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MP3 Jukebox Build your own Part 2: By PETER SMITH Play all your favourite music by remote control 26  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au In last month’s issue, we described the hardware part of our MP3 Player. This month, we show you how to program the microcon­troller. And because we’d hate to you keep you in suspense, below you’ll find details on how to install and set up the software that links the hardware to Wi­namp, our chosen MP3 music player. A FTER READING our articles on the MP3 music format last month, you’ve probably converted all your CDs to this conveni­ent, space-efficient format, stored carefully away on that new big-GB hard drive ready for the Jukebox – right? So let’s find out how to put them to use! The basic idea behind this project is to enable you to control an MP3 music player (Winamp) running on a Windows PC with a standard infrared remote. Up until now, you’ve probably only ever listened to your MP3s while sitting in front of your comput­er. But imagine for a moment that your PC is actually a jukebox and that you can control it from anywhere in the room just like you do right now with your stereo system! In keeping with the jukebox theme, we’ve included features like track shuffle and repeat, multiple playlist support and a liquid crystal display for vital track information. And if you’re a budding DJ, Winamp can be set up for track cross-fading and other great effects – but more on that later. The IR Remote Receiver & LCD hardware described last month mounts up front in an empty 51/4-inch drive bay in your PC’s case. As it attaches to one of the snap-in drive blanking plates, no modifi­cations to your PC case are required. If you want to remove it at some time in the future, all you need is a spare blanking plate. With only two plug-in connections, hooking up the hardware could­n’t be easier. Power is sourced directly from the PC’s power supply via a disk drive connector and serial data is exchanged via a free serial port. To keep the serial cable hidden, it is routed through the case internals, exiting via any unused expan­sion slot hole at the rear. It then plugs into one of the stan­dard 9-pin serial port connectors. On the software side, you need a copy of our “IR Remote Control for Winamp” program, which we describe in detail below, as well as the current version of Winamp. PC requirements The minimum PC hardware specifications we recommend are a P133 processor (or equivalent) with 32MB of RAM. To do audio track ripping on the same machine, you’ll need a faster proces­sor, say about a P233, and more memory. If you intend playing MP3s directly from CD, you’ll also need a fast CDROM drive. We’ve found that “real” CD-ROM drive speed varies from model to model, so it’s difficult to predict what will work OK on your machine. A drive that’s not up to the job will cause short pauses during play, which can be quite annoying. Storing your MP3 files on a hard drive is the preferred option. Tracks typically consume about 3.5MB of disk space each, so start saving for a big drive if you have a large music collection! Naturally, you’ll also need a sound card and amplified speakers. For reasonable sound at a good price, check out the Logitech Soundman or Cambridge range of PC speakers or even better, hook up to your stereo system or ghetto blaster! Note that the sound card should be a PCI bus type (as most will be), not one of the old ISA bus variety. We used a SoundBlaster Live for all of our tests. Pentium gobbler If you’ve used Winamp before, then Repeated from last month, this photo shows the IR Remote Receiver & Display unit for our MP3 Player. It clips into one of the PC’s drive-bay positions, as shown in the photo on the facing page, and is connected to a spare serial port. Check out last month’s issue for all the construction details. www.siliconchip.com.au October 2001  27 Fig.1: MP3 files loaded into Winamp’s playlist that don’t include ID3 tags are listed by filename, as shown here. Fig.2: Winamp displays the artist and track information once the tags have been created. you might have discov­ered some of the amazing visual effects (called Visualizations) that it provides. If you want to run any of these (especially in full-screen mode), then forget that old Pentium. You’ll need a recent machine with a fast AGP graphics card to even get off the ground! The Jukebox software has been tested on Windows 95, 98 and NT4. It Fig.3: Winamp’s ID3 tag editor. Both ID3v1 and ID3v2 formats are supported but only ID3v1 is used by the Jukebox. should also run on Windows Me but we haven’t tried it. Installing Winamp The first task is to download and install Winamp. Point your browser to www.winamp.com to obtain your copy. On the down­load page, you’ll see that you have a choice of three different flavours of Winamp; “Full”, Fig.4: this diagram shows the key assignments we chose on our BC3000 remote. Functions shown in purple (below the line) are accessed by pressing the Shift key