Rockbox Technical Forums

Third Party => Repairing and Upgrading Rockbox Capable Players => Topic started by: eicca on February 22, 2021, 12:03:46 AM

Title: iPod Mini: Battery Life with Rockbox and CF-SD Adapters?
Post by: eicca on February 22, 2021, 12:03:46 AM
Anyone out there running an iPod Mini 2G with Rockbox and a CF-SD adapter?

I'm using the iFlash CF-SD adapter and my battery life in Rockbox is absolutely atrocious. 5 hours tops. Stock Apple firmware gets 20 hours. This was determined by playing the same MP3 album on repeat in both OS's.

Other posts on the interwebs indicate the iFlash CF-SD adapter may be to blame. I'd go with a 128GB CF card but those cost more than I've spend on the entire iPod setup so far.

Anyone using a CF-SD card adapter with Rockbox and getting decent battery life? If so, what model adapter are you using?
Title: Re: iPod Mini: Battery Life with Rockbox and CF-SD Adapters?
Post by: speachy on February 28, 2021, 10:01:37 AM
I strongly suspect the decreased battery life is a side-effect of the data corruption fixes, which basically prevent powering down the iPod's storage subsystem.

(the iFlash adapters don't properly support the standard ATA power management commands, so Rockbox has no way of knowing when it's actually safe to kill power.  The corruption was a result of killing power too early, so to be safe we never power it down when the storage device doesn't claim to support power management)
Title: Re: iPod Mini: Battery Life with Rockbox and CF-SD Adapters?
Post by: eicca on February 28, 2021, 10:16:39 AM
I strongly suspect the decreased battery life is a side-effect of the data corruption fixes, which basically prevent powering down the iPod's storage subsystem.

(the iFlash adapters don't properly support the standard ATA power management commands, so Rockbox has no way of knowing when it's actually safe to kill power.  The corruption was a result of killing power too early, so to be safe we never power it down when the storage device doesn't claim to support power management)

Ah, makes sense. Thanks for that—nice to finally have an answer. Are there any CF-SD adaptors that DO support the power management? That’s a much cheaper route than trying to find a 256GB CF card.