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Developer Takes 'Retro' Concept to New Level by Creating Physical Winamp Player
- navigate8310 2y agoThe title implies, the device to have physical dials, sliders and buttons. However, it's a Rpi4 with a touchscreen enclosed in a rectangular box.
- ginko 2y agoThere should also be a physical attachment for llama whipping.
- ShuffleBoard 2y agoThis will be in v2. The player in fact will not work unless said attachment is within suitable lashing distance of a llama. CRM (camelid rights management).
- HeckFeck 2y agoYeah I thought someone had taken the 3D render that's made the rounds of the classic Winamp 3x player and made it into hardware. Not as impressive as that would be.
- squarefoot 2y agoI think this device is rather meant to be shown to old colleagues than be actually used. If the author wanted to give some late 90s vibes I call it a success, at least for me. I always had it in a screen corner playing some prog rock song in my phones while banging code back then.
- mrfinn 2y agoDisappointed for the same reason. A device with physical buttons and even led based panels would be the real deal.
- animal531 2y agoYeah, that was pretty disappointing, I was imagining the same thing as you.
- LeoPanthera 2y agoWell.... sort of. It's WinAmp running on a touchscreen inside a box that looks like the Winamp window frame. I was hoping for physical buttons and sliders.
- dirkderkdurk 2y agoI'm working on my own version that's going to be all buttons and sliders, but I'm hesitant to mention this anywhere because I'm only working on this sporadically as a learning exercise, and the first video already got me more attention than I thought I'd get. Since then I've changed to a Pi Pico, and using PIO (programmable pins) makes the touch-delay problems I had magically go away. PIO really is awesome. I've also replaced the DC motor with a tiny stepper motor, and now everything works peachy. Just waiting for some screens and stuff from AliExpress. Anyhoo, shooting myself in the foot: https://youtu.be/GjmFbgqFeMQ https://youtu.be/GjmFbgqFeMQ
- jcul 2y agoLooks great, thanks for sharing. That capacitive touch slider is really cool.
- lloeki 2y agoThat physically moving progress slider that can also be operated is absolutely bonkers. It took me a few moments to completely let it sink in. Those physical concepts at 0:38 look very good.
- akdor1154 2y agoAgree it's an awesome build. FYI there is prior art for this sort of control - google 'motorised fader'. Used for audio tech mixing desks.
- bombela 2y agoIt used to be like that, back in the days. It was... normal. If you get a chance, play with some old school hifi at a thrift shop. Many have at least a powered volume knob, for control via the remote. To this day, sound and light control in the entertainment industry and recording studios have 100s of motorized sliders. Modern consumer devices are the worst.
- ziggy_star 2y agoI think Posy would have something to say about this abomination. Here is the actual good thing, gone but not forgotten: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkPSDOjhxwM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkPSDOjhxwM
- poopcat 2y ago[flagged]
- Cockbrand 2y agoWow, I haven't seen these things in a while, but I remember lusting after a piece of Hi-Fi equipment with this kind of display in my teens. I mean, the first frame of that video is already pure VFD porn.
- ziggy_star 2y ago[flagged]
- psiops 2y agoWhy does the top-left part of the screen look like a sticker?
- poopcat 2y agoIt does kind of look like a sticker now that you mention it. I went over to look at the video of the device itself and it seems like it was just the angle of the photo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nUYHROVOmo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nUYHROVOmo
- surfingdino 2y agoIt's proof positive that there exists a generation of devs who have never seen a physical user interface made of buttons, knobs, or sliders. E for effort.
- forgetfreeman 2y agoI literally did a double take reading this. The very possibility that an adult in the world has never interacted with analog controls on anything more complex than a toaster trips me out a bit. Like, how in the hell has software driven UI (with all of the problems that entails) managed to take over? Why must literally everything suck?
- mjburgess 2y agoIt's just vastly cheaper unfortunately. Manufacturing buttons requires investing in moulds, etc. and then iterating on a design is very expensive.
- forgetfreeman 2y agoIs it really? Touchscreens and the tech stack to drive them aren't exactly simplistic. A handful of simple switches and a few rheostats seems like it'd be cheaper if for no other reason they don't invoke the avalanche of dumb shit that kicks off whenever software is brought into a project.
- Gare 2y agoLabor also isn't getting cheaper, and someone has to assemble and test all those switches. You can automate... but LCD touchscreen is simpler.
- forgetfreeman 2y agoI strongly doubt mass produced commodity components like switches are hand assembled or individually tested. It's typical for random samples, say one in a thousand, to be pulled from a batch for testing.
