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+Q1: Are my batteries charged all the time when connected to my Player/Recorder?
+A1: Player: the charging is all done by hardware and the exact
+    functionality is hard to determine. It is however not recommended to keep
+    the charger connected for more than 10-15 hours if you're not using the
+    unit.
+
+    Recorder: no. The charging algorithm is carefully crafted in to not wear
+    out the batteries any more than necessary. If you're using your unit
+    connected to the charger most of the time, use the 'deep discharge' option
+    to save your batteries somewhat.
+
+Q2: Will keeping my charger connected a long time damage my batteries? Can I
+    leave it over night?
+A2: The charger logic lets the batteries charge until they are full. After
+    that, the charger is disabled, but the device will stay powered on and
+    continue to consume some power from the batteries (the hardware does
+    not allow running from the charger without charging batteries, or
+    powering off with the charger connected). After some time, it will
+    start charging the batteries again to keep them full. This will
+    wear the batteries a little, but overnight charging is what most
+    people do.
+    
+    As the Battery FAQ at http://www.greenbatteries.com/ puts it:
+    "A NiMH battery can be charged and discharged hundreds of times,
+    but whether that means 200 times or 800 times has a lot to do
+    with how (you use it)".
+
+Q3: Does Rockbox charge the batteries more/less/worse/better than the Archos
+    firmware?
+A3: Player: Rockbox doesn't affect the charging on Players, it is all done
+    by hardware logic out of software control.
+
+    Recorder: The current release of 1.2 is much worse than the Archos
+    charger, it tends to stop charging much too early and leave the batteries
+    half empty.
+
+    The current development code (CVS daily builds as of 20.8.2002) is much
+    better than the 1.2 release, but still not perfect. Linus recently
+    measured 6 hours continuous playtime after a rockbox charge, and much
+    over 7 hours after an Archos charge. We are working on fine-tuning
+    the charger logic to get the most out of the batteries, but the
+    emphasis is on not overcharging them, since that would damage the
+    batteries. Better be safe than sorry.
+
+Q4: What kind of batteries are there in my factory default Player/Recorder?
+A4: Both ship with 1500 mAh NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) batteries.
+
+Q5: Is it hard to change the batteries? Does it void my warranty?
+A5: The archos manual and web site describe how to replace the batteries,
+    so you're supposed to do it. They recommend using only Archos-supplied
+    batteries, but my Recorder 20 unit only shipped with one set. Some
+    units have been shipped with two sets of batteries. Someone actually had
+    Archos send him new batteries free of charge after they had weared out,
+    under the warranty. (have asked from support-technique@archos.com,
+    waiting for an answer to arrive!)
+
+Q6: How much do replacement batteries cost? Where can I buy them?
+A6: http://www.greenbatteries.com sells 1800 mAh NiMH cells at $3.25USD each,
+    and I bought 4 of the same GP batteries for 20 euros in an home
+    electronics & household appliance store in Finland.  NiMH batteries are
+    sold in almost all shops that sell consumer electronics, and in many
+    online shops. Browse around.
+
+Q7: What kind of run-time can I expect on a set of fully-charged batteries
+    when running Rockbox?
+A7: For the stock 1500 mAh cells, from 6 hours to 8 hours, depending on
+    which charger was used (see Q3). It depends a lot on the condition of
+    the batteries. We are looking into implementing more battery-saving
+    techniques in rockbox to make it rock longer.
+
+Q8: Can I use different batteries in my Archos?
+A8: Only use NiMH-type rechargeable batteries. It is considered to be safe
+    to use NiMH batteries of different capacities though, a lot of people
+    have purchaced 1700 or 1800 mAh batteries to replace the stock 1500 mAh
+    cells and have the device run a bit longer.
+
+Q9: Can I use non-chargeable batteries in my Archos?
+A9: This is not recommended. The unit has been designed to operate with
+    four 1.2V batteries producing about 4.8V at most, and using 1.5V
+    alkaline/zinc carbon batteries will produce around 6.0V, which will
+    heat up the unit a lot more and might even damage it. The Archos
+    manual explicitly tells you not to do so.
+
+Q10: Can I use a different charger?
+A10: People have successfully used different chargers with similar
+     specifications as the stock charger. The charger must have the
+     same kind of connector with same polarity (center positive/+).
