CF for H320?

[kramers]

Have a look at this!

iRiver H120 CF Mod Attempt - Success!

And also here

New life for H120 DAP's !

Anyone tried this for the H320? It would be really amazing to have CF storage for the H320. No more moving parts! And theoretically 64GB/128GB?!? It would be the perfect upgrade!!

[schwab002]

pretty sweet, might try this out when those 64gb or 128gb cf cards become affordable.

[Dunno]

Originally Posted by kramers

Have a look at this!

iRiver H120 CF Mod Attempt - Success!

And also here

New life for H120 DAP's !

Anyone tried this for the H320? It would be really amazing to have CF storage for the H320. No more moving parts! And theoretically 64GB/128GB?!? It would be the perfect upgrade!!

you obviously never read the thread that you link to properly....

[st5150]

Originally Posted by schwab002

pretty sweet, might try this out when those 64gb or 128gb cf cards become affordable.

How much do the 64 and 128 cards currently cost? Battery life should be amazing with a CF card.

The adapter cards can be had very cheap: DealExtreme: $5.30 CF to Toshiba 1.8-inch IDE Hard Drive Converter

[Dunno]

Originally Posted by st5150

How much do the 64 and 128 cards currently cost? [/url]

Google is buy far your best choice to answer those questions.

[mixin]

Are they even available?

I may have seen an announcement for 64Gb cards recently*, but were unaware they were on sale anywhere yet, let alone 128GB cards.

* I may not have done as it's all very vague.

[unrealliving]

WOW, if someone will know that it works on h320 let me know, I am really interested on upgrade

[kramers]

After reading this tread New life for H120 DAP's ! I ordered the CF-adapter at LinITX.com - Compact Flash to 1.8" Toshiba HDD Adapter

The adapter arrived yesterday and I used the instructions on CFModGuide < Main < TWiki to install the adapter. I am using a Sandisk II Ultra 2.0 GB for testing and amazingly it works!!

However, sometimes I have difficulty reaching my folders and I am not able to initialize the database. But besides that it works very stable! It is running now for 5 hours without any crash. I will continue testing!

Update: I made a patched build specifically for CF modded devices (see also FS#8644: Make Rockbox work with CF modded devices). It seems to have no problems anymore with freezing of folders and I can use the database again.

[wintermute23]

I'm planning on doing this soon; I have the adaptor on order, and a couple of small CF cards to play with so I know what I'm doing before I order a 32GB one (or bigger, if they're available by then).

The main question I have at the moment is: Does the v5 bootloader work with CF cards, or does it need to be patched?

[Dunno]

Originally Posted by wintermute23

The main question I have at the moment is: Does the v5 bootloader work with CF cards, or does it need to be patched?

from the CF Rockbox hardware page

CFModGuide < Main < TWiki

Quote:
Rockbox install
As of 2008-03-09 (r16591), support for CF cards has been added to Rockbox, no patches or workarounds are required (except when using non-SVN bootloader - see above)
End Quote:

[wintermute23]

Originally Posted by Dunno

from the CF Rockbox hardware page

CFModGuide < Main < TWiki

Quote:
Rockbox install
As of 2008-03-09 (r16591), support for CF cards has been added to Rockbox, no patches or workarounds are required (except when using non-SVN bootloader - see above)
End Quote:

I'm using a build more recent than that, but my bootloader dates back 18 months or so. The chart that that section references with it's "see above" lists straight "no"s in the "Success w/o Modification to Bootloader?" column for H320's, except for one that was using a patched SVN bootloader.

It also says "08 Mar 2008 : Thanks to the patched bootloader from PeterDHoye, my IHP340 works perfectly with a "speedy" 16GB A-DATA CF" - this is one day before the section you quoted.

The build resides entirely on the HD (or, in this case, the card), so regardless of when that was downloaded, if older versions of the bootloader (on it's own ROM chip) can't talk to a CF card, I'm going to have to re-flash the ROM. The section you qouted doesn't tell me if I'm using a "non-SVN" bootloader, or not.

So, the question is: Has anyone successfully booted RockBox from a CF card using the stock v5 Bootloader, or does it require patching? I think the answer seems to be that it will work, but I really can't tell from RockBox.org page...

