Recreate the Classic iPod with Modern Features by Using a Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless

After replacing the internals of an original 4th gen iPod with a Raspberry Pi Zero W, it now supports modern features and a bigger battery.

The original iPod was what many consider to be the product that launched Apple into the realm of pocketable consumer technology and acted as a precursor to the now ubiquitous iPhone lineup. In recent times, the nearly two decades-old technology within the iPod is very outdated, but rather than throwing his old one out, one user who goes by production on Hackaday.io decided to upgrade it with some new internals while still being able to control everything with the original buttons and capacitive front wheel.

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Dave Plummer’s M5StickC Audio Spectrum Analyzer Runs at a Smooth 30 Frames Per Second

Simple yet colorful project makes full use of the ESP32’s processing power, that bright display, and the on-board microphone.

Former Microsoft programmer and father of the Windows Task Manager Dave Plummer has been looking into embedded projects of late, turning the M5StickC into a colorful live-view audio spectrum analyzer — running at 30 frames a second.

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Sam Kent’s Modular Open-Hardware DJ Mixer Really Leans In to the Eurorack Ethos

Designed with modularity in mind, this build wasn’t exactly straightforward — and Kent discusses the troubleshooting stage in detail.

Engineer Sam Kent has designed a modular Eurorack-compatible stereo DJ mixing system, featuring XLR and line-level outputs, a cuing system, and volume meters.

“Inspired by Eurorack modular synthesizers and the boutique mixer market, the project aims to design and build a simple and customisable DJ mixer,” Kent explains. “The design is op-amp based, with filters implemented as 12db/oct active inverting filters, 10k ohm output impedances, and buffered potentiometers acting as voltage dividers for the controls.”

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Mix Fractal Bytebeat Vibes with MMXX T-APE

Using math to create digital songs on a PCB the size of a cassette tape.

One look at the MMXX T-APE from PhonicBloom, and you know for sure it creates exciting music. The cassette tape form factor may suggest analog sound. However, it generates sounds digitally using a trick up its reels. The primary sound creation mode relies on fractals, not samples! (Although it does support samples and wavetables too.)

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“Mechanical” VU Meter

A simple VU meter realized with only mechanical typical items, as screws or nuts, but powered by Arduino!

I have always been attracted by VU Meters, in fact at home I had designed a system to listen to music using my father’s old A/V mixer equipped with 2 VU meters, the first one for the left audio channel and the second one for the right audio channel. One day, suddenly, the mixer stopped working, so I decided to make a VU meter myself using Arduino

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MIDI Drum Controller “Atomic”

Hi! This is ATOMIC, a 6-pad MIDI drum controller made with Arduino made for music production and fun!

The button allows you to change the notes of the pads which is defined in the codes as modes A (Pattern) and B (Fill mode). The idea behind this is that you first record the basic pattern in you DAW and then you add extra sounds like toms or plates. Two LEDs indicates which mode are you using, and there´s a connection for a hi-hat pedal.

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UC Riverside Roboticists Create Airhead, a Piano-Playing Robot Driven by “Air-Powered” Memory Chips

Inspired by player pianos and thermostats from the early 1900s, Airhead ditches electronics in favor of pneumatic RAM modules.

University of California at Riverside (UC Riverside) engineers have created what they describe as “air-powered computer memory,” which drives a robot — dubbed, amusingly, “Airhead” — to play the piano.

“Pneumatically-actuated soft robots have advantages over traditional rigid robots in many applications,” the researchers write in the abstract to their paper. “In particular, their flexible bodies and gentle air-powered movements make them more suitable for use around humans and other objects that could be injured or damaged by traditional robots.”

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DIY Si47xx All Band DSP Radio with 2.8 Inch Touch Display

This time I will show you how to make a relatively simple All band Radio Receiver which is based on the Si47xx series chip of Silicon Labs. This wonderful radio is is primarily a result of the hard work of Ricardo Caratti who creates the detailed library for the Si47xx chip, Gert Baak for the initial TFT code, and Thiago Lima which creates the Kit with a TFT touch display.

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