+     The charger should supply at least 7-8 volts, and if it provides
+     more than 9V, it probably should be current limited (do not
+     directly plug it in your 12V car battery or it's charger!).
+     
+     Using lower charging voltage will slow down the charging, and using
+     higher voltage will cause a higher charging current, more heat,
+     and too much heat and current can damage the batteries or the unit.
+     Using a different charger will void your warranty and can be
+     dangerous to your unit, so we can not recommend it.
+     
+     Many people are happy using an external quick charger which
+     is specified to work with NiMH batteries.
+
+Q11: Can I buy a replacement charger exactly as the one Archos shipped?
+A11: The FAQ on the Archos web site and the top of the charger both read:
+
+      Output: 9VDC 600mA
+      Center positive (+) polarity
+      
+     Chargers with similar (or user-adjustable) properties are available
+     at shops selling consumer electronics.
+
+
+Q12: I often need to stop my player for about 15 minutes or so, and when I do
+     it runs off it's batteries.  I was wondering, which is best: shutting the
+     player down completely and rebooting it when I want to listen again, or 
+     leaving the unit on?  Which way does it draw more power?
+A12: In our testing we found the following results:
+         HDD off, LED off, idle 94 mA
+         HDD off, LED off, play 97 mA
+         HDD off, LED on, idle 129 mA
+         HDD off, LED on, play 131 mA
+         HDD on, LED on, play 230 mA
+         HD on, reading, LED off ~ 600 mA
+         HD spin up before read max 800 mA
+    
+     So leaving the unit on and paused consumes ~100mA, and thus much less then
+     needing to reboot the unit.  Your mileage may vary.
+

docs/FAQ

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+Q1. What is a FAQ?
+A1. A rare small animal of the species 'Textius Electronicus'. It is known for
+    its helpful attitude and vicious misspellings.
+
+Q2. Okay, fine, what is _this_ FAQ?
+A2. This FAQ is for questions (that we have answers too) that have been asked
+    repeatedly either in emails or on IRC.
+
+Q3. What is Rockbox?  What is it's purpose?
+A3. The purpose of this project is to write an Open Source replacement 
+    firmware for the Archos Jukebox 6000, Studio 20 and Recorder MP3 players.
+
+Q4. I want to write code for my Archos, how do I proceed?
+A4. First make sure to read the file CONTRIBUTING in the firmware directory
+    on Sourceforge.  See http://rockbox.haxx.se/firmware/CONTRIBUTING
+    if you do not want to have to wade through the CVS directories.
+
+Q5: Whats CVS?
+A5: Concurrent Versions System (http://www.cvshome.org).  We have a small
+    help page about how to use this to get, update and commit files on the web
+    at http://rockbox.haxx.se/cvs.html
+
+Q6. What exactly is the CONTRIBUTING file? 
+A6. Just like the name implies, it lists conventions that the project follows, 
+    and in turn asks you to follow, for the formating of source code in
+    general.
+
+Q7. Okay, so I read CONTRIBUTING and although I don't agree with all your 
+    conventions, I am going to be sensible and follow them anyway.  Now what?
+A7. Start by reading up on the information about the jukeboxes on our web page.
+    Then go into CVS and look at the code we've written. Then take what you
+    need and start writing.
+
+Q8. Okay, so how do I submit a patch?
+A8. Run: "diff -u oldfile newfile > patchfile" against the file(s) you have 
+    changed.  Then mail the output to any member of the development team and 
+    we will take it under consideration.  (Please remember that all 
+    submissions are not automatically accepted, this is nothing personal.)
+
+    Of if you would like to run the diff against the current cvs code:
+        cvs diff -ub [file(s)]
+
+Q9. I want to join the development team, but don't have a SourceForge account,
+    what should I do?
+A9. Head on over to http://sourceforge.net/account/register.php and create an
+    account for yourself.
+
+Q10. Do you have a mailing list?
+A10. Sure do!  As a matter of fact, we have several of them for specific 
+    things.  Please check out: http://rockbox.haxx.se/mail/
+
+Q11. Great you have a mailing list!  Is there anyway for me to catch up on
+     past posts?
