Rockbox General > Rockbox General Discussion
Rockbox and in car USB
Max2950:
Hi Rockbox community !
I've been playing with rockbox for a while on my small Archos Ondio FM. Yesterday i took it a step further and installed it on my 4G color iPod. And i just rediscovered this piece of gear :).
Using my Rockbox'd iPod in it's normal way i.e.: with ear buds and listenning to my favourite tunes is just fine. Problems arise when using it in my Car.
My car is factory fitted with an USB socket connected to the car audio system. This system is software powered by Windows Mobile.
It uses any mass storage device connected to the USB socket to play MP3 stored on the device.
When turning on the ignition key the USB socket comes alive and the attached iPod turns on, the audio system scans it for media files an plays them.
When turning of ignition key the audio systems stays on a few seconds to properly eject the USB mass storage. When running the original firmware the iPod shows the "safe to disconnect screen", and if no action is taken it automatically turns off.
When running Rockbox the same happens, except that the "safe to disconnect screen" is black and white and the player does not turn off thus the battery gets drained. When i get back to my car the player refuses to turn on until the battery has reached a minimum level....
One workaround is to physically unplug the player each time i leave the car, but this is a real pain in the *ss...
In Rockbox i've setup the option to have the player turn off after a certain time of inactivity. But it seems to have no effect while the "safe to disconect" screen is shown. I've read in the forum that USB in the player is not handled by Rockbox but by the original firmware, might this cause the issue ?
Thank you for your help
bluebrother:
--- Quote from: Max2950 on August 24, 2008, 08:31:57 AM ---When running Rockbox the same happens, except that the "safe to disconnect screen" is black and white and the player does not turn off thus the battery gets drained. When i get back to my car the player refuses to turn on until the battery has reached a minimum level....
--- End quote ---
Well, Rockbox enables usb mode -- and this means the player is rebooted into emergency disc mode (which is an apple feature, and that's the reason why it's b/w). A workaround would be to boot the apple firmware when using the Ipod in your car. You can simply achieve this by enabling the hold switch. When you connect the Ipod it automatically powers up, and as the hold switch is enabled it'll boot into the Apple firmware.
Another (possible) option would be to use the Rockbox usb stack -- but as that is not completely finished (there are problems in some special setups) it's not enabled by default. As far as I've seen it's rather safe on disc-based players (I'm using it on my mini for quite a while now without any problems). There's a wiki page (PortalPlayerUsb IIRC) that tells how to use it and lists the issues. Still, this would require you to build Rockbox yourself.
--- Quote from: Max2950 on August 24, 2008, 08:31:57 AM ---In Rockbox i've setup the option to have the player turn off after a certain time of inactivity. But it seems to have no effect while the "safe to disconect" screen is shown. I've read in the forum that USB in the player is not handled by Rockbox but by the original firmware, might this cause the issue ?
--- End quote ---
Yes. Rockbox is not running when connected to USB, so the idle poweroff setting can't do anything.
Max2950:
Hi Bluebrother and thank you for your quick and acurate answer :) !
You are confirming what i was suspecting by browsing around the forum, i have to build Rockbox with USB stack enabled. But will the idle feature be active with this firmware ? So hands on ! I first going to dig into the wiki !
I'll let you know what is my progress, thanks again ! :D
yapper:
You didn't mention if you were a Windows or Linux user, but if you are using Windows the best option in my opinion is to use VmWare to setup a build environment. A neat, easy to use guide is here: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/VMwareDevelopmentPlatform
Then take a look at the Simple Guide to Compiling The Rockbox Source Code: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SimpleGuideToCompiling
Max2950:
@Yapper
Thanks for the hint ! :)
I am a Windows user and i was starting to struggle installing Cygwin... I was stuck on the Archive part, i could not find the tar package... ??? ::)
I will go with the VMWare solution !
Edit :
I finally succeeded in building an USB enbled Rockbox. Just tested on my PC and it seems to work... However i'm not sure if the player is charging while connected to USB.... Yet i need to test it in my car !
The wiki was of great help : http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/PortalPlayerUsb
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