Another 'thanks' to the RFockbox team

[bwaslo]

I bought my daughter a Sansa e250 from buy.com for $25, and before it arrived I ran into mention of RockBox.  I lucked out and the one I got was a v1, so I had to try it.  All I can say is wow.  This open source firmware just clobbers the commercial firmware.

Just the ability to bookmark with MP3 puts this above anything I've seen, I've been wanting that for a loing time.  Now I have to find a unit for myself, roll the dice and hope its a v1, too!  Microcenter has some refurb C240s for $20, cross fingers, think good thoughts.......

Many thanks.

[ThaCrip]

i would get the e200 series... might cost a little more but in my opinion it's worth it.

i got my e250 from ebay about 10 months ago (about 47 bucks)... i just emailed the guy i bought it from prior to getting it to make SURE it was a v1.

[bwaslo]

I've already bought the C240.  Agreed it isn't as nice as the E250 (less solid build, smaller battery), but is still seems pretty good for 20 bucks.  And.... it's a V1!

One problem to watch out for if anyone gets this one--- the RockBox Utility identified the C240 as being an E200 series player, and I didn't notice that (first time) and went ahead with the install.  Result was a bricked player!!! -- it would flash the Sansa screen, then go blank and shut itself off in about 10 seconds.  Same thing if connected to USB.  At one point I couldn't get it to turn off and had to pull the battery.  Fortunately the hold/rec/power-on sequence still worked and I was able to get access to the memory via USB, redid the Sansa firmware, and got out of that mess.  Afterwards, RockBox installed normally and works.

So, word to the wise: Make sure the RockBox Utility selects the correct type player!

One thing that differs from the RockBoxed E250 is that the C240 will not let me play music while it charges on the USB cable.  Holding down the select button doesn't stop it halting everything and turning into a simple USB memory stick.  Not a big deal, and a tolerable trade for having Bookmarking on MP3.

[ThaCrip]

At one point I couldn't get it to turn off and had to pull the battery.

im not totally sure about the c200 series but with the e200 series you can usually almost always (in my case it's always as i never had it not turn off) get it to power off if you hold down the power button for 20seconds or so (they say it can take around 30 seconds at times)

[bwaslo]

I tried the power button (over 60 seconds), the player was adamant about staying lit up (but being otherwise frozen).  But after I pulled the battery and put it back in, it went back to its 'turn off after 10 seconds' mode.  No problems now, though, with the correct RockBox code loaded.  I changed to the latest build (as of yesterday) because I wanted the USB handling (which works just fine, BTW).

[ThaCrip]

ok i see

yeah the USB and Battery Charging are nice (major advantages of USB are that you can directly transfer files to the MicroSDHC card which the stock firmware cannot do )... you can even use the new bootloader (which is in my signature) to make it so the player does not need to ever boot into original firmware unless you specifically tell it to. (the 'new bootloader' comes with versions for the c200 series and e200 series)

but basically the install process is pretty simple on the e200 series... just do a "sansapatcher.exe -a PP5022.mi4" (without the ") and it wont load up the original firmware anymore when you connect the USB cable when the device is in a powered off state (you can still get it to boot the original firmware if needed by pressing (and holding) the left button on the dpad when powering it on.

NOTE: i would use the original firmware when doing the sansapatcher.exe stuff just to be safe because i never tried it when using Rockbox's USB.

p.s. plus a nice little bonus of using Rockbox's USB is that you dont have to worry about deleting those crappy files/folders that the original firmware re-creates everytime you boot into original firmware.... so since i can exclusively use Rockbox's USB now i dont have that annoying problem anymore

[Portasmith]

yeah the USB and Battery Charging are nice (major advantages of USB are that you can directly transfer files to the MicroSDHC card which the stock firmware cannot do )... you can even use the new bootloader (which is in my signature) to make it so the player does not need to ever boot into original firmware unless you specifically tell it to. (the 'new bootloader' comes with versions for the c200 series and e200 series)

Thanks for that.  I'm brand-new to Rockbox, just got my Sansa c250 yesterday.   I installed r20705 last night so I could copy to my 4GB microSDHC card (8GB card is coming soon in the player directly (OF would freeze trying to read it).  Now there's no need to use the crappy OF at all (I hate all those stupid files it creates too).