first. Unlike the Shift key on a keyboard, you don’t actually hold down the Shift key to get the alternate function. “Standard” and “Lite”. Any of these will work with this project but if you already have Windows Media Player installed and wish to continue using it, then you really don’t need the “Full” version. Winamp is often distributed on “shareware” CDs on magazine cov­ers, too. Check that you have version 2.73 or later though, as older versions may not work correctly with our software. Installing Winamp is quite straightforward. Double-click on the downloaded file to launch the installation program and follow the on-screen prompts. In most cases, the default options will be fine. Once installed, launch Winamp and verify that you can load and play a selection of your MP3 files. We doubt that you will have too much trouble driving Winamp but if you do get stuck, Nullsoft (the creators of Winamp) have provided excellent on-line documentation and support information on their web site at www. winamp.com IR remote control for Winamp The next step is to install the software that links Winamp to our IR Receiver & LCD hardware. Go to www.siliconchip.com.au and follow the link on the home page to the software download section. You’ll find the project files for this month at the bottom of the page. All you require is the single file called “IRRemote 28  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au Control for Winamp”. Before you begin, close any applications that you have open. Next, navigate to wherever you saved the down­loaded file and double-click on it to launch the installation. The first dialog box to appear prompts for an installation directory. Click the Next button to select the default directory unless you have a specific need to install the software elsewhere. After a few moments, you will be asked if you want IR Remote to load at startup. Unless you are building a dedicated Jukebox, you will probably want to start IR Remote manually, so click the No button. Once installation is complete, reboot you PC so that Windows can update all necessary files. Creating playlists Before starting IR Remote for the first time, you need to create at least one playlist. A playlist is simply a text file that lists the filenames of all the MP3 files (tracks) that you wish to play. Tracks are played in the order that they appear in the list, unless you select the track shuffle option, which we’ll describe a little later. One playlist file can contain up to 199 tracks. This might sound like a limitation but it’s not; the software supports multiple playlists (up to 99), expanding your listening pleasure to over 19,000 tracks! You can create a playlist using a text editor such as Notepad but unless you only have a few MP3s, there’s a much quicker way. Before we tell you about it, we’d like to make a few suggestions on how you can keep your MP3 files in order. Order, order! Most MP3 players allow you to dump all your MP3 files in one directory and then hit the play button. That’s nice and easy but from our experience, the list soon becomes so large that you waste a lot of time searching for your favourite tracks. We suggest creating a directory called “MP3” and inside that directory, create a new directory for each album. If you down­load a lot of MP3s or swap with friends, then the album idea won’t work, so try storing them in directories named by time (“Today”, “This Month”, etc), by preference (“Hot”, “Favourites”, “Party”) or perhaps by artist name. You get the idea? www.siliconchip.com.au The IR Remote Control software works with Winamp, the best freeware music player in the universe (well, that’s our opinion anyway). Having organised everything logically in this way, you then need to create a separate playlist for each directory. Most CD audio rippers allow you to create a playlist and build the ID3 tag for each file in one operation (see the article on rippers & encoders in the September issue). In addition, it’s a good idea to name each file by track title for quick identification later. ID3 tags As you’ve probably already guessed from the name, ID3 tags provide identity. The first version of this tagging system, dubbed ID3v1, defines the format of a small block of data that is tacked on to the end of an MP3 file. This data contains descrip­ tive information about its host file, such as the artist, track title, album name and so forth. MP3s downloaded from the Internet will probably include the tags. However, when you create your own MP3s you need to generate the tags yourself. It’s not mandatory that MP3 files have tags but if they don’t, all you’ll see when playing them is the filename rather than the all-important artist and title information. Oops! Last month, we forgot to tell you about the purpose of trimpot VR1 on the IR Remote Receiver & LCD PC board. It ad­justs the viewing angle of the LCD module. To set it correctly, power up the board and adjust the pot to achieve the best character contrast from your normal viewing position. Note that if the trimpot is adjusted