[HN Gopher] Echo - Open Hardware Music Player
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       Echo - Open Hardware Music Player
        
       Author : todsacerdoti
       Score  : 60 points
       Date   : 2025-04-23 23:11 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | stonogo wrote:
       | and if you don't want to wait, you can get an open hardware music
       | player hre as well: https://cooltech.zone/tangara/
       | 
       | they're different -- tangara is an ipod homage with custom
       | firmware and a touchwheel. echo r1 is meant to run rockbox with
       | buttons.
       | 
       | they differ in i/o ports as well: tangara has a regular old
       | headphone jack. echo r1 has a TRRS jack and a line-out jack.
        
         | walterbell wrote:
         | Since it has ESP32 wifi, how is the battery life on tangara?
        
           | stonogo wrote:
           | I don't use one, but my partner reports it lasts a couple
           | days of use (~10 hrs/day). I think that's with wifi turned
           | off though. Not sure if this is with bluetooth or wired
           | heaphones either
        
           | TheCraiggers wrote:
           | Never had an issue with mine. It lasts for days with moderate
           | usage. This is using wired headphones; not sure how much of
           | an impact bluetooth has.
        
           | summermusic wrote:
           | The device has WiFi capability but there is no functionality
           | built into the default firmware yet, so the antenna is
           | powered down.
        
         | pixelatedindex wrote:
         | Thanks for that link! I went down the rabbit hole and found
         | this article which I found to be a great read:
         | 
         | https://cooltech.zone/tangara/blog/2024-02-07-touchwheel/
         | 
         | Kudos to the team, looks pretty damn solid. How does the touch
         | wheel work in practice compared to the iPod? Is there any
         | tactile feedback?
        
           | summermusic wrote:
           | I think a classic iPod touch wheel feels more polished, but
           | the Tangara wheel is like 90% of the way there. In previous
           | firmware versions the middle button was too sensitive but
           | that was fixed. You can adjust the sensitivity but I find the
           | default setting to be perfect for me.
        
         | summermusic wrote:
         | I love my Tangara! I even made some custom themes for it. The
         | regular ol' headphone jack is perfect and it sounds great too.
         | I wouldn't wait for the Echo R1 unless you really need Rockbox
         | or the different I/O.
        
       | mouse_ wrote:
       | > It's primarily designed to run Rockbox
       | 
       | Fuck yeah
        
         | ronnieboy493 wrote:
         | I remember being young and having loading Rockbox on my iPod.
         | Great times.
         | 
         | Playing DOOM, which I hid from my hyper-religious parents, was
         | always a blast. It trashed the battery so I kept it plugged in
         | - it would get very hot. Probably terrible for the device but I
         | was a kid and wanted to slay some demons.
         | 
         | There was a Mandelbrot viewer that was pretty cool. Lots of
         | stuff I'm probably forgetting.
         | 
         | It also functioned as a device for adult images that I would
         | dual boot into. Not the best for my young brain most likely.
         | Still, I have plenty of nostalgia around using computers to
         | solve parental problems. Or creating more because I didn't
         | understand partitioning, boot loaders, or really anything when
         | installing Ubuntu on a family machine. :)
        
           | bondarchuk wrote:
           | I never realized people would play Doom in rockbox
           | unironically, always assumed it was just for coolness
           | factor/as a demo. Lol.
        
       | rkagerer wrote:
       | Saw the title and had hoped it might be a new open source
       | firmware for the Amazon Echo.
        
       | ashafq wrote:
       | I love it! I used to be a huge fan of Rockbox.
        
       | vinceguidry wrote:
       | My big wish list item for this would be a clickwheel. But I'm
       | guessing the ones Sony is using are made in-house. But super
       | cool!
       | 
       | https://electronics.sony.com/audio/walkman-digital-recorders...
        
         | Lukas_Skywalker wrote:
         | The Tangara music player has one as well. And the hardware is
         | open!
         | 
         | https://cooltech.zone/tangara/
        
       | loughnane wrote:
       | I love this.
       | 
       | I know it's not "open", but it would be great if the MCAD was
       | done in Onshape. For better or worse its the closest thing we in
       | the mechanical world have to a collaborative editor.
       | 
       | I'd be delighted to contribute.
        
       | JKCalhoun wrote:
       | I'm too lazy to pull down the KiCAD files to figure out what the
       | chipset is. Anyone know?
        
       | teruakohatu wrote:
       | I have been wanting something like this for so long. Ideally it
       | could be modded for a 18650 battery or two, which are far more
       | available than BL-5C.
        
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       (page generated 2025-04-25 23:00 UTC)