. I haven't looked into how hard this would be, but at a glance, it doesn't look too hard. Send me some e-mail if you think that would be a helpful thing - or if you know precisely how to implement such a beast... Heck, over 2,000 people had visited this site in the last month, I'd eb happy if manbe a couple of them had just let me know I might be able to help them... :) I like (non-spam) e-mail.


  • 9-12-99 (10:08 AM)

    Good news! mpg123-0.59r now has a simple remote control interface, so I'll be able to far more easily implement fast forward, rewind, and pause. I'm ordering the keypad today so I can get a controller set up, and I'm looking into setting up an infrared remote interface as well. Someday I should clean up this set of web pages too... BTW, my photo CD with install pictures came back with an error message on the package and no CD, so the site pictures _still_ aren't available. Grr...


  • 8-4-99 (10:08 AM)

    Umm, if you found some broken links here, they oughtta be fixed now. Drop me a line if they're not... I've figured out the keypad interface and should get that implemented in a week or so (whenever I get my keypad in). For the time being, I need to fix the boot sector on my hard drive. I guess now would be a good time to set the root partition up as read-only, eh? I thikn I found the menory leak in my display program as well. Now the only things I wanna do that I don't know how to finish yet are the level-meter and the mixer controls. That, and I'd like to implement a subtle buffer program to set up an environmental audio-like system with the second output on the sound card. It seems easy enough, and doable - and the deeper soundfield oughtta be pretty cool... :)


  • 7-12-99 (10:08 AM)

    I've gotten version 0.21 of my player/disply adriver setup fixed, this is almost of a reasonable enough quality to stick it up on the software page. I have the setup in my car for good now, almost have the trim piece done, and am using it every day. Lumpy linux is getting close to uaable, but alas, nothing to download yet. My keypad still hasn't come in yet, I'll likely try that this week... This week I'll update the other pages.


  • 6-25-99 (1:41 AM)

    I'm getting started on the new distribution now, as a result of getting tired of not having a working player... I've decided to call it "Lumpy Linux", I hope that name's not taken already. :) I'm gonna be including a half-assed installer (maybe), but it will be easiest for someone that already knows what they're doing. It'll be small, and optimized for pentium processors. I'll prolly build a K6 optimized version too, just because... Anyway, within a week or so I'll have a tarball up for download (I hope). I never did get those circuit diagrams up, largely because I decided to do without them. I'll see if I can find the images I made laying around my hard drive and post them anyway, just in case they're useful to anyone.


  • 5-9-99 (1:41 AM)

    I know I promised to get those circuit diagrams up. I'm a lazy arse and haven't found a cool "draw pretty circuits" program yet. Effectively it involves pretending to be a UPS that sets a pin on the serial port high when the ignition's on, when tha tpin goes low the computer starts shutting down. There's a master relay that's held on either by the presence of ignition voltage or by an output pin on the same serial port. When the serial port goes low (last in the shutdown sequence), the inverter is shut off via relay. I promise I'll get a picture up sometime real soon. I'll also buy a camera to take some pre-install and steps-along-the-way pictures for you all to laugh at. :)


  • 4-30-99 (1:41 AM)

    I've gotten software written in perl that mostly works now. I can't read from the keypad yet, mostly because I don't have a keypad yet. It does load and play mp3's from a directory and display some info about them on the display though. I've gotta add a little more stuff to it, and make it work locally (right now it only works if I run the player on a seperate computer and display on caprice). It's mostly working, however. I'd like to convert it over to C after a while, but for now, perl will be fine. I'm gonna go see if I can get a keypad from a local shop tomorrow. If not, It'll be next week before I can get the keypad even signifigantly started on. I've got a good idea of how it'll work though... It'll prolly change when I actually get to the implementation part. :)


  • 4-26-99

    Today the Vacuum Fluorescent Display came. It actually came Friday, but UPS left me a post-it note instead of the package. :( I stayed home today (I would've anyway, as I feel kinda sick) to get the package. It's pretty darned cool. Came with a manual and linux software, and I got my neat-o linux hat as well. Anyway, I guess I'll be writing a client for lcdproc's server pretty soon then. Homework's more important right now though.


  • 4-25-99

    I got the system up and running with a 2.2.6 kernel today, and I got the whole system trimmed down to about 58MB. I'm sure it could be chopped down a lot from there, but I haven't gotten around to it. I think I'l leave it pretty much as it is, because I wanna have a reasonable complete diagnostic system available, and I wanna include Perl. It'll probably end up around 60 MB initially. The goal is to eventualy build my own distrib, but that's more of a "summer's here so I don't have any homework" kind of thing.


  • 4-24-99

    Today I finished up the glove box insert. Well, finished isn't right, as I stil have to cut the holes for the various connections, but the insert fits and is attached now, which is cool. I've also decided to mount the keypad in the ashtray drawer rather than in the armrest as I had originaly planned, for a completely hidden look (other than the tinted clock hole). I also purchased some sheet metal to make an insert for the glovebox and to mount the motherboard to (as there's no good flat surface under the dash natively



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