fully clockwise, you may not see anything on the display at all. If you’ve already “ripped” a stack of CDs but haven’t created the tags, there are a number of ways you that can add them later. As always, the Internet is a good place to start looking for MP3-related stuff and we found what seem­ed like an endless variety of playlist and tag editor utilities. Some of the more elaborate solutions even include databases to make it easier to keep track of your collection. Note that most MP3-related software supports several playlist and ID3 tag formats. For our Jukebox project, you should select ‘M3U” as the playlist type and “ID3v1” as the tag format. Winamp has a no-frills playlist and ID3 tag editor built right in, so let’s look at it next. Winamp to the rescue For the purposes of demonstration, assume that we have six tracks from an audio CD, named “Track 01.mp3” through to “Track 06.mp3”. Start Winamp and open the Playlist Editor if it’s not already displayed. To do so, click on the little “wave” symbol in the top lefthand corner of the main window. From the menu that appears, select “Playlist Editor”. All functions are accessed from the five buttons along the bottom bar. When any button is clicked, a pop-up list with further choices appears. To begin, clear any tracks already listed in the Playlist window by clicking on the REM button, and then clicking on REM ALL from the list that pops up. Next, click the ADD button. From the pop-up list, click ADD DIR. An “Open Directory” dialog box appears. Find the directory that contains the MP3 files in question, click on the directory name to highlight it and then click the OK button. All the filenames October 2001  29 (tracks) now appear in the Playlist window (see Fig.1). To edit the ID3 tag for any track, highlight it in the Playlist window and click on the MISC button. From the pop-up list, click FILE INF and then File info. The ID3 tag editor window appears, as shown in Fig.3. Click on the “ID3v1 Tag” checkbox, and com­ plete the “Title” and “Artist” fields. Filling in the other fields is optional, as they are not used by the Jukebox. Click on the Update button to save the changes and then repeat for all tracks in the list. As each tag is completed, the new information is reflected in Winamp’s Playlist window, as shown in Fig.2. Note that Winamp includes many time-saving keyboard shortcuts. For example, you can open the tag editor for any track simply by highlighting it in the list and pressing <Alt>+<3> (hold down the <Alt> key and press <3>). That’s all there is to creating (or editing) the ID3 tags. Creat­ing the playlist is even easier. Click on the LIST OPTS button and then the SAVE LIST button in the pop-up list. The “Save playlist” dialog box appears. Enter a descriptive name for the collection and click on the Save button. By default, Winamp saves the play­ list as type “M3U” and places it in the same directory as the MP3 files, which is exactly what we need for the Jukebox. Metalists Yes, we know it’s not a real word but we’re following in the tradition of other MP3 players by calling our play­ list lists “metalists”. Unlike playlists that contain lists of MP3 filenames, metalists contain lists of playlists. Metalists pro­ vide a simple means of organising your music into small, easily defined groups. For example, suppose you have placed all your albums in sepa­ rate directories, with each directory containing a playlist. You would then enter the full pathname of each playlist in the metal­ist file, which might look something like this: D:\MP3\Favourites\Favourites.m3u D:\MP3\Top of the Pops\Top of the Pops.m3u D:\MP3\Party Hits\Party.m3u A metalist is a simple text file that can be created with any text editor (such as Notepad). If you have a lot of playlists and hate typing, you can use 30  Silicon Chip by function and made accessible via a series of tabs. Let’s examine each tab in detail. Basic settings You can download lot’s of skins for Winamp from www.winamp.com Of course, you don’t need these for the Jukebox (which can run without a screen) but they’re lots of fun anyway. good ‘ol DOS to build the metalist for you by typing the following line at a command prompt: DIR D:\*.M3U /B /S /O-D > D:\MP3\metalist1.txt Replace the “D” in “D:\*.M3U” with the drive that contains your MP3s, and if necessary change the metalist path to suit your directory structure. Metalist files can be placed anywhere (even on CD-ROM); they doesn’t need to be saved in the same place as your MP3s. Also, notice how we’ve used a “.txt” extension for the metalist filename. This is so we can easily open it with a text editor for modification later. If you have playlists on more than one drive, you can add another drive’s lists to the metalist like this: DIR E:\*.M3U /B /S /O-D >> D:\MP3\metalist1.txt This adds all lists on the “E:” drive to the metalist created earlier. Setting up IR remote control If you’re still with us, you will have installed Winamp and the IRRemote software, organised your MP3s and set up playlist(s). The final steps towards a working Jukebox involve setting up the IRRemote software. Launch IRRemote from the Start menu or double-click on the “IR­ Remote” shortcut on your desktop. The first time you run IRRemote, a dialog box appears with the message “Click Setup!”