i was wondering if anyone has ever taken a standard harddrive and modded it into their own mp3 player for home or car use. I thought this would be a great project...if it can be done. If it has, can you post a link. Thanks
dont think its possible without some sort of computer and software behind it... the only hdd i no for a car is the kenwood one...
how do standard mp3 hds work? for instance: ipods. it seems like just a hd with firmware installed onto it, instead of an operating system.
not sure how it totally works.. i no u can hook up a ipod to a car stero but it goes through a tape player.. the cheapest way is to get a stero which can play mp3's and just burn them to CD's but i dont really no about hooking up a HDD to a stero straight off
I have seen people do it, but it is very very complex. The guy had to build a custom enclosure and write up lots and lots of code for it to work. So simply put, it can be done. Though it is very difficult to do so.
There is a dedicated MP3 car system that accepts normal formatted HDDs as standard. No idea on the name or any links or sellers but as it can take a 3.5" 300+gig HDD it's pretty sweet. The interface is like a standard CD player and it costs like £200 minus HDD.
i have a clarion MP3 cd player, and with about 180 songs on one cd, its plenty. Although it does take a long time to scroll through them to find the right song, however whats interesting is that you can place some songs into a folder and select that folder so it will only play song from that. Or you can use the search function. But to get back on topic, i too want a MP3 car pc, and i think i have found the best tool for the job, an xbox!. It requires some modding of course, but everything is there for you and at 150$ (need some more cash for a larger hd), it isnt too bad.
i just did that today, you have to buy a special auxilary out plug unique to each car. you can find them online at http://www.pie.net/ you then take out your cd player out of the front console, plug this adapter into the plug in the back (used for a cd changer), then rewire this adapter to come out somewhere on the bottom near the carpet. then you get an rca to stereo headphone cable at radio shack to convert the wire and plug the ipod in there. press the cd up button on the stereo in the car to get to the aux input, and there you go. ive tried the fm transmitters, both belkin and itrip. itrip was the better of the two, but your only getting radio quality, which is pointless. id rather make cds.
i think untill the mp3 hard drives like the one kenwood do come down in price and become more common that mp3 cd's are gonna be the main thing for cars... or untill they bring out dvd mp3 players.... then it gets interesting...
Why not just go the uber option and make a full blown car pc I am/did. Also look here at what Phat uses http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=63222
I actually did this for my wife's Mini Cooper, she got the idea from BMW's new offering, where the iPod connects through its dock connector, and is controlled through the car. There are kits you can buy to do this yourself, basically you build a connector specific to your car, and it plugs into the existing console. You may want to look into this. Otherwise, I don't know that there is an easy way to do this, other than building an sff system and sticking it in your trunk
if you were to build a computer inside a car, how would you power it, how would it shut down once you turn off the car? would it run windows?
Yes it could run Windows. It takes some modding and electronics know-how to actually power it through the car, as well as some auto know-how. You could have it start off the car battery when the car starts, then run off the alternator once the car is running as to not drain the battery. The only problem with this is that I believe alternators put off some all over the chart voltages, so you need some sort of regulator board. An idea that ZapWizard came up with was to try to power it off a motorcycle battery: I didn't even think about the voltage spike when starting the car. You would actually probably be better off running Linux, barebone Linux, with a 5" touch-screen run to the front, and a large menu of your songs on it. Does that make any sense? It could be done even with Windows with some good WinAmp plugins. It would take some moderate electronics know-how, basic computer-building know how, and a basic understanding of a cars electrical system. Again, does this make sense? Anyway, good luck with whatever you do (again, there are easier options using just mp3 players, such as iPod's, where all you have to do is install an auxillary port into your car, but a full computer would add much more functionality and bling effect )
If all you want is a HDD based mp3 player in your car, try this site:- The Open Neo Project If you want to go for a full blown car PC, then you'll find lots of info at:-MP3car.com
The best place for mp3 car related info is at mp3car.com. I think that it's a great idea but it would be a lot easier if you had some kind of computer to run the mp3 player software and handle file transfer. Maybe a Pentium I SBC with onboard audio in PC104+ form factor would be enough (if the OS doesn't have too much overhead). It would fit on top of a 3.5" HD with only a little bit of overhang, and can probably run off 12V without an additional PSU. Food for thought....
ian, i went to that website, but nowhere, not even the FAQ, does it explain what the hell it is about. I was pretty confused. do you know the basics of what that site is about?
What, Open Neo? It's open source software for one of the commercial HDD mp3 drives that Traxdata or SSI America used to make. Traxdata have gone bust, but you can still find the drives for cheap at certain "remaindered stock" retailers like Saturn Computers. Besides, look what it says at the top of the home page:-
I was in the middle doing one of these, well it was to be a htpc as well but also unplug, take into a mates house and watch divx type. you need an inverter to power the pc, ie to turn the cars power from dc into ac, you can get these in a lotta places now as many ppl are starting to do this. Then bung your pc in the boot, wire it into the auxillary in on your stereo (if you have one, my nice pioneer does), wire it up to a nice keypad and whack in a winamp interface, also put a nice wifi card into your pc so when you park the car outside you can send your mp3s to your car without any wires! You can get inverters from maplin for small machines, ie mini-itx boards and also laptops etc, goodluck mate!
The whole thing is kind of complicated and it gets pricy. You have to deal with all the power issues and set up the software and find places to mount the hardware. Trust me I've done the research. You're better off buying an ipod and using the auxiliary connectors. Yes its expensive but probably just as much time and money as doing it through installing an actual pc. Plus it looks better.
