Welcome!

If you have made it this far, you are either 1) a nerd like me and thus curious, 2) have a loved one with dementia, or 3) both. In these log files, I'll try to speak to both audiences.

First, go to Netflix and watch Alive Inside -- better than any words I can write. You'll see the joy that a person with dementia can experience when listening to their favorite music. Bring some Kleenex. Go ahead -- I can wait.

Well that was heartening, wasn't it? When I saw that, I put my Dad's favorite music on an iPad, and put good headphones on his ears. Such joy! Then I tried to teach him to play music on an iPad. Such frustration! I quite like iPads, but my Dad was past using iPads, iPods, and CD players. But his youthful memories were strong. Thus I designed DQMusicBox to take user interface cues from 1940s radios.

If you want to, you can build a DQMusicBox now. So far, I'm the only one who has built one. But I've been rather obsessive about simplifying the design and creating detailed instructions.

Now for the nerdy stuff. The next logs files will cover some or all of these topics:

- Requirements & design. I'll write some basic use-cases and create some standard software engineering diagrams. After all, I want to set a good example for the kids that might build this project.

- How to get really good audio from a Raspberry Pi. The Pi Foundation did the hard work, but not many people seem to be using it.

- How to use a write-protected micro-SD card with a Raspberry Pi. I think of SD card corruption as a weak point in Pi projects. But Hackaday taught me about the TMP_WRITE_PROTECT bit on SD cards. And it's a really good fit for this project. I've got it working now, but I think I can simplify the process.

- How to make the project better. I'll list a bunch of ways that the project could be improved. And BTW, my ego is fully prepared for a high school sophmore to come along and improve the design. In fact, I think that would be fantastic!

Ross