ECE 476 Spring 2002 Final Project - Serial based MP3 Player

Project Abstract

This project is a serial interface based MP3 player. The player consists of a STA013 MP3 decoder and a ATMEL ATmega128 microcontroller unit (MCU) and the Xmodem protocol is used to send the MP3 files to the microcontroller for playback.

Introduction

This project originally started out as a CD-ROM based project, however due to time limitations and hardware bugs, the design specification was changed. The current version is based on serial input. Specifically, a MP3 is sent to the decoder via the Xmodem protocol using Hyperterm on a PC running Windows.

This project could be used to recycle obsolete computers into MP3 players. The MP3 player allows us to use even a 286 to play MP3 files. Another possible application would be to use this project as an add-on to a Palm handheld. The Palm handheld supports RS-232 and thus it would not be difficult to write a Palm OS application to interface with the MP3 player.

Features

The MP3 Player has a 16x2 LCD display and 4 push buttons for input.

The user interface is as follows:

Output is via a standard 3.5 mm stereo mini-phone jack.

A serial port and Xmodem capable software is needed for MP3 file input.