. Clicking on the Setup button opens the “IR Remote Setup” dialog box (see Fig.5). Settings are grouped together The area above the tabs lists a few basic settings that relate to the operation of the system as a whole. These settings are initialised with default values when the software is first loaded. The “Enable LCD” option controls whether or not track data is sent to the LCD. By disabling this option, you can run the MP3 Jukebox with the IR receiver part of the hardware only (ie, without the LCD module installed). If you’ve connected the IR Remote hardware to a serial port other than COM2, then select the correct port from the “Com Port” drop-down list. If you try to select a port that is already in use by other software, or if the IR Remote hardware is not connected to the designated port and powered on, then an error message will be displayed. Using the “Key Timeout” settings drop-down list, select your preference for the time the software should wait between key presses on the remote before it “times out”. We’ll explain the purpose of this setting in a little more detail shortly. Main tab As there are considerable differences between remote con­trol models, we decided to provide a means of manually assigning each key to a particular function. The Main settings box lists an array of buttons, each identified by a particular function name. To program a particular key on your remote to perform a listed function, click on the associated button. For example, to program the “play” function, click on the Play button. The “Program IR Remote Code” dialog box appears, as shown in Fig.6. Point your remote at the IR Receiver and press the button that you want to use for the “Play” function. The green circle should flash to red and the decimal value of the key code should appear in the “Code” box. Note the Disable button; click­ing it simply erases the programmed code and therefore disables the indicated function. So far so good. Now program all of your remote’s keys for the functions you intend to use in a similar fashion. www.siliconchip.com.au Fig.6: all keys are programmed via this window. You can change you mind as many times as you like, as every key press overwrites the last. The Disable button allows you to disable a previously programmed function. Fig.7: an Explorerstyle window makes it easy to navigate to your playlist or metalist file. Fig.5: the first of five tabs in the IR Remote Setup window. This tab allows you to program the most-used Jukebox functions. Fig.8: again, an array of buttons allows assign­ ment of functions to keys on your remote. Grouped on this tab are all the functions that will allow you to navigate in a metalist. Fig.9: the least-used functions are assigned on the Special tab. Note the Shift button, which is a duplicate of the Shift button on the Playlist tab. Fig.10: the last step involves defining the path to Winamp. Fig.11: the About tab shows the software version and gives a plug for SILICON CHIP. www.siliconchip.com.au October 2001  31 The choices that you make can be changed at any time, so feel free to experi­ment until you get a layout that is easy to remember and “feels right”. Fig.4 shows the assignments we chose for our BC3000 remote. By the way, the software doesn’t check that you have programmed unique codes for each function. If you inadvertently use the same code for two or more functions, then only one of them will work. We should also mention that some remotes have a TV-only mute key – often called a “punch-through” mute – that you can’t use with IR Remote. It always transmits the TV system address, regardless of which equipment group (mode) you’ve selected. You may remember from our description of the RC5 remote control system last month that all key codes are transmitted with a system address. This address translates to the currently selected equipment group, or in other words, the last mode button you pressed (TV, VCR, CD, etc). IR Remote saves the address of the first key that you program as its address, allowing it to mas­querade as any type of equipment. If you want to experiment with different remote controls, then you may need to switch modes, say from “VCR” to “CD”. To have IR Remote respond to the new address, all you need to do is repro­gram a single key. During programming, you will get the message “System address change detected, save changes?” Click OK and you will see the new address appear under “Basic Settings”. Playlist tab We found that after assigning the most common functions on our remote, we had used all available keys. We needed more keys! A simple solution was to define one key as a “shift” key, so that pressing it first means that the next key takes on a new, or “shifted” function. This is analogous to the <Shift> key on a keyboard selecting between upper