Status of Mini Minty?

[chaostic-offline]

I measured the ecplise mints case side by side with a Altoids gum mint and the eclipse case is bigger in all aspects. Plus no dent means even more usable area.

Hair: Seeing how the Mini Minty is mostly dip or larger smd parts, it might be possible to find compatiable parts in smallers smd factors (Which means I'm going to have to work completely from the schematic). Same goes for the cMoy, which I have been able to make very compact. Plus the combo means one (or two depending on how you look at it) less auido jack to deal with, as mini minty audio out goes straight to the cMoy audio in. Add a pair of mini dpdt toggles to switch between the cmoy and fm transmitter and power, and I should be able to include everything on the same board (maybe even circuit depending on the parts used). It will be made to go into the Full sized altoids or penguin mint case, maybe the newer cigarrette metal cases from camel (Image: http://whyquit.com/Youth/POS/44.jpg) which are are not as deep, but wider and longer then an altoids tin. Ohh, and smoking sucks, so don't smoke.

And about the volume switch, it only acts like an on/off switch if you buy one with 5/8 pins mono/stereo. It needs to be made to work like both. Personally, I prefer digital volume control via buttons, which I am implementing in a cMoy once I get the sample from maxim.

Backass: like Ladyada has said on Minty's page, "Very low power only a few mA, so I didnt even put in a switch for it." The fm tansmitter doesn't need a switch, but it might be a pain to have to switch the frequency if you "mistakenly" interrupt someone elses radio. But if she doesn't add it, its quite easy to add a switch, schematicly speaking. If you buy a premade board, its alot harder. And if she doesn't add the transmitter at all, it works as a seperate circuit, not hard at all to make or add (four connections to Ladyada's board, one to V+, another to V-, and one connection each to audio out left & right)

IMHO, there's no reason not to add the fm transmitter since it has low power consumption, small uncomplicated circuit, and its smd profile. But then again, I can't design a DIY mp3 player.

[hair]

i'm a real newbie, so i'll just stick with the simplest as possible.

[3nd3r.wiggin]

a DIY mp3 player in the same case as a homebuilt amp? that would be pretty hardcore, good luck chaostic.

[chaostic]

a DIY mp3 player in the same case as a homebuilt amp? that would be pretty hardcore, good luck chaostic.

Hard core and easy. All it would need is two different batteries and a slightly bigger case. http://tangentsoft.net/audio/ has the best cMoy headphone amp tutorial, and also has the mini cMoy design, which is the one I would use on the Mini Minty, minus the input caps after mesuring mini minty's dc offset, and to make it evn more compact.

This amp is also a great into to audio electronics. So, go build it.

[3nd3r.wiggin]

i actually know what a cmoy is, and have been to that site before, but haven't yet built one.

[Guest]

miniminty will act like a 'usb pen/thumb drive' when plugged in (so you can copy over files and also recharge the battery). turns out i found a good chip for doing this, and its quite cheap & easy to solder.

What chip is this? It sounds usefull!

[sum1 who cant wait]

it's almost Cinco de Mayo.

how is the chewing gum ?
you should of empty the gums already
and refilled it with fresh tunes right?

[chaostic]

Personally, I think the Altoids gum is the foulest tasting gum ever.
But the tin is useful. It serves as my usb thumb drive case for now. And another serves as my car's coin collector.

And I found out that you can push the bottom of the tin flat. While it does come out a bit bumpy, you can make it mostly flat without distorting the tin. I think if you make a hole the size of a 1/16 drill bit, two inches long in the bottom of the tin as a relief for the metal, you can make it completely flat without any bumps. And you make a nice access hole for an antenna.

[sum1 who can't wait]

i never tried the chewing gum b4.
but it comes in pepermint and cinamon.
it also comes in sour:apple,cherry,etc

can u tell me which 1 taste shity so i won't buy that flavor

[adafruit]

yeah actually they all taste really bad. maybe you can 'give' them away to someone?

[xoxota]

LadyAda, do you have any specs/info for us regarding Mini-Minty design? What decoder/CPU/Dac/etc. will be used?

I think we previously established that CF is not an option in such a tiny case, so will you be using some kind of onboard flash memory (maybe 1GB k9w8g08u1m from Samsung)?

What kind of battery will be used? I can't imagine trying to fit anything other than a button cell in such a tiny case...

...HUNGRY for information!

[chaostic-offline]

I'm not 100% sure, being that Im not Ladyada, but SD/MMC card as memory, which allows swapping with other cards, and AA/AAA/3.7 Li-Ion.
And actually, the case isnt that small. You can fit a 9volt with space to spare. Though having the samsung 1gb flash + space for expandable sd/mmc card would be bitchtastic ^_^

[hair]

ladyada has a link to the mini minty mp3 page under the FAQs page.

http://www.ladyada.net/make/miniminty/index.html

hope she updates some more.

[adafruit]

yah im working on it as well as 3 other projects, a part time job, 2 contracts, etc. etc. so its not as quick as id like. sigh.

[xoxota]

So let the Minty Community come forward and help you with it! It'll take some of the workload off your hands, and leave the drudge-work to others!

COMMUNISM! YAY!