Sansa Clip Zip

[saratoga]

The Sansa Clip Zip is the Sansa Clip+ replacement.  Like the Clip+, it is based on the AS3525v2 SOC as can be seen by checking the AMS header on the firmware file:

http://mp3support.sandisk.com/firmware/clipzip/clipzip01.01.12.zip

The format does not appear to have changed significantly, as amsinfo happily unpacks the firmware revealing nearly the same firmware contents as the Fuzev2, with the addition of a few extra decoders and such.  Since this appears to be another SansaAMS device, lets reuse that wiki:

http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SansaAMS

Theres also some hardware information here:

http://www.rockbox.org/wiki/SansaClip

I'm too busy these days to contribute much to a port, but if someone else wants to take the lead on this I might be willing to chip in a bit.

[yelped]

Excellent news! I was about to start searching whether it was based off STMP3780 like the Fuze+, or like the AMS Sansas.

This means that SQ is exactly the same as the Clip+'s excellent SQ. 

[bertrik]

Anythingbutipod has a nice comparison between the clip+ and the clipzip: http://anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=64913

The relevant differences with the clip+ so far seem to be so far just the different display and RDS support.
The display is a 96x96 pixels colour LCD and in the abi article it shows some horizontal lines around high brightness features of the screen, which could point to it being a passive matrix lcd like in the sansa c200.
The radio has RDS support, possibly they are using a si4703 variant instead of the usual si4702 tuner chip (just a guess so far). Oddly I don't see a mention of RDS in the sansa clip zip user manual or on their product page.

[bertrik]

Just letting you know that I am starting to create a basic framework to build the clip zip as a target for rockbox (to get something compiling, not working yet).

[bertrik]

Ok, a basic framework has been committed. This makes it possible to at least *compile* a bootloader for the clip zip. The driver for the LCD and backlight is still a stub (i.e. empty functions). The driver for the buttons should basically work except the GPIO-to-button mapping is probably wrong (so UP may be LEFT, etc.)

I also updated mkamsboot to recognise the original firmware file for patching it with the rockbox bootloader. You can't actually create a flashable firmware yet because the dualboot part is still missing. The dualboot code is the code that checks a button/USB connection to decide whether either the original firmware or the rockbox bootloader should be started. This is tricky stuff because any error in this part can potentially brick the player so any new dualboot code needs thorough review.

Marvin the Martian has posted some screen shots from the diagnostic menu on the clip+:
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showpost.php?p=571421
This basically confirms that 1) diagnostic menu is still available 2) the DRAM memory configuration is the same as on the clip+ 3) it still uses a silabs tuner (si4702 or compatible) and 4) apparently the internal name of the hardware is "visionox".

The clip zip appears to support RDS, so perhaps sandisk put in an si4703 tuner chip. This is basically a si4702 (which we already support in rockbox) with RDS capability added.

[dfkt]

4) apparently the internal name of the hardware is "visionox".

I assume this is the name of the screen manufacturer - http://www.visionox.com/en/product.aspx?PrID=4

[bertrik]

dfkt, I think you're right.

It appears that the controller for the OLED is a SEPS114A and that the OLED itself is a Visionox M00230.
In the original firmware, near the Visionox text, there is also a mention of "WiseChip". I think this could be the alternative display supported by the original firmware, I haven't been able to match it yet to the display code.

[bertrik]

Rockbox for the Clip Zip now boots and can play audio. The code for this is in SVN.

Beware that several things don't work yet, or don't work properly, see the SansaClip wiki.
For example, the display colours are wrong, it seems red and blue are swapped.
Audio playback works, but it takes up to 10 seconds for the first track to start.

This target seems to have the narrowest display we've seen so far. There is no WPS yet for the 96x96 pixel display. To be able to run plugins, many plugins will first need to be updated for the 96x96 resolution.

[Per]

I don't know if i am allowed to write this here.

Because in the wiki the Port status is

"radio works, RDS support to be added later "

Does the ClipZip really has the RDS feature or not? For me i don't get RDS with the
original v01.01.17 Firmware.
The i found this Forum entry:
http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/Clip-Zip/Clip-Zip-RDS-not-working-in-UK/td-p/249506/page/2
(I live in germany not in the uk)

Can someone help me and other ClipZip Owners?

[bertrik]

The hardware for RDS is there (at least in my player). Reception of RDS requires a pretty strong and clear signal as far as I know. In the original firmware I get a kind of station code (like "WREO"), the 8-character station name and a longer string with other info.

In rockbox, we can perhaps use the station code to select station "album art".
RDS sends data in 4x16-bit packets, the code to process these packets into useful information has not been written yet for rockbox. I plan a kind of generic approach, where the fm tuner driver can submit these raw RDS packets and receive notification when a full RDS message is complete.

BTW, the display colours are now what they're supposed to be and the delay when starting a track is gone.

[2facedmayor]

Hey Bertrik, thanks for all your great work on the Zip so far.

BTW, the display colours are now what they're supposed to be and the delay when starting a track is gone.

I just test drove Rockbox on my 4 GB Zip and had both of those problems. There was either an excess of blue or an absence of yellow on my display, but I could normalize it somewhat by resetting the colors.

Can't speak for why the track delay is happening, but I tried shuffling all of my tracks and there was a good 5-6 seconds before each one started when skipped.

I used the current build  (r30890), the Win32 version of mkamsboot, the 01.01.17 OF and the pre-compiled bootloader which dfkt made available here: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=66292. I would have compiled the bootloader myself but, as far as I can tell, no "bootloader-clipzip.sansa" file has been released yet.

What could I be doing wrong?

[bertrik]

Actually, the colour problem and the playback delay problem should both be fixed now.
Album art colours seem a bit washed out, but that's just a hardware limitation I think.
(Although maybe we can adjust gamma for to adjust the subjective contrast?)

The Clip Zip can have two different kinds of display, so far we've seen only the Visionox type (visible in the diagnostics menu of the original firmware flashed with a 'T' suffix). The other kind (WiseChip) has not been seen yet 'in the wild', but there is a driver for it. If/when the newer display type shows up, it will probably not work completely right.

[BigPapi]

There is no playback delay on mine, and the colors are OK, asides from what Bertrik describes as a slight washing out. I'm also on r30890 and using the bootloader dfkt shared. The only issue I've seen was a couple of freezes upon disconnect from the computer, although that may have been caused by a corrupted file that I've since removed from the player.

[2facedmayor]

Actually, the colour problem and the playback delay problem should both be fixed now.
Album art colours seem a bit washed out, but that's just a hardware limitation I think.
(Although maybe we can adjust gamma for to adjust the subjective contrast?)

The Clip Zip can have two different kinds of display, so far we've seen only the Visionox type (visible in the diagnostics menu of the original firmware flashed with a 'T' suffix). The other kind (WiseChip) has not been seen yet 'in the wild', but there is a driver for it. If/when the newer display type shows up, it will probably not work completely right.

That would explain it. I have one of the WiseChip players. I confirmed this by running a diagnostic, as you described, where I saw this on the second page:

[HW Info]

FM SI4702
WiseChip

Since I, and others with the same display on their Clip Zip's, will undoubtably run into trouble running Rockbox, I'd like to help. Are there tests you could have me run on my device?

[bertrik]

2facedmayor, for the Visionox display (which I have myself), I noticed that blue and red were swapped, can you check if this is the case for your display too? To check, go to Settings / Theme Settings / Colours / Background Colour and verify that the top bar (R) is indeed red, and that the bottom bar (B) is indeed blue.

Also, I may have made an error in the lcd initialisation sequence, I can double-check that.