can i install more memory in an mk2a? and what benefits will i have?

also how do i check the harddrives for errors?

could be nice if hijack had this feature biult in... maybe also an option to control a cooling fan..

If I remember rightly Hijack already does have support for controlling a fan.

nice... maybe setings for high and low temps and the fan to be run a the lowest speed that meets these settings? like in most motherboards today you define a high and low and the MB just vary the speed of the fan so that the temp is within these temps

i think asus call it fanq or is it faneq

But if i install a fan and it should be controlled from hijack, is there an install guide? i found another guide (http://users.pandora.be/miata/english/empeg/empeg_fan_installation.htm) but this one is not to control from hijack

BTW.. by harddrive check i mean a check for bad sectors and so on

Somewhere here is a thread (or two) on adding a fan control circuit to the empeg, using a tiny add-on circuit board. Hijack has high/low thermostat parameters for controlling it, in the config.ini file.

It is time for you to practice some search fu. I usually don't have much luck with the built-in BBS search, though others here do obtain excellent results with it. But "google empegbbs xxxx" works much of time for me.


That's something which is not possible for end-users on most consumer devices. So with one hat on, I'll say forget about it.

But if you are technically competent, then note that the empeg does run Linux under the hood. And a nice thing about Linux, is that it's the same kernel with the same (minimum) features, regardless of machine type or size.

So.. whatever works for a Desktop PC or mainframe, will also work for an empeg.

The simplest way to check for bad sectors, is to just connect to the empeg over serial, hit control^C, and then do cat /dev/hd* > /dev/null.

Go away for a few hours while it runs, and watch the serial session for hard drive error messages.

Or move up a step from that, and use the Linux smartctl command to access the S.M.A.R.T. diagnostics of the drive(s). Again, search fu should turn up a binary for it elsewhere on this BBS.

Cheers

Yup, just tried it again now. At www.google.ca I used the keywords empegbbs fan controller and scored big-time.

Cheers

FWIW, Google has a feature where you can restrict your search to a particular site like this: "site:empegbbs.com fan controller".

And, again, keep in mind that if you want to search for multiple words with the BBS's search, you have to prefix them all with plusses, so "+fan +controller"

Question: Is your empeg actually overheating?

i think it is.. when cool i get no error's but here in the summer with the sun and all it get very wierd errors

if i then let the player cool of then no problems at all

that's why i want to check the drives for errors first

Bad soldering on the IDE header which is going weird when its hot?

no... the problem is that my unit is located right under the surface of the dash (black colour) so it gets very hot in the summer... to make things worse the heating ducts are located right under it

I goggled for an install of extra RAM, but i did not find any guide... can it at all be done on a mk2a?

Here's the link to the fan thread.

For the memory installation guide, please go to our website. A member of this BBS put it together with our assistance and asked for us to host it. Forgive me but his name escapes me at the moment, but it is a great resource. It explains in a good bit of detail how to install memory in an MK2A.

Hope this helps,
Stu

i got the link to the fan thing... only need the small board and a slim fan....

for the extra RAM i think the best option is a 64MB memory daughter board

and what could rock my world: a total dead unit for spare parts

I think that experiences here thus far, have shown that the stacked chips method for RAM upgrades seems to be the best bet. It is less intrusive/destructive, and a Mk2a upgrade to 32MB of RAM requires only two added chips and a single jumper wire.

The player software seems to run somewhat less optimally when more than 32MB of RAM is made available to it -- the read-ahead scheme was designed for much less than that, and it tends to block out the display/controls while buffering tunes into RAM.

Cheers

ok.. does any know where to get hold of the small board for the cooling fan?

I'd call it two wires really. This is how I did it:
http://empegbbs.com/files/215660-EmpegRAMUpgrade.jpg

who made the small board for controlling the cooling fan through hijack?

Did you actually read the threads returned from a search for "fan controller" ? All the information about who made the controller boards is there.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=site%3Aempegbbs.com%20fan%20controller&btnG=Search

doh.. i did but did not find an e-mail.. until now

benjammin's mail was at the footer on his page.. noe i feel like an idiot

>>The simplest way to check for bad sectors, is to just connect >>to the empeg over serial, hit control^C, and then do >>cat /dev/hd* > /dev/null.

