Build your own CD player for under $20

[T.Jackson]

Taken a look on eBay lately? Have you seen the IDE CDROM drives that are typically on offer for only a few dollars? Some of them are even brand new and readily available in bulk quantities. Question is; why would you want them? - they're entire obsolete!

Answer; http://siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_109528/article.html

[Archangel]

Because after paying that magazines subscription price, 20 bucks is all you have left! $71.00 + per year, priced like a textbook. Don't get me wrong, I am sure it's worth every penny, to someone, and as the U S Dollar goes down the Iraqiei Lew, I am sure it will only get higher priced. Hmmm, beter buy now!

[T.Jackson]

It is in my opinion that the recent high cover price of electronics magazines immensely compensates for today's poor sales. If they didn't charge this rather high fee - they'd surely be out of business.

[bbarney]

EPE'S rate is only $18.99 for a year so why is SC $71.00.In my opinion it's not 4x better than EPE so why is theirs so much more for a year they trying to put epe out of business

[T.Jackson]

Well, how about Elektor - their cover price is close to AUS $10 (even more if imported). Very few, if any newsagents stock this magazine in Australia now because of this high price (about AUS $15) But I have to say that Elektor is very professional. Most projects implement double sided PC boards. Quote from one of my old Tafe teachers; "Silicon Chip reads like it was written by a salesman, Elektor is certainly produced by a team of academics"

[bbarney]

Don't get me wrong,their all fine mags and some issue's are worth double the price while some issue's are not worth a second glance and that's the problem when you haven't got ready access to the printed version every month and buy a yearly subscription you get a lot of junk that doesn't interest you.If you buy just the month's that you want it doesn't take to many issues to equal the price of a yearly subscription in the case of EPE 3 issues is almost the price of a year SC would be about 6 issue's and Elektor is just expensive either way.So if SC is written by a salesman, Elektor is certainly produced by a team of academics who judging by the price's writes EPE ?

[T.Jackson]

I remember when the cover price of Silicon Chip used to be around $4 - that's how far back I go with it. In fact, the more I think about, I might have actually gotten a bit of change from that 4 bucks. Back in those days the projects were tops. I'm talking about big projects that were complex, challenging, rewarding, very time consuming (some took many, many sessions to construct, 40+ hrs), and above all else you actually saved a significant amount of money over buying the already made equivalent. Nowadays they're all 30 minute wonders. Bit of soldering here and there and you can slap the thing together in less than an hour.

The projects just don't thrill me anymore

[bbarney]

I guess that was my point too.If they do have a decent project to build they spread it out over 2 or 3 issues which really makes you buy the next issue's to complete it,that and after you build it and wonder why it doesn't work you'll find the fix 2 more issues away providing you bought a yearly subscritption.So your looking at 4 or 5 months not to mention a lot of the part's used are not your garden variety ic's and transistors a case in point EPE Aug +sept needed for the scope V2 just look up this part D43256BCZ-70 256 kilobit static ram you'll find it is obsolete or other transistors that have no substitute or are not available in my half of the world or in Elektors case you have to buy a pre-programmed chip from them which end's up costing mega buck's after shipping & duty or a project like their Stand-Alone OBD2 Analyser -- my cost before shipping and duty $120.00 I can buy a better one on E-Bay without any duty for $34.50.
Your right Trent the project's or the mag's don't interest me anymore either I just don't like being ripped off so blatantly by these mag's and their publishers

[T.Jackson]

I just don't like being ripped off so blatantly by these mag's and their publishers

It's a forced situation for them - their readership is considerably now very limited. Most of them are flogging a dead horse to a dead market. Expect the cover price to escalate even further before they eventually become defunct.

[mvs_sarma]

Taken a look on eBay lately? Have you seen the IDE CDROM drives that are typically on offer for only a few dollars? Some of them are even brand new and readily available in bulk quantities. Question is; why would you want them? - they're entire obsolete!

Answer; http://siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_109528/article.html

After the issues of prices of various Magazines, the said player willplay wav files only or MP3 also- is not clear.

Today whaen you get a MP3 player working of 512Mb, and off single cell-- , i feel no point in hanging on to cd drives that occupy lot of space in the domestic front and finally not useful if you go out.

[T.Jackson]

After the issues of prices of various Magazines, the said player willplay wav files only or MP3 also- is not clear.

At a guess, I'd say that it would depend on what formats the player is capable of. I believe that the project is merely an interface to the player that does little more than control / send commands to it. Perhaps I'm mistaken? - I've never really dabbled in this area before. (I haven't read the article either)

[Archangel]

It's a forced situation for them - their readership is considerably now very limited. Most of them are flogging a dead horse to a dead market. Expect the cover price to escalate even further before they eventually become defunct.

I think magazines become defunct by presenting useless projects, I see the premier remaining American Electronics magazines rehashing the same useless projects that killed off the thier predecessors, including salutes to Hugo Gernsback, april fools articles, etc ... It's as if they said "look how well it worked for them, lets model our magazine after them" so we get theramin construction how to's, and 12 issue series on using obsolete 7400 TTL logic, and foolish pictures of the writers wearing silly beanie caps, and they expect to compete with the internet with that drivel? I saw a robot arm in a magazine that looked like a 4th grader built it, out of straightened out tin can lids. Definately when my subscriptions expire, I will not renew them. That is why they are dying, that's why their advertisers are going elsewhere. The free market will always provide replacements, of which most will probably stagnate and follow the aformentioned examples.
EDIT: one more thought, perhaps too the failure to pay a fair price to independant authors is a large factor, 100 bucks a page just blows!

[T.Jackson]

EDIT: one more thought, perhaps too the failure to pay a fair price to independant authors is a large factor, 100 bucks a page just blows!

That's about the going rate. But you'll find that most contributors aren't in it for the money. The thought of 10,000+ people reading about your project, learning something from it, judging it too (love it / hate it / gee that's sparked an idea for something that I'm working on) - and perhaps even building it - is a bit of a buzz. Well it was for me at least. Kinda worn off now though (been there done that sort of scenario)

$100 may not seem like a lot, lets see how it looks in the eyes of the publisher ...

Estimated readership: 20,000
Staff: 5
Average staff salary: $50K PA
Printing costs p/ issue: $(2-4) *100+ pgs in full colour isn't cheap

-----------------
est cost p/ issue (big overheads)
-----------------
$ 50-70K

-----------------
Profit p/ issue
-----------------
Probably something like; ((issues sold * (cover price - %20)) + advertising revenue) - cost
20% would be for distributors (maybe even more)

*Wild guess: they might break even with couple of grand profit.
Not exactly your ultimate money making business here.

Edit: how about cost for rent? (phss - you can keep that business)