The Zishan dsd's corner

[Merlin-PT]

I don't know were to buy this SPDIF cable, so I'm making one.
I made a test with wires and connectors I had here.

EDIT: It's better to use a SPDIF cable made with 1 TRRS 3.5" male plug + 75ohm coaxial cable + 1 male RCA.

 

[Draknodd]

I'm going to buy the zishan but before that I have some questions:

I want to use the zishan 90% of the time as a portable USB dac/amo because there are no portable dac/amp under 100 bucks with such a good DAC and good Power output. So, Is it working with UAPP on android? Can someone confirm It/test It?
Thanks a lot

 

[cobrabucket]

OK, y'all. Just bought a BGVP DM6. And I am thinking about getting a portable set-up going. Question is, would I be better off with a stock Zishan DSD or a Fiio Q1 Mk2 into my phone (LG G5)? Money is tight atm... I plan on running the IEMs balanced. Any rec's for OP amp upgrade in the future if I end up with the Zishan? Or how about balanced MMCX cables? Best bang for your buck, etc.? Many thanks in advance!

 

[alex5908]

Hi there,
Did not get the answers so repeating the questions again.

↑
1. Change the old typewriter font

2. Fix the bug that freezes album art when the screen is off.

3. Increase the size of the displayed art
Is it really possible to increase the font in titles? Like the name of the song and album?
Is it possibke to change over to another song without the screen being lit? I mean the screen is black and with one touch you can go another (previous or new) song?
What is the firmware number?

 

[Themilkman46290]

Hi there,
Did not get the answers so repeating the questions again.

↑
1. Change the old typewriter font

2. Fix the bug that freezes album art when the screen is off.

3. Increase the size of the displayed art
Is it really possible to increase the font in titles? Like the name of the song and album?
Is it possibke to change over to another song without the screen being lit? I mean the screen is black and with one touch you can go another (previous or new) song?
What is the firmware number?

Don't understand the questions, but .
No.
Never happened to me.
No.no. 4h

 

[Merlin-PT]

From what I've seen in Z1, Z2 and from what I've read about the STM32 microcontrollers models used, the firmware is encrypted and can't be modded.
Last firmware available is ZiShan_DSD_0.4H

I also would like to have a screen off buttons fuctions, exactly like the Z1 and Z2 does for skip folder, skip song and volume,
This screen off mode could be turned on/off in the options or by pressing a key combination.

 

[Themilkman46290]

From what I've seen in Z1, Z2 and from what I've read about the STM32 microcontrollers models used, the firmware is encrypted and can't be modded.
Last firmware available is ZiShan_DSD_0.4H

I also would like to have a screen off buttons fuctions, exactly like the Z1 and Z2 does for skip folder, skip song and volume,
This screen off mode could be selected on/off in the options or with some kind of key combinations.

Pretty sure I answered that 2 days ago, if you go to the upper right side of the page, you will see a search bar, type in lock.

 

[Merlin-PT]

Yes, I had read it and it is very useful thanks, but I wanted to skip song, skip folder and change volume with screen OFF.
I suggest a key combination, not to lock the screen, but to change the key functions to the same functions of the Z1/Z2, so we could also use DSD with the screen off.
It's something I wanted, it doesn't work this way.

 

[silverfishla]

I don’t know who actually makes the Zishans, but it would seem like they would want to improve the firmware given the popularity of their product. If only cosmetically, I mean that album art is small.

 

[Themilkman46290]

Well when you guys factor in cost of all the components, case and then add the price of a good team of software techs, research and development, then warehouse fees, we wouldn't be getting such a budget monster, we would be getting something like everyother player in the 2-4 hundred dollar range, think about it, the dac chip alone cost around $45-50

 

[DBaldock9]

From what I've seen in Z1, Z2 and from what I've read about the STM32 microcontrollers models used, the firmware is encrypted and can't be modded.
Last firmware available is ZiShan_DSD_0.4H

I also would like to have a screen off buttons fuctions, exactly like the Z1 and Z2 does for skip folder, skip song and volume,
This screen off mode could be turned on/off in the options or by pressing a key combination.

Is the firmware stored inside the microcontroller, or in an external flash RAM, that could be removed & replaced?

 

[Merlin-PT]

Inside the microcontroller and the firmware is read protected by a flag.
In theory only if someone cracks the HW protection you can read it, but this should not be done for the obvious reasons.

EDIT:
One thing that could be done, is to write a new FW from scratch, but it's a lot of work and requires a lot of knowledge that I don't have.

There's a project from a Russian guy that you may have heard, were he puts an oled screen in a Z1 or Z2, with open source FW he made from scratch.
I've read the google translated Russian and I uploaded his open source FW into a STM32 board (arduinos also use STM32), added a cheap oled screen and very cheap dac.
I tried this and it works, but the open source FW is not finished, music plays, but his code resamples it to a fixed freq.
It's a cheap and fun project to just try what he made, because you will use the I2S bus to connect any cheap DAC.
Don't flash his FW into Z1/Z2, because you can't go back to zishan FW.

Interesting thing, I confirmed that stock Z1 don't resample the audio, my cheap chinese multimeter can read the frequency, so I've read the clock bit rate from the I2S pin that goes to the DAC and it matches all the audio sample rates that I play.

 

[oussama]

hi everybody
any rumors about the 4499 dsd coming in 2019 !!?

 

[musicday]

hi everybody
any rumors about the 4499 dsd coming in 2019 !!?

We would like that as well but there is no such news as yet

 

[DBaldock9]

Inside the microcontroller and the firmware is read protected by a flag.
In theory only if someone cracks the HW protection you can read it, but this should not be done for the obvious reasons.

EDIT:
One thing that could be done, is to write a new FW from scratch, but it's a lot of work and requires a lot of knowledge that I don't have.

There's a project from a Russian guy that you may have heard, were he puts an oled screen in a Z1 or Z2, with open source FW he made from scratch.
I've read the google translated Russian and I uploaded his open source FW into a STM32 board (arduinos also use STM32), added a cheap oled screen and very cheap dac.
I tried this and it works, but the open source FW is not finished, music plays, but his code resamples it to a fixed freq.
It's a cheap and fun project to just try what he made, because you will use the I2S bus to connect any cheap DAC.
Don't flash his FW into Z1/Z2, because you can't go back to zishan FW.

Interesting thing, I confirmed that stock Z1 don't resample the audio, my cheap chinese multimeter can read the frequency, so I've read the clock bit rate from the I2S pin that goes to the DAC and it matches all the audio sample rates that I play.

Does that 16-Pin chip convert the output of the STM32 to I2S?
I would have figured that the STM32 microcontroller could create its own I2S signal.

What is the most common language used for programming the graphical UI for STM32 systems?
Are there libraries of reusable code, that would simplify writing "homebrew" firmware, which could work to interface with the DAC / Analog board of the DSD?