Ipod video 5.5g 256gb SSD - Zheino SSD

[ecereb]

I have an IPod Video 5.5g which I had an Apricorn 240gb hard disc upgrade installed with RockBox on it for over 4 years.  Just recently the drive began to fail so I decided to install a Zheino 256gb SSD in it.  I also took the time to install a new 800MAh battery. 

When I reinstalled RockBox, it wouldn't boot but instead posted an error -22.  After looking through all the forums, I found that someone said they had fixed the problem and put the fixed image on beyondwind.duckdns.org/downloads/rockbox.zip.

I copied the unzipped folder to the iPod and everything worked as it should...with the exception there is a severe battery drain with the iPod shut down.  I thought that the main board was bad, so I got another one for $99.  I installed the new board and the same thing happens.  I then got another battery and the same thing occurred with the new battery.

The battery drains out totally dead in about three days. 

The next step was to boot into the Apple firmware.  It has been three days and the battery is still fully charged.

Note.  There are a number of other lossless players on the market such as the Fillo X series.  The problem is these are at best flaky, unreliable, and not that user friendly.  And the cost for a 256GB model is somewhere north of 6 to $800.  No, a 5.5g RockBox iPod with a 256GB or greater SSD is the best.  Nothing can compare to the flexibility and ease of use of this setup, much less the total price of a complete conversion.   This is reflected in the recent surge of 5.5g parts costs. 

Though the Apple firmware does work, the pain of iTunes and the Apple embedded firmware’s severe limitations makes RockBox an absolute necessity. 

So, if Apple can make an embedded driver for both HDs and SSDs even before SSDs were known about, why can’t RockBox developers do the same? 

Please, let’s fix this.

Thanks
Steves

[saratoga]

The next step was to boot into the Apple firmware.  It has been three days and the battery is still fully charged.

The apple firmware doesn't actually give you the ability to shut down, its always on, just in a low power mode.

So, if Apple can make an embedded driver for both HDs and SSDs even before SSDs were known about, why can’t RockBox developers do the same? 

The original driver was reverse engineered from the Apple driver over a long period of time.  It now works quite well with the stock drives, but I don't think anyone has seriously looked at updating it to work with more modern ATA devices like SSDs, probably because not many people have them.  That is why lots of SSDs don't seem to work at all with rockbox. 

[[Saint]]

So, if Apple can make an embedded driver for both HDs and SSDs even before SSDs were known about, why can’t RockBox developers do the same?

Fact of the matter is, we can.

It is only a subset of disks that behave in this fashion. I am not aware of a single developer who actually has a disk that displays this behaviour. Except for BeyondWind, and I don't believe they are still active.

If you're wanting some insight as to why the supplied fix hasn't been upstreamed, it is because frankly, it is a bit of a mess. It doesn't really "fix" the issue so much as it does work around it in a fairly hackish way. Rockbox isn't interested in committing a fix simply because it exists, it needs to exist *and* be well written and appropriate.

Please, let’s fix this.

Patches welcome.

You're the one with the failing hardware, and apparently, the motivation. This makes you the prime candidate for addressing this situation.


[Saint]

[ecereb]

I hope I didn’t offend anyone here.  That’s was not my attention.  This effort to cut through the shackles of constrictive music industry is to be highly commended.  Thank you so much.

As for beyondwind.duckdns.org/downloads/rockbox.zip version, this was the only thing I could find that would fix the problem.

As for SSDs, I’ve read on various blogs and forums that these are becoming more prevalent for the various music players especially the iPod 5.5g.  The reason for this is, this iPod has been proven to have the highest fidelity.  I’ve personally listened to and compared a variety of different iPods and several other vendor’s portable music players/MP3 players. 

As far as me taking on fixing this issue…  I’m sorry to say I lack the expertise.

I apologize for seeming to appear upset.

[saratoga]

I don't think you have to apologize, just understand that since you've customized the hardware, it is very difficult for someone else to help you. 

[ecereb]

I would like to help in any I can. 

First of all, I am running Apple’s firmware 1.3.  It is 4 days now and the battery is still fully charged.  Also, the iPod running Apple’s firmware does shutdown after about two to three hours.  I have to press the center button restart the Apple firmware, the same as one would do with RockBox.

As for this SSD, it is supposed to act and perform the same way as does a mechanical hard drive.  However, unlike a mechanical drive where a seek instruction is given and it takes time for the head to relocate and the rotation to get around to the correct position, the seek time for this SDD is virtually 0 or just a few machine cycles.  So, if a request for a seek is given and the firmware goes back to wait for an interrupt, it might be arriving too late because the interrupt had already occurred.

That’s the only thing I can think of. 

I did write disc handlers in college, but this was back in the antiquated 70s days of cylinder – track – sector. Today, I’ve heard that the modern PC hard drive’s internal firmware handles all this.  All the driver programmer has to do is give the controller a byte offset & length, a destination memory address and the controller supposedly does the rest.  Of course, this is merely speculation on my part.

So, is there anything I can do to help?

Thanks

[saratoga]

As for this SSD, it is supposed to act and perform the same way as does a mechanical hard drive. 

Since its ten years newer, it's likely using a newer version of the ATA spec.  Could take a look at that and see what it supports and what mode it's being put into.

Might also be worth looking into if the the drive needs to be explicitly unpowered, or if the power management chip on your ipod could be programmed to cut power to the drive (if in fact that is even the problem).  I don't know anything about the ipod 5g or the drive you bought, so I can't give you specific advice. 

[ecereb]

To answer the question about ATA spec.
I replaced a
TOSHIBA MK2431GAH ZIF 240gb 3.3v @ 500mAh HD running rockbox-ipodvideo-3.13 firmware
with a 
Zheino CHN-18ZIF001M-256 ZIF 256gb 3.3v 100mAh SSD running beyondwind.duckdns.org/downloads/rockbox firmware.

The possible issues are:  I used the beyondwind.duckdns.org/downloads/rockbox.zip firmware instead of the stable port rockbox-ipodvideo-3.13.zip firmware. The reason is the iPod posts an error -11 with the rockbox-ipodvideo-3.13 firmware.  The beyondwind.duckdns works with the above SSD.

The issue I am having is the SSD draws excessive power using the beyondwind.duckdns firmware. 

If I boot the Apple firmware V1.3, the SSD works and does not draw excessive power.

A question a lot of have is, can someone fix the SSD issue in rockbox-ipodvideo-3.13 or
can someone tell us how to fix the power consumption issue in the beyondwind.duckdns version?

Thanks