Archos Jukebox Recorder 20 SSD upgrade?

[bleb]

Just ordered an Archos Jukebox Recorder 20 and I was wondering if anyone has successfully upgraded theirs to an SSD?  I found this thread which mentions some difficulties but no confirmed successes.  Any suggestions for how to proceed?

[bahus]

That's some ancient device (able to play only mp3 files no other formats even in rockbox). Just in case are you aware that rockbox dropped support for all Archos devices? So you are stuck with the pretty old 3.15 release .

[speachy]

Oh it's worse than that; support for the Jukebox Recorder v1 (ie with AA batteries) actually ended in 3.13. 

The Recorder v2 (and FM Recorder, ie a built-in Li-Ion battery) had support through 3.15.

(You could get the ~3.15-era source code and do a custom build for the v1 by cutting out some features, but ...why?)

But back to the question -- given that the Archos Studio & Reccorder used standard 2.5" PATA drives... Your best bet would probably be to try grabbing a compactflash card with a passive adapter.   Second choice IMO would be an PATA<->SATA adapter with an m.2 SSD plugged in. Due to physical space constraints you won't be able to use a 2.5" SATA drive without modifiying the drive or the player. I'd completely avoid the SD adapters as those will _not_ work reliably on 3.15 (or older).

[TAC109]

You could run my old unsupported v2.5.1 RockBox which is still available here.

Cheers

[bleb]

I probably will try that 2.5.1 build.  Smaller rockbox seems nice for hacking if nothing else, and I'm not sure what I would gain from using 3.13 or for that matter what I would be missing compared to later releases; maybe someone can explain.

I understand it's an ancient device but I couldn't find anything else supported by Rockbox with an easily replaceable battery.  I was sick of prying and mangling iPod cases in order to replace the battery only to have it fail in a year even from supposedly reputable vendors.

[speachy]

I probably will try that 2.5.1 build.  Smaller rockbox seems nice for hacking if nothing else, and I'm not sure what I would gain from using 3.13 or for that matter what I would be missing compared to later releases; maybe someone can explain.

There are detailed release notes:

   https://www.rockbox.org/wiki/ReleaseNotes

I understand it's an ancient device but I couldn't find anything else supported by Rockbox with an easily replaceable battery.  I was sick of prying and mangling iPod cases in order to replace the battery only to have it fail in a year even from supposedly reputable vendors.

Just off the top of my head:

 * iBasso DX50 and DX90 use an off-the-shelf removeable battery.  (Samsung EB-L1G6LLU)
 * xDuoo X3's battery is easily replaceable (remove two screws to open the back)
 * ipod mini batteries are pretty easy to replace (no clips) and replacements are plentiful
 * erosq family of devices is easy if you have a heat gun
 * Hifiman HM-801 also has a removeable battery, but I don't know how easy it is to find replacements.

(EDIT:  Add HM801)

[bleb]

So I got a 16 GB Transcend 133x CF card and a generic passive IDE adapter.  The Archos functioned as an enclosure letting me reformat the CF card and copy files to it, so I tried installing Rockbox 3.13 but it would not work.  The Rockbox splash screen didn't show and instead I got a file browser view showing an empty root directory even after copying a few files to it.

I'm guessing the adapter+CF card is too different from the HDD that came with the device.  It also lacks the screw holes that are used to secure the sides of the case which isn't great.  Next I will try a PATA SSD.