Backlight Problem Sansa Clip+ 4GB

[nver]

Hello,

I've just tried to install Rockbox on my new Sansa Clip+ 4GB. Automatic and manual install didn't show any errors. But when I try to start the Player in Rockbox-Mode, the display stays dark.

What I've found out so far is:

- Player shows normal function when running its original firmware
- Rockbox is also running, but...
- Backlight stays dark, only if I press a Button, it turns on for 1/10 of a second.
- to navigate thru menu is possible (but hard, if you dont see anything  )
- playing music is possible
- if I connect the player with USB (with Rockbox running), the backlight is constantly working, but very dark.
- after a while, Rockbox is sometimes crashing

I tried automatic installation and also manual installation with version 3.7.1 and 3.7. Also I've tried to change the backlight-settings, but without any effect.

Does anyone know a solution to this problem?

Update:
When the Player runs Rockbox, and I scroll thru some menus (2 or 3 clicks/second) , it gets hot (means ~ 35 - 40 °C) after some Minutes. When its running the original firmware, it keeps its normal temperature...

[bertrik]

Maybe this is some newer hardware revision that we don't fully support yet.

So far we've found that there are several parts that can be different between clip+ players:
* the radio chip (SI4702 or RDA5802)
* the display: 132/128 pixels wide internally, normal/dark display
* the connection to the sd-card

I can't explain why the display turns on only for a very short time.
If it gets hot while running rockbox, I recommend to avoid running rockbox for now. Running hot may be bad for the component that is getting hot and probably bad for the battery too.

Something that can help us diagnose the problem is for you to put the original firmware in "diagnosis" mode. In diagnosis mode, there is an extra "diagnosis" menu in the "Settings" menu of the original firmware. Please tell us what the first diagnosis screen shows.

The diagnosis mode can be enabled in two ways:
1) flash a diagnosis version of the original firmware. The name of the official firmware upgrade file usually ends with an alphabetic character (like "A" for the Americas IIRC). Change this to a "T" and put the firmware upgrade file on the root of the player file system to flash it.
2) Another (perhaps easier way) is to start the player with all buttons pressed (up/left/right/down/select/vol+/vol-). This brings up a menu where you can also select the "diagnosis" mode.

[nver]

it says:

[HW Info]
RDA 5802       F4
COMBO4E

maybe interesting:
[iNAND Test]
Version V01.02.15T

[bertrik]

Thanks.

This confirms your clip+ is indeed a player with the newest hardware (that I am aware of), with a new tuner (RDA5802) and new SD card connection logic (COMBO4E instead of the old HERMON). It's not possible to tell whether you have a new or old OLED controller. I suspect that the "F4" number can be used to tell variants apart, this could be the GPIOB value for example.

[nver]

thank you!

so I'm looking forward to next Rockbox Releases...
I really loved Rockbox on my c250 and hope I can use it on the Clip+ to 

[bertrik]

The OLED controller code that is currently in SVN is basically the code for the clip v1 OLED controller, with only the minimal changes to make it work for newer clip+ displays. I did notice that in the original firmware there is a different display controller init sequence with many more changes.

We could try to use the exact init sequence from the original firmware. It probably takes a while before I'll work on this though.

[gomtuu]

I just bought a new Sansa Clip+ 8GB, and Rockbox 3.7.1 seems to work fine so far.

I found this thread the day after I ordered it, so I was worried that Rockbox wouldn't work. When the player arrived, I charged it, played some songs with the original firmware to get a feel for it, then installed the latest diagnostic firmware ("clppt.bin") and checked the HW Info page. Mine said the same thing as nver's:

Code: [Select]

[HW Info]
RDA 5802       F4
COMBO4E

I tried installing Rockbox anyway, and I haven't had any problems with it yet. I spent some time going through the menus, listened to the radio, tried out a bunch of plugins, and played some music (including NSFE, SPC, and ADX files)--all without display problems, crashes, or noticeable heat. I've only had the player for half a day, though. I'll post here again if anything changes.

Is there any other information I could provide that would be useful?

By the way, when I installed Rockbox, I told it to use my renamed firmware file ("clppt.bin"), but when I dual-boot to the original firmware, there's no diagnostic menu. Is there a way I can dual-boot to the diagnostic firmware?

[saratoga]

By the way, when I installed Rockbox, I told it to use my renamed firmware file ("clppt.bin"), but when I dual-boot to the original firmware, there's no diagnostic menu. Is there a way I can dual-boot to the diagnostic firmware?

You probably have to do a manual install to do that.