AC Charger does nothing w/5G iPod

[Sweet Spot]

I've checked the logs for any reported bugs on this and couldn't find any, and I'd rather check with the admins/mods/users to see if this same phenomenon is present with their 5gen iPod's and AC chargers. First off, the charger I own is made by "Dynex". Pretty standard fare 100v-240v AC input/ DC 5V out.

I'm using the most recent build (2/12/07), and did notice (which didn't realize was there before) the "charge when connected to USB" feature, and have that turned on. I had it off when using the previous few builds, and probably explains part of the reason as to why nothing happened when the iPod was plugged into my PC.  I did also experience the "reboot hell" at one point a couple weeks back (perhaps even last week), though this seems to have disappeared thankfully. The way I used to solve that problem though, when needing to recharge w/the AC adapter, was to boot to the original FW and charge from there.

Now however, no matter what I try and do, the AC charger does nothing. When I plug it in when the iPod is OFF completely, it just boots up the iPod into RB and since I use the play at startup feature, it just plays my last played song etc.. If I plug it in while it's on already, it just does nothing, actually. My question is then, since I haven't seen this cataloged in the bug list, is there something I'm doing wrong ? And yes, I do also try holding menu when it's on while plugging it in, to no avail.

Doug

[Llorean]

Are you using an official, unpatched Rockbox build? Because there shouldn't be an option called that.

[Sweet Spot]

Totally official,  (and unpatched) downloaded today from the current build link.

Menu>General settings> System> Battery> Charge During USB Connection.

[Llorean]

This option is an artifact from the H300 charging feature. It doesn't affect the iPod.

The recent change to Rockbox causes it to not reboot when you plug into a wall charger. This is automated. The iPod will charge from the wall charger, though you may not see an animation. Just stop music playback and wait, and you should see the battery level increase over time.


Edit: Changed the word 'patch' to 'feature' to be clear I was discussing things in SVN.

[Sweet Spot]

Ok, so if I'm understanding you correctly:

When the iPod is turned off totally, and I plug in the AC charger, I won't see anything happening, (though it's charging?) correct ?  And in turn, when the iPod is on and playing and I then plug in the AC charger, I won't see anything then, either..but it will be recharging ?

Just want to make sure. If this is true, that's all good but, could be problematic for noobs to RB (as it obviously even made me question the status of charging) who wouldn't know jack from jill. If this is meant to be how future implementations of charging are handled, perhaps a small revision to the manual could be made ? I personally, would rather just see even the most simplistic animation denoting a charge happening, especially when the iPod is off. What do you think ?

Doug

P.S. Definitely no other rockbox.ipod file in there:

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e237/funkytreasure/Screenshot.png

[Llorean]

It's an new feature. The animation isn't working yet.

Remember, Rockbox hasn't been released yet. There was a charging animation in the past. With the implementation of the patch, we didn't say "and removed charging animation." But some things tend to take priority. There'll be feedback by the time it's released, but the continual reboot from wall charger issue is fixed, and that was the important part.

It's just a case of things strangely not behaving the way they should, but the device should actually be charging. If it's not (and by 'not' I mean that the battery is draining as quickly with charger attached as without, as some iPods drain power in Rockbox faster than they charge just because we can't draw 500mA yet), please let us know.

[Sweet Spot]

Cool beans Llorean, just wanted to know if I was a bit loony, or if it was precisely as you noted.
Thanks for the clarification, and of course I totally understand the priorities. Just seems to be that we're sometimes hit with surprises which we're not ready for, especially when there's no note of the changes etc..

RB is an amazing piece of work, (as are the devs) which just continually gets better all the time. The (first official) release should be a tribute to that. Good luck.

Doug

[Sweet Spot]

Sorry, one more thing. You said:

The recent change to Rockbox causes it to not reboot when you plug into a wall charger. This is automated

Which to me means that if my iPod is OFF, and I plug it into the wall charger, it should NOT boot up, but rather just charge with no indication of it doing so, right ? Because mine does boot up. If I remember correctly, in the past, when plugged into the wall charger and off, it would just charge and show the same animation as if it was plugged into a PC. Though I could be totally wrong on that..just don't remember.

Doug

[Llorean]

The booting of the iPod is something that the iPod itself does. I believe we do set this behaviour somewhere, but it's intentional. Remember, Rockbox isnt' running until after the Apple logo is gone. So differentiating whether it's a USB connection or charging can't take place until you're actually in the Rockbox firmware.

[Sweet Spot]

Ok,  that makes logical sense. You're also saying that you guys can alter the behavior of the charging feature, right ? Then would it be possible to implement a feature which allows the user to choose (perhaps next to where the current "charge during USB connection" is) between say "usb charging mode" or say, "charge while active/playing" mode ? The latter option would basically put RB into usb charging mode, as if it were connected to a PC.

Of course this also means that either setting would only take place after a proper reboot.

Doug

[Llorean]

Turn on the hold switch before plugging in the USB cable. Your iPod should boot into the Apple_OS upon insertion of the cable, charging in the Apple OS's manner (which is a faster charge).

[Sweet Spot]

Turn on the hold switch before plugging in the USB cable. Your iPod should boot into the Apple_OS upon insertion of the cable, charging in the Apple OS's manner (which is a faster charge).

Just tried it, and that doesn't do what you suggested it would. I tried it both with my PC and with the AC charger. In both cases, it resets all the settings to default (clears). On my PC (which is running Ubuntu Linux, in case that fact matters), after it clears my settings, it just charges normally, without playing anything...animation and all etc..

Of course I could just boot to the Apple FW manually, but I'd only ever do that if my battery was just about dead.

Doug

[Llorean]

Are you using the modern official bootloader (Black backdrop, white text)?

Also, on a separate note, are you saying that when your iPod is plugged into your PC, it does *NOT* go into disk mode?

[Sweet Spot]

Shoot, I'm an idiot. I totally forgot that I had used the ipodwizard bootloader app ! Of course that will probably be culprit ...duh !

As for the side note, yes, it does go into disk mode when plugged into the pc, so all is fine there. I used the iPodwizard thing because I'm usually pretty short on time these days, (school/work/wife) and didn't really want to be consumed with the arduous task, which I remember installing the official bootloader to be, mainly.

Though I do recall seeing somewhere that there's a new method to installing it, and I should probably look, eh ?

Doug

[Llorean]

The 'arduous' method took a whole 15 seconds anyway. :-P

But yes, there's a new, one-click method. http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IpodInstallationBeta