They got $136k funding from an original goal of $10k. Did it go to their head?
Listening to music like it’s 2005 all over again
I picked up an ESP32 somewhat randomly for a hardware project I had and was blown away at how capable these things are for the price point. Currently have a Micropython build flashed on mine but tbh with some time and dedication to actually using it at a low level, you could use these to power tons of open source designs for popular devices/products.
Has anyone checked out prices for refurbished ipod classics? $300 for a 20 year old mp3 player! Insanity!
Edit: looking at the specs for the Tangara… 16MB of internal storage??? Uhhhhhhh… I guess the intent is to use an SD card.
20 hour battery life of use is actually far better than I thought it would be. Wonder what the pi equiv build would bu
The Pi in any form is a much larger system with a whole lot more clock cycles, larger architecture, and more peripherals like a full memory management unit, graphics hardware, etc.
On the flip side IIRC most ESP32’s are 210MHz and just dual core. It is microcontroller versus microprocessor, so probably 10× less power or more.
A Raspberry Pi Pico would be sufficient for this. It uses the RP2040, which is comparable to the ESP32, minus the WiFi.
Actually not really. The pi pico has no functional, good low power states currently developed. That is essential for a mobile device. A pi pico would simply drain the battery in sleep mode very quickly.
Tons of MCUs could do the job. Some STMs would also be good for it. The pi pico is more focused at non-mobile applications though at the moment like a very cheap general MCU for things that are USB powered or mains powered.
For something like this, you would use the RP2040 chip rather than the whole Pi Pico module. The RP2040 uses 180µA in its lowest power sleep mode and the flash and regulator will use a few more microamps. The battery would still last for over a year in standby. Of course it could just be turned off when not in use. Without an operating system, the boot time should only be a fraction of a second.
The ESP32 uses 800µA in sleep mode if you want to retain the memory contents or 10µA with only the RTC memory retained.
A low power STM32 would use orders of magnitude less power in sleep mode than either the RP2040 or ESP32 though.
Yes, I know. I have designed with the RP2040 and 180μA is extremely high power usage for deep sleep mode.
The ESP32 has far more sleep modes than that that each use different power, you are just talking about its light sleep: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/esp32/api-reference/system/sleep_modes.html
You are comparing the deep sleep of the pi pico to the light sleep of the ESP32 where the coprocessor is still running. The rp2040 light sleep mode consumes 7mA. It is literally orders of magnitude different. https://learn.adafruit.com/deep-sleep-with-circuitpython/rp2040-sleep (they only did light sleep.mode because deep sleep wasn’t even available)
As far as the professional chips, they cost on average far more for less and less sleep gains. (A lot of the L series of stm is like 15€ per chip)
You would definitely use deep sleep for this as you would only wake it up to start using it with a button press. Whether they would use light sleep or deep sleep, there is an order of magnitude difference in sleep power consumption.
That’s actually so low imo. It just plays music and doesn’t connect to internet right? Should last for like a week at least.
20 hours of playback. Not 20 hours of idle.
Hmm if it’s 20 hours of constant playing then that’s much better
It needs a serious optimization. iPod Nano 7 lasts 30 hours with a 240 mAh battery. So with 2200 mAh, it should last like 10 days at least.
Ipod shuffle lasts 12 hours with an even smaller battery
It has a 150 mAh battery, so even with Shuffle’s optimization level, 2200 mAh should still last more than a week for Tangara. I gave Nano 7 as an example because it’s what I have. Of course I’m not expecting Apple level optimization but they can do much better. Otherwise 2200 mAh is an overkill for such a device.
I just want an mp3 player to replace my Walkman with sensme, they killed sensme and nothing has replaced it so to date the best mp3 player I own is that little thing, I tell it what mood I am in and it always delivers, I dread the day it dies.
I’ve tried cloud based music services like Spotify etc they are not really same thing as it’s just global playlists for a mood/genre, not something tailored to your tastes in a set catalogue.
It is named Omakase Channel in Japan.
The phrase omakase, literally ‘I leave it up to you’, is most commonly used when dining at Japanese restaurants where the customer leaves it up to the chef to select and serve seasonal specialties.
Hey, would a Spotify playlist analyzer help you?
I’ve tried them and they were hit and miss, also to make things more niche most of my music is a mix of video game music and film/anime music, which Spotify is quite short on.
Spotify and other services are trying to make you discover new music. While that’s useful I just want it to analyse my local music and work out what to play.
Its a shame the tech exists but as its patented (I think) you can’t simply make an open source version, I believe really it’s just a 2d graph plot against tempo and some other metric derived from analysis.
