Automated recording times possible with H320?

[pabouk]

That problem is at your end.

Actually the problem is at the server which sends incorrect MIME type (text/plain). It should be application/octet-stream. Usually the wrong server configuration could be circumvented using the Llorean's method but I am not sure if it works with standard Mac browsers.

cbr12: As a workaround I would recommend using wget to download the file.

EDIT: Now I recalled that Mac OS stores the file type as metadata not as the filename suffix (like in other common operating systems). Thus as a first attempt I would recommend simply copying the file to the player (ignoring that it is a text file) and renaming it as it was described above. There is a chance that the system did not damage the file content by trying to convert end of line codes etc.

[Mmmm]

Yeah, I agree with Pabouk, It should work if you just make sure the filename is correct and just copy that onto your player...hopefully...  

[cbr12]

Ok, I finally got the patch. I had to save the link, open the file, and then resave it again after removing the txt extension. After I did all this it finally worked and I now have the countdown timer on my H120 and H320. Thanks for the help everyone.

I will be testing the timer options and make sure this will work for what I intended. I will put the settings at: record repeat every 1 day, with the the split file option set at 20 hours. I am hoping that this will record for 4 hrs each morning, and then countdown the next 20 hours before recording again the next day at the same time. The player will be plugged in at all times.

I will update this thread as to whether or not this set up worked.

[Mmmm]

Ok, I finally got the patch. I had to save the link, open the file, and then resave it again after removing the txt extension. After I did all this it finally worked and I now have the countdown timer on my H120 and H320. Thanks for the help everyone.

I will be testing the timer options and make sure this will work for what I intended. I will put the settings at: record repeat every 1 day, with the the split file option set at 20 hours. I am hoping that this will record for 4 hrs each morning, and then countdown the next 20 hours before recording again the next day at the same time. The player will be plugged in at all times.

I will update this thread as to whether or not this set up worked.

No, I don't think that'll do what you want to do.

If you want your files to be 4 hours long, then set "split time" to 4 hours.

If you want a recording to start every day, then set repeat to 1 day.

If you want the first recording to start at a specific time (and then each subsequent recording 1 day later than this time) and you won't be around to start the recording at that time, then you should set the countdown timer to start recording then.

Does that make sense to you?

So eg.

I want a recording between 6am and 10am every morning and the time is now 2055.

Set "Countdown timer" to 9hrs 5 mins
Set "Record repeat every.." to 1 day
Set "Split time" to 4 hours

Go to the recording screen and press play/pause and you should see the timer start counting down your initial 9 hrs 5 mins  

[cbr12]

I have been playing around with the countdown timer and other timer options. Here is what I have found so far. I can get the countdown timer to work properly and start recordings at the desired time. I can also get the split time option working ok. I have been spliting the files by 5 or 10 minutes. The problem I have been getting is with the "record repeat every" option. In my testing I usually set this to 12, 15 or 18 minutes but it doesnt seem to matter becasue the countdown timer does not resume and the recording stops after the specified split time. On two attempts it has counted down successfully and repeated the recording until the next split time. But then it stopped again after the second round.

I tried watching it to see what happened after the split time ended. The countdown timer starts counting down but after just a few seconds (usually about 3-5 seconds) it returns to the total time remaining before it should start the next recording. Then the countdown timer freezes here and thus it never re-records when its supposed to. Could this still be a bug that hasn't been dealt with? I have tried several different options like recording in wav, mono etc, and still get the same result.

My othe timer settings included: countdown timer 1 min, record repeat every 10 min, split measure = time, what to do when splitting = stop recording, split time = 5 min, split file size = off.

[Mmmm]

Yeah...here we have a bug I thought I had sorted out but it appears to be rearing it's ugly head again. I'll look into it tomorrow. It's nothing you're doing wrong or even your settings, so don't worry...I'll get it licked eventually

[Mmmm]

Ok, try this..

rockbox.iriver.H1xx
rockbox.iriver.H3xx

The reason I thought I had fixed this bug is because I tested on modified code so that I didn't have to wait around for 5 minutes for every test! But it having to save a larger file made all the difference! Typical  

Anyway, this time I've tested with a proper build and it seems ok...
Make sure you have prerecord off too as it doesn't take the 30 second loss of recording time into account..I'll sort that one out later.

[mlind]

I had to save the link, open the file, and then resave it again after removing the txt extension.

Open with what?
You should only have to download (usually alt+click on link) and remove the .h3xx-extension directly in the finder.
(this is for readers with Mac OS)

[Mmmm]

Now the repeat timer will take into account any pre-recording being done, so the only settings you need to worry about are the repeat timer and the time split settings, everything else will take care of itself.
The compiled builds are in the same links as before, I'll update the patch on the tracker too...

[cbr12]

I got the new builds with the countdown timer and have been testing them out. So far so good. Great work. My next test is to try some long recordings and longer countdown times to see how it can handle larger files. I'll let you know how it performs, but overall it seems very promising.

Thanks

[Mmmm]

Fantastic, Glad to hear it's behaving now.

Just one more modification... That bug you experienced earlier could reoccur if the save takes longer than 1 minute (not likely, but anyway..)
Now it just can't happen, no matter what.... So really a more robust version...
Thanks for testing
M

rockbox.iriver.H1xx
rockbox.iriver.H3xx

[cbr12]

I may have found another bug in the timer options from some recent tests. My settings were:

countdown 1 min
record repeat every 1 day
split time 12 hours

The countdown timer worked ok initially, but after the 12 hour recording period the countdown timer actually got longer. I think the 12 hour split time was added to the 1 day "record repeat"or something, rather than subtracting. I dont think it had a problem saving the large file, but it seems that the countdown timer is getting confused when it has to countdown from 1 day.

[Mmmm]

Haha..yes, you're right.... I must have been day dreaming when I wrote that code.. dealing with days, hours, mins and secs separately is just asking for trouble. I've changed it so that it converts everything into seconds before we go subtracting...Much simpler!
Now it works...
Try that... (same links)

[cbr12]

I tested the countdown timer and succesfully recorded the same time sequence for 5 consecutive days. It appears to be working correctly on both my H120 and H320.

Is there already a similar patch to make the timer options functional on the IAudio models? I have been thinking of buying one since the H120 and H320 have been discontinued and are now difficult to get a hold of.  If its not available, would it be difficult to make the countdown timer work on an Iaudio? Are there any other recording limitations on the Iaudio compared to the Iriver?

[Mmmm]

Great... Good news that it works...
The patch should work fine on any of the recording capable targets!