UniPod a digital iPod by Unihiker

As usual, I had the idea while traveling.

The rides to my Uni, which is a little more than an hour away, usually bore me. One day, I was thinking about music players when I realized how uncommon iPods are these days. you almost never see iPods anymore. In the age of smartphones and streaming, that entire experience has all but vanished.

Then I had the following idea:

How about I make my own?

After all, I create things.

I already had a UniHiker, which is basically a small all in one Python development board. I know how it works pretty well because I've used it to build a few projects. Because it runs Python and has a screen, it seemed like the perfect tool for experimentation.

As a result, I started creating a small digital music player that looked like an iPod. digital iPod-style music player.

At first, I tried making the controls fully touch-based To be honest, the touch response didn't feel very good for the kind of interface I was looking for when I first tried to make the controls completely touch-based. I then switched to physical buttons, which worked much better in theory but didn't feel quite right. physical buttons which didn't feel quite right visually even though it was technically much more effective. That vintage iPod vibe was not captured.

Inspired by the original design, I took a different approach and went with a conventional iPod-style layout. classic iPod-style layout, inspired by the original design.

Python is used throughout the project. purely in Python.

The first attempt was, of course, a failure. I had to spend time configuring everything, fixing small issues, and even developing my own song list system so the player could load and navigate tracks correctly. song list system so the player could load and navigate tracks properly.

Right now the device supports wired earbuds. The device currently supports wired earbuds, but they also require proper configuration. The project isn't really focused on Bluetooth at this time, even though the board technically has it as well. Bluetooth as well, but that’s not really the focus of the project for now.

I had a very clear goal:Using the tools I already had, I built a modern DIY iPod. modern DIY version of an iPod using the tools I already had.

The user interface, features, and possibly even better navigation or animations are just a few of the many things I would like to improve even though it's still an early prototype. But that's what makes construction fun.

The physical design will come later.

The plan is to eventually build a full custom body Eventually, a fully customized body that truly feels like holding a real iPod will be built. This version focused on first getting the system and software operational.

So the project definitely doesn’t end here Thus, the project is by no means finished.This is only the start.

The next steps will be more enhancements, a better user interface, and eventually an appropriate body design.

Another project begins.