New life for H120 DAP's !

[tomo3014]

okay. i've got the cf mod to work and it wasn't complicated at all.(wiki seemed kinda complicated)

i took all the system files from the rockboxed hdd and moved it to my CF card.
(not even the latest build) and everything works like a charm.
btw, the cf is the a-data 32gb.

so here are the simple procedures.

1)take the rockbox file and regular firmware in your ihp to your computer
2)take out the hdd and replace it with the cf.
3)turn on your ihp and cf should be recognized as a external drive.
4)just move all the files over
5)remove the device from computer
6)turn it on.

you are good to go.

i don't know how to write in the wiki, but it's all good to go.
and i bent the jumper and chipped off the sides a bit.
no problem.

enjoy!

[sweetspot]

Good work brother.. Glad to hear you got yourself a new H132 ! NICE !

[kermix_h120]

I now have the same A Data 32GB CF card that Jeff has, and I can also report a success with a previously Rockboxed H120 as well. This is really a great mod. I've modded this player once before with a 40GB Toshiba replacement HDD, but it was a used drive and died pretty quickly. This looks like a much more promising solution, and still 12GB more than I started with.

When I bent back the jumper pins on the adapter, the jumper appeared to be loose, but I think that's just because the part that holds it in place more firmly is at the top of the jumper - I turned it upside-down and fit it into place, and it looked like it was holding on fine.

I'm not really using the H120 as a DAP right now, actually - it's more of a PortableApps device at the moment. But I'll be using it to listen to some language instruction audio pretty soon, so I'll be testing its battery life too.

Thanks to everyone for this mod, it encouraged me to bring this poor beast back from the dead. Again!

[kejusan]

wow, I guess I have to stop searching for a 40gb HDD. how much is the total cost of replacing the HDD with a 32gb CF Card?

[nevar9]

I have yet to read recording performance results. Did anyone record anything to .wav and .mp3 yet with the flash card inside. Does it work ok?

Btw, i assume the player must be very quite now. How is the battery life. Does it run any longer than before? Since there is no need to power a hd anymore.

[Lsportline43]

Originally Posted by kejusan

wow, I guess I have to stop searching for a 40gb HDD. how much is the total cost of replacing the HDD with a 32gb CF Card?

I just bought the A-data 32 gb CF Card for $145 shipped. The adapter is about $15-$25 shipped (Depends one which one you get). So all together it should be about $160-$170. Hopefully the price of the 32 gb will go down once the 64 gb CF cards come out... if they ever come out that is.

Can't wait for my 32 gb CF card to come in. I just ordered it today, so hopefully it'll be here by Friday.

[kermix_h120]

Originally Posted by nevar9

I have yet to read recording performance results. Did anyone record anything to .wav and .mp3 yet with the flash card inside. Does it work ok?

Btw, i assume the player must be very quite now. How is the battery life. Does it run any longer than before? Since there is no need to power a hd anymore.

Not only is the battery life better for me, but the player itself is noticeably lighter. (Edit: I haven't done a full battery_bench on the player yet, because I'm also using it as a PortableApps USB drive during the week at work :P)

I just did a recording test with all the available formats - PCM Wave, WavPack, AIFF, and MP3/320Kbps. They all recorded fine, and only the MP3 format had a noticeable split-second silence when it does an automatic file split.

I don't actually do any recording with my H120, so I haven't tried any of the other settings like prerecord time or anything else that might make a difference, but the basic functionality is still there. It works!

[Lsportline43]

Does anyone know if the Ridata 32 GB CF Card works with for this mod? Any idea if the Ridata cards works better or worse than the A-Data 32 GB CF Card?

[jeff]

Originally Posted by Lsportline43

Does anyone know if the Ridata 32 GB CF Card works with for this mod? Any idea if the Ridata cards works better or worse than the A-Data 32 GB CF Card?

Haven't heard... it's a new card to the 32GB world. You might check the Rockbox forums.

[SteeleHere]

This is an awesome mod!!!

I got an A-Data 32GB CF card and it was as easy as pie updating my H120 to a H132CF. BTW- I used Arni99's post on taperssecrtion on how to upgrade. (Thanks Arni99!!!) iRiver H120 CF Mod Attempt - Success!

I read a few posts about the the CF card coming loose after awhile of use for some people; so I used electrical tape to join the adapter in 2 places. 1) the adapter at the player pin connector and 2) at the CF card / adapter connector.

I also upgraded my battery to the 2200 mAh Cameron Sineo as wel.

I absolutely love this player!!!

Now to wait for the recording screen to get a rework by the awesome Rockbox developers (I miss the larger channel histogram from the Recording Enchanchment Pack from the older Rockbox version) .

[Arj]

I'm getting ready to do this same mod. I already have the CF-IDE adapter. Just need to buy the 32GB card.

Interestingly, I searched eBay for the ADATA 32GB "Speedy" card and found two listings, both for $141.00 (buy it now). But the same card from NewEgg is selling for $109.99. I'm surprised to find such a disparity on an eBay price.

Here is the eBay card I am looking at: 32GB ADATA CF-32 G GB Go 32G Speedy Compact Flash Card - eBay (item 220250769811 end time Jul-03-08 16:28:00 PDT)

And here is the NewEgg card: Newegg.com - A-DATA 32GB Compact Flash (CF) Flash Card Model SPEEDY CF 32G - Flash Memory

Are these not the same?

[Arj]

Well, I went ahead and ordered the card from Newegg. Got it today and completed the conversion this evening. Gotta say -- I love it! Boot time is amazingly fast. Navigation is pretty much instantaneous. I am currently copying over my ~20GB of music I had on there previously. This will take some time I can see. But I don't mind. I expect that once the music is loaded on the CF card, it should work great.

I did the same as SteeleHere above did and electrical taped the CF card to the adapter so it wouldn't come loose. I also took a section of the bubble wrap the adapter came wrapped in and folded it over and taped it up to make a bit of padding, which I placed at the end of the CF card to fill the void where the old HD was. So I doubt it will work free from the IDE connector in the player. Oh, and I also put a strip of electrical tape on the bottom of the adapter to ensure the contacts that are exposed there could not touch anything on the mainboard in my player.

Overall, a very simple mod really. Now currently enjoying my new H132!

[junkilo]

the rockbox link to the wiki entry is useful. My 1gb CF only sorta works. intermittent read and write issues.

[Magthy]

I LOVE those indestructible little things


A-Data "speedy" 32gb use with the latest Rockbox build on a 2-3 years old bootloader. Work without any bug, excessive loading or anything