iPod 5.5G w/CF card - bad battery or hardware issue?

[michaelc5047]

I've got a 5.5G iPod (30GB model) that has been modded with a 32GB aData CF card. The battery in it is a 650mAh aftermarket generic battery off of eBay.  I Rockboxed it with Tarkan's build (from SVN of July 3rd.) I ran a battery bench last night and got a mere 9 hours and 45 minutes out of it.

Obviously, I suspect the battery is bad (even though I bought it in March) and have ordered a new one from a different vendor. Are there any hardware issues that could cause this, other than the battery? The battery life was also not great with the original firmware and the CF card.

[soap]

No support for anything but the official build.

Who knows what CPU (and thus battery) hogging mods Tarkan has on his build.

[Llorean]

Though if the OF has short life too, you really should try without the CF card.

[michaelc5047]

No support for anything but the official build.

Fair enough. 

Who knows what CPU (and thus battery) hogging mods Tarkan has on his build.

His patch is only to get aData CF cards working (not that you had any way of knowing that from my original message.) The original discussion of it is found here: http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=14524.msg129043#msg129043

Though if the OF has short life too, you really should try without the CF card.

Don't own a hard drive that'll fit it (other than a 6GB microdrive from an iPod mini that will fit the ZIF-to-CF adapter...)

[saratoga]

That patch changes how hardware devices are initialized on the Ipod.  If its leaving some of them enabled that should not be, then battery life will probably be decreased. 

[michaelc5047]

That patch changes how hardware devices are initialized on the Ipod.  If its leaving some of them enabled that should not be, then battery life will probably be decreased. 

Aha. That is good to know -- thanks. I think I will put that 6GB microdrive in and see if the battery benchmark looks any different with a standard build.

[saratoga]

You could also change one of the print statements in the apps/debug_menu.c to print the value of that register (assuming one doesn't already).  Then you could see exactly what (if anything) is different between the builds.

[LurkAzusa]

For the 4G the DEV_RS statement is removed (system-pp502x.c) to allow it to get past the ATA -1 error.  Are you saying that we can find the proper value for DEV_RS by modifying debug.c?  If so, what exactly should I add to debug.c?

[saratoga]

Are you saying that we can find the proper value for DEV_RS by modifying debug.c? 

I'm saying one of the easiest ways to see the value of DEV_RS is by printing it in debug_menu.c.

[michaelc5047]

Let me see if I understand what to do here:

So, under the section in debug_menu.c beginning with "#elif defined(CPU_PP502x)," I should add a new section near the end (or replace one of the pre-existing ones) with:

snprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "DEV_RS: %08lx", DEV_RS);
        lcd_puts(0, line++, buf);

I'm just cutting and pasting and replacing DEV_INIT2 from the original code with DEV_RS. Please don't confuse me for an actual programmer, though ;-)

Then compile one build with the modified debug_menu.c file, and another one with the modified file AND Tarkan's patch, then see what the debug menu says, yes?

Does this make sense?

[LurkAzusa]

Forgive me for hijacking your thread to discuss the 4G, but maybe together we can get the ipod CF corrected.

These are the values set in firmware/target/arm/system-pp502x.c for the ipod 4G

#elif defined(IPOD_4G)
        /* set minimum startup configuration */
        DEV_EN         = 0xc2020124;
        DEV_EN2        = 0x00000000;
        CACHE_PRIORITY = 0x0000003f;
        GPO32_VAL      = 0x02000000;
        DEV_INIT1      = 0x00000000;
        DEV_INIT2      = 0x40000000;

        /* reset all allowed devices */
        DEV_RS         = 0x3ffdfef8;
        DEV_RS2        = 0xffffffff;
        DEV_RS         = 0x00000000;
        DEV_RS2        = 0x00000000;

The debug menu shows the following differences, with patch applied to remark out DEV_RS=0x3ffdfef8;

DEV_EN    = C0031926
DEV_INIT1  = 00040000
DEV_RS = 00000000
DEV_RS2 = 00000000

With a patch applied to remark out the entire code above:

DEV_EN = C0831977
DEV_EN3 = 0007003F
DEV_INIT1=00040000
DEV_RS = 0000000
DEV_RS2 = 00000000

[michaelc5047]

I put a 6gb microdrive in (as I don't have an original hard drive for this iPod) via the ZIF-to-CF connectior and ran a battery benchmark overnight using a fresh daily build and the same album on repeat that I used to test the iPod with the CF card. 9 hours 30 minutes with the microdrive, as compared to 9 hours 45 minutes with the CF card.

[soap]

And with the original firmware you get...?

The best test of battery condition is still measuring life with the original firmware.

[michaelc5047]

And with the original firmware you get...?

The best test of battery condition is still measuring life with the original firmware.

Huh. I guess "not as much battery life as I think it should" is too subjective a statement, eh? Thanks. Will check it.

[soap]

I agree 100% that the numbers you posted are lower than expected with a stock battery, much less a (supposedly) higher-capacity aftermarket one.
That being said:
1 - There are lots of **** quality aftermarket batteries floating around.  Ones which aren't worth the postage they were shipped in.
2 - There are lots of fraudulently labeled, and plain ol' counterfit aftermarket batteries floating around.
3 - The only way to nail down the question (which I think is the underlying question here) "Is my battery dying already or has Rockbox regressed in terms of battery runtime?" is to test against a known benchmark - the Apple Original Firmware ^{(R) (TM)}