>>Go away for a few hours while it runs, and watch the serial >>session for hard drive error messages.

i did it like this

1. open hyberterminal with correct setting
2. connect the player over serial
3. connect power and the player boots and start playing
4. power off the unit so that only the LED in the right corner flashes slow
5. hit control^C
6. the player boots and goes off
7. cat /dev/hd* > /dev/null
8. the player boots and starts playing... but no output to hyberterminal/serial

is this normal?

it was a good guide.... but where can i get the chips if located in the EU?

No. Either you have done something not quite correctly, or something weird happened.

The *only* way to know, is for *you* to (1) use something better than viperhemeroid (sorry, hyperterminal), eg. putty, and then post a full session log of your actions/results here.

Anything other than that, and I'm really not interested.

Cheers

empeg-car bootstrap v1.02 20001106 (hugo@empeg.com)
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux..................................... done, booting the kernel.
Linux version 2.2.17-rmk5-np17-empeg52-hijack-v481 (hijack@rtr.ca) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #2 Fri Feb 1 21:20:17 EST 2008
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
Checking for extra DRAM:
c1000000: wrote ffffffff, read e28cc001
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 30102286) 16MB DRAM
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15000k/16M available (992k code, 20k reserved, 368k data, 4k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 20706d65 'emp '
Found custom animation at offset 0x9a38c
Tuner: loopback=0, ID=-1
show_message("Hijack v481 by Mark Lord")
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0004a80).
empeg RDS driver initialised
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0x0080
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x0080
hdb: ST9808211A, ATA DISK drive
ide_data_test: wrote 0x0000 read 0x0000
ide_data_test: wrote 0xffff read 0xffff
ide_data_test: wrote 0xaaaa read 0xaaaa
ide_data_test: wrote 0x5555 read 0x5555
hda: IBM-DJSA-220, ATA DISK drive
hdb: ST9808211A, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: IBM-DJSA-220, 19077MB w/1874kB Cache, CHS=38760/16/63
hdb: ST9808211A, 76319MB w/8192kB Cache, CHS=9729/255/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman (erik@vt.edu)

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:26:08:ee
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
hdb: hdb1 < hdb5 hdb6 > hdb2 hdb3 hdb4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
change_root: old root has d_count=1
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 4k initTimezone: Atlantic/South_Georgia
Hijack: intercepting config.ini

hijack: removed menu entry: "Hard Disk Detection"
hijack: removed menu entry: "Serial Port Assignment"
khttpd: listening on port 80
kftpd: listening on port 21
player.cpp : 385:empeg-car 2.01 2004/07/06.
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Jul 5 2004
Vcb: 0x4086d000
Player received SIGINT, user interruption
Switching to shell-player loop
Starting bash.
no shell!
Shell exit
Timezone: Atlantic/South_Georgia
Hijack: intercepting config.ini

player.cpp : 385:empeg-car 2.01 2004/07/06.
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Jul 5 2004
Vcb: 0x4086d000
cat /dev/hd* > /dev/null

The problem seems to be that you have a consumer version, not developer version, so you won't get a shell which is needed for the commands you were given. If you install the developer version, you should be able to run the commands.

Stig

should i go for v2.01-final or v3.00-alpha11 ?

That's a good question, which doesn't actually seem to be in the FAQ, at least not in that pithy a form. You need v3alpha11 if you want support for Vorbis or FLAC files, or for Unicode characters beyond Latin-1 (e.g. Greek or Cyrillic). And possibly for proper gapless MP3 playback too (it's a long time ago, I don't remember how well that worked in v2).

If you don't need any of those features, you might be better off with v2.01, as there have been reports of problems with v3alpha11. On the other hand, some people do use v3alpha11 every day without issues. (Really, alpha 10 should have been called "beta 1" and alpha 11 "beta 2".)