I put that bootloader on and it works great.  Goes straight to Rockbox when powering up with USB inserted.   Is 20108 the lastest version?  That's what I installed.

[GodEater]

The "latest version" changes several times a day sometimes. Development is active and ongoing!

[Portasmith]

Sorry, I should have been more specific ... I meant the "new" bootloader (that goes straight to Rockbox when plugged in while off) that is in ThaCrip's signature (which is bootloader r20108 according to my Sansa).  Or has that modification part of the regular SVN sources now?

[wakauai]

I've been using Rockbox on my Sansa E260 for over 2 years and love it. I recently dropped it and a corner of the metal backing broke off. It still worked but I thought it was about time to start looking for a new player. I was disappointed to find that Rockbox only supports players that are no longer available (this was 2 months ago).

This got me to thinking. Rockbox has some excellent technical minds involved in puzzling out how manufacturers put their players together. Could not this same brain power be devoted to designing a Rockbox brand player running open source Rockbox software with all the internal components open for community scrutiny?

A development corporation could be formed by selling shares to Rockbox users (and anyone else who wanted to see the project succeed). If 10,000 users bought a share for $100, that would give a million dollars with which to approach a company in China (lots of hungry companies there right now) with the design and start cranking them out.

The design could be updated on say a six month cycle to keep current with developments and sold on the open market with substantial discounts being given to shareholders.

All of the developers now donating their time to the project could receive remuneration for their efforts based on a commonly agreed upon formula. Everybody wins - except Apple and others. But I have no interest in adding to the profits of Apple corporation. I'd rather see the Rockbox group prosper and Rockbox users have a kick ass player that incorporated all the things we'd like to see in a player.

What would it take? A year to get a design into the hands of users? It seems like the hardest part would be getting the word out to buy shares but maybe the word would spread fast and it would happen right along with development. There's no way to know without trying.

What stimulated this line of thinking was a podcast from IT conversations. It was a talk given by Michael Bauwens of the P2P Foundation in which he talks about economic activity being driven by creativity and value being created by the community. That we now live in a world that will soon be ruled by community participation. The file is
                   ITC.Ecomm-MichaelBauwens-2008.03.13.mp3
if you would care to listen to it.

You/we can sit here and watch the waves go by or we can catch a good one and ride it in. I've got my hundred buck ready.

I didn't know where to post this comment so it landed here.

BW

[vsl2005]

There was a thread last year that discussed the idea of approaching existing manufacturers about developing a platform designed specifically for Rockbox, but I don't think it ever went anywhere. I asked about it a few months ago and got no responses.

That said, I am certain the Rockbox team have approached manufacturers in the past (the recent April Fool's day post about finally Apple joining the dance was, in my opinion, cruel and unusual  . My guess is that the manufacturers have been cool to this idea because they understandably don't want to be responsible for support, and in some cases, such as Apple, are concerned about piracy and copyright issues.

I agree with you it is a shame Rockbox only works on hardware that is no longer manufactured. It's the nature of the beast though because port development time exceeds mostly  the product lifecyle. Such a great project though and it totally changed the way I (and I bet, at least 10,000 others!) listen to music. I hope some manufacturer eventually has a change of heart.

[peteswensson]

Actually, there is good news on this front.  There is an active group working on a project to develop an open hardware Rockbox player.  Check out the thread in the Forum under   \ Rockbox Technical Forums \  Rockbox Development \  New Ports \ Rockbox Player.

[RedCharlie]

 

WOW.
Rockbox just transformed my barely functional refurb'd sansa c240 into a beautiful thing!

The right firmware can turn garbage into gold!

[Portasmith]

Rockbox just transformed my barely functional refurb'd sansa c240 into a beautiful thing!

That's how I feel, haha!  Couldn't even use a microSDHC card on this c250 until Rockbox!  Too bad the LCD still sucks ...

[robin0800]

What is it that you think is wrong with the LCD?