Rockbox: Clip+

[Confuseling]

If you can get the build environment set up, the adjustment is probably literally just adding "//" to the beginning of a certain line of code in a text editor (from memory, anyway - it definitely isn't *much* more complex than that). The build environment is the more time consuming part, and even that isn't hard, at least on Linux - it took me a few hours, with a large part of that being waiting and drinking coffee. Just follow the instructions on the RB website. Get that set up, and I'll talk you through making the patch. The only real risk is that once you realise how easy it is, you get sucked in, and start imagining patches for everything (and the actual coding part is a great skill, and one I sadly don't possess)...

I think skip252 is right, and you'll probably soon get out of that habit anyway. But the advantages to being able to make your own build are many and various - I highly recommend setting aside an evening, and going for it. It's one of those things that once you've done, you wonder why on Earth you didn't do it earlier.

[EddieE]

@ dfkt
I can't believe I somehow missed the Meier-inspired crossfeed build when it came out!!! Just happened across that post now and installed it - I love it.

Crossfeed was next to unusable on the main rb implementation. This is exactly the kind of subtle, natural crossfeed I love on my Meier amp.

I can't see my S9 getting a lot of time now!

[dfkt]

Glad you like it, Eddie - I do too.

[The DarkSide]

I just popped for another clip+ @8gb from Amazon.com for $39.99USD - sweet!!!

[x3dnd3x]

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

Wait till it finishes the initial scan, as it takes quite awhile. I have a 32gb microSD card in it, took a LOOOOONNNNGGGGG time to scan. Works perfectly now.

Don't mind telling me how to lock and unlock a Clip+ when it's playing ? It always keypad lock when i wanna change songs .

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by x3dnd3x

Don't mind telling me how to lock and unlock a Clip+ when it's playing ? It always keypad lock when i wanna change songs .

Press "Select" and "Home" to lock the player, and again to unlock - simple as pie. I learned that from the Rockbox site BTW.

[Adub]

Yeah me too TDS, i think they even have a manual you can read to learn lots of useful things about Rockbox.

[Marvin the Martian]

Maybe you could add one of these to the forum smiley selections?
"read the fabulous manual"

[The DarkSide]

Yup, heh, RTFM!!!

[Marvin the Martian]

Well, I just went back to 3.7.1 on my one Clip+....the one that gets connected to the computer the most. The USB patch is not ready to be called stable yet(probably why the devs haven't implemented it, after all). I am leaving it on my other players for now, the ones that aren't often connected....as they are the ones with more content on them, both internal and external.

The backlight would come on when I adjusted volume, regardless of setting(didn't really bother me though), and the v3 Meier didn't seem to do much of anything, although it was an improvement on the stock crossfeed, which seems to throw a veil over the sound.

[Adub]

I prefer the V2 Meier personally, it's fantastic.

What kind of problems are you having on the clip+ with the usb patch? Sometimes mine will fail to initiate the driver, but a quick reconnect and it works perfectly. I do connect mine quite a bit, usually 2-3 times a day at a minimum 4-5 times on average and it seems to only fail 1 of 10 times i connect it for me.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Adub

I prefer the V2 Meier personally, it's fantastic.

What kind of problems are you having on the clip+ with the usb patch? Sometimes mine will fail to initiate the driver, but a quick reconnect and it works perfectly. I do connect mine quite a bit, usually 2-3 times a day at a minimum 4-5 times on average and it seems to only fail 1 of 10 times i connect it for me.

I never got around to trying the V2 Meier. I will try it on one of the other three players, at some point, with the other build that doesn't have the USB patch, most likely.

Several times it didn't initiate the driver, like you describe.....and re-connecting fixed it. But three times in three days, it would freeze in mid-operation....resulting in my getting the prompt "RB CLIPP 1 not responding" in addition to "Mediamonkey Gold not responding". And I would wait, and wait, and finally have to use Task Manager to break the operation, and then when I'd re-connect, I'd have to scan and fix for filesystem errors.

