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COMPUTER TIPS Compiled by Peter Smith FAQs On The MP3 Jukebox Player The MP3 Jukebox player featured in the September & October 2001 issues has been very successful and already several hundred have been built and are operating. However, as with any project, questions frequently arise. Here are some of the ques­tions, together with their answers. Saving Playlist Files Q I have just purchased and built the MP3 Jukebox kit from Altronics. I found it worked better than I expected but the only problem is that I am only able to load one playlist and play from that. Can you please tell me what I am doing wrong? I have about 1000 MP3s on their own hard drive (F), broken up into about 25 different categories. I have created some Winamp playlists and put them in each directory (ie, F:\80s\80s.m3u). Also, I have tried putting all the playlists in F drive (ie, F:\80s.m3u). I cannot load another playlist using the remote control. I have set up the remote control as you suggested on page 31 of the October 2001 issue. What am I doing wrong or is it the software? Playlist (.M3U) files must be saved in the same directory as the MP3 files that they list. Each entry in a .M3U file must A What Are The Hardware Requirements? Q Before beginning to build the MP3 Jukebox I am wondering about some modifications. I have a Gigabyte GA-6WMMC7 board, 10 months old, with an Intel 810 chipset, capable of up to 512MB of RAM and up to PIII processors. As I understand it, the player would not be multi-tasking, merely running a modified version of Winamp. As such, what is the minimum memory I should use and minimum processor speed to have a reliable player? Also, I am sure that this board is capable of “soft-power”. Is this the mode that the player goes into after shutdown or is the system halted? As the 810 chipset has integrated sound and video, would it be advisable to put a cable from the player to a switchbox and then to my desktop PC to be able to make modifications to the player? Could I then use my keyboard, mouse and monitor to change settings on the player via a switchbox? Finally, I have at my disposal a 20GB Seagate drive that I was planning on using for the drive in the player. As I Doing Without The LCD Screen Q The MP3 Jukebox seems great. I’ve having a great time playing around with it. Just a quick question though – could you release the source code for your IR program that controls Winamp? And second, will the module work without the LCD screen? Yes, you can use the IR Remote Receiver & LCD module without the LCD screen (no changes are needed) – just don’t plug it in. The VB code is probably not a great example if you’re look­ing for inspiration but this is a link to it anyway: http://www.siliconchip.com.au/Shop/6/2102 A 20  Silicon Chip contain only the filename, not the full pathname. For example, the full pathname to a track might be “F:\80s\ MySong.MP3” but the entry for this track in the .M3U file should be only “MySong.MP3”. You don’t mention anything about having created a metalist. Following the instructions in the article, create a metalist that contains the full path­ name to each of your .M3U files. You can save the metalist file anywhere. Remember to define the path to the metalist in IR Remote Setup, selecting the “metalist” option. have only 4-5GB of MP3s so far, I was planning on installing a network card so as I could rip MP3s and transfer them to the player, and also use the player’s drive as a secondary storage device; ie, storing little-used data files. Also, using the player to store all my MP3s would free up space on my existing drive. Is this possible? We talked about PC requirements in the second article. Brief­ly, we think the minimum requirements would be a P133 (or equiv­alent) processor with about 32MB of memory. Currently, the software performs a “hard” rather than “soft” power down. Yes, you could use a switchbox. This is quite a good way to do it but your networked idea is even better. Once set up, you will rarely need to modify the software configuration. Note that we use a completely standard (unmodified) version of Winamp. Although our Jukebox software is standalone, it con­ trols Winamp in the same way that plug-ins do – via Windows IPCs. If you’d like to know more about Winamp’s programming interface, check out the Developer pages at www.winamp.com A www.siliconchip.com.au Q Doing Without The Remote I just made up the MP3 Jukeboox and the unit powers up and works fine with Hyperterminal. However, are there any manual entries I can make in the IRRemote/keycode registry keys to get the program to perform without the IR section as I have not yet got a remote and do not wish to buy one just now. Could you tell me the format for these keys? I tried default settings of 53 for play and 54 for stop but I always get a loading registry settings (run setup) error. The following file contains all the key codes for a BC3000 remote (as featured in the article). Type it into Notepad as a text file and then rename it BC3000.reg. Then just double-click on it to load the codes into the registry. A REGEDIT4 [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\IRRemote] [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\IRRemote\Key Codes] “Play”=”53" “Pause”=”48" “Stop”=”54" “Fade Out”=”55" “Prev”=”33" “Next”=”32" “Back 5 Secs”=”50" “Fwd 5 Secs”=”52" “Volume Up”=”16" “Volume Down”=”17" “Repeat”=”10" “Shuffle”=”35" “Shift”=”39" [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\IRRemote\Shift Codes] “Load Playlist”=”53" “Reload Playlist”=”54" “Prev Playlist”=”33" “Next Playlist”=”32" “Close Winamp”=”55" “Shut Down PC”=”12" “Toggle Equaliser”=”35" “Set Equaliser”=”10" [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\IRRemote\System] “Address”=”5" What About The Windows Media Player? Q I’m intrigued by the MP3 Jukebox. I was wondering wheth­er it is possible to use the same system/program with other media playing programs? Is it only limited to Winamp? Is it at all possible to use this setup with Windows Media Player, mainly taking control of the volume, play and pause? I’d be using the standard media player with Windows 2000. The IR Remote software is designed to work with Winamp only. However, if you have some VB6 or C++ programming experience, you could write a program using the hardware part of the project (the IR Remote Receiver & LCD Display) to control Windows Media Play­er. Microsoft provide an ActiveX control for Media Player – check out what’s available at: www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.asp For an example of how to use the Media Player ActiveX con­trol, see www.elementkjournals.com/ivb/0011/ivb00b1.htm The IR Remote Receiver & Display (hardware) part of the project is entirely suitable for use with Windows Media Player in conjunction with suitable software. Windows Media Player updates are available from: www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp A www.siliconchip.com.au Using Playlists Q I’ve built the MP3 Jukebox kit (and everything works fine), programmed the Altronics A-1007 Universal Remote and catalogued over 160 music CDs! Finally, I found time to try the system together and everything seems OK. However, I found that if you are playing a song and you want to listen either to another song or playlist, the music currently playing stops immediately and it starts to play the next selection; even if the song has only just started. Is this how the system is supposed to operate? I would have thought that like a proper jukebox (like the ones you can hire), this one would also continue to play the current selection before proceeding to the next track/playlist. Winamp by default works in this way but through this kit and using the remote control, Winamp doesn’t seem to “buffer” the tracks. This is how it is designed to work. Your only option really is to sort the tracks in the playlists in the order you would like to hear them. It probably wouldn’t be too difficult for an experienced VB6 programmer to alter the IR Remote program to do what you want. The source code can be downloaded from: http://www.siliconchip.com.au/ Shop/6/2102 A Substituting A Slower Crystal Q Could you please advise if there are any implications with using the 10MHz version of the Atmel AVR Microcontroller in the IR & LCD MP3 Jukebox project? There are no problems using the 10MHz part with a 4MHz crystal as used in the project. We used a 10MHz micro in the prototype because although 4MHz parts are cheaper, they’re harder to obtain. A January 2002  21