[BobSmith8901]

I’m not having much luck with my FiiO and I’m looking for some help.
I keep getting a warning that my memory is low and I have only Installed 2 apps
Hiby music and Spotify. I know memory from sd cards is fine as they are both
Better than half empty.
In Spotify settings I download music in se card 2
Something is not working properly as I can’t dowload more than 300 songs
As it runs out of memory and I suspect it’s flash but am not techie enough to know.
I have reset unit twice and downgraded then upgraded to latest firmware
I have Samsung evil cards that read fine 256 plus 128 and nowhere near full
Can I get someone to walk me through what I’m doing wrong
Thank you
Stewart

You could try clearing the cache in Spotify, might free up some space.

 

[javre76]

"...regular folks should not be doing this...

Are you referring to those who wear a tennis shoe or an occasional python boot???

Those too

 

[xnuthecaveman]

You can use the ES Explorer, browse to the following folders:

/ mnt / internal_sd / FiiOLog;
/ mnt / internal_sd / FiiOMusic / crash;
/ mnt / internal_sd / FiiOMusic / log

 

[Croptop]

Mine wasn't showing any signs up until immediately following the last FW update and then it swelled so much and so quickly that I looked away for a few minutes and when I looked back instead of normal, half the back was dislodged. I immediately pried the top free to ease the pressure, as I was afraid the back plate itself would warp or snap.

In any event, the disassembly was basically just the two pentalobe screws at the bottom: the expanding battery did much of the work of detaching the back without much need for a spudger or a credit card. Once you get the back off, it's just a single philips-head screw to remove the plate that holds the battery connector to the board. Then comes the toughest part: separating the battery from the mesh tape and especially the back of the unit. I strongly suggest you do this in the great outdoors if at all possible: it's almost impossible to free the thing without tearing the battery pack and venting the gases. Use MUCH care and perhaps an old credit card or spudging tool to free the adhesive. I'm still awaiting the replacement battery, but it has been shipped at this point so it's only a matter of time. You CAN power it on if attached to a power supply without the battery but be warned: (if you're using it) the replacement kernel seems to not like that situation at all and causes the unit to freeze within a minute of booting in that condition. Just to ensure things were functioning properly, I wound up using the official firmware tool, upgraded back to the latest stock FW and reinstalled TWRP and root afterwards.

I'm sure it's just a coincidence but my X5III has been fine since I got it in March of 2017 and I just upgraded the FW from 1.2.1 to 1.2.3 yesterday and that's when I noticed the back was starting to bow out.

I've reached out to Fiio via their support email but your experience makes me think I should PM Fiio here as well.

Thanks for the disassembly tips. Much appreciated. I have been on the fence about ordering a Hiby R6 to replace my X5III (for no other reason than I'd like a new toy) but this battery swelling was enough to convince me to pull the trigger on one. If I can't get a replacement battery for my Fiio, I'll just permanently install in my Fiio dock at work and I'll have the Hiby for portable use I guess.

 

[ElKabong]

Booted up the x5iii this morning and it shut down immediately, rinse and repeat, same thing, i'll most likely have to try and reflash everything and see what gives.

 

[ghosthost]

I'm sure it's just a coincidence but my X5III has been fine since I got it in March of 2017 and I just upgraded the FW from 1.2.1 to 1.2.3 yesterday and that's when I noticed the back was starting to bow out.

I've reached out to Fiio via their support email but your experience makes me think I should PM Fiio here as well.

Thanks for the disassembly tips. Much appreciated. I have been on the fence about ordering a Hiby R6 to replace my X5III (for no other reason than I'd like a new toy) but this battery swelling was enough to convince me to pull the trigger on one. If I can't get a replacement battery for my Fiio, I'll just permanently install in my Fiio dock at work and I'll have the Hiby for portable use I guess.