[wintermute23]

Originally Posted by Dunno

from the CF Rockbox hardware page

CFModGuide < Main < TWiki

Quote:
Rockbox install
As of 2008-03-09 (r16591), support for CF cards has been added to Rockbox, no patches or workarounds are required (except when using non-SVN bootloader - see above)
End Quote:

OK, I emailed Peter D'Hoye, who did most of the work on the H300 CF patches, and he said: "the current released (v5) bootloader will not recognize the CF card, so you need a new bootloader. "

I installed the new bootloader he recommended, and it's still booting up from the hard disk, which is a good thing When I get the adaptor I'll know if it works for the CF card, too, but I'm confident everything from here will be plain sailing.

[wintermute23]

I have the adaptor, and have successfully put Rockbox on a 2GB SanDisk Ultra II card, and a Lexar 512MB HighSpeed card, and gotten them both to boot successfully, once I reformatted them as FAT32.

I have a 32GB RiDATA card on its way to me, and expect to have a proper CF_based H332 within a couple of days, depending on how long it takes to copy 17GB of music off the old hard drive. Watch this space for more details.

[wintermute23]

And.... success!

I now have a CF-based H332!

*does the happy dance*

[Dunno]

Originally Posted by wintermute23

And.... success!

I now have a CF-based H332!

*does the happy dance*

Outstanding !, nice that you got it working.

[schwab002]

that's great. i might try this if I can get my hands on a 54gb cf card.
...but it's also tempting to pick up one of those sansa players that supports rockbox and has microSD memory expansion slots...

[corkster]

Well, considering I just upgraded the battery, and put in a 30gb hard drive, I think I might wait another couple of years before buying a 64GB or 128GB or whatever CF card (probably be under $100 by then).
Dedicated to making my iriver H3XX last 10 years! (only 6 to go)

[kokoon]

that's really great to hear! i have a CF adapter on the way, i'm planning to buy a sandisk 32gb CF card... can you maybe tell me what exact bootloader did you use to make it all work? i have a h320 (with a troubled HD).

[digitalb0y]

Did you have to remove the previous bootloader or do you just flash right over it? Does stock iRiver firmware work? How does boot time compare to when you were using a hard drive? How about battery life? Is the player noticeably lighter now? I have the adapter on its way so I can start playing, but I think I'll hold off on anything bigger than the 2GB cards I already have until something goes on sale or I get reports of much better performance from the CF cards.

dB

[digitalb0y]

Originally Posted by digitalb0y

I have the adapter on its way so I can start playing, but I think I'll hold off on anything bigger than the 2GB cards I already have until something goes on sale or I get reports of much better performance from the CF cards.

Then again, those are all questions I could answer by reading and/or doing this, and my hard drive could go at any minute on this 3.5 year old player... I'm taking the plunge! 32 GB is certainly going to be a size increase regardless of how much/little it helps performance, and enough people have to do it to answer everyone else's questions right? Besides, storage with no moving parts is a lot more likey to survive the perils of being owned by someone as careless and clumsy as me! 32G CF card ordered!

dB

[kokoon]

i did it. my H320 runs on a 512mb card at the moment, but it works! the card is ultraslow though, so transfers take ages. but it works!!! and it plays!

now i'll get a 32gb card and i have a new fantastic solid-state mp3 player!!!

btw - the new rockbox h3xx version (finally) has a nice official skin. check it out!

[kokoon]

here's some more info:

i had a small accident last night, the filesystem got a bit corrupted somehow. it could easily be because i installed one version of rockbox onto the CF from the computer (pcmcia adapter), then installed the CF into the H320 and reinstalled another version through the UMS functionality of rockbox. then i started getting some *PANIC* errors when playing back mp3s.

scandisk solved that. it works okay now, will test it a few more days before i get the 32gb.

the player is noticably lighter now. very nice.

the CF adapter i bought (the link in this thread) has a jumper that's a bit too tall. it mustn't be removed though (master/slave setting), so i just bent it 90 degrees with pliers, so the jumper can still be installed. works okay.

can't tell anything about battery life yet, but it's clear it'll last longer than with the HDD.

i'm looking at a 32gb 280x speed CF card ... this is supposed to read/write at ~40 megs/sec. should i go for it? or is a 150x speed card enough?

[kokoon]

solid-state 32gb H320!!! yay