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Random
December 8th, 2016, 10:10 AM
Anyone got any favorites?

Backstory: our 9-yr-old has discovered portable music. We'd like to upgrade his music player from his current SweetPea (https://www.amazon.com/SweetPea3-MP3-Player-Kids-Blue/dp/B001M1L44W) to something a little more, uh, mature looking. We'd also like to avoid spending very much money on something that is likely to get lost or broken w/in three years, though, so that rules out the iPod nano and similar.

I found this SanDisk (https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Player-Screen-MicroSDHC-SDMX24-008G-G46K/dp/B00HCMZ2SE/) player that seems to do everything we need it to. Thoughts?

dodint
December 8th, 2016, 10:24 AM
Any chance you want to give him an old Android phone that isn't registered to a cellular carrier anymore? You could just add it to your Google Play Music account as a device and you're all good. And if it breaks, who cares?

21Kid
December 8th, 2016, 10:35 AM
That small MP3 player will get lost.

My kids get all of my hand-me-downs. :) Works for my 7 year old. No phone service, but wifi works just fine.

thesameguy
December 8th, 2016, 10:47 AM
Any chance you want to give him an old Android phone that isn't registered to a cellular carrier anymore? You could just add it to your Google Play Music account as a device and you're all good. And if it breaks, who cares?

This would definitely be my approach. CL is littered with Android phones for tens of dollars.

I am really disturbed that he is nine right now, and am tempted to end this conversation, but...

Have you thought about doing a roll-your-own project with Rasp Pi et al? It's more advanced than the electronics kits I was building at that age, but everything is so sci-fi these days it seems about right. My 10 year old nephew plays with Arduino.

Kchrpm
December 8th, 2016, 10:50 AM
Have you thought about doing a roll-your-own project with Rasp Pi et al? It's more advanced than the electronics kits I was building at that age, but everything is so sci-fi these days it seems about right. My 10 year old nephew plays with Arduino.

YAAAAAAAAAAAAS! If he makes the hardware himself, he'll be less likely to lose/break it because of the sense of pride.

But I do very much like the GPM family plan solution...hmmm...

Random
December 8th, 2016, 10:55 AM
I am really disturbed that he is nine right now, and am tempted to end this conversation, but...


Almost 10!

(And you're not the only one that is disturbed...lol)

thesameguy
December 8th, 2016, 11:31 AM
I think you could rolling with Arduino for about $60-$70... it could be done for less, but this seems like a neat, flexible solution. Not much actual work to do, but a lot of possibilities for tweaks & such down the road...

$30 CODEC shield - https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-music-maker-shield-vs1053-mp3-wav-wave-ogg-vorbis-player

Just need a ~$25 Uno and a project case.

Seems like Pi is about the same -$30 CODEC and a Pi - eg, http://www.rpimusicplayer.com/

Kchrpm
December 8th, 2016, 11:45 AM
The issue that I can see for those kits (and the ones I've found in Google searches) is that they aren't standalone, self-contained and controlled MP3 players. The ones I've seen that are battery powered are controlled by a separate device. If the bare minimum is a AA-powered player that selects and plays music stored on an SD card and outputs to plugged in headphones, it does not seem like a simple project/kit that exists at this moment. Maybe I'm not properly interpreting the pages I've read, though.

thesameguy
December 8th, 2016, 11:59 AM
Those things do those things - you need to physically provide the buttons, but all the functionality & connectivity is there. Power comes from 3v or 5v, so you can either use an AC adapter or one of the many compatible-voltage rechargeable batteries. :) It's definitely not the cheapest approach, but a good intersection of educational and functional.

Kchrpm
December 8th, 2016, 12:09 PM
How much programming do you have to do for the UI?

thesameguy
December 8th, 2016, 12:21 PM
What UI? :)

The basic players just use buttons for actions, but don't have a display. I don't know *anything* about Rasp Pi, but I read that Adafruit Arduino shield walkthrough and it seems very straightforward. There are pads for buttons and function calls for them, so you just need to copy and paste the same code as appropriate.

