MP3 Car - Do it Yourself

MP3 Car - Do it Yourself Well, now that I've finished my own MP3 player, I can tell the listening audience how to make their own. If you're looking for information on how to make a Wintel or Linux based MP3 player, go to http://www.mp3car.com/. This page is about Mac's!

OK, first off, you have to decide what you want and what resources you have available (muney!). If you're just looking for a computer that will play MP3 files and nothing else, I would go with an old, used Performa 62XX or 63XX, the MHz doesn't really matter, chances are you'll be using SoundApp which can play MP3 files on a 66Mhz 6100 (the slowest PowerMac ever made). If you want a computer that will do MP3 files and play full screen video as well (it's cool to throw a few music videos in there) you'll need at least a 7500 or 7600. These are a lot bigger than the other ones, so you'll need to have a bigger car than my Geo Metro.

I got my Performa 6290 on ebay for something like $375, but you might be able to get one for cheaper, especially from Universities that are switching out their old computer labs. Another thing you'll have to look into is whether you want a display. Technically you could run a Mac based MP3 player without a display. What you would do is have the one and only play list for a CD-R as the "Auto Start" file. That way, when you inset the CD, it would load up the play list and start playing. The only problem is: How would you change CDs? Plus, what's the point of not having a display? Anyway, now lets get down to making the Player.

OK, so you've got a computer, now you need to figure out where it will go in your car. Most people will put it in their trunk. I have a huge bandpass box in mine, so I went for the under the seat option. If you have a fairly large car, you probably won't need to make a custom case. I did, but that's me. the components from a 62XX/63XX Mac (without Hard drive or CD-ROM) will fit into a 13x13x5" box (including the power supply). This brings me to my next issue: how are you going to power this thing? I'm lazy and just went and got me a DC to AC power inverter and plugged my computer in like it was a normal power outlet (this also allows me to plug in a VCR). But you may not want to spend all the extra money. Here's a possible solution: build a DC power supply, or find out the voltage going into you bridge rectifyer (converts AC to DC in the power supply) and just hook up DC to that and let the normal power supply do the rest! I have no idea if this would work but if you know what a bridge rectifyer is, you should be able to get it to work without any problem.

Do you have Air Conditioning? if you do, this next part may not matter to you, but you might still want to read this. When I bought my car I didn't want to pay them the extra $800 for A/C, so I just sweat it out during the summer. Hard drives aren't that tolerant, of heat nor do they liek shock (bumpy roads) very much.

Under Construction....

If you really want to do it the easy way, get one of these:

Resorcerer resource file, stuffit 5 comressed

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