MP3 Home Player
A standalone home audio unit that connected to a stereo system and played WAV, MIDI and MP3 files.
Why I made it
I wanted a challenging final-year university project that brought together the different parts of my Computer Science and Networking degree. I loved music, and MP3s were becoming hugely popular. Why not build a physical MP3 player I could control over a network?
The player
The unit had internal storage, standard playback controls and a menu-driven interface. A companion app handled remote operation, library management and MP3 transfer across a network.
Making it work
I had to get the LCD working over a serial connection, program the keypad, write C software on FreeBSD and build a Windows control app in Visual Basic. Music moved over FTP, and the app handled remote control and library management. Then I had to make the hardware and software work together as one physical device.
The result was a self-contained home music system that brought network-managed digital audio playback to a stereo setup.
What happened
I used the player myself, and several people asked me to build one for them. I think there might have been a small business in it, but I'd just finished university, had little money and was focused on getting a proper job. I didn't pursue it commercially.
Technical notes
- Architecture
- Client–server architecture
- Deliverables
- Physical media-player product · Windows desktop application · server-side software
- Deployment
- On-premises infrastructure
- Technologies
- C · CGI · FreeBSD · Visual Basic
Looking back
I'm proud when I see the original photo. I was trying things I hadn't done before just to see whether I could make them work. Building, learning, experimenting and making something tangible were part of why I fell in love with computers and coding. And it was all about music, which I loved.
It was awesome.