Sansa Clip Zip

[bertrik]

Rockbox on the clip zip has been working well enough for a few weeks now to use for daily playback of audio, both from the internal memory and from external microsd card.

Most plugins work, but plugins can't be enabled until *all* of them work. There are about 10 or so left to get working, mostly waiting for modification of the code and graphics to adapt it to the relatively small screen of the clip zip.

There is a patch for radio RDS, but there appears to be a bug somewhere in the skin engine that prevents the RDS station name and radio text to be updated properly.

There is no official bootloader out yet, but I think you can safely install one of the pre-built bootloaders by dfkt from the anythingbutipod forums.

[saratoga]

There is no official bootloader out yet, but I think you can safely install one of the pre-built bootloaders by dfkt from the anythingbutipod forums.

Do you want me to tag and then post an official bootloader?

[funman]

Most plugins work, but plugins can't be enabled until *all* of them work. There are about 10 or so left to get working, mostly waiting for modification of the code and graphics to adapt it to the relatively small screen of the clip zip.

Plugins are enabled now, although some of them look like shit and would clearly need graphics work and/or tuning (tetris^Wrockblox and bubbles are OK but much too small)

Do you want me to tag and then post an official bootloader?

I'd like to know if my change to use (also) left key for dualboot works for other people before doing that.

[TexasRockbox]

I installed the Rockbox for ClipZip and it's very nice.  Much better than Sansa's firmware.  The radio works great -- can't wait for the implementation of RDS.

Observations:

The bootup looks a bit "messy" with the the multiple bootloader messages and the momentary inverted color.

Is it possible to improve upon the contrast of the displayed album art?  The Clip Zip is capable of displaying a rich, colorful, dynamic picture but the current firmware settings wash the artwork out (same thing happened with the OF).  The brightness setting doesn't help.  There seems to be some issue with the gamma or contrast.

Thank you!

At bootup after the Rockbox logo:

data abort at 3005A1D0
FSR 0x0
(domain 0, fault address 0xA5D064

Needs a reset.

32GB microsdhc with about 5800 ogg files.
8GB Sansa Clip Zip.

If I reboot without the 32GB card, the reboot is successful, I can then reboot again with the 32GB card successfully but then the error appears on successive boots.  I'll try another build (any other bootloaders?).

EDIT:

A Sandisk 16GB card (fewer files) seems to boot OK.  The 32GB is a Kingston card so maybe that is the issue.  Thinking about purchasing another microsdhc anyway.

EDIT:

Workaround (resolution?): set DIRCACHE to OFF.

[saratoga]

I'd like to know if my change to use (also) left key for dualboot works for other people before doing that.

A couple people have confirmed that the new bootloader works as expected.  I guess we should tag it so that people can use rbutil.

[BigPapi]

I'd like to know if my change to use (also) left key for dualboot works for other people before doing that.

It works for me.

[dotrockbox]

Thank you so much for the port to the Sansa Clip Zip.  To be honest, as I researched which player to purchase, one of the biggest factors was whether Rockbox was available.  This port allowed Sandisk to get a sale that day.

I've been using these builds (and updating regularly) for almost a month now.  I've noticed some strange playback issues with the newer builds, which I first mistakenly attributed to a bad set of IEMs.  Basically, the audio was almost cutting out sometimes or was going back and forth between the left and right -- well beyond what some stereo music does.

As a test, I played the song from the Sansa firmware and it sounded fine.  I reverted back to an older build of Rockbox, and it too sounded great.  Below are details about versions, etc. Hopefully something sheds some light on the issue.

Consistent
Test Song: Lo Fidelity Allstars - Battleflag (FLAC - yes, I know it's overkill for a PMP)
Headphones (IEM): MEElectronics A151
Volume: -50 to -70 range for each test

Versions
Sansa 01.01.18 - sounds good
Sansa 01.01.17 - sounds good

Rockbox r31233 (latest) - problem occurs
Rockbox r31209 - problem occurs (I had hoped the changes to mpc were the reason, so I picked one before those changes in svn, but still no luck)
Rockbox r31107 - sounds good
Rockbox r31049 - sounds good

I haven't tested each and every version between r31107 (known good) and r31209 (known bad) but I hope this helps somehow.

Does anyone have any ideas?  Would trying the versions between help somehow?

To be clear, I never changed any settings like EQ or anything, so that isn't the culprit either.

Thank you again for all of your hard work!

[saratoga]

Does anyone have any ideas?  Would trying the versions between help somehow?

Yes, r31207 (fixed 5.1 mixing for FLAC files) seems a bit off for stereo. 

[dotrockbox]

Does anyone have any ideas?  Would trying the versions between help somehow?

Yes, r31207 (fixed 5.1 mixing for FLAC files) seems a bit off for stereo. 

Thank you, saratoga. I just tried r31194 (the last build for the Sansa Clip Zip prior to r31207) and it sounds great!  The next release is r31209 which I already tested and found to be bad.

I appreciate your insight. I hadn't considered that changes for 5.1 FLAC might affect regular stereo FLAC too like the one I was testing with.

I'll still test new builds (especially if they mention those type of changes), but it looks like r31194 is going to be the sweet spot for me for now.

You rock

[funman]

I'd like to know if my change to use (also) left key for dualboot works for other people before doing that.

A couple people have confirmed that the new bootloader works as expected.  I guess we should tag it so that people can use rbutil.

I'd like to wait a bit to see USB works great so we could enable it in bootloaders and have mkamsboot always boot rockbox even when powered by USB.

[saratoga]

I just tried r31194 (the last build for the Sansa Clip Zip prior to r31207) and it sounds great!  The next release is r31209 which I already tested and found to be bad.

Would you post your problem file to this task:

http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/12371

[JimZipCode]

Hi all.  Thanks for the great work on the Sansa Clip Zip port. 

Is this in a state now where the standard RB utility will Rockbox it?

My situation is, my stepdaughter borrows my Clip+ a few times a week to take to school with her.  I'd love to buy her a cute little red Clip Zip for Christmas, with microsdhc, and Rockbox it for her.  I know the port doesn't meet the "stable" criteria, but I gather from this thread that it's pretty darn close.  Does it take specialized procedures to Rockbox a Clip Zip?


Thanks

[funman]

manual instructions will work but you have to build the bootloader yourself.

Or you can use this one, or anythingbutipod instructions

[dotrockbox]

I just tried r31194 (the last build for the Sansa Clip Zip prior to r31207) and it sounds great!  The next release is r31209 which I already tested and found to be bad.

Would you post your problem file to this task:

http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/12371

I'd be happy to post the file, but it looks like your request came before r31252 was published, so you may not need it anymore.  I just tested r31263 and the FLAC file isn't having the same issue I described before. 

Cheers and thank you again, saratoga.

[Gurglin]

Hi, I am new here, and first of all I want to say hello to everybody.  

I have installed latest version r31359 with the bootloader (sadly enough, not a dual boot, as far as I see) by DFKT. Am amazed but also confused by the huge amount of options.

Problems encountered:

1) USB not compatible with M$ WIN XP

2) system freezes quite often, and I already got a couple of heart attacks fearing of having damaged the Clip Zip (one needs to press for at least 30 secs the top button for restart the MP3 player).

I have a strong impression the RDS system works, even if only partially, but the line where it is shown is below the visible area of the screen. I actually can see the top of some letters. Would it be possible to resize the screen? Or to delete the useless separation line that prevent seeing the RDS line?