radio reception on clip+ worse than original firmware with a clicking noise :(

[geogre]

hi there!

i have just installed rockbox on my small sansa clip+ and i'm fascinated how many possibilities this software offers!! (almost a little too much for such small mp3-player)...

anyway, unfortunately the radio reception is really bad 8the original firmware is much better!), especially even when tuned to a good station, there is a constant clicking noise with a frequency of about 2Hz, like a metronome... it's impossible to hear radio that way.

does anybody else have this problem or know if anything can be done to get rid of that?

thanks for your help!

[HMike]

Hi Geogre,

I noticed the clicking with the radio too.  I found that when leaving the radio screen, the clicking goes away (the radio continues playing).  I left the radio screen by tapping the power button once--there may be other ways.

So far, the reception seems comparable to me.  With the original firmware, the radio volume is very unstable as I walk around.  With Rockbox the volume remains stable as I move.

I just started using Rockbox too.  Some of the screens are too busy but the configurability is indeed impressive.

Enjoy!

Mike  

[HMike]

Just a quick update about radio reception.  When I first turn on the Clip+, the radio appears to remember the last station but actually the tuning is a bit off and it is automatically switched to Mono.  I don't understand why but pressing the forward button restores the tune along with Stereo.  Someone else has already reported this issue as a bug at rockbox.org .  Anyway, despite the annoying workarounds this works better for me than original firmware radio which has such uneven volume as to make it impossible for me to tolerate. 

[bertrik]

In the radio screen, the radio chip is polled at regular intervals (several times per second) to determine the mono/stereo status and the received signal strength. It does i2c transfers with the radio for this. I guess this is causing the ticks.

[sandwich600]

I noticed the clicking too.  It makes the FM tuner pretty unusable, I boot back to the original firmware if i want to use the radio.

[webtax]

any chance anyone have a build with a fix for the fm radio clicking?

[bertrik]

The simplest work-around this problem for now is to just exit the radio screen (e.g. go to the main menu by pushing the power button).

[keyb_gr]

The corresponding bug is FS#12050.

The simplest kind of workaround would be turning off polling whenever the screen is off (you can't see any of the information obtained anyway), just for the Clip+. I'm not yet sufficiently familiar with the ins and outs of Rockbox to implement that myself though.

[The0ne]

I don't use the radio much except for NPR but yes my reception is quite bad as well. Scanning doesn't even find NPR station hahah I manually have to get to it. But once there things seems to be working out well.

I did have the problem of the radio no working initially. You can go to any frequency and there be nothing. I forget exactly how I got it to work but I'm pretty sure it went out and back in again (main menu and back to radio). Again, I don't use the radio much because the player is usually in the car or at the poolside.

[Chronon]

I did have the problem of the radio no working initially. You can go to any frequency and there be nothing. I forget exactly how I got it to work but I'm pretty sure it went out and back in again (main menu and back to radio). Again, I don't use the radio much because the player is usually in the car or at the poolside.

This problem should be fixed in current builds now.  Here's the closed bug report:
http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/11813

[The0ne]

This is back in version r30968-111111, anyone else have the same problem?

Reverting to Stable version instead of Current Build version. Doesn't resolve it, clicking still present. Clip+ recently updated to latest firmware as well.

[Chronon]

I might have posted the wrong task previously.  Here's the one keyb_gr mentioned and it's still open: http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/12050

[The0ne]

I might have posted the wrong task previously.  Here's the one keyb_gr mentioned and it's still open: http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/12050

thx for update, will keep an eye on it.

[driveX]

Hi, It's still there in current build. Is there any patch etc. to fix this? Or is it possible to compile rockbox with the Stereo/Mono monitor function disabled? Thank you.

[saratoga]

Hi, It's still there in current build. Is there any patch etc. to fix this? Or is it possible to compile rockbox with the Stereo/Mono monitor function disabled? Thank you.

I'm sure when its fixed, someone will update the bug report, probably with a link to the patch and then the commit message when it goes into git.