+A11. Check out the archives at: http://rockbox.haxx.se/mail.cgi
+
+Q12. How can I meet the developers working on the project?
+A12. One way is by visiting us on IRC.  Head on over to the server
+     irc.openprojects.net, and then join "#rockbox".  There is usually at 
+     least one person there.  If you don't see any activity, feel free to post 
+     questions anyway, serveral of us log the channel and will get you answers
+     when we unidle.
+
+Q13: Wow, you guys talk on IRC alot?  I wish I had been around for those 
+     conversations to see what happened.
+A13: We are glad you mentioned that!  http://rockbox.haxx.se/irc happens
+     to have a list of various logs we have recorded of events in the channel.
+     Feel free to read up, and ask questions on what you find.
+
+Q14. What is this "SourceForge" you keep mentioning?
+A14. http://www.sourceforge.net
+
+Q15. Can the changes or the software that Rockbox suggests or offers 
+     possibly damage my Archos Player?
+A15. All firmware mods that are presented are still highly experimental. 
+     Try them at your own risk. We offer no guarantee that this software, or 
+     the hardware modifications we show, will not damage your player or void 
+     your warranty.  That said, we have not been able to damage any of our 
+     units by modifying only the firmware. You can accidentally password 
+     protect your harddisk, but there are ways around that. (See below.)
+
+Q16. I want to see what the inside of my player looks like, but I would really
+     like to avoid voiding my warranty.  Is there anything you can suggest?
+A16. We have a collection of photos of both the player and recorder. Look at
+     http://rockbox.haxx.se/internals/
+
+Q17. What exactly are you trying to achieve with this line of development?
+     (A.K.A. whats your purpose for being here?)
+A17. Firstly, we wouldn't start something like this if we didn't simply enjoy
+     it profusely. This is great fun!
+     Secondly, we feel the firmware is lacking some features and contain a
+     number of annoying bugs that we want to fix.
+     Some ideas would include (in no particular order):
+              - No pause between songs 
+              - Mid-song resume 
+              - Mid-playlist resume 
+              - No-scan playlists 
+              - Unlimited playlist size 
+              - Autobuild playlists (ie: "all songs in this directory tree") 
+              - Auto-continue play in the next directory 
+              - Current folder and all sub-folder random play 
+              - Full disk random play 
+              - REAL random
+              - Multi song queue
+       	      - Faster scroll speed 
+              - More cool features with the wire remote control (including 
+                controlling your Archos from your car radio (req hw mod))
+              - Support playing of other files types (ie: Ogg Vorbis support)
+              - Support for megabass switch (req hw mod) 
+              - Player control via USB
+              - Memory expansion?
+     Note: Just because something is on this list, does not mean that it is
+           technically feasible. (But hey we can dream)  And something not
+           being on the list does not mean it isn't a neat idea.  Bring it to 
+           the list.
+
+Q18. I don't see you mentioning other file types on your list of ideas.  What 
+     about supporting those?
+A18. Pessimist's Answer: At the current time we belive this is not very likely 
+     The Micronas chip (MAS3507) decoder in the archos does not natively 
+     support decoding and there is very little program space in the player to 
+     implement it ourselves.  The alternative would be to write a software 
+     decoder as part of the RockBox firmware.  However, as much as we love 
+     our players, the computing power of the Archos (SH1 microcontroller) is 
+     not fully sufficent for this need.
+
+     Optimist's Answer: We can play any format if only we can write code for 
+     the DSP to decode it.  The MAS 3507 (and 3587) are generic DSPs that 
+     simply have MP3 codecs in ROM. We can download new codecs in them and 
+     we will be the first to celebrate if we can get OGG or FLAC or anything 
+     into these DSPs. Unfortunately, we have no docs or tools for writing new 
+     MAS DSP code and Intermetall is very secretive about it.  If anyone can 
+     help, please get in touch!
+
+
+Q19. What about supporting playing of WMA files?
+A19. Dear Mr. Gates, you have two options.  Re-read question #17, or go buy 
+     your own project.
+
+Q20. When do you think there will be a version available for my Archos?
+A20. We recently released version 1.2, so head on over to 
+     http://rockbox.haxx.se/download.html and pull it down.
+     Make sure to read the release notes.
+     (http://rockbox.haxx.se/download/rockbox-1.2-notes.txt).  