and lower case characters. The Playlist tab includes a button for programming the <Shift> key (see Fig.8). The key you decide to use for the shift function must not be defined for any other function. On our BC3000 remote, we used the <TV/AV> key. In use, to execute any of the functions listed on this tab, you need to 32  Silicon Chip to wherever you saved the playlist or metalist, click on it to highlight it and then click the OK button. That’s it – done! Fig.12: the only trace you’ll find of IR Remote after it starts is an icon in the System Tray. Fig.13: double-clicking on the icon in the System Tray brings up this window. From here you can close IR Remote, run setup or just examine the event log. press the <Shift> key first followed by the key for the particular function, all within the key timeout period. If you don’t press the second key within the timeout period, then in­stead of getting the shifted function, you’ll get the unshifted function. The important point is, of course, that you can assign all of the functions on this tab to keys that you’ve already assigned on the Main tab. So what do these functions do, exactly? Well, “Load Playlist” allows you to load a specific playlist number. Playlists are automatically assigned numbers according to the position that they appear in the metalist. In use, you need to press the <Shift> key, followed by one (or two) digits, followed by the key that you assign to this function. “Reload Playlist” closes and then reopens the defined playlist or meta­ list. It is intended for cases where the playlist(s) are on CD-ROM, and you want to swap the disc without having to restart the software. “Next Playlist” and “Prev Playlist” simply move forward and back in the metalist. To complete the settings on this tab, you need to “tell” the software which playlist or metalist file to load when it starts. If you have created a metalist, then click on the “Metalist” option button. Alternatively, if you want to load a single playlist (.m3u) file, then click on the “Playlist” option button. Next, click on the Change button to bring up the “Open Playlist/Metalist File” dialog box (see Fig.7). Navigate Special tab All the least-used functions are grouped on this tab (see Fig.9). As with the Playlist tab, the functions on this tab are “shifted”. The Shift button is just a duplicate of the Shift button on the Playlist tab, so if you’ve already assigned a <Shift> key, there’s no need to do it again here. Apart from the “Set Equaliser” function, which we describe in detail later, the names of the buttons give good indication as to what each function might do. As before, assign each function that you want to use to a key on your remote. Winamp tab Our last stop is the Winamp tab (see Fig.10). In order for IR Remote to be able to start Winamp, we need to “tell” it where to find the Winamp program (executable). Click on the Change button and the “Find Winamp Executable” dialog appears. Notice how it automatically opens the C:\Program Files\Winamp directory, which is the default installation directory. If you opted to install Winamp elsewhere, then navigate to that directory now. Select the winamp.exe file in the displayed list of files and then click the OK button. About tab IR Remote Control for Winamp was written in Microsoft Visual Basic Professional V6 and the installer was scripted with Nullsoft’s NSIS v1.44. Congratulations! Click on the OK button at the bottom of the main window to start your Jukebox! Driving IR Remote We’ve designed IR Remote so that it’s virtually hands-free. In normal operation, it starts and minimises Winamp (shrinks it to the taskbar) and then shrinks itself to an icon in the System Tray (see Fig.12). You don’t need to use your mouse or keyboard, or even be able to see your monitor. If something does go wrong, or you want to run setup again, just double-click on the IR Remote icon in the System Tray, and the status dialog appears (see Fig.13). A small twowww.siliconchip.com.au FIG.15 FIG.14 FIG.17 FIG.16 Figs.14 - 17: interpreting the LCD readout. The top line scrolls left, displaying the current track number, artist, title and track length. The bottom line displays status information, except when in equaliser adjustment mode. line text box at the bottom provides a glimpse into the internal workings. Up and down arrows on the right-hand side allow you to scroll forward and back in a list of recent events. This list can be a useful aid in determining why a particular playlist or track has failed to load. It is important to note that when IR Remote is running, you should not change any settings in Winamp’s Main or Playlist windows. Although it is possible to change a few basic settings like the volume and equaliser sliders, clicking on buttons such as Play or Stop or changing the playlist will confuse IR Remote and you may have to restart to recover. You can safely change plug-in, visualization and skin settings, as well as the preamp and balance controls (see “Setting the Equaliser” below). Another potential problem arises if