Portable Audio & Video

HOW TO – Simple DC Motor Controller

MogotutHandy how to for getting started with DC motor control – “This article explains the basics of how to get your motor to give feedback to a microcontroller and then control the speed of the motor with a good deal of precision (well… good enough for our robots). You can select any speed you want the ‘bot to go and it will try to go that speed – even if it runs into difficult terrain. It will apply more power when it senses a slow down and the power will continue to be increased until the wheels turn at the selected speed (or until you run out of battery juice). In fact, it is quite interesting to command the robot to turn at a low rpm and then watch it crawl very slowly across the carpet. If you put your hand on it to stop it, it ‘hunkers’ down and starts pushing harder until you let it go. It then quickly settles into its slow and straight crawl.” Link.

Newton MP3 player…

Newton MP3 player…

91374328 5Eb0A1312B MMAKE Flickr photo pool member MH2 made an Apple Newton MP3 player, he writes “I download carefully prepared mp3 files to my outdated Newton MP 2100… I set up the 2100 to shut down after 10 minutes. Ten minutes each night, then I sleep. Of course the 2100 is no iPod. Music can’t be cut up as conveniently in two minute pieces as large audio book files, but above 900 KB (which is approx. 3,5 min @ 22050 Hz mono 32 kbps) transfer to the Newton gets complicated. Of course the internal speaker has only poor audio quality compared to an iPod. Or any other decent mp3 player, that is.” Link.

HOW TO – Make your own USB car charger…

HOW TO – Make your own USB car charger…

UsbchargeHandy Instructable from murph38_99 – “Create a USB car charger for any iPod or other Device that Charges Via USB by splicing together a car adapter that outputs 5v and USB Female plug. The most important part of this project is to make sure that the output your chosen car adapter is between 4.75v and 5.25v otherwise you risk damaging your device. Please verify voltage with a voltmeter.” Link.

Hacking Your PSP Audio

Hacking Your PSP Audio

Psp2-1-2-1-1-1-1-1Good article about the audio formats and hacks for the PSP – “The PSP’s audio capabilities are second to none among portable gaming platforms on the market today. In this feature you will learn the audio formats supported by your particular PSP, the right formats to use when encoding audio, how to access your iTunes library with your PSP, and much more.” [via] Link.

HOW TO – Simple Microphone Preamplifier

HOW TO – Simple Microphone Preamplifier

MicampTomi writes – “This is a simple microphone preamplifier circuit which you can use between your microphone and stereo amplifier. This circuit amplifier microphone suitable for use with normal home stereo amplifier line/CD/aux/tape inputs. This microphone preamplifier can take both dynamic and electret microphone inputs (preamplifier provides power foe electret microphone elements). The idea of this circuit is to keep the design as simple as possible to be easy to build. That was my goal when I needed a simple external microphone preamplifier for my mixer. The performance of the circuit is nothing superior but can be used with many not so serious projects.” Link.

iRiver u10 – Plays Macromedia Flash…

iRiver u10 – Plays Macromedia Flash…

Clip Image004I’m really hoping this iRiver does well; it’s the first tiny MP3 player that you lets make your own games, applications and utilities using Macromedia Flash, then load them up on the device to use. Back in June of 2005 we posted about this. If it works out, I think we’ll see Sony and even Apple consider user-created content like Flash games as a potential new feature – or at least sell little Flash games via Sony Connect or iTunes. Here are a couple of videos of the device in action – Link and Link.

iPod hacks collection…

Makeaud-1Here’s a page with a lot of iPod hacks, all in one place “iPod hacks have been created to aid users in using their iPod more efficiently, or to customize their product, making it more individual or for novelty purposes. Their creation has also been to create new features, possibly that Apple Computer wanted to disguise to aid sales of another product.” [via] Link. Also, check out these other two listings and iPod hacks the book.