Topic: iRiver H120 CF Mod Attempt - Success!

[petur]

For those who did the mod and get an error (ata -80) at startup: there is hope

My card (A-Data turbo x266) also causes the issue, and last night I was able to tweak the bootloader into a working version. It still needs further debugging to find out why exactly certain things are failing but at least there is the knowledge that there will be a solution

More updates will come in the RockBox forum and wiki...

[AlexG]

Here is a non ebay source
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.10886

Alex, is this the exact same adaptor you used? I'll probably get a couple if they'll work.

Yeah that is pretty much the same thing that I have.

[sunjan]

One question is left: what are the specs of the CF card you are using. I was about to buy a cheapo A-Data 'speedy' 16GB card (their speedy brand is actually the slowest card they have), and then somebody on the rockbox forums told us that the card works but is very sloooow.

So what are the read/write figures of your card and how does that relate to the real-life performance (compared to HDD operation for example).

Hey Petur,
Does the speed have any adverse effect from a taper's point of view?!
If it simply affects boot time and transfer to/from PC, it's not a big problem from a taping perspective. But maybe there are other downsides that I neglected?!

/J

[petur]

I will need to try with some slower cards. I went for the speedier and lower capacity route (8GB x266) which is really nice.

I have not done any real long recordings, all in good time

[petur]

Just a quick note: as of now, Rockbox is compatible with CF cards
The bootloader might still be a bit of a problem as the currently 'released' bootloader doesn't yet include this support...

[Colin Liston]

Anyone doing this on a JB3?

[sunjan]

Anyone doing this on a JB3?

Well sort of, at least. There was a post about a successful CF mod of a JB1 last year:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,79609.msg1071392.html#msg1071392

I vaguely recall other posts about modded JB3s here, but the buggy search function here on the forum ignores search phrases with only 2-3 characters.

Note that the JB3 IDE connector is for 2,5" drives, so you can't use the same adapter as for the Iriver 1,8" drive.

[AlexG]

Anyone doing this on a JB3?

Well sort of, at least. There was a post about a successful CF mod of a JB1 last year:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,79609.msg1071392.html#msg1071392

I vaguely recall other posts about modded JB3s here, but the buggy search function here on the forum ignores search phrases with only 2-3 characters.

Note that the JB3 IDE connector is for 2,5" drives, so you can't use the same adapter as for the Iriver 1,8" drive.

That should be even easier to find an adapter since 2.5" drives are a standard size unlike the toshiba 1.8" drive.  A quick goolge turns up this
http://www.addonics.com/products/flash_memory_reader/ad44midecf.asp

[Javier Cinakowski]

I replaced my 320 hardrive last night with a Sandisc Ultra 4GB.  It works fantasticlly.  I wish I had a bigger card, but this will be fine for most shows.  

So I have a working Toshiba HD I don't need anymore if someone wants to make an offer...

[Idle Wind]

One question is left: what are the specs of the CF card you are using. I was about to buy a cheapo A-Data 'speedy' 16GB card (their speedy brand is actually the slowest card they have), and then somebody on the rockbox forums told us that the card works but is very sloooow.

So what are the read/write figures of your card and how does that relate to the real-life performance (compared to HDD operation for example).

Hey Petur,
Does the speed have any adverse effect from a taper's point of view?!
If it simply affects boot time and transfer to/from PC, it's not a big problem from a taping perspective. But maybe there are other downsides that I neglected?!

/J

and what are the benefits to doing this?

I mean, it's really cool and all, and yeah, I like to mod
stuff "just because I can.."  but if my H120 is working
fine, why would I want to do this?

(quite another thing if my HD is dead, def go solid state)

thanks, and apologies in advance for my ignorance....

[Javier Cinakowski]

I did it even though my hdd was still working just fine.  I even lost 16GB in the switch to my 4GB CF card. 

The CF gives better performance. Navigation is quicker and smoother.  Songs load faster.  But most importantly I think the hdd causes additional noise in my recordings.   Besides that, we all know that these hdd's fail and I don;t want that to happen during a show....

[petur]

just remember that this is all quite new and although nobody saw anything go wrong yet, it isn't that thoroughly tested. Time will tell that there are no bugs in it....

[Chuck]

Well, I'm finally getting serious about doing this mod. I'm about to order the adaptor. What is the cheapest 4 GB CF card I can get that will work?

[darktrain]

i got an 4gb adata from newegg for 15.00 and the mod works great and seems it draws less battery, so longer runtime(should never be an issue with the 4gb card though)

[petur]

Well, I'm finally getting serious about doing this mod. I'm about to order the adaptor. What is the cheapest 4 GB CF card I can get that will work?

All cards should work, the A-Data and Transcend brands are the two cheapest that come to mind. If possible, spend a bit more and get a faster card (x120 or higher), that should make transfers to/from your player not so slow. I also haven't done any recording tests with slow cards (in theory it should work but I don't know how it works out with the rockbox recording buffers)