Specifications

quickly navigate the play list while the player is in playback mode. Playback does not

resume until the user finally takes their finger off the button, otherwise the user will

only hear about one tenth of a second of each song they are passing, which is more

annoying than useful. This does not happen if the user toggles the button up and down.

There is a repeat and a non-repeat function for the player. In the repeat mode, if the

player attempts to open a file past the end of the play list, it will wrap the current song

selected back to the start of the play list. In non-repeat mode the player will simply keep

the last song of the play list open.

Unfortunately, the play list editor was not implemented on the player itself but through

Winamp on the PC. Therefore, to set up or even modify the play list the user has to go

back to the computer before changing the play list. To be able to do all of this from the

Ethernut would have been ideal, but for an alternative solution using Winamp as a GUI

is a very good one. Of all the environments to edit a play list, Winamp is the most

desirable. It is very familiar to nearly all MP3 file users and provides an incredible

amount of flexibility. The user can either drag and drop files to be played or use the

provided dialog boxes. It provides sorting algorithms and an easy interface to modify

the song order. Implementing all of this on the player would have been difficult. The

play list can be modified and the player will respond to the updated changes after it is

finished playing the current song, or if the stop, previous or next buttons are pressed.

The final cost of the player which included the Ethernut, the Decoder board and the

LCD came to AUD $ 439.00. The cost of the player was considered to be one of the

most important outcomes of the project, to provide a solution similar to existing

solutions but at a fraction of the cost. The player developed is a lot cheaper than the

alternatives but the goal was to have it below $400. This is actually what has been

achieved. When you consider that the components used in the $439, the Ethernut and

the Decoder, were purchased on pre constructed development boards from overseas and

delivered to Australia for the above prices, it can be produced a lot cheaper than $400.

There is no software fees involved and the PCB designs of the boards used are provided

on the internet for free. As a result, the next step of producing and constructing the

hardware locally done very easily and a lot cheaper.