HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN RASPBERRY PI PORTABLE MUSIC PLAYER

A Raspberry Pi can be used to design almost anything nowadays, and for those who love to listen to music while they travel, well you can now make your own portable music player.

"Since most vinyl records come with a download code for MP3 files, a dedicated portable music player with my own offline music collection seemed like a good option," according to Bram, the Netherlands-based tinkerer.

Bram designed a pocket-sized-portable device with 64GB of storage and a screen the size of the first-generation classic Apple iPod.

As digital storage becomes cheaper, one would hope manufacturers might pack more bang for your buck into their portable-handsets. However, much to Bram's chagrin, the largest stashes often come with the highest price tags. "That’s why I [built] the first version [of PiPod] using parts I had laying around for a few bucks," the project page says. "Since then I’ve remade it a couple of times and I’ve finally come to a version that works completely and could be built for about €80 ($93)."

All you would need to make this portable music player is a Raspberry Pi Zero (the board costs only $5), a 2.2-inch TFT display, 24-bit DAC, 1,200 or 2,000 mAh battery (plus a charger controller and protection circuit), and some basic tech knowhow.

The user interface (displayed in 320-by-240-pixel resolution) is entirely customisable; you control navigation, volume, and backlighting, and can sort music by artist, album, or track.

Hardware and software files for the open-source design can be found on GitHub. Build instructions are available on the PiPod project page.