Well damn. Might be what i was looking for. Gotta know if it had Gapless Playback before purchase though
Sounds kind of cool. Does is support Rockbox, yet?
One of my first “hacking” a device was putting Rockbox on a 4 gb Samsung MP3 player in 2010. This device wasn’t meant to play/watch videos, but Rockbox unlocked that capability. It had a tiny screen, but still.
Dude, I haven’t hear the name Rockbox in yeeeeeears! I had that in my first mp3 player that predated the iPod. I don’t remember the name of it, but Rockbox really improved the interface.
I will always prefer my iPod Mini with extra storage, new battery and Rockbox like this guy did, and the reasons are:
- better overall build and audio quality
- way cheaper (70-80$ vs 249$)
- better software support (Rockbox is FOSS and has been going on for ages and it’s not gonna stop)
- it actually upcycles old hardware instead of buying new devices and creating more e-waste
- nostalgia value +100 points
I haven’t seen a device that takes full sized sdhc cards in at least a decade.
darmok & jalad at tanagra
Shaka, when the walls fell
Leykam and Howard when they raised the roof.
Cute, but what problem does this solve? Regardless of what you feel about any particular platform, consolidating multiple pieces of functionality into the highly integrated smartphone platform was a major step forward in mobility. This just feels like a regression.
I think it can at least carry 2TB of offline music for you if you still like owning your own music if that’s your thing. It’s an option, nothing wrong with that
Again so can a smartphone so what problem does this solve?
Heck it can use FOSS to download another 2 TB when your catalog grows.
Not all smartphones have the storage to store 2TB of songs. Phones with micro SD cards are rare as platinum these days.
Lots of chinese phones still have an SD card slot, although its usually in the same location as the second SIM card, so you have to choose.
My phone is like this and I use the dual SIM feature, as the internal memory is 256gb anyway.
Maybe for people who are not interested in smartphones? Could also be an educational project if you want to dive into embedded systems. You’ll also save battery on your phone.
Below you will find my highly researched list of advantages over the typical smartphone:
- Headphone jack
- Mucho storage space
- Works without internet connection
- Free software purity (I don’t know, ask RMS)
- Coolness
Tbf you can still get a phone with a headphone jack, and with a ton of space. Not that you need a crazy amount for music anyway.
Also confused about the internet connection part. Even if you only use music streaming services, most let you download your music for offline listening.
I’m okay with the idea of a piece of tech meant to do a single thing, do it well for hours on end on one charge, while not spying on me in creative ways
Some people like to enjoy their media without having to use their phone and prefer to keep their smartphones as strictly communication devices.
It allows you to switch off entirely when you so desire in addition to saving smartphone battery life.
This in addition to being able to use 2tb of removable storage dedicated to music and a headphone jack are significant advantages for me. Not that I would purchase this particular device but I understand the appeal of devices that perform one function such as DAPs and ereaders.
Some people like to enjoy their media without having to use a smartphone, they prefer to keep their smartphones as strictly communication devices.
Okay, I guess that’s fair. I can see this useful for being out for a run or whatnot. I’m not sure I find it quite comparable to an e-reader, since the screen on an e-reader provides a decidedly different experience from a smartphone both in size and readability.
It comes with a 3.5mm audio output for starters.
There are $10 adapters that convert USB-C to a 3.5 mm port, if that is critical. Or just get any of the wide variety of Bluetooth devices on the market.
A 3.5mm jack costs fractions of a cent, and I don’t have to carry around a $10 dollar adapter to solve an artificial problem.
Bluetooth sucks badly, and the wide array of devices on the market have batteries that need to be charged. I’ll stick with the best option if i can thanks, 3.5mm jack.
Okay, but in exchange you’re carrying around a $250 device that is much large than the adapter? That was my point. And for many people, myself included, Bluetooth devices do decently well even if they have their drawbacks.
Fair enough. I guess my point is that a modern phone should have both Bluetooth AND a 3.5mm jack.
You could say this about any type of music player tbh (LP, cassette, etc.)
Yup, this just feels like someone trying to make the cassette cool again. There’s a reason it fell out of fashion. If someone wants it, so be it, in the end that’s their business. I just think it’s a little silly to be sprouting more devices (and associated e-waste) when people can stay consolidated in one compact package.
Idk, I like cassettes, so I don’t mind being a little silly sometimes
The only reason i’d consider this is if the soundcard was premium with DAC and amp included. Otherwise that piece of junk brings nothing to the table. Yes this thing has it, but its nowhere near premium.
Nobody said it was.
With optimization that battery should last more than 10 days.
OpenNugget 🐍
