Fiio M3k

[amachronic]

@bahus: I did try the play+volume button mapping on a local build, but I found it a bit tricky to use in practice. It also displaces the WPS hotkey mapping (= long press of play) so it'd create inconsistency with the main keymap. (Not that I find the hotkey very useful.)

But, I don't think the hotkey can do anything useful if the screen is locked, so if the Play+Volume buttons act as skip/seek when the screen is locked and keep the current behavior when unlocked, we can have the best of both worlds.

[bahus]

I found it a bit tricky to use in practice.

Ideally you should be able to execute multiple actions using volume buttons keeping play button pressed. So if you need to skip multiple tracks - it's enough to press once play button and then press Vol+ multiple times keeping play button pressed.

It also displaces the WPS hotkey mapping

Yes. Long Play button press shouldn't be mapped at all to make it work nicely.  Can't this WPS hotkey be remapped for long press on some touch button (or some other combinations like play button double press, or play + short power press)?

if the Play+Volume buttons act as skip/seek when the screen is locked and keep the current behavior when unlocked, we can have the best of both worlds.

This will work for me too -  it's indeed required mostly for operating with locked screen. I just thought that global implementation would be easy.

[7o9]

Those are some very elaborate and specific ways to control the player.

Please demonstrate how to do those while the device is in your pocket!

I have been having an issue with the device not responding to any buttons except power off after turning on button lock, not even unlocking the buttons again. Trying to reproduce the exact steps but so far I failed to do so. I think it happened when button lock was enabled and the player reached the end of the playlist.

[bahus]

Those are some very elaborate and specific ways to control the player.
Please demonstrate how to do those while the device is in your pocket!

I have no problem with pressing play button with my middle finger  and Vol+/Vol- with my index finger simultaneously.  If you don't like it or can't do it - it shouldn't affect you in any way. And that's  just my suggestions. What's yours?

[amachronic]

I have been having an issue with the device not responding to any buttons except power off after turning on button lock, not even unlocking the buttons again. Trying to reproduce the exact steps but so far I failed to do so. I think it happened when button lock was enabled and the player reached the end of the playlist.

You're right that it's specifically due to reaching the end of the playlist -- another user reported this some days ago and I was able to replicate it on the simulator. Will be fixed by https://gerrit.rockbox.org/r/c/rockbox/+/3229.

bahus: I did get the button mapping working as you described, it applies only when the screen is locked. So, difficult or not it's at least possible to skip and even seek in tracks without unlocking the player. (EDIT: it's not yet merged)

I do find it hard to skip backward using the key combo because the buttons are packed so close together. Ultimately I'd like to allow for customizable key bindings but that's quite a ways off due to the amount of effort involved.

[bahus]

I did get the button mapping working as you described

Awesome! Thanks. Are you planning to publish pre-built  files required for installing rockbox?

[bahus]

Oh files detected https://download.rockbox.org/bootloader/fiio/

Be aware installation doesn't work with Zadig WinUsb driver (at least on my Windows 10 machine):
jztool.exe -v fiiom3k load bootloader.m3k
[  ERROR] libusb_open: Operation not supported or unimplemented on this platform

Zadig libusbk driver needs to be installed instead of WinUSB.
So rockbox is successfully installed on Windows. Cool! Thanks for your work and quick response!

[amachronic]

Be aware installation doesn't work with Zadig WinUsb driver
...
Zadig libusbk driver needs to be installed instead of WinUSB.

Well that's weird. I tested on a fresh Windows 10 VM under Virtualbox and it worked with WinUSB...
Which version of Windows are you using?

(That was pretty fast by the way!  )

[7o9]

Those are some very elaborate and specific ways to control the player.
Please demonstrate how to do those while the device is in your pocket!

I have no problem with pressing play button with my middle finger  and Vol+/Vol- with my index finger simultaneously.  If you don't like it or can't do it - it shouldn't affect you in any way. And that's  just my suggestions. What's yours?

Calm down, I was just responding to your original "I wonder how to make rockbox more usable in pocket ...". If this helps you, best of luck with it.

I am still getting used to the keymap of the M3K. It has some things that take a little getting used to, only having used RockBox on a long line of various Sansa's before.

[bahus]

Which version of Windows are you using?

Windows 10 Pro (Version 2004, OS Build 19041.985)

First feedback: Can you please map prev/next touch buttons in lists as simple move up/down actions (with accelerations on long press) and maybe also play button as enter (as in OF). To me it's very inconvenient to use scroll (it has weird responsiveness) - it would really be great to have ability navigating folders and menus without it.

[7o9]

You can tap the top and bottom of the slide strip for up and down.

[bahus]

You can tap the top and bottom of the slide strip for up and down.

Yeah I got it. But it's not stable for me. It mostly works but sometime it acts as enter. So I would really like to avoid using scroll at all if possible.

[7o9]

Would be nice if the top and bottom regions were a bit bigger. I hit the 'enter' region often too.

Will try to modify the keymap to see if it makes any difference.

Thing is that you are drawn to click on the top/bottom of the elipse thing but the touchstrip extends above and below that.

[amachronic]

The touchpad doesn't work well because it isn't physically wired properly, and/or the controller firmware is massively broken. The right 1/3rd of the screen reports two fixed values (for the back and right arrow "buttons") and the left 2/3rds is highly nonlinear which makes the scrollbar a bit janky. By nonlinear I mean this -- If the pad is linear then 1pt = 1mm (for example) no matter where your finger is or what direction you move. But with a nonlinear pad 1pt reported by the pad could be 1mm, or 2mm in another place or 0.1mm at some other point on the screen. And this varies independently in each axis so the problem is compounded. In fact, the pad supports 2-point multitouch, but very unreliably, and only in the left 2/3rds. The touchpad on this device is absolutely TERRIBLE, in fact.

I can easily add an option to change the size of the touch zones, which could be used to make the up/down zones easier to press, but I suspect the issue is simply that the center of the touch is detected poorly -- your finger is very large compared to one "pixel" on the touchpad, and the firmware must calculate the center point based on a huge number of physical inputs from the pad. With bad firmware / bad pad the reported values will also be bad, and it's impossible to fix since it's all hardcoded and hardwired.

Sorry for the long winded rant, but I hope it's explains why the M3K's touchpad sucks.

[7o9]

... long winded rant ...

It was no criticism of your work at all, the touchpad is easily the worst part of the M3K hardware.

It is light, fast, sounds quite good and can still be purchased for a reasonable price. I bought mine after I saw you did your RockBox port, so thanks again for that!

The touchpad of the M3K is also kind of why I mentioned hope for a Shanling Q1/M0 version before. Quite similar platform but those devices feel so much more 'premium' already just by holding them.

Luckily I spend much more time listening to music than fondling the touchpad and once you get somewhat used to it, it is quite bareable.