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Recently, I've been wanting to buy a new audio player for my car, but uni has left me pretty broke. That's when I had an idea - why not make one using a Raspberry Pi? I've got plenty of programming experience, so writing the media player software would be easy as pi. However, I've never written an ASIC. A quick google search only leads me to people selling bitcoin miners, so it looks like it isn't impossible to have one as an ASIC machine. A couple questions:

  • I've never programmed an ASIC machine. How would I overwrite the raspberry pi OS to load up my media player software on boot up rather than raspberry pi OS? Or would I simply have the raspberry pi OS autorun the software after the OS has been loaded?
  • Since it will be attached to my car, it's going to power on/off with my car. Isn't this dangerous? Would I run the risk of ruining the board/corrupting the OS?
Daniel Martin
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  • Hello and welcome. I don't get the ASIC part here?! There are however some questions and answers around here that adress the issue of a standalone mediaplayer based on the RPi and how the user interface could be done. – Ghanima Dec 01 '14 at 12:15

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The Raspberry Pi is not an ASIC, it is a general purpose computer like your regular every day PC. It is a Linux rather than Windows or Mac box.

It would be easier to run your application using the Raspberry Pi OS, i.e. boot into the OS and then start your application.

The Raspberry Pi has no BIOS or usable internal ROM. The OS is loaded and run from SD card. It is important that the SD card is not corrupted.

The Pi runs from 5V. You will need a 12V+ to 5V converter. Perhaps a UBEC would be sensible to allow for the variable 12V+ voltage.

Powering-up isn't a problem.

It is sensible to shut down the OS before powering down to ensure that the SD card is in a stable state. It probably won't be safe just to cut the power. You will have to come up with a method of safely shutting down the Pi.

Be aware that after being shut down the Pi will still draw something like 125mA at 5V. You will have to electrically isolate the Pi from the supply to prevent this drain.

joan
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