The desire to have a Home Cajun started around 1999. I wanted a way to listen to my music at home, as well as on the road (as I could already do with CAJUN). I was looking for some sort of embedded solution, as I didn't want extra space taken up by a monitor or keyboard.

I picked up an old broken Pioneer CD player, removed the contents, and glued the front panel controls so they wouldn't fall out. I then filled it with a power supply, motherboard, HD44780 LCD display (with serial backpack interface), and remote control. The motherboard is running a Pentium-I 150Mhz processor (which is probably now due for an upgrade).

This works out well; with the cover on, this blends in right with other home stereo components - it still looks like a CD player. After powering it up, though; you're presented with CAJUN.

The 150Mhz/64MB combination has enough horsepower to run CAJUN and the MySQL database. Via the network connection, I mount my /mp3 directory off of my main server (in another part of the house).

Notice the tricky IRman setup, below. Due to limited space, I had to mount the IRman at a 90 degree angle to the incoming light beam, and so had to purchase a small mirror from a make-up case for about $3 US.

Fortunately, the LCD's size closely matched the smoked plastic window in the case, and via the mirror, I was able to mount the IRman at a place where the infra-red light would enter the box from the plastic lens where the old sensor was.

The box is running CAJUN 4.0-release, with a minimal installation of RedHat 8.0. For audio modules, I have the FilePlayer loaded for MP3/Ogg Vorbis, and the Icecast client module for playing audio streams from the Internet. It's very enjoyable to play Icecast/Shoutcast streams from your home audio system. :^)

I'm unable to shoot photos of the front panel, due to flash glare.