Coincidence? Maybe... but I had already considered that the timing was a little odd coming immediately after the firmware upgrade. Having heard someone else chime in with a "me too" (and while I haven't been slavishly following EVERY post in this thread, I'm pretty sure I hadn't heard this issue before...) gets me more than a little suspicious. I'm sure the replacement battery will be easy enough to get once you get FiiO's attention. They offered me the option of shipping the unit to China for repair or doing the repair myself. Considering they charged me $20 SHIPPED for the replacement battery and the procedure is fairly simple, I'm more than happy with the arrangement (pending the successful conclusion, of course).

 

[WitzyZed]

To those being suspicious of a firmware update...

Would you suspect your doctor causes cancer?

No.

You took note of your device because of a firmware update (a checkup) and noticed a symptom you ignored up until that point.

 

[jkbuha]

Let me weigh in here on battery-gate.

With the latest firmware (1.2.3) FiiO hasn't really made any material changes to either the kernel or the OS. The majority of changes relate to sound and how the FiiO player works with music. Thus there havent really been any hardware-affecting changes with the latest firmware. So no MAX-esque scenarios here.

What *could* be the case however is a poor battery component that over time has deteriorated to the point that the passive component (the lithium part) decomposes into a bulkier compound, and with every charging cycle the charge voltage serves to accelerate the decomposition. I've noticed that the default charging voltage was set a bit too high for my liking (in fact I had raised that here a few pages back) but have always held back from lowering it. The CPU (and GPU, and DDR) will always run at a lower voltage than the original firmware with my custom kernel. If there is an increasing demand to lower charging voltage as well, I'll include this in the next kernel version. It will take slightly longer to charge, but the battery lifetime will be longer as well due to reduced charging stress.

 

[ghosthost]

To those being suspicious of a firmware update...

Would you suspect your doctor causes cancer?

No.

You took note of your device because of a firmware update (a checkup) and noticed a symptom you ignored up until that point.

ABSOLUTELY INCORRECT (in my case).

My x5III showed utterly NO signs of battery damage prior to the occurrence. Which I've said on more than one occasion.
To be clear and specific: I had been using the x5 just prior to the firmware update. I was holding it IN MY HAND and, before you ASSUME: without so much as a case covering the unit.

Having said that, let me stress that while I DO find the timing of both of these documented battery issues suspicious, I do NOT feel like the firmware itself is responsible. More likely, the demands of the update process itself may have taken the final toll on what may have been, in jkbuha's words, poor battery components... i.e. lower-quality samples or simply batteries that have been exposed to too many recharging cycles given the overall quality of the product. A lower charging voltage, as jkbuha suggests, may alleviate this sort of problem in the future... food for thought, however: is the x5III continuing to subject its battery to recharging cycles when the battery is fully charged and the unit is plugged in, or is it behaving like a well-designed modern product that halts the charging cycles when the battery reports 100%? Is there any way to determine this?

 

[WitzyZed]

I've had to do so many firmware updates and uses of the firmware upgrade tool, my battery ought to have ballooned at this point. Your battery would have done what it was going to do regardless of the firmware update process.

 

[ghosthost]

I've had to do so many firmware updates and uses of the firmware upgrade tool, my battery ought to have ballooned at this point. Your battery would have done what it was going to do regardless of the firmware update process.

Which I absolutely AGREE with. If you read my response carefully you'd note that I'm thinking that there may have been some bad batteries in the batch that might be more susceptible to such things.

 

[jkbuha]

ABSOLUTELY INCORRECT (in my case).


Having said that, let me stress that while I DO find the timing of both of these documented battery issues suspicious, I do NOT feel like the firmware itself is responsible. More likely, the demands of the update process itself may have taken the final toll on what may have been, in jkbuha's words, poor battery components... i.e. lower-quality samples or simply batteries that have been exposed to too many recharging cycles given the overall quality of the product. A lower charging voltage, as jkbuha suggests, may alleviate this sort of problem in the future... food for thought, however: is the x5III continuing to subject its battery to recharging cycles when the battery is fully charged and the unit is plugged in, or is it behaving like a well-designed modern product that halts the charging cycles when the battery reports 100%? Is there any way to determine this?

