MP3 players while on lawn/garden tractor

Fireman_dcb · May 17, 2005

MP3 players like the iPod and Creative Zen Xtra that hold upwards of 60 GIGs of music (about 10,000 songs in MP3 format) WILL SKIP! As was mentioned in earlier posts, they have hard drives with read/ write arms that will also scratch the surface of the drive and ruin it. The songs are copied from the hard drive to FLASH memory where the music is actually played from. There are warnings on the packaging stating that they should NOT be used for jogging.

The smaller 256Mb, 512Mb and 1 GIG MP3 players do not have a hard drive, the music is loaded directly into FLASH memory - those can be banged around with no repurcussions.

I have a Create Zen Xtra that I use in the house and car, as well has having an old 128Mb RCA Lyra that I use outside in the dust banging around on the tractor.

skivt · May 18, 2005

eberlej,

Welcome to TBN!

skivt

Dargo · May 18, 2005

Yup, fireman, you are right. I owned a computer business for a while (back before the internet caused service calls every other day - people expecting the computer builder to provide internet lessons /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif) and I'll agree that a stiff jolt in the wrong/right direction can cause the read heads to "bump" against the hard drive platters that are generally spinning at 5400 RPM for portable MP3 units. That small bump will not usually be noticed until the read heads pass over that area again. With the cache memory used for skip protection, you may not hear a skip when this happens. However, when the read heads try to pick up data in that sector again, they will not be able to. Depending on the software in the player, that spot is usually "blocked" off from future reading and becomes what is known as a "bad sector". Whatever data was in those sectors will be lost (unless you want to pay a data recovery lab major bucks to attempt to recover that data).

The little RIO Cali I have that has 512 internal and the added 64X (high speed) 1 gig chip cannot skip, as all the data (music) is contained on memory chips. From the specs of most manufacturere, the memory chips can sustain a shock equal to may hundred g's without damage. i.e., if you drop it, it likely will not damage the memory chip in the player. The player may not survive well, but the memory chip will most likely not suffer any harm.

Okay, long winded reply, but that is the technical low down on the two major types of portable MP3 players. I have both as I'd mentioned. The large capacity Creative Zen and the smaller capacity RIO Cali. I just looked, and I currently have 393 songs on my RIO Cali. Depending on your idea of capacity, that may or may not be enough. For me, when mowing, I can put the RIO on "random" play and never hear the same song play for months when mowing. If I'm in the cab of my tractor I sometimes use my Zen (currently has just over 8,000 songs on it) in a fanny pack and enjoy it while using my tractor. Otherwise, when outside, I use the RIO. It is tougher, and it would cost less to replace. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Theowegian · May 18, 2005

( ... this is what I found to work nicely: I bought a pair of Stihl ear muffs with the removable ear cushions (made by Peltor). I'd buy a cheap pair of headphones from Radio Shack and remove the headband. Take the headphones and insert them behind the foam cushion in the earmuff, cut a hole in the foam to accommodate the headphone and then cut a small notch at the bottom of the ear muff for the wire. Snap the ear cushion back on.
)

That's exactly what I have done, too! The earmuffs allow excellent comfort compared to the earbuds, for me.

I use mine for mowing and I find that I can listen comfortably for a lot longer than any other method Ive tried. Though, I like my Koss k-35 earphones (about $25) - they are the best- a lot better than the $5 cheapie ones.

Also, I use a Sony Sport Minidisc player. It fits into my shirt pocket easily. Any of the the sport sony products will hold up pretty good in the semi dusty environment of mowing.

dwight

Buckie · May 18, 2005

Hi. here's my two cents on your question. I have an IPOD and Bose headphones. absolutely no problem, except just making sure you don't get the ear volume so loud that it distracts you from focusing on what you are doing with the tractor. The IPOD is in a neoprene slip case and I put it inside a small ziplock bag, just to keep dust out of it. I wear a ball cap when i am on the tractor and the headphones are very comfortable over it. I run the headphone cord behind my back and away from my arms, just to keep from getting tangled up. works great.
Nothing better than Gatorade, good music, the 2210 and dirt!

troweller · May 19, 2005

I used my Ipod while mowing and discing. I used to standard earbuds. To hear I had to blast the voume, which hurt my ears, but the tractor was too loud. Then I tried putting earmuffs on over the headphones, and the earmuffs pinched my ears, so I took them off. Then I got off the tractor, and managed to LOSE THE IPOD. I got a new ipod, but I'm not taking it on the tractor again, it will stay in my truck or my house. Alpine makes Ipod compadible stereos, you put the Ipod in the glove box and it is wired to the stereo. You control the IPod from the stereo and it is always charged.

PBMAX · May 23, 2005

Stephen B.
Just wondering if you made a choice and if so which one and why. I'm considering the I-River 1 gig version. It has FM/microphone and can rip directly from the radio and an imput to the mic/headphne 1/8 jack. It can also be used as a voice recorder and runs on one AAA for 30+hrs. price is $199. MSRP... fellow at work has one and it's kinda cool...Comes with earbuds and case and USB cable...

As for hearing it.... I usually use foamies under cheapo head phones(not earbuds). (would hate to ruin a $30+ set) I used this methode in the USN when I was able too: when the Missile system we worked with was running and I was on break....or just lucky enough to be off duty.... The foamies block the louder sounds and let you hear the tunes reasonable well.... and not nearly as hot in the summer as large heavy head phones. The average noise level then was 85db or more. Had a big sign on the main hatch: "All Personel Must Wear Hearing protection in this Space, When System is Running, Db levels may exceed 86db."

Stephen_Byers · Jun 2, 2005

( Stephen B.
Just wondering if you made a choice and if so which one and why. I'm considering the I-River 1 gig version. )

Well I went with the 6 GB ipod mini. The newest ipods have something like 20 minutes of skip protection in them. I took a 2nd generation ipod out on my tractor and I could not get it to skip. Also, I believe (but can't be sure) that these guys in the forum talking about hard drive arms scratching platters are not living in the 21st century. 10 years ago, hard drive arms were bigger and didn't float with the drive. Today, the "ARM" is probably milimeters in length and it moves up and down with the drive platters.