In January of 2003, the stereo was stolen from my car. I have been without a sound system since, and I'm getting quite tired of listening to a tiny little radio with poor reception.

This article was originally posted in 2003, and was lost during the move from PHPNuke to some other long-forgotten content management system for my site. I have recovered the text of the article, and am reposting it here with very few changes.

There's bound to be some link rot, but I have left the links alone if only to shame the respective webmasters.

After spending hours researching new receivers and even bidding on one or two, I did some research. I decided to create my own sound system. I have an MP3 collection, and I will be encoding my CD collection as Ogg Vorbis.

But I also want to be able to listen to the stereo. After googling for hours, I found the hardware that I have been looking for. Since I enjoy writing software, I will be integrating all of it myself.

Of course, all of the software I write will be licensed under the GPL, so check back soon for some code. If you are interested in helping me write or test this get-up, please visit the Sourceforge Project Page.

Specifications

  • Uses a laptop running Linux hidden away in the vehicle. Mine is a sometimes-working Thinkpad 600.
  • For display, an LCD such as this one connected to the laptop through USB. ($75.00)
  • For control, a numeric keypad connected to the laptop through USB. ($22.00)
  • To be able to listen to the radio, a D-Link DSB-R100 FM Tuner, connected to the laptop through USB. ($34.95)
  • My existing two-channel amplifier to connect the factory speakers, and a 1/8" headphone to male RCA adapter to connect it to the laptop. ($7.00)
  • My control application uses mpg321/mpg123 and ogg123 to play files. These have a Remote Mode that my application uses.
  • Note that vorbis-tools-1.0 must be patched for ogg123 to include Remote Mode. See this posting on the Vorbis Development List. Also, you must have automake-1.4. No other version will work when compiling vorbis-tools.

Status

  1. Specify parts and place orders

  2. Design user interface for 4x20 display and numeric keypad. (Mostly done.)

  3. Write software front-end for control of mpg123, ogg123, Radio Ttuner, and CD player. Use code from:

    • lcdproc
    • tunerd
  4. Must also handle controlled shutdown and wakeup based on power loss and restoration.
  5. Test my software in my car.
  6. Create housing/face for display to mount in stereo hole
  7. Network server software for management of playlists, etc, from a network-attached PC.

Future Upgrades

  • Wireless network adapter, so that I can download music to the player from my home network.
  • Manage playlists while the laptop is offline, and upon powerup, have laptop replicate over the wireless network.
  • The Griffin Powermate USB Knob as a volume control. Only $39.