- mikelovenotwar 2y agoA link to the actual hackaday blog post: https://hackaday.com/2024/06/06/linamp-the-irl-winamp/ https://hackaday.com/2024/06/06/linamp-the-irl-winamp/
- blkhawk 2y agough - I really need to get my butt in gear and finish my winamp car stereo thing. The gimmick in mine is the use of a linear servo for the progress bar. I stmbled on a super easy way to control it that i never seen anybody use. My one holdup is that its hard to find a TFT of exactly the right rize for the upper part. Also the volume/balance sliders get in the way a bit s the mechanical design is harder than anticipated. Also I feel that FDM printing doesn't do it justice. Update: forgot to include the trick - cheap servos are crap because of the cheap potiometers. The electronics have to work and are the cheapest way to compensate for sub-standard parts elsewhere so they are somewhat ok. So if you combine the board from a 1EUR servo with an ALPS linear motorized slider that has a super high quality potiometer since its far larger and you would hear it being crap - the gears and motor are also good. This combined with the board from the servo gets you super smooth control.
- dirkderkdurk 2y agoHah! I'm working on something very similar! The screens are by far the most tricky part to get right, size and positioning. At first I thought about using one of the super thin Sony mobile screens for the entire thing, then using an overlay to separate them, annnd then to make it tactile with knobs, the knobs would touch the screen, and the phone would send the co-ords to the playback device (RPi in my case). But that's because I wanted a very "thin" end product. Making it deeper allows for some more creative layout. I've settled on a linear potentiometer driven by a stepper motor, and it's working out for me so far! Good luck with yours! Got any links to follow it on? Here's mine FWIW: https://youtu.be/GjmFbgqFeMQ https://youtu.be/GjmFbgqFeMQ
- stavros 2y agoI want to make this as well! Maybe we should all collaborate.
- dirkderkdurk 2y agoI'm currently doing tiny bits of way too many projects, so I'm as reliable as Trumpet Winsock sadly. But we could encourage each other to stop procrastinating!
- roydivision 2y agoTo be fair on the maker, it's the article title that is misleading. Stop crapping on him.
- input_sh 2y agoI also couldn't help but notice that the account that posted it is 3 days old, has made 5 submissions, 3 of which are from the same xatakaon(dot)com domain.
- oopsallmagic 2y agoI'm confused. Is this website about furtive self-promotion to land a job or get VC money? Or is it an innocent platform for sharing projects?
- robinduckett 2y agoI honestly thought this would be this video: https://youtu.be/GjmFbgqFeMQ?si=zc983kptBZQsBLoK https://youtu.be/GjmFbgqFeMQ?si=zc983kptBZQsBLoK
- hbbio 2y agoOr that one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nGCihgndng https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nGCihgndng
- lelanthran 2y agoWas expecting physical buttons and knobs that matched winamp's default interface. Very disappointing - running winamp in fullscreen is now 'physical'? Seriously?
- kromokromo 2y agoSuch a missed opportunity though, should have made buttons and sliders physical as well!
- imiric 2y agoLack of physical buttons aside, I really miss this era of UI design. Part of it is nostalgia, sure, but there is something comforting about skeuomorphism that we just don't see anymore. Perhaps it was necessary back then to enable a smooth transition towards digital interfaces, whereas now we have digital native generations that don't need it. The sad thing is that now these digital interfaces are driving the design of our physical ones, which I think most consumers would agree is a regression from what we've had before. Manufacturers: stop optimizing for cost, and start optimizing for user experience.
- mitemte 2y agoDisappointing to see so many comments here repeating the same thing. Who knows what the author has planned for this project, or what prompted them to build it. Maybe they intend to add support for skins, or maybe their main goal was to experiment with Qt or learn about Fast Fourier Transform algorithms.
- Grimeton 2y agoWhere's the hardware Winamp? All I see is Winamp in fullscreen zoomed in.
- thekevan 2y agoThat isn't a physical Winamp player, it's a Winamp only touchscreen device.
- da768 2y agohttps://youtu.be/5nUYHROVOmo https://youtu.be/5nUYHROVOmo He mentions the main issue for a physical interface is that screens aren't necessarily available in the required dimensions.
- ChrisArchitect 2y agoRelated official post on hackaday: Linamp, the IRL Winamp https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40612284 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40612284
- MikeWazowski 2y agoWow, this really whips the llama's ass
- tanseydavid 2y agoThe choice of Giorgio Moroder for the image is a nice touch. "My name is Giovanni Giorgio, but everyone just calls me Giorgio."