That's a good question. The quick answer is that adaptive charging is not fully enabled on the X5, at least as far as I can see.

The X5iii's charging circuit (at least as far as you can derive from the source code, I've not opened the player yet) is based on the BQ25890. Specs here: http://www.ti.com/product/BQ25890
This chipset supports adaptive but the OS (and kernel) will need to support this. Android 5.1.1 provides basic support, but the kernel code to complement the charging cycles isn't particularly sophisticated, and will likely take a long time to do properly. The best I can do in the meantime is lower the charging voltage, until I figure out a way to do this properly.

Quick question to anyone who's taken apart the player - can someone please report back the exact part number of the battery?

 

[ghosthost]

That's a good question. The quick answer is that adaptive charging is not fully enabled on the X5, at least as far as I can see.

The X5iii's charging circuit (at least as far as you can derive from the source code, I've not opened the player yet) is based on the BQ25890. Specs here: http://www.ti.com/product/BQ25890
This chipset supports adaptive but the OS (and kernel) will need to support this. Android 5.1.1 provides basic support, but the kernel code to complement the charging cycles isn't particularly sophisticated, and will likely take a long time to do properly. The best I can do in the meantime is lower the charging voltage, until I figure out a way to do this properly.

Quick question to anyone who's taken apart the player - can someone please report back the exact part number of the battery?

Yeah. I knew it... and thus all these wonderful docks FiiO makes can't exactly be doing great things for the batteries, either. As to the part number... well, there was some info including the voltage on the side that faced the back panel, but the ink seems to have mostly come off with the adhesive. There is an intact (if barely legible) barcode on the opposite side which I can attempt to decipher. Otherwise, I'll need to see what's printed on the replacement battery when it arrives.

While I have your attention (and just to settle my curiosity): is there anything in your kernel (or, more likely, the boot-time scripts) that might cause the unit to freeze without a detected battery in the unit?

 

[jkbuha]

While I have your attention (and just to settle my curiosity): is there anything in your kernel (or, more likely, the boot-time scripts) that might cause the unit to freeze without a detected battery in the unit?

Yes, and it's actually quite simple. Besides power, a battery also provides voltage (and current) regulation for the circuitry, ensuring the supply remains constant. A direct USB cable highly depends on its impedance and power source (DC power, Laptop port etc), and fluctuates highly over time as there is no regulation circuitry, which is why direct USB cables are highly erratic from a voltage and current supply perspective. Try plugging in a USB power meter in between the cable and the plug, and you'll see how much it varies.

With any cable/power combo you're using, the voltage provided to the FiiO will vary, ie: either slightly higher (or lower) than what the max clock speed (1752MHz) is happy with, hence the reboots without the battery in place. The battery provides adequate current and voltage regulation to the circuitry, hence more stable power flow. Conversely, it's also likely that with a different cable/power combo you'll be able to run the player at even higher clock speeds, but I wouldn't advise it

 

[west0ne]

Yes, and it's actually quite simple. Besides power, a battery also provides voltage (and current) regulation for the circuitry, ensuring the supply remains constant. A direct USB cable highly depends on its impedance and power source (DC power, Laptop port etc), and fluctuates highly over time as there is no regulation circuitry, which is why direct USB cables are highly erratic from a voltage and current supply perspective. Try plugging in a USB power meter in between the cable and the plug, and you'll see how much it varies.

With any cable/power combo you're using, the voltage provided to the FiiO will vary, ie: either slightly higher (or lower) than what the max clock speed (1752MHz) is happy with, hence the reboots without the battery in place. The battery provides adequate current and voltage regulation to the circuitry, hence more stable power flow. Conversely, it's also likely that with a different cable/power combo you'll be able to run the player at even higher clock speeds, but I wouldn't advise it

Are there no capacitors in the circuit to smooth the voltage/current from the USB supply to electronic circuitry?