Peter

empeg-car bootstrap v1.02 20001106 (hugo@empeg.com)
If there is anyone present who wants to upgrade the flash, let them speak now,
or forever hold their peace...it seems not. Let fly the Penguins of Linux!

e000 v1.04
Copying kernel...
Calling linux kernel...
Uncompressing Linux..................................... done, booting the kernel.
Linux version 2.2.14-rmk5-np17-empeg55 (peter@tatu) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (release)) #20 Tue Jul 6 15:36:06 BST 2004
Processor: Intel StrongARM-1100 revision 11
Checking for extra DRAM:
c1000000: wrote ffffffff, read 9afffff0
NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.94.1 (c) 1998 Corel Computer Corp.
empeg-car player (hardware revision 9, serial number 30102286)
Command line: mem=16m
Calibrating delay loop... 207.67 BogoMIPS
Memory: 15024k/16M available (964k code, 20k reserved, 372k data, 4k init)
Dentry hash table entries: 2048 (order 2, 16k)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order 4, 64k)
Page cache hash table entries: 4096 (order 2, 16k)
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.2
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP
TCP: Hash tables configured (ehash 16384 bhash 16384)
IrDA (tm) Protocols for Linux-2.2 (Dag Brattli)
Linux-IrDA: IrCOMM protocol ( revision:Tue May 18 03:11:39 1999 )
ircomm_tty: virtual tty driver for IrCOMM ( revision:Wed May 26 00:49:11 1999 )
Starting kswapd v 1.5
SA1100 serial driver version 4.27 with no serial options enabled
ttyS00 at 0xf8010000 (irq = 15) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS01 at 0xf8050000 (irq = 17) is a SA1100 UART
ttyS02 at 0xf8030000 (irq = 16) is a SA1100 UART
Signature is 20706d65 'emp '
empeg display initialised.
empeg dsp audio initialised
empeg dsp mixer initialised
empeg dsp initialised
empeg audio-in initialised, CS4231A revision a0
empeg remote control/panel button initialised.
empeg usb initialised, PDIUSBD12 id 1012
empeg state support initialised 0089/88c1 (save to d0004c00).
empeg RDS driver initialised
empeg power-pic driver initialised (first boot)
RAM disk driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size
empeg single channel IDE
Probing primary interface...
hda: IBM-DJSA-220, ATA DISK drive
hdb: ST9808211A, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x000-0x007,0x038 on irq 6
hda: IBM-DJSA-220, 19077MB w/1874kB Cache, CHS=38760/16/63
hdb: ST9808211A, 76319MB w/8192kB Cache, CHS=9729/255/63
empeg-flash driver initialized
smc chip id/revision 0x3349
smc9194.c:v0.12 03/06/96 by Erik Stahlman (erik@vt.edu)

SMC9194: SMC91C94(r:9) at 0x4008000 IRQ:7 INTF:TP MEM:6144b MAC 00:02:d7:26:08:ee
Partition check:
hda: hda1 < hda5 hda6 > hda2 hda3 hda4
hdb: hdb1 < hdb5 hdb6 > hdb2 hdb3 hdb4
RAMDISK: ext2 filesystem found at block 0
RAMDISK: Loading 320 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk... done.
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
empeg-pump v0.03 (19980601)
Press Ctrl-A to enter pump...VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
change_root: old root has d_count=1
Trying to unmount old root ... okay
Freeing unused kernel memory: 4k initempeg init 0.8
I see this is a developer image!
Mounting proc
Mounting first music partition
Tried to mount /dev/hda4 as reiserfs but got error 19
Mounting second music partition
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
Press 'q' now to go into development mode. You Have Zero Seconds To Comply...
Starting player
player.cpp : 385:empeg-car 2.01 2004/07/06.
Prolux 4 empeg car - 2.1434 Jul 5 2004
Vcb: 0x4086d000
Restored terminal settings
Remounting first music partition read-only
Remounting second music partition read-only
Abnormal player termination
Player received SIGINT, user interruption
Switching to shell-player loop
Starting bash.
empeg:/empeg/bin# /dev/hd* > /dev/null
bash: /dev/hda: Permission denied
empeg:/empeg/bin#

doh.. forgot the magic word cat

but should there be some output to the serial during the "diskcheck"?

You mean during the "cat /dev/hd* > /dev/null" ? There will only be output if there are errors.

thanks... but yes cat /dev/hd* > /dev/null

just have to be patient then