Australian open-hardware startup Cool Tech Zone is working to launch “the music participant you would like you had within the early 2000s,” with the good iPod Basic-inspired Tangara — powered by an Espressif ESP32 microcontroller and supporting as much as 2TB of storage.
“Tangara is a transportable music participant. It outputs high-quality sound via a 3.5mm headphone jack, lasts a full day on a cost, and features a processor that is highly effective sufficient to help any audio format you possibly can throw at it,” Cool Tech Zone’s Jaqueline Leykam explains of the system. “It is also 100% open {hardware} working open supply software program, which makes it simple to customise, restore, and improve. Tangara performs what you wish to hear, nonetheless you wish to hear it.”
When you miss the iPod Basic, then Cool Tech Zone has the reply within the 2000s-aesthetic Tangara. (📷: Cool Tech Zone)
Proudly impressed by Apple’s unique iPod design, proper right down to the “click on wheel” interface, the Tangara is a customized PCB housing an Espressif ESP32 microcontroller, a Cirrus Logic WM8523 digital-to-analog converter (DAC), and a Texas Devices INA1620 op-amp, giving it the flexibility to drive headphones with 200mW of energy at 32Ω. For many who desire a wire-free expertise, it may possibly additionally hook up with Bluetooth headphones utilizing an SBC codec.
On the software program facet, the gadget helps the playback of MP3, Opus, and Vorbis file codecs, in addition to the Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) — and should you’ve a whole lot of recordsdata, its SDXC storage interface helps playing cards as much as 2TB in capability. There is a USB Kind-C port to cost the two,200mAh inside battery — with a Microchip SAMD32-based knowledge switch mode at the moment in lively growth — and a claimed 120mA lively and 4mA standby present for lengthy playback occasions.
The customized consumer interface is designed to be acquainted to anybody who used an iPod Basic, although the 1.8″ 160×128 TFT show is full shade, utilizing a round scroll pad with central button to whizz via file lists and management playback. The firmware relies on ESP-IDF and written in C++17, and is totally open supply — as is the {hardware} itself, from the PCB right down to the 3D-printable enclosure.
The compact gadget is powered by an Espressif ESP32 microcontroller, and is totally open in each software program and {hardware}. (📷: Cool Tech Zone)
“Tangara is nice DIY platform for non-audio functions, as properly,” Leykam claims. “For instance, the ESP32 module at its core is well-liked amongst those that take pleasure in exploring and studying about (different individuals’s) Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections. In contrast to most such platforms, nonetheless, it additionally offers you a full-color show, a battery, and a one-finger contact interface to work with.”
The Tangara is because of launch a crowdfunding marketing campaign on Crowd Provide within the close to future, with events requested to register for notification when it goes dwell; the supply code and {hardware} design recordsdata can be found on Sourcehut beneath a spread of open supply and free-software licenses for the software program and the CERN Open {Hardware} License Model 2 — Strongly Reciprocal for the {hardware}.