ipod 4G and CF

[mshail2]

I have been using rockbox for the past year but mostly on sansa e200 and e200r series and I really enjoy it.  My question is this.  I was given a ipod 4G (monochrome) in which I have replaced the hard drive with a SanDisk 2G Extreme II CF card and installed rockbox using the rockbox utility on 12/4/08.  I am not having any real boot up issues except a battery icon every so often.  When I get this I just press and hold the menu and select buttons and the ipod boots up okay.  Do I need to install an earlier version of the rockbox  bootloader as has been suggested on this forum or should I leave well enough alone? (start up time from the apple logo to rockbox is ~5-6 seconds)

Also if anyone is interested I have also tested this device with an older CF card (SanDisk 1G Imagemate) and it appears to work just as good.

[Chronon]

Newer bootloaders have better support for CF cards.  You shouldn't downgrade the bootloader.  The low battery warning seems to happen to most iPods from time to time and most people here suspect that it's a bug in the Apple bootloader.

[dreamlayers]

When turning on an iPod, there's the Apple screen before Rockbox loads.  The low battery shutdown happens even before the Apple screen, so it can't be due to the Rockbox bootloader.

The behaviour may be by design rather than due to a bug.  When running the Apple firmware, the iPod only shuts down when it detects low battery.  Otherwise, it sleeps or hibernates.  The battery level for turning on from an off state may be set higher to prevent people from repeatedly turning on an iPod when it shuts down from low battery.

I have noticed more of that behaviour while my 5G iPod is cold and/or at a lower state of charge, so it definitely seems related to a measurement of battery voltage.  Maybe you're seeing it more recently because it's colder?

[mshail2]

Thankyou for the rapid responses.  I will monitor the performance of my 4G.  I have a new battery that I can put in at any time.  One reason I like this ipod is because the sound is really good and I think even better using rockbox.

One quick side note.  I am thinking about picking up a mini from eBay and freshening it up with a new battery and CF (2GB). Good/bad idea?

[LambdaCalculus]

One quick side note.  I am thinking about picking up a mini from eBay and freshening it up with a new battery and CF (2GB). Good/bad idea?

A very good idea, but some pointers:

1) Look for a 2nd generation mini; the battery life on them is much better.

2) iFixit sells replacement batteries for cheap, with a higher capacity than the stock (700 mAh versus 400 mAh IIRC).

3) Why not get a larger CompactFlash card? You get good battery life, no moving parts, *and* higher capacity than Apple would've thought of!

[mshail2]

Hi,

   Thanks for the feedback on the ipod mini.  The only reason I was going to use a low capacity CF is because I do not place that many songs on at one time.  I have a couple of 4GB CFs that are fairly new and can be used.  Thus I guess if I am going to open up the unit, it would not hurt to put in the higher capacity CF.  Also at some point I am thinking about modding a 5/5.5 video with CF and rockbox.  On this mod I would use a higher capacity CF because I would use it to hold some video.  I guess I have become a ipod/rockbox "junkie".