Topic: iRiver H120 CF Mod Attempt - Success!

[Chuck]

Yeah, it's not exactly user friendly...

[petur]

Yes, we need to release new 'official' bootloaders that support CF. Until then, this is what we have on offer.
There is a 'ready to use' bootloader for H3x0 on that wiki page, and a bit of instructions for h1x0

[Rapide23]

I can't help thinking CF modding is the cheapest way to the best sounding flash player ever.

[Arni99]

I just succeeded doing the CF-mod on my rockboxed iHP-120! 

What did I do on my iHP-120:

(0. Order the CF-to-IDE-adapter => ebay)

1. install the latest H120 rockbox-build from today

2. download the necessary "7pre4"-bootloader for the H120 here:
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/viewfile/Main/IriverFlashing?rev=1;filename=bootloader_h120_7pre4.zip

3. copy the "7pre4"-bootloader to your H120´s harddisk(root directory)

4. FLASHING:
First Initialize your player as follows: (Stop audio-playback).

- Set "Show Files" to "All" in "General Settings"
- Enter the File Browser by choosing "Files" in the Rockbox menu
- Navigate to "bootloader.iriver"
- Mark "bootloader.iriver" and press(long) joystick - then select "Open with..."
- From the list of plugins, select "iriver_flash" and execute.
- If all went smoothly a confirmation message should be displayed
- Press PLAY-button (right side TOP-button) to confirm, the firmware flashing-process starts,
- "Success"-message and the player will return to the file browser

5. Copy the complete rockbox directory to your PC

6. Replace the HDD using the CF-to-IDE Adapter mentioned in this thread on page 1.

7. Bend down the adpater´s jumper, otherwise you´ll run into issues later on

8. Copy the folder from your PC back to the CF-card

9. Fix the 8 torx screws and you are DONE!




I use a SANDISK 8GB extreme III CF-card, which has ONLY 133x speed(about 20MB/s read and write).

No errors on boot-screen.

"System/Rockbox-Info" shows 7.xx GB as supposed to.

Here a pic of my "challenge":
My 8GB CF card attached to the ebay-Honkong-"CF-to-IDE adapter" : You can see how I needed to bend down the blue jumper.

[deadhoarse]

7. Bend down the adpater´s jumper, otherwise you´ll run into issues later on

Is the jumper still study on the pins after bending them down?  I have an adapter on the way and was wondering if it would just be safer to solder the pins together.

[Chuck]

I bent mine down, too. It works fine. Soldering it wouldn't be that hard either.

[Arni99]

info-update:
i did a testrecording(16bit 44.1kHz) using internal mics and internal battery and the results are:
disc-full message after 12h48min resulting in 3 files a 3h22min and 1 file a 2h42min.
=>pressing STOP brought me back to the menue in rockbox.

conclusion:
-considerably extended battery life=>battery still at 28% after 12h48min recording
-internal mics: NO disturbing write-to-disk-sounds of the old 1,8" HDD anymore every 2-3min when the buffer gets written to the CF-card
-fast and smooth navigation through the rockbox menue compared to using a HDD
-no vibrations anymore
-using my 8GB 133x speed sandisk extreme III card, the transfer of a 2GB WAV file(3h22min recording) takes exactly 4min 00 seconds using the USB 2.0 cable.
Thats not bad at all....I thought 133x cards would take ages for transferring HAHA.

Overall I´don´t regret having taken this step! It only got better  !

[Ziggz]

Nice instructions Arni, worked like a charm 

Last week my 'new' iHP-120 arrived, with what I suspect is a dodgy hard drive (nice bunch of clicking, trouble copying the rockbox folder over, recording (00000002) errors, etc - formatting made it more stable, but still the 00000002 error). I didn't bother sending it back, as I was planning to do the CF mod. My adapter arrived yesterday, chucked in a cheapie Adata 4gb "speedy" card, and away she goes. Boots up a lot faster, and left it recording for over 3hrs. Works great, and not much battery drain. Will use it at a show next month.

[sullen]

Is there any difference in sound quality?

[Arni99]

Is there any difference in sound quality?

No, why should the soundquality be different?

[Javier Cinakowski]

I personally find my recordings to have less noise.  So yes, better sound quality 

[rokpunk]

Is there any difference in sound quality?

yes. the hard drive no longer rattles.

[GrandMasterMark]

Can anyone tell me how to verify the speed of a CF card? I just bought a 280X 16gb card and it seems slower than I expected.

[Arni99]

Can anyone tell me how to verify the speed of a CF card? I just bought a 280X 16gb card and it seems slower than I expected.

Mine is a sandisk 8GB extreme III CF-card and it´s supposed transferrate is at 20MB/s(133 x speed) read/write.
My tests showed an actual transferrate of 8MB/s=>a 3h22min WAV recording(2GB limit) takes exactly 4minutes transfer-time with USB 2.0.
I´m happy as 4min for 3h22min WAV is not bad at all.

[petur]

make sure the USB port you used isn't 1.1 - some gear (like my dell LCD) have build-in usb hubs that can make you cry: located conveniently on the edge of your screen but awfully slow

Also, if it is USB2, check there aren't too many devices on the hub.

Read reviews on the net about the card and its speed (even better: do that before buying)