Ideas wanted for major Rockbox plugin...

[shadesbass]

Hi all,

I'll be starting the final year of my "Electronic Engineering with Music Technology Systems" (Cool eh?! ) degree in a few months.

One of the things I am considering for my final year project is writing a major plugin for Rockbox. I'm not talking about relatively simple things like a guitar tuner, wps, codec converter etc. I'm thinking more like an in-ear-monitoring system with built in compression and limiting, simple mixer capabilities, graphic/parametric eq for each input (possibly using the optical input to get >2 input channels)

So...please post any ideas/wants you have below. This is not an official Rockbox wants thread and is for H1xx players only. I am looking for ideas that are significant enough to fill a few solid months of my time, but are not wildly optimistic or impossible to implement (like TV or 2-way radio).

If I find a good idea, I will start programming some simple plugins etc. for RB over the next few months to get back into the swing of programming again, in time for my final project.
In fact I may start some programming anyway if I have some spare time...

[musichound]

How about a keyboard interface that will enable a keyboard to be connected and used as an input device?

I figured being you took up electronic engineering it shouldn't be that hard.

[Yngwiejo]

Originally Posted by musichound

How about a keyboard interface that will enable a keyboard to be connected and used as an input device?

I figured being you took up electronic engineering it shouldn't be that hard.

This would be possible in Rockbox but only for USBOTG Devices (eg. H300 or the X5) and not for H100. This of course, would require first to be able to control the USBOTG chip (hard task on H300, harder on X5 due to lack of documentation) and to then implement HID USB device class support which is what keyboards and mouses already work with.

[shadesbass]

That's a great idea!
I have thought about connecting a games station controller (PS2, Xbox or similar) for playing Rockboy games before, but my initial idea was to use the remote port which is unfortunately disabled in Rockboy

It needn't be done through USB - it could utilise the remote port somehow...

Not sure if it will fill a few of months of my degree, but it's definitely a very cool idea.
Thanks for your input!

[Febs]

You could probably make a fortune you made and sold an adapter that would allow a user to connect the iriver's remote port to iPod docking stations, and wrote a plugin that would support that.

(Given that this would require both a hardware component and documentation for iPod's dock protocol that isn't available, this probably falls into the "wildly optimistic or impossible to invent" category.)

[shadesbass]

Thanks for your input Febs.

It's bordering on wildly optimistic, but it should technically be possible to implement. I do enjoy a good challenge!
I'll look into both these ideas a little further to see how feasible they are...

[3.14159265]

i had though musichound had meant a music keyboard connectrd to a line in distinguising the different notes (please don't laugh)

[NPswimdude500]

Well, a while back there was an idea for a heartrate monitor that would allow a user to check their pulse when at the gym, etc.

I had a related idea for a plugin that would emit a beep during music playback at a user-specified interval. This would be incredibly useful for interval training (e.g. 45 seconds of sit-ups and then 15 seconds rest). The stopwatch plugin would allow a person to do this, but it's often difficult to constantly look at the screen while excercising, particularly if the player is strapped to an armband. I don't think it's at the level of difficulty that you're looking for, but an idea nontheless.

[shadesbass]

Originally Posted by 3.14159265

i had though musichound had meant a music keyboard connectrd to a line in distinguising the different notes (please don't laugh)

An easy mistake to make.

Originally Posted by NPswimdude500

Well, a while back there was an idea for a heartrate monitor that would allow a user to check their pulse when at the gym, etc.

I had a related idea for a plugin that would emit a beep during music playback at a user-specified interval. This would be incredibly useful for interval training (e.g. 45 seconds of sit-ups and then 15 seconds rest). The stopwatch plugin would allow a person to do this, but it's often difficult to constantly look at the screen while excercising, particularly if the player is strapped to an armband. I don't think it's at the level of difficulty that you're looking for, but an idea nontheless.

Not really challenging enough for my project, like you said, but I agree it could be a very useful plugin. I might give it a go if I get into programming over the summer.

Am I right in saying that RB is coded in C/C++? Or did I imagine this?

[XavierGr]

Originally Posted by shadesbass

One of the things I am considering for my final year project is writing a major plugin for Rockbox. I'm not talking about relatively simple things like a guitar tuner, wps, codec converter etc. I'm thinking more like an in-ear-monitoring system with built in compression and limiting, simple mixer capabilities, graphic/parametric eq for each input (possibly using the optical input to get >2 input channels)

If it is so easy as you say, why don't you start programming an instrument tuner, or a codec converter? On talks all seems to be easy but I doubt that a codec converter is considered to be simple!

