[dashavoo]

I must be unlucky. The rockbox forum has been down the last 3 different times I checked. Once before Xmas, once during, and today.

The rockbox people certainly don't deserve my anger. Its just frustration. The requirements for a blind person's mp3 are so basic that they can be served with 20 year old tech. But there is nothing out there.

Is someone working on an official port for the xduoo? That would be great. I'm guessing vortex has done the bulk of the heavy lifting already?

Unfortunately I am not a programmer. My skills in this regard are very limited.

 
Yes, someone (pamaury) is working on an official port. How much of what can be reused from this one, I've got no idea. There seem to be some technical issues, and also some political issues.
If the rockbox forums continue to go up and down you could try the mailing list or the irc channel (#rockbox on freenode). I got most of this information from the irc channel logs, so there might be more up to date news by now.

 

[Idaho]

Thanks. I will try and get into the forum when it's up and offer my services as a beta tester.

 

[gregsoir]

  This drives me crazy too.  This issue, along with others probably wont get addressed until we get an official port in the works.
Rockbox on Xduoo X3 works pretty well, but understand, your mileage may vary at this point.
I'm going to peek at the code and see if I can add some simple printing of the battery setting to a log, to assure that it is really getting set.
I am suspecting that this issue not that the value does not get set, but maybe what the expected voltage or scale of the  battery is set to in the code (sadc-xduoo_x3.c)?
 
This Xduoo X3 and Rockbox are forcing me to learn how to program for it. Its very difficult for a novice like me  understand and contribute Rockbox, as I only have a basic understanding of C (from my Bash, Perl, PHP, BASIC experience)
 
 
FYI , I've taken my Xduoo X3 apart to see that battery,
My battery is labelled as:
E613773-2000mAh
 
160805 3.7v  7.4 wh
 
 

does the bigger battery get you any better battery life than stock 1500 mah?

 

[masseo1]

Idaho,
 
 
Amaury Pouly seems to be the one that is (or  will be) working on the Official port for the Xduoo X3.  Reading through IRC, I see that a few folks asked him about the status of the port,
He is quite busy with  his current work on the Sony NWZ port.
Hopefully time can be found to work on the X3 port. 
Be patient, as I cant see it happening soon.
Although the Xvortex port works, I think he wants to start from scratch.
If he wanted to use Xvortex's work, the Xvortex code would have been merged into the rockbox repository a long time ago.
 
 

 

[masseo1]

That battery is stock for mine, so I have nothing to compare to.
I had my rockbox set to 1500mah, we'll see by me putting it to 2000mah, as my battery indicates, if it helps.

 

[saratoga]

I must be unlucky. The rockbox forum has been down the last 3 different times I checked. Once before Xmas, once during, and today.
 

 
Forums are up and down at the moment, but should be migrated to a new host eventually.  
 

Is someone working on an official port for the xduoo? That would be great. I'm guessing vortex has done the bulk of the heavy lifting already?
 

 
At the moment, no one is directly working on the X3. If you want to use the voice interface, I recommend buying an old mp3 player like an ipod or sansa that has been around for a long time and has a very stable port.  It will be less frustrating than waiting for a new port to be brought up from scratch.  

 

[Idaho]

Thanks for the info. I had set up a sansa clip previously for my blind friend. He used it for 3 years and now it's died. But they are getting hard to find now. They cost more for a new one than the xduoo! It's crazy.

The sansa is the only supported device that takes sd cards - which makes it the only viable option for blind people who want to listen to audio books (and who don't have the skills to add their own files and add talk files). This is a device that is over ten years old and was pretty retro when it came out.

It's a shame that vortex didn't persist further with his port. But we are beggars so can't be choosers!

 

[saratoga]

The sansa is the only supported device that takes sd cards - which makes it the only viable option for blind people who want to listen to audio books (and who don't have the skills to add their own files and add talk files). This is a device that is over ten years old and was pretty retro when it came out.
 

 
The Clip Zip came out in 2011, and its still quite a bit cheaper than the X3. 

 

[vapman]

I would say the X3 is a much more capable device than the clip

 

[saratoga]

  I would say the X3 is a much more capable device than the clip

 
The two devices actually have very little overlap, since the kind of headphones the X3 is made to drive are almost unusable with the Clip, while for the kind of devices the Clip is made to drive, the lack of analog volume control means that the X3 will not work as well.  I'm not sure how much sense it makes to compare them given the very different purpose, but probably the Clip is the more flexible device at least, since it has analog volume control, several times the battery life and fairly good output over a range of voltages.

 

[vapman]

   
since the kind of headphones the X3 is made to drive are almost unusable with the Clip, while for the kind of devices the Clip is made to drive, the lack of analog volume control means that the X3 will not work as well.  

What kind of devices are you talking about? Does one of the two have an excessively high output impedance? Not sure I believe the Clip and X3 are that polarizing.

 

[saratoga]

  What kind of devices are you talking about? Does one of the two have an excessively high output impedance? Not sure I believe the Clip and X3 are that polarizing.

 
One of the two has a very high output voltage.

 

[masseo1]

  Still not got any response from the creator of this port regarding the voice files. Really frustrating.
 

 
Hey there,
 
I started looking into the reason why this build doesnt have voice capability. It seems that the build Xvortex  compiles, does not include compilation of the voice file.
I have compiled voice capability and tested. It doent work properly. Then menus get read aloud via TTS, then when digging into the menus, the system panics.
I understand now why it was left out of the build. Hopefully I can find out why text to speech crashes upon menu switching.
Maybe creating and reaing talk files might work, however.
'll keep you posted.
 
Thanks,

 

[Idaho]

Hey there,

I started looking into the reason why this build doesnt have voice capability. It seems that the build Xvortex  compiles, does not include compilation of the voice file.
I have compiled voice capability and tested. It doent work properly. Then menus get read aloud via TTS, then when digging into the menus, the system panics.
I understand now why it was left out of the build. Hopefully I can find out why text to speech crashes upon menu switching.
Maybe creating and reaing talk files might work, however.
'll keep you posted.

Thanks,

Sounds great. I can get the x3 to read the talk files for file names. It just crashes after 4 or 5 in a row. I'm guessing that the menu talk files are just absent?

 

[Idaho]

The Clip Zip came out in 2011, and its still quite a bit cheaper than the X3. 

I can't find a clip zip for under £80 ($100usd)!

I take it that the clip jam is a different beast?