Gigabeat Dock.

[Chronon]

Thanks toffe!  That clears things up for me quite a bit.  I won't be able to help with the firmware side of things, but I can probably do something along the lines of a finite state machine (e.g. selecting output channel, etc.) once the details are a bit more fleshed out.

The analog-in ports are the ones labeled by ADC on the diagram?  I seem to recall mention of a 10-bit ADC on the description of the Samsung processor; is that right?

[toffe]

The analog-in ports are the ones labeled by ADC on the diagram?  I seem to recall mention of a 10-bit ADC on the description of the Samsung processor; is that right?

yes

If you make the interface, there are people who will modified the firmware to make it work

It would be nice if you can come on the irc #gigabeat on freenode, it would be faster to talk  

[Chronon]

Yeah, I can only interact sporadically though.  I can dash off the odd message here and there (I'm at work).  And unfortunately I have no internet access at home, which puts a damper on things.  Maybe I'll hang around after I finish with work today and get on the IRC chan, though.  The prospect of unlocking additional functionality is exciting.

[Chronon]

For those interested, it looks like Digi-Key carries FPC (flexible printed cable) connectors suitable for attaching to the FPC from the Gigabeat's stock cradle.

See here.

I guess the next step is laying out a suitable board with this connector and providing serviceable attachment points for bringing the desired signals over to a protoboard.

I'll post back here with any progress.

[roemann]

Does anyone know if the pinouts for the MES60V are the same as the ones shown for the F-series?

Also, and I know these may seem obvious to all the experts, but can someone tell me which pin on the connector is number 1--for example, with the unit face up on a table and looking at the bottom, is it the top right or left, or what?  How are they numbered from that starting point ?  Also, can anyone translate the pinout labels shown in Hardware into something resembling English without the acronyms?

Sorry, for being so simple-minded, but I am desparate to make a cradle for my MES.  Unlike people with an F-series, we did not get a cradle with the device, and none are on the market that I know of.

Thanks a heap for any help.

[roemann]

I found a good source for the cell phone sync cables with the connector that fits the Gigabeat if anyone wants to try to build a dock.

http://www.thepocketsolution.com/PSI-657.html

They are only 9.95 plus 3.00 for S&H.  I bought two and they are really easy to disassemble--just need  small screw driver.  Still have to do a little desoldering though.

[Chronon]

That might be helpful.  I would prefer a connector that can be attached to a circuit board, however.  

On a side note, I tried to download the kicad binaries to have a play with laying out a board but I can only find the linux binaries.  I am missing the winexe directory.  Perhaps I need to get a previous release.

[toffe]

Chronon,

Kicad download is here : http://iut-tice.ujf-grenoble.fr/cao/
choose the zip or install file :     vendredi 25 mai 2007    12:00     70175641 kicad-2007-05-25.zip
                                                  vendredi 25 mai 2007    12:37     78104750 KiCad-2007-05-25-WinXP_autoinstall.zip

[Chronon]

Thanks toffe!

BTW, I'm probably most interested in getting TV out working from the dock.  It seems like the i2c drivers are ready so we can send the output from Mpegplayer to i2c if someone codes this.  It seems like we will need a chip to encode into PAL/NTSC, correct?

I've got it installed properly now.  I'll start playing with this and see how it goes.  It seems like a logical first step is just a breakout board for bridging the signals to a proto-board for testing.

[Phalangees]

This all sounds awesome!! Great work guys.

Something I would really like to see is a simple gigabeat to ipod dock connector and drivers so ipod accessories can be used with a rockboxed gigabeat. If I had the knowledge to do something like that I would do it... but I don't.  

[Davide-NYC]

Some sort of SPDIF to I2C device would make a lot of recording enthusiasts happy. Especially if it  could record at 24bit/96kHz!

Not sure if this is possible but if it were the gigabeat would supplant the iriver h1x0 as the DAP of choice for recording folks.

[Chronon]

Agreed.  And while we're putting signals into/out of the dock an ADC module to allow analog recording would also be nice.

[markun]

If someone wants just S/PDIF in and out I think you could use this one:

http://www.wolfsonmicro.com/products/WM8804/

[Davide-NYC]

Just wanted to post this for the record:

If a schematic is devised for a SPDIF enabled dock I would definitely be willing to (try to) build it and test it.

I do not have the skills to design such a thing or to do the requisite programming, but I can solder and test.

I have a gigabeat dock I am willing to dissect it. I am also willing to spend a few dollars to procure the required chips and parts etc.

Let me know...  

[markun]

Does your ADC use an optical/toslink connection or coax?

I think a good start for this would be the schematics on page 64 of the WM8804 datasheet, what do you guys think?