[Adub]

The V2 Meier is much more noticeable, i reverted right back after a few days on the V3.

That sucks, i never had that many problems though i drag and drop from explorer only.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Adub

The V2 Meier is much more noticeable, i reverted right back after a few days on the V3.

That sucks, i never had that many problems though i drag and drop from explorer only.

I also use Explorer sometimes, I'm not exclusively using MM. But MM is my podcast aggregator, so it's easiest to replaygain scan them and then load them with MM.

[The DarkSide]

Hmmm, so the volume rocker works when the player is in a hold state??? I missed that 1, but I'm glad to hear it's a feature that's there.

[occams_razor]

Just wanted to drop in to say thanks to all who've offered help in this thread (and to all the RB developers of course). In particular dfkt, i've been using the build you posted with the V2 Meier patch. It also has the wake-up alarm which i missed so much in 3.7.1. So again thank you!

RB also gave new life to my older v2 clip. The menu button became nonresponsive about 6 months ago. With RB I am now more apt to use it. The menus are easier to navigate having no dedicated home button than in the OF. Plus the obvious added benefits RB brings. As I am not particularly active and do not use the actual clip part of players I also love being able to load a customized config for my truck. And then switch it right back when I'm home and its headphone time

[Sumguy21]

Maybe someone here can help me with this...

It seems my Clip+ freeze when playing music from the microSD card. It doesn't happen when playing music off the flash memory or playing music from the microSD card in the original Sansa firmware. I've tried many different versions of the Rockbox firmware to no avail.

Also, is it true that vorbis playback is quicker in Rockbox? How does it perform in terms of battery consumption? I know in the Sansa firmware it drains battery much quicker than mp3, which is the main reason I stayed away from it, but if Rockbox handles vorbis better, I'll start encoding my music in vorbis!

[saratoga]

Originally Posted by Sumguy21

Also, is it true that vorbis playback is quicker in Rockbox? How does it perform in terms of battery consumption?

On the clip+ I think vorbis gets you an extra hour or so of battery life. The battery bench wiki page has some tests IIRC. Eventually I'll finish FS#11759 and then MP3 will be a lot closer to Vorbis on the Clip+ (though not most other sandisk players) so its probably not a huge deal which you use.

[henriquemaia]

And then I bumped into a problem.

Yesterday I was listening to an audiobook and, all of the sudden, rockbox starts playing a completely different file. I looked at it, thinking the other file had ended and I tried changing back to the former file - I couldn't, the player was stuck. So I pressed the power button for while until I reset the player. Turned it on, go to the file that was stuck, put on play, stuck again (the sound continues playing, but the interface gets unresponsive). New reset, new try, the same result. I ignored it.

Later, when I got back home, I connected the player as I usually do, with rockbox running to use its usb function, and the computer didn't recognize the player. Rockbox displays the usb icon, but when I unplugged it from the cable, the usb icon also remains stuck. I tried several times, even rebooting, wondering if it was some some kernel glitch. The result is always the same, usb icon stuck, I have to reset the player.

So I tried:

1. deleting rockbox folder and installing it again
2. reinstalling the bootloader
3. formating the player and reinstalling both the bootloader and rockbox, again
4. tried different versions of rockbox (with the usb function), even the ldroy's ones


Whatever I do, the result is always the same. Player doesn't mount under rockbox and the usb icon thing gets stuck ad aeternum. I haven't tried using a different version of Linux because I'm not at home, but I'm running out of ideas here.

Any clue of what might be happening? Up until that glitch with that audiobook I had no trouble with rockbox's usb thing.


Note: I'm using the OF usb function to connect and do the transfers. The glitch ocurred while using the latest dfkt's build.

[skip252]

Checking the file system for errors would be my first thought. I can't use a build that has the USB patch due to it eventually causing errors in the file system of the player. You may have run into that.