Due to the fact that version 1.0 sufferd
from strange hardware failures, sudenly BIOS resets mostly, and the fact that
the hardware was very out dated I decided to start with a new approch.
Still using the old front display but this will be replaced on a later stage.
The system will consit out of the following hardware:
VIA EPIA V 800 mainboard with C3 processor.
Contianing onboard audio, video, network essentialy everything I needed.
A 10GB 2.5" harddisk in an external enclosure attached via USB.
A DC-DC converter to provide the correct voltages (did not make this one myself
because it was not worth the effort against the cost. bought at myelectronics)
Here is a picture of the new version in development stage.
The new system will still run Linux but now the latest 2.4.22
kernel
This is because 2.4 has better USB support and that is essentional here.
The old player software has been updated so it will work under
the new kernel.
The kernel itself will be recompiled to provide only the nessecary items so
it supports the hardware and will stay small in size.
The harddisk is attached to a secondary USB slot which has an
external power line. This is because the USB controler is not able to provide
the power needed to drive the harddisk. This results in the system hanging
during the POST (PowerOneSelfTest) stage. But this way it works nicely.
Only drawback it has is that the whole system has to be booted using the USB
interface and since this board only supports USB1.1 this goes very slow. it
takes 35 seconds to startup the whole system.
Solution that I came up with is to boot the system using an old compactflash
card. The main benifit of a compact flash card is that they provide an interface
that it can be attached to the IDE bus.
Here it is completly boxed in.