Firefly "The Message" Voice Recorder

[glim999]

Just finished mine up

Just painted it copper, painted the LED silver, and misted it with a little clear coat. I also decided not to add anything to the bottom of mine. I liked the way it looked. Almost like it could plug into something. Considering that we can't actually see the bottom in any of the screen grabs, I'm content. If I ever see a pic of a filled in bottom, I'll be force to fix it though :lol

 

[F-N-S]

Today i had the time to finish my radio.
Here it is:



Looks good enough for me

 

[Guardian Devil]

Received mine this morning.
Thanks so much to you and your wife Rick :thumbsup
Can't wait to get to work on these little things.

Anybody had any luck finding a mini dictaphone/voice recorder to use inside these yet? I've made a high quality mp3 of Tracy's message just need something small enough with a speaker to play it on :lol

 

[Darkknight0667]

Originally posted by Guardian Devil@Feb 13 2006, 03:42 PM
Anybody had any luck finding a mini dictaphone/voice recorder to use inside these yet? I've made a high quality mp3 of Tracy's message just need something small enough with a speaker to play it on  :lol

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How big did your file end up being? That'll go a long way towards looking for a player.

 

[Kaylee]

Does it have to be an MP3 player? What about something like this?

http://www.elexp.com/ics_420p.htm

 

[Guardian Devil]

It's 1 Minute 15 seconds long and the file is 1.7mb, but no doubt by sacrificing a little quality it could be made a lot smaller.

Kaylee, looks like a fine idea, but I've no skill with electronics, I'd have no clue what to do with that little thing :lol and no way of getting anything else that might be needed to go with it if I went by that route.

 

[amish]

Anyone remember those greeting cards that allowed you to record and play back a message when the card was opened? How about using something like that. I imagine it would be small enough.

Then again, I could be completely off base.

I dont know, does anyone remember these greeting cards?

 

[SurferGeek]

Originally posted by amish@Feb 13 2006, 09:48 PM
Anyone remember those greeting cards that allowed you to record and play back a message when the card was opened?  How about using something like that.  I imagine it would be small enough.

Then again, I could be completely off base.

I dont know, does anyone remember these greeting cards?

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I remember those but they only had very limited capacity such as 10-20 seconds. Good thought 'tho.

 

[dr_slurpee]

For those thinking of making this into a functioning prop you can get 20mm speakers that would easily fit inside these things, perhaps behind where the belt clip was since there are holes there where the sound can come out. Finding an MP3 player that fits with a power source is the big hurdle of course...

 

[dr_slurpee]

*bump* Just checking to see if anyone did any playing with MP3 players yet?

 

[RedTwoX]

Originally posted by dr_slurpee@Feb 22 2006, 12:11 AM
*bump* Just checking to see if anyone did any playing with MP3 players yet?

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I'm still shopping around The really cheap ones on eBay all seem to have $20-$30 fot shipping. That's just rediculous. I have tried retailers like Best Buy and found units in the $80 range. A bit steep for this experiment. I though I might try something like Office Depot. Something designed for personal memos rather music might fit my needs better.

 

[dkwd]

Didn't they also have those memo pens that would record a short message? They should be about the right size.

David

 

[JKolton]

What are the exact dimentions of the radio? Cause honestly, I would think it would be hard to not find a small MP3 player out there for cheap. Especially one of the creative zen brands. Hell, my phone company SBC sent me a creative zen muvo 128mb for free. I already had one from 3 years ago, but the point is, they should be wicked cheap. Especially the screenless ones now. And they're very tiny. I'm sure if you took the case off, you'd have plenty of room to fit it in the radio with a tiny speaker, and it runs off of one AAA battery for something like 14 hours. Has an AMAZING amp in it too, so it gets nice and loud. And the best part is, it's also a USB key. Which might not be too handy for this project, but still.

 

[JKolton]

P.S. I believe they actually used to come in 64 mb variety as well. Which would be MORE than enough for this project. And shold be even cheaper.

 

[Cenobyte]

Originally posted by JKolton@Feb 22 2006, 09:12 AM
What are the exact dimentions of the radio? Cause honestly, I would think it would be hard to not find a small MP3 player out there for cheap. Especially one of the creative zen brands. Hell, my phone company SBC sent me a creative zen muvo 128mb for free. I already had one from 3 years ago, but the point is, they should be wicked cheap. Especially the screenless ones now. And they're very tiny. I'm sure if you took the case off, you'd have plenty of room to fit it in the radio with a tiny speaker, and it runs off of one AAA battery for something like 14 hours. Has an AMAZING amp in it too, so it gets nice and loud. And the best part is, it's also a USB key. Which might not be too handy for this project, but still.

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I have one of these and you cannot play it without the cover/case.

 

[dr_slurpee]

Anything that runs on a AAA battery wouldn't work. The internal dimensions of the radio are about 23mm x 12mm x 70mm...that's being a little generous too.

 

[JKolton]

Actually, the thumb key I believe has the amp and all the electronics inside it. The blue portion in that picture is what holds the battery. If you could rig up some watch batteries to run the key, I don't think you'd have any problem fitting it in the radio. You might even have some success getting the buttons to line up.

 

[dr_slurpee]

What about getting something custom made by one our local electronics gurus? If there is enough interest it might warrant a small run, and then all the buttons and such could be done to line up.

 

[Cenobyte]

Also (I wish I could screencap) take a look at it when Kaylee is holding it when she is in the hammock.

The last scene with her holding it shows it to be a bit longer than the cut down ones we have been doing. Also looks like the bottom has a round surface attached.

 

[Darkknight0667]

Pricing would be the big issue there. If one of the gurus would chime in with a ballpark guess, that would help determine the customer base.