or you could solder a mp3 player into a cassette tape adapter, to make an mp3 player that you can put into an actual walkman.
if you were clever enough you could probably even power it off of the tape turning mechanism. 
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āHuge bulkā. Itās not a wristwatch and the circuitboard is flat.
Thatās some orders of magnitude bigger than the original device class, but actually it is not a bad idea!
The original prompt never specified if we will base the device on an iPod board or any other one. Each approach has its advantages, and it is on the designer to choose the pros and cons.
Well, now to find ten thousand of other devices for free to scavenge the parts fromā¦ Maybe some e-waste operation could do that.
On the other hand, given the huge markup on everything along the logistical chainā¦
ā¦paging Shenzhenā¦
Those were double-platter 7mm drives. Apple switched to single-platter 5m drives with the Classic.
[quote=ājulian_bond1, post:41, topic:49365ā]Iām merely pointing out that thereās a small but real market for a high capacity PMP. [. . .] I had one of those Creative Zens for a while with a 2.5" disk and it still fitted in a pocket.
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There may be a market, but the fact that someone has tried to fill it and there still isnāt much traction would seem to indicate itās not a viable market.
Yeah, and it extends the 2.5" drive about 1.5 inches, Iām guessing. People are criticizing the Pono player for its bulk and form factor, even though itās not a wristwatch, either.
Scavenged notebook cells are an order of magnitude bulkier than iPod batteries, too.
Iām sorry, I thought we were talking about things that would appeal to the market, and not about designer choices. What a dedicated maker could make something for isnāt very relevant when weāre talking about whether or not a viable market exists for a product.
Not if you fold it over. Then it adds few millimeters of thickness instead.
People are criticizing everything. Dogs bark, the caravan marches on. Just wear a tactical vest, it will fit in one of the pockets.
For many years, before the Age of Li-Ion, I carried a 12V/2Ah sealed lead-acid battery in one of the pockets. Powered my cellphone and my walkman and some other things, and had a built-in switch and a LED so it doubled as a flashlight. I am a living example that it not only can be done but it can be done with a good comfort.
(Later I added a Polyswitch fuse directly to the battery body. One day on the way to work I wore out a tape on a wire junction, I didnāt know the benefits of heat-shrink tubes then, and the wiring caught fire in the subway. That was when I decided for some minor redesigns. Also, if you have the space, join wires with some overlap, so even without insulation the junctions wonāt touch.)
About twice the volume for about twice the capacity. I wouldnāt call it āorder of magnitudeā. At most 0.3 order of magnitude (as of log10(2)). The 18650 battery typically measures 18mm in diameter and 65 mm in length; the flat cells in electronics are typically 4-5mm thick, so even for thickness it is give or take 4 times more. Then there are the Apple laptop battery cells that are flat.
I thought we talk about a market niche, not about the mass-market crapola.
The niches have to be served too. If it means that it has to be done by the DIY segment, so be it.
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As you note, Apple & iPod batteries are of a different form factor than typical notebook batteries. Compared to batteries designed specifically for a playerās form factor, an order of magnitudeās difference isnāt far off.
Right. A single person is also a market niche, too, so what was I thinking? Itās a wonder that Apple hasnāt stepped up to fill these niches.
By your reckoning, these niches are already filled, since it would be possible for someone to fill it. So what was he complaining about?
It sounds like you missed your calling as a product designer in a Soviet country.
The energy-per-volume is pretty similar for them all. You have also the choice of cellphone batteries. They are all the same bog-standard Li-ion or Li-poly cells inside. All you have to do is to mix-and-match what you have with what capacity you want.
Then there are the Chinese vendors. Those portable 12V battery packs are built typically from three thin cells glued in a stack. They are crap and tend to fail early (but those that survive the childhood tend to last), but you can salvage microporous polyolefin membranes from them and that is a pretty handy material.
There is actually a bigger demand than just a single person. It is a smaller number than what can satisfy a greedy megacorp. But these niches often serve themselves by taking-and-modding what is on the market, because they are comprised of people who have ideas and often can act on them. You rarely find somebody with actual ideas in the blind-consumption sector. Thatās also why the mass-made crap is usually not openly modding-friendly.
There is a continuum of skills. The top levels will serve themselves, including R&D. The lower levels will need some help or inspiration or pointing in the right directions. The yet lower levels have to start with something easier and work their way up. Or give up and become dirty consumers-only.
As a kid I used to salvage parts from decommissioned consumer appliances. Then the Revolution came, with it the western goods, and I had the first-hand experience in comparing the coveted Western engineering with Soviet one. Letās say I was grossly disappointed by the cheap plastic and the cardboard circuitboards. The only superior things were the casings, and even that only from the outside.
I donāt see Soviet engineering as bad since then. It sucked, yes, but the alternative is kind of worse. And you could have got the service manuals if you wanted, right from the manufacturer; try it today.
You do understand that real-time digital signaling is more than ājust ones and zeroes,ā donāt you? Error checking and retransmission are fine when copying a file, but when youāre listening to a stream you really want to minimize that. Iām not defending overpriced green markers but not all audio products that cost more than $3 are necessarily a scam. Even Monster Cable stuff ā a favorite target of ire ā while it might not sound better than Radio Shack or an unwound coat hanger, feels better and is palpably more sturdy. Thatās not everything, but it aināt nothing.
My car doesnāt have leather upholstery because it improves the road-handling performance. It improves my butt sweat experience.
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Youāre still missing the point. Absolute volume isnāt the difference: form factor is the difference. Look at how MacBook Air batteries are packed compared to your average Dell Laptop with swappable batteries. Big difference.
These greedy megacorps who, other than Apple, operate on razor-thin margins and frequently lose money.
Or because itās the cheapest way to make what most people actually seem to want, as reflected by what they buy?
Thereās a difference between the engineering and the product design. Soviets made what they wanted and the people bought them because they had no other choice. Kind of like how you suggest people who want to listen to music might want to carry by a tactical vest and carry lead-acid batteries around.
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