In theory. I am way too out of the loop on this stuff to be of any use, but it seems pretty straightforward... and from what little looking I've done over the past few weeks, I think there are plenty of resources where you can get help. I'm hoping so, anyway - I'm going to need it! Really, though, Arduino is aimed at beginners learning about electronics and coding - it just can't be that hard to do basic stuff out of a kit.

Kchrpm
December 8th, 2016, 12:30 PM
What UI? :)
Um, the one that lets you pick songs?

Oh, right, we're trying to replicate a Nano, which also had no screen. Boo.

Fucking garbage Apple bullshit

thesameguy
December 8th, 2016, 12:41 PM
True, but I think that's kind of the neat appeal of rolling your own. The first version has no screen, but nothing prevents you from adding an LCD matrix or TFT, reading ID3 data, and printing it out for v2. Arduino-based MP3 player is just like Bananastang - saves you money up front, costs you more down the road, but you get the thrill of doing it yourself! Sort of. :)

Random
December 8th, 2016, 12:44 PM
Nano has had a screen since day 1. The iPod Shuffle was the one missing a screen.

Kchrpm
December 8th, 2016, 12:45 PM
Whenever I do something myself it has turned into a money sink and failure. I keep some as trophies of my ineptitude.

Edit: SHUFFLE! That's the one. Nevermind. GIVE THAT BOY A SCREEN!

dodint
December 9th, 2016, 04:40 AM
Poor kid. Wants to jam to some tunes to unwind from the stress of being nine years old and you lot give him a programming/engineering problem.

thesameguy
December 9th, 2016, 08:54 AM
Damn straight. Better to fill their heads with STEM than music anyway. :P

CudaMan
December 9th, 2016, 10:36 AM
When I was his age, I had an alarm clock with AM/FM and one tiny speaker, and I was happy. http://www.giraffeboards.com/images/smilies/Lawn.gif

Seriously though, I got nothin' on the subject at hand. :)

Kchrpm
December 9th, 2016, 10:43 AM
If he's rolling his own, how would he get it to fit inside of a GTR GT3 car with an appropriate paintjob?

thesameguy
December 9th, 2016, 10:43 AM
It's been a long time, but I'm pretty sure this was the stereo in my room until I was 11 or 12 -

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c369/forgottentomorow/IMG_5885.jpg

Dad was a veep at Pioneer, so.....

I got some cash for Christmas in there and replaced it with a JVC (all I could afford :lol:) that had dual cassette decks, and that pretty much put me on a path of music piracy that took twenty years to kick. :D

Kchrpm
December 9th, 2016, 10:48 AM
Dammit, I really want to know now if you could fit an MP3 player inside of a Hot Wheels car.

thesameguy
December 9th, 2016, 11:26 AM
Like a regular Hot Wheels car? Probably not something a person could make, but as an integrated circuit? Sure. The Creative Labs Stone and Sandisk Clip were only ~2" in each dimension and that was 10 years ago - no reason one couldn't be made longer and narrower.

http://www.dhgate.com/product/cute-model-car-style-music-player-colorful/167145244.html

Kchrpm
December 9th, 2016, 11:29 AM
Use your hacker skills and make it so! Heitkotter GTR GT3 MP3!

thesameguy
December 9th, 2016, 11:32 AM
I will add it to my to-do list!

Kchrpm
December 9th, 2016, 11:34 AM
I had one of these, too, this should totally fit in a Hot Wheels somehow. 1 cubic inch!

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/6409/1436/1600/FingerCube.jpg

Yw-slayer
December 9th, 2016, 06:45 PM
I can probably buy you one off Taobao or locally for less than it would cost to ship to you internationally.

George
December 12th, 2016, 09:17 AM
Anyone got any favorites?

I've been using a Sansa Fuse 4GB for maybe close to ten years now. This one (https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Video-Player-Black/dp/B0015L0T68d), surely discontinued by now.

Hmm, link worked for me from google, but it won't once I posted it here. Odd. Anyway, here's a pic from google:
http://img.bhs4.com/eb/1/eb116ea32514a167308d0b5bd690eff26db11adb_large.jpg
I use it every weekday and sometimes on weekends and have for many years. Right now it's sitting on my desk at work next to me. Just drag and drop to/from it, like a USB flash drive. No iTunes or other "sync" software to make things needlessly complicated, as I understand Apple mp3 players can be.