In-Car Pioneer USB Headunit

[gmatharu12]

Hey all, I have just baught an ipod 5.5G of ebay because I am very interested in using rockbox. I had a Cowon iAudio M3, then a Cowon A2 (both uncompatible with Rockbox), Ideally i wanted a X5, but I couldn't find one So i have gone the ipod route...

Any comments on my above choice would be much greatful!
For the most part, my iPod will be sitting in my car connected to the Rear mounted USB Host, the Pioneer reads from flash drives, small hard drives (and the Cowon A2).

The problem I have is, the ipod in Apple's Firmware is recongised as an Ipod, and enters iPod device mode on the headunit, Pioneer appears on the Device, but No Songs appears on the Headunit, Understable because I am using it as Drag-n-Drop MP3 Player.

In Rockbox Firmware, It shows the USB Symbol for about 3 seconds, the Headunit reads "Format Read", I know it is reading at this point, but then the iPod enters its Emergency Disk Mode and the Headunit reads "No Device", Few seconds again, the iPod says "OK to Disconnect" and followed by that is "Do Not Disconnect" and the Headunit reads "N/A USB".

So far this is really upsetting, My guess is that the iPod keeps changing USB mode so the Headunit gives up reading. I tried searching google, and the forums, but with no luck.

Any help would be much appreciated
Rockbox otherwise is awesome, and I have only just got my iPod in the post today, so I'm not done messing with it!

Thanks!

[Llorean]

Until Rockbox has its own USB mode, you'll probably just have to manually boot the iPod into disk mode or the Apple OS, which will unfortunately mean the head unit will always think of it as an iPod for the time being.

On a vaguely related note, Rockbox does in fact run on the Cowon iAudio M3 these days.

[gmatharu12]

Thanks very much for the quick reply. I suppose if its something which will happen soon... I dont have 80GBs of music, I'll just sync all my music into both parts of the ipod in the meantime.

Cheers again!
As for the iAudio M3 Rockbox support, that sounds great, I would like to try that at some point even if it will only appear on a remote.

EDIT: Are there any possible firmware modifications which stop the iPod being recongised as a MTP device?? So while in Apple's Firmware, it is ONLY picked up as an external hard disk drive. I wonder if one of the iPod's dock connectors pins is what does it...

[Llorean]

It's not an MTP device, nor is it recognized as one. It's entirely custom additions to standard UMS.

[gmatharu12]

Cheers for that information.

Just for searching purposes, I thought i'd update the thread with what I've done.
I have used Winamp (with the iTunes plugin) To sync all my music to the Apple OS side of the ipod (ipod_control folder), and what I have found is, the Pioneer picks up the entire Database in about 4 seconds (~22GB of music), as opposed to a external hard drive or another USB device which I re-call took about 50-55 Seconds with the same amount of songs.

When I accidently leave the ipod in rockbox and shut it down, and plug it in, it eventually goes into the Apple OS and reads the database in no time. Also upon using Rockbox while I'm at college, When im finished, I plug it in the car and it resumes from where it was last time in the car (Of course, because there are no database modifications).

I have then got a mirror of all my music in folders on the HDD, so roughly ~44GB being used, I suppose there's no harm, its not being used for anything else.

The Pioneer Headunit definitly benefits from the iPod, thanks to the database and a really fast scan time. The Pioneer doesn't even say iPod on it, it just says USB Device still and I can access the albums as I would with the folder names. Awesome

Thanks for all the help. Hope this helps anyone in the same or similar situation. The Pioneer is the DEH-P7900UB.
Cheers.