The ensuing “sPot” options each WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, permitting it to hook up with each wi-fi audio system and headphones, along with a shade show and 1,000mAh battery. In the event you’re an audio purist, you’ll hate this subsequent half: the headphone jack on the prime of the machine is for present and doesn’t work. On the coronary heart of the machine is the $10 Raspberry Pi Zero W. There’s additionally a motor that creates haptic suggestions when utilizing the press wheel. For charging the machine, there’s a Micro-USB port. Whereas we might have most well-liked a USB-C connection, Micro-USB is unquestionably an enchancment over Apple’s 30-pin connector (keep in mind these?).
All informed, all of the elements set him lower than $100. Coming in at $40, the most costly half was the colour display Dupont used to interchange the iPod’s unique show (the 4th-generation mannequin was the final one to ship with a monochromatic display). A part of the rationale it was so costly was that almost all producers don’t make shows that small anymore since even the smallest smartphone display is greater than something that got here with a click on wheel iPod. The actual fact the machine works so nicely got here right down to a little bit of luck. Dupont discovered a decade-old Hackaday article that particulars how one of many connectors contained in the iPod work. That allowed him to make the press wheel play good with all the opposite elements.
The programming powering the sPot is a mixture of software program Dupont wrote himself and an app referred to as Raspotify, which permits a Raspberry Pi laptop to entry the streaming service by the Spotify Join API. The front-end interface he coded even permits the sPot to seek for songs — although as you may think, with no touchscreen keyboard, it might take some time to enter even a few characters.
You probably have an previous iPod sitting unused in a drawer someplace and wish to tackle the venture your self, Dupont has uploaded an in depth overview to Hackaday. He’s additionally within the strategy of importing the software program he wrote for the venture to GitHub.