you insert an audio CD when IR Remote is running. By default, Winamp associates itself with audio CDs when installed, even if you were previously using an alternate program to perform this function. Therefore, it au­tomat­ www.siliconchip.com.au ically loads all the CD’s audio tracks into the playlist and as IR Remote knows nothing about audio CDs, the results are unpredictable! Interpreting the LCD readout Fingers crossed, you’ll now have a working Jukebox, so let’s look at how to interpret the track data shown on the LCD readout. When you start IR Remote, it automatically loads the last playl­ist used and from that list loads the very first track. The track number, track title, artist and track length are all dis­played on the top line. As we only have 16 characters to display all this information, the top line continually scrolls left to make it Where To Buy A Kit Kits for the IR Remote Receiver & Display will be available from Altronics, 174 Roe St, Perth, WA. This kit will include the LCD, the PC board, a programmed microcontroller and all on-board parts. all visible (see Figs.14 & 15). When IR Remote loads a track that does not include a valid ID3v1 tag, it cannot display title and artist information. Instead, the track’s filename is displayed. The bottom line Reading from left to right, we first encounter the equalis­er status symbol. This is displayed whenever Win­amp’s equaliser is enabled. Next to this are the shuffle and repeat indicators. When track shuffling is enabled, a small “S” is visible, and when play­ list repeat is enabled, a small “R” is visible. Moving right along, we find the status indicator. This indicator displays the traditional Play/Pause/Stop symbols, as appropriate. In the middle, we find the track sample rate. Note that both the track sample rate and track length (on the top line) may not be displayed until after playing begins. Finally, the right corner displays either elapsed time in seconds when playing or paused, or the currently October 2001  33 Blow your mind with Winamp’s full-screen Visualizations. You can use the in-built samples, download them or define your own but you’ll need a fast PC. loaded playlist number when stopped (see Fig.16). If you specified just a single playl­ist (.m3u) file during setup rather than a metalist, then ob­viously the playlist number will always read “01”. Setting the Equaliser Winamp includes a cool 10-band equaliser that can be adjusted with your remote control. To enter adjustment mode, hit the <Shift> and then <Set Equaliser> keys on your remote (assum­ing you programmed this function during setup). The bottom LCD line now displays the last selected equaliser band and a boost/cut value between +31 and -32 (see Fig.17). To select a particular band for adjustment, simply press a digit between 0 and 9, with 0 representing the lowest band (60Hz) and 9 the highest (16kHz). By using the <Next> and <Prev> keys, you can boost or cut the displayed band as desired. To exit equaliser adjustment mode, press <Shift> followed by <Set Equaliser> again. To hear the results, the equaliser must be enabled. Use <Shift> followed by <Toggle equaliser> to toggle it on/off. If you happen to have Winamp’s equaliser displayed on-screen when setting a band, you’ll notice that the associated slider does not move in unison. We couldn’t figure out how to get Winamp to update it’s sliders in real time but as the Jukebox is designed to be operated without using the Windows interface, we weren’t too concerned about this anomaly. Note that we haven’t provided remote control of Winamp’s preamp or balance controls but you can set these 34  Silicon Chip manually in Winamp and they will be reloaded each time Winamp starts. Remote control hints & tips The MP3 Jukebox gives you complete control over your playl­ist and track selections. Normally, the order that tracks appear in the playlist is the order in which they are played and playl­ist editors allow you to sort and order these as you wish. What about when the Jukebox is playing, though? If you know the number of the track you want, simply punch in its number. If the selected number is less than 100, then there will be a short pause (the key timeout period) before it is played. Alternatively, follow with <Play> to play it immediately. If you want to mix things up a bit, then hit the <Shuffle> key. This plays all tracks (that haven’t already been played in the current pass) in random order. You can even move forward and back in the random list. To hear the same song over again, hit <Play> just before it ends. To hear the same playlist over again, hit <Repeat>. To load another playlist, press <Shift> followed by the playlist number. Optionally, follow this with <Load Playlist> to bypass the key timeout delay. You can also use <Shift> followed by <Next Playlist> or <Prev Playlist> to skip forward and back in the meta­ list. Problems? You might find that the Jukebox seems to ignore the occa­ sional key press. What’s going on? Well, there are a number of possible explanations. Firstly, the