I don't know your programming experience or skills, and I don't doubt that you may have them. Anything you program for rockbox is good. I am dying for a tuner so why don't you start with it? If it is easy, you will get familiar with rockbox code faster and give us the privilege of a tuner.

Happy programming and prosperous work!

[Sanitarium]

Originally Posted by shadesbass

An easy mistake to make.



Not really challenging enough for my project, like you said, but I agree it could be a very useful plugin. I might give it a go if I get into programming over the summer.

Am I right in saying that RB is coded in C/C++? Or did I imagine this?

Just C, not C++

[andrewcampbell2003]

i have an idea but its not exactly a plug in... you could revamp the whole U/I on rockbox make all 3D icons for everything. i got the idea looking at the SanDisk Sansa e250
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/07...sk_sansa_e250/

the U/I looks amazing
i wish you the best of luck with your project and with your studys
drew
X

[shadesbass]

Originally Posted by XavierGr

If it is so easy as you say, why don't you start programming an instrument tuner, or a codec converter? On talks all seems to be easy but I doubt that a codec converter is considered to be simple!

I don't know your programming experience or skills, and I don't doubt that you may have them. Anything you program for rockbox is good. I am dying for a tuner so why don't you start with it? If it is easy, you will get familiar with rockbox code faster and give us the privilege of a tuner.

Happy programming and prosperous work!

I didn't say they would be easy. I said they were relatively easy tasks compared with the project I have to do, which makes up 25% of my degree.

I also think that an instrument tuner would be a very useful plugin, and it is probably one of the first things I will end up writing.
I don't think that a codec converter would be especially useful however, as RB already incorporates a wav-mp3 converter, which is generally the most common.
I agree, it may not be the most simple of things to program either. Maybe it was a bad example for me to give originally.

I spent the last 6 months or so helping to write a Java application to rival Powerpoint, and I've done a fair amount of C and C++ programming, so I hope I can put my experience to good use.

Originally Posted by Sanitarium

Just C, not C++

Thanks for clearing that up. I suspected that OO progamming would be a bit complicated for RB.

Is there an FAQ on "How to start programming for Rockbox" that I haven't found yet??


Thanks for your input drew. However my project has to be something fairly innovative - It can't just be a facelift to an existing piece of software unfortunately. I agree, that does look pretty cool though.

[jumbuck]

Shadesbass_
Is there an FAQ on "How to start programming for Rockbox" that I haven't found yet??

Theres this bit here
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/vie...toWritePlugins

[shadesbass]

That's perfect. Thanks jumbuck.
I did do a search, honest.

[XavierGr]

Originally Posted by shadesbass

Thanks for clearing that up. I suspected that OO progamming would be a bit complicated for RB.

It is not a matter of complexity, but optimization. OO can really drag things up sometimes. C works best for an embedded device.

Yes, the codec converter sounds a little bit useless on a DAP, but a tuner would be neat!!!

[shadesbass]

I'll probably start with NPswimdude500's interval training beepy thing, then progress to the tuner once I've had some time to think about how to do it.

I'm thinking about doing two versions of the interval trainer - one with a single time period that can be set each time the plugin is executed, and another verison which reads in a text file with a string of numbers in. Each number is the delay in seconds between each beep, so a series of different time intervals can be set up.
My original thought is to have a set filename that it looks up, but this could be expanded to incorporate a user selectable file, thus allowing multiple training regimes to be accommodated.
Is this what you were thinking of NPswimdude500?

Just out of interest, what compilers do people use? I think I've got Borland kicking about on my machine somewhere, and a dos based one that I don't remember the name of.

[jumbuck]

Its probably not a complicated plugin ( ie: I have no idea ) but a shortcut menu (like on my nokia phone) which you could put your 5 most accessed rockbox features would be cool. Things like your favourite equaliser settings, sleep timer playlist, games, interval trainer ect.

[shadesbass]

That would be quite useful, I agree.

Can we keep this thread on topic from now on please though - I am looking for a substantial project to undertake, which should require a few months to design, code and test.

If I decide to take on a software project like this, I will definitely be programming some other smaller plugins first (such as the tuner and interval trainer). I will go through the wants/requests threads and pick out some others to work on, so please post any other requests there from now on.