[geeks] home mp3 system suggestions

[Nathaniel Grady]

Few ideas: 

1) TI/ Burr Brown make a "usb streaming audio codec" chip that has a usb
in on one end and analog out on the other. I snagged some samples from
them for my own use but still haven't gotten around to using them yet
(fine pitched SMT, not sure if i can actually solder wires to them).
They also have several usb <-> (AC '97 / i2c) streaming audio chips to
connect to a DAC. 
-> USB audio stuff:
http://focus.ti.com/docs/browse/productnavigation.jhtml?familyId=550&tfsection=products&templateId=5&showAssociated=false
-> Chip I'm thinking of (PCM2702):
http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/productfolder.jhtml?genericPartNumber=PCM2702&familyId=550

2) A lot of uC's have UARTS for RS232 / RS422 / RS485 / CAN (the latter
two of which are multidrop iirc) as well as i2c (for the dac). Maybe
something like  20mhz AVR or something should be able to handle the data
rate w/o much trouble and have cycles left over to drive a LCD showing
song name and a few buttons... The problem of course is that PC's don't
often have anything but RS422 / USB. Maybe you could find a multiport
serial card off ebay that could do 1 or 2 Mb/s and run point-to-point
RS/232 (only really need 4 wires, maybe 5 if you wanted power also). 

3) SBC - for $200 you could get something like a 386 sbc (such as
www.sumbox.com - don't know anything about them - just saw an add in
circuit cellar) that has Ethernet and runs linux? Zworld
(www.zworld.com) has one for $249. 

4) Microcontroller board with ethernet like a Netburner
(www.netburner.com) - $99, has 10/100mbps ethernet. Iirc, Rabit also has
something similar that's cheaper (www.rabbitsemiconductor.com) 

4) Radiometrix has wireless modules that can do up to 160kbps serial
communications. Don't know pricing but I remember being pleasantly
surprised when i was thinking about buying them. Laipac (www.laipac.com)
also has similar gear. 

Just some stuff I pulled outa my ass - most of the products i just
glanced in the back of circuit cellar for an example of :) I highly
recommend subscribing to circuit cellar if you're into this sort of
stuff - I know I have seen articles about hooking USB and Ethernet into
microcontrollers recently. 



-- 

--Nathaniel Grady

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