RC5 remote control sys- tem used here is not an “error-free” transmission system. So if the IR receiver gets only part of a code or a “distorted” code (caused by reflections or interference from other light sources), then the code eventually passed on to the Jukebox could be unin­tended. Secondly, most remotes have “hair trigger” buttons; one press can sometimes transmit a second (or even third) unintended keystroke. We’ve also noticed that the time that a key is pressed before it automatically repeats is extremely short, so you almost need to “stab” a key to get just a single code. Lastly, when we designed the IR Remote Receiver we noticed sig­ nificant differences between brands of IR receiver chips. We specified two alternates in the parts list, one from Dick Smith Electronics (Z-1955) and one from Jaycar Electronics (ZD-1952). We found that the Z-1955 has greater range than the ZD-1952 but at the expense of overall accuracy. In use, it was able to pick up transmissions reflected off the ceiling and nearby walls but many of them were decoded incorrectly. Food for thought Thinking of building a standalone Jukebox without a monitor or keyboard? We designed the Jukebox so that once you’ve set everything up, you can! To run your PC without a monitor or keyboard, you’ll probably need to alter your BIOS settings so that it will boot without these devices connected. Generally, the setting to look for is titled “Halt On”; change the associated parameter to “No Errors”. Check your motherboard manual for specific details. On the Windows side, you need to boot up at least once without a mouse connected to disable Windows’ mouse warning message. Of course, you also need to make sure that the system automatically logs-on when Windows starts. One way to do this is with the “TweakUI” utility from Microsoft. It allows you to set up auto-logon and includes lots of other useful stuff too. You can download it from www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/ downloads/powertoys/networking/ nttweakui.asp Finally, you’ll need to place a shortcut to the IRRemote.exe file in www.siliconchip.com.au your startup folder if you didn’t choose the “load at startup” option during installation. How do I update my music? You’re probably wondering how you’re going to update your MP3s without a monitor or keyboard connected. The simplest method of all is to store your MP3s on CD-ROM. Then all you need to do to update is to burn a new CD, switch discs and hit the <Shift> <Reload Playlist> keys on your remote. You don’t need to run IR Remote Setup again as long as the metalist file retains the same name and location on the disc. While on the subject of CDs, we mentioned in the introduction that you might get short pauses in play when running from a CD-ROM drive. If you have this problem, then try increasing the output buffer size in Winamp. To alter this setting, open Wi­namp’s Preferences window. Under Plug-ins, select the “Nullsoft waveout plug-in” and click on the Configure button. Now change the “Buffer length” slider from the default of 2000ms to about 8000ms. That should do the trick! If you want to go the whole hog, then what about a home network? Networking kits are quite cheap these days and updating the Jukebox files across a network is a snap! Once networked, you can control the Windows desktop of your Jukebox from another PC on the same network using an excellent freeware package called VNC (Virtual Network Computing). Check it out at http://www.uk.re­search.att.com/vnc/ Remote mounting If you want a super-professional look, you could mount the IR Remote Receiver & LCD hardware in a small rack-mount or in­strument case and stash that old beige PC box out of sight. Power requirements are modest (less than 100mA) and can be provided by any 9-12V DC plugpack. The serial cable can be as long as you like but not so the audio cable from the sound card. Keep this down to a few metres to avoid potential noise and signal loss problems. We took the alternative route of fitting the hardware to a PC which we resprayed charcoal grey. Hey Mr DJ! Yes, the Jukebox even has a party mode (well, almost!). The clever people at Nullsoft designed Winamp so that it is easily expandable using plug-in software modules, or “plug-ins” for short. One in particular, called “SqrSoft Advanced Crossfading”, is a good example of how useful these can be. Once installed, this plug-in allows you to eliminate the short gap between tracks, as well as automatically fade out a track as it ends and fade in the next. A word of warning, though. Make sure you are very familiar with the operation of Winamp and the Jukebox before you try this plug-in, as it changes the operation of things considerably. You can download this and other plug-ins of interest from the Winamp web site; follow the link to the plug-ins download page. Enjoy! Please note: WinAmp version 3 and later may not be suitable for use with this project. Older versions are SC available from http://classic.winamp.com www.siliconchip.com.au October 2001  35