Raspberry/Arduinoe/etc. - Choosing a device questions?

[mouser]

I have a few mini-pc type project ideas, and I'm looking for advice on which ones would be best for which projects.. I hope some of you with experience can help point me in the right direction.

For one project the requirement is to be able to record and play audio files (mp3 preferably), through a speaker.

[Deozaan]

This might help:

https://www.donation....msg393655#msg393655

[wraith808]

This might help:

https://www.donation....msg393655#msg393655

-Deozaan (December 28, 2015, 02:08 PM)

Since mouser was the last post in that thread, I'd think that he'd seen it. So I'd think he was asking about personal experience of DC'ers.

I hope some of you with experience can help point me in the right direction.

-mouser (December 28, 2015, 01:24 PM)

[Renegade]

If you're looking to do audio, you'll want something beefy like a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone. I've not actually checked this, but do see if Bass (un4seen.com) works on one of those distros as it will make your life infinitely easier.

An Arduino or comparable board isn't suitable for audio unless you have very minimal requirements, e.g. play a bell/buzzer or cheesy "tink tink" sounds. I've had my Arduino playing different songs, like the Empire's theme from Star Wars, but it's "tink tink" and every single note has to be programmed. Fun? Sure. Productive? Not so much.

But there are other boards out there that are much beefier than a Pi. They're also more expensive though.

What I'd recommend is having a browse around to see if there are any similar projects for what you want, or anything of comparable magnitude, e.g. CPU requirements, memory, speed, power consumption, etc. That will let you see what others have already done. If they have Youtube videos, all the better as you can then see the performance as well.

[40hz]

The Arduino excels at projects that you want to interface to other hardware devices. In many respects it's like the old PIC  Microcontroller which it's largely replaced in the hobbyist/small prototype/maker communities. It's not that great from a general purpose computer perspective IMO. But as the base on which to build some really crafty and smart hardware devices, there's a lot to like.

The RaspberryPi is a decent enough general purpose microboard PC. It's beginning to show it's age a bit now that it's spawned a host of more powerful imitators such as the Beagleboard and the CuBox. But it's easy to use and well documented. It's probably the most forgiving and easy entry point to getting involved with these little computers. Good user community too. Reminds me of the old hacker community that grew up around the computers of my youth such as the KIM-1, VIC-20/C-64, TRS-80, and the old Atari and Acorn PCs. Lots of information and project ideas being freely shared. I thought I stepped into a time warp when I first ran into it.

The R-Pi should work for what you want to do based on your brief description. You can build a decent DVR or media center (i.e Kodi/XBMC) with the thing. And it'll handle HD. So I'm sure it'll have no problem handling a plain audio file.

[Renegade]

Open source watch? Yep.

http://oswatch.org/

Just an example of a nifty project that I tripped across since posting above.

[4wd]

Or, if you're in no hurry the C.H.I.P. computer can handle audio input/output and is cheap.

[wraith808]

Or, if you're in no hurry the C.H.I.P. computer can handle audio input/output and is cheap.

-4wd (December 29, 2015, 03:17 AM)

Recommending CHIP over Onion?  Why is that?  Just curious...

[4wd]

Or, if you're in no hurry the C.H.I.P. computer can handle audio input/output and is cheap.

-4wd (December 29, 2015, 03:17 AM)

Recommending CHIP over Onion?  Why is that?  Just curious...

-wraith808 (December 29, 2015, 11:07 AM)

It's cheaper

Plus I haven't really looked at the audio input/output capabilities of the Onion whereas I knew that the C.H.I.P. had both with no extra hardware requirement.  To record a sound as a WAV file.  To play a sound, (WAV, OGG, MP3).

So really just a matter of seeing whether the C.H.I.P. can do the MP3 encoding on-the-fly when recording, (1GHz vs 400Mhz CPU in the Onion, 8 times the RAM, 4GB of onboard storage that can be used for buffering).  Depending on what the final recording qualities are to be, if it's for something that only requires a low bitrate, (like voice), then I would think it'll have no trouble.

It can also handle USB flash drives without requiring a hub since you can still connect a mouse/keyboard via Bluetooth.  Add a LiPo cell and you have battery backup if that's important.

I've got two C.H.I.P.s arriving sometime next year along with a HDMI adapter, something else to sit on the desk and gather dust 

[Renegade]

Or, if you're in no hurry the C.H.I.P. computer can handle audio input/output and is cheap.

-4wd (December 29, 2015, 03:17 AM)

Just. Wow. That's incredible. It looks a lot easier to deal with than some of the other boards out there. The built in memory and preloaded Linux certainly go a long way.

[wraith808]

Or, if you're in no hurry the C.H.I.P. computer can handle audio input/output and is cheap.

-4wd (December 29, 2015, 03:17 AM)

Recommending CHIP over Onion?  Why is that?  Just curious...

-wraith808 (December 29, 2015, 11:07 AM)

It's cheaper

Plus I haven't really looked at the audio input/output capabilities of the Onion whereas I knew that the C.H.I.P. had both with no extra hardware requirement.  To record a sound as a WAV file.  To play a sound, (WAV, OGG, MP3).

So really just a matter of seeing whether the C.H.I.P. can do the MP3 encoding on-the-fly when recording, (1GHz vs 400Mhz CPU in the Onion, 8 times the RAM, 4GB of onboard storage that can be used for buffering).  Depending on what the final recording qualities are to be, if it's for something that only requires a low bitrate, (like voice), then I would think it'll have no trouble.

It can also handle USB flash drives without requiring a hub since you can still connect a mouse/keyboard via Bluetooth.  Add a LiPo cell and you have battery backup if that's important.

I've got two C.H.I.P.s arriving sometime next year along with a HDMI adapter, something else to sit on the desk and gather dust 

-4wd (December 29, 2015, 09:04 PM)

Ok... thanks for the breakout!  I was just wondering as I knew you'd used the onion.  Mine is still in my static bag.  I have a CHIP coming too, so was wondering your reason for the preference.  They've offered to ship me a new mini dock for the price of shipping... but their cart wouldn't handle the shipping.  *sigh*.  They've also said after being sent a picture, insert the needle here... but that didn't work.  I'm getting quite tired of the back and forth on it. 

[4wd]

They've offered to ship me a new mini dock for the price of shipping... but their cart wouldn't handle the shipping.  *sigh*.

-wraith808 (December 30, 2015, 11:01 AM)

Raspberry/Arduinoe/etc. - Choosing a device questions?

Yours if you want it, I don't have a use for it.

[wraith808]

Wow! Thanks!  I'd given up... PM incoming!