+
+Q21. What do you plan to add to coming versions?
+A21. We have a rough idea of which features we plan/expect/hope to be included
+     in which versions.  Once again, remember that none of this is written in 
+     stone (noticing a pattern yet?) 
+
+     Version 1.3 
+         Persistent settings for Player, UI improvements
+
+     Version 1.4
+         Recording?
+
+Q22. I tried one of your firmware files and now I can't access my harddisk!
+     When I turn on my jukebox, it says:
+                     Part. Error
+                     Pls Chck HD
+A22. Your harddisk has been password protected. We're not 100% sure why it
+     happens, but you can unlock it yourself. Look at:
+     http://rockbox.haxx.se/lock.html
+
+Q23: This FAQ doesn't answer the question I have.  What should I do?
+A23: You have a couple options here.  You could forget the question, find an
+     easier question, or accept '42' as the answer no matter what.  We don't 
+     really recommend any of these (though I do opt for '42' often myself).
+     What we do recommend is stopping by IRC, reading 
+     http://rockbox.haxx.se to see if the question was answered else 
+     where and just not included here, or ultimatly dropping an email to the 
+     mailing list (rockbox@cool.haxx.se) or the FAQ maintainer listed on the 
+     project homepage.
+
+Q24: Are there other ways to contact the developers?
+A24: Yes.
+
+Q25: Are you going to tell us what they are?
+A25: No.  Post to the mailing list and we will get back to you.
+
+Q26: But I _really_ want to talk with you in person.
+A26: I'm sorry.  My girlfriend/boyfriend/pet says I'm not allowed to, and the
+     doctors here won't let me have pens or pencils.  They say its some rule
+     about us not having sharp objects.  I'm sorry.  Now please stop calling me
+     here.
+
+Q27: Will you ever port Quake II to the Archos?
+A27: If you ask that again, I'm sending your address and phone number to the 
+     guy that mailed us with question #23.
+
+Q28: Umm, was that sarcasm?
+A28: That's it, I'm mailing him now.
+
+Q29: Is this legal? I mean, I'd just hate to see something like that 
+     challenged under the DMCA in all its ridiculousness. Any thoughts or 
+     ideas?
+A29: We believe we are in the green on this.  We are not violating anyone's
+     copyright and we are not circumventing any copy protection scheme.
+     This has been a big point for the project since its inception.  Some 
+     people wanted us to distribute patched versions of the original firmware,
+     but seeing as that _would_ have violated Archos' copyright, we didn't 
+     follow that course of action.
+
+Q30: On the website [and various information postings] you state 
+        "Every tiny bit was reverse engineered, disassembled and then 
+         re-written from scratch".  
+     If it was rewritten from scratch then why was it first reverse-engineered
+     and disassembled? Instead this sounds more like someone disassembled it
+     then used the understanding that they gained to create a new version,
+     which is not quite the same as "from scratch". 
+A30: Don't confuse the terms.  Reverse engineering means examining a product 
+     to find out how it works.  Disassembling the firmware is merely one tool 
+     used in that examination.  Oscilloscopes and logic analyzers are other 
+     tools we have used.  We have written every single byte of the Rockbox 
+     firmware. But we could not have written the software without first 
+     researching how the hardware was put together, i.e. reverse engineer it.
+     All of this is completely legal.  If you define "from scratch" as writing
+     software without first researching the surrounding interfaces, then no 
+     software has ever been written from scratch.
+
+Q31: Wait a minute here.  When you released version 1.0 you did not have a 
+     single one of the ideas you have mentioned on your website actually 
+     implimented!  Calling this version 1.0 is really misleading.  Whats the 
+     story?!
+A31: In simple terms, the first release was called 1.0 because it had a basic 
+     working feature set that worked and had no known bugs. That is what 1.0 
+     meant.  It is true that Rockbox 1.0 lacked most of the feature set that 
+     every sane user wanted.  However, we never said it was more 
+     feature-complete or better in any way then the original firmware that early
+     in the project.  The first release was done as a proof of concept that our 
+     ideas are moving in the right direction.  We also hoped that it would help
+     bring the project some attention, and some additional developers.  
+     Adding the missing features was just a matter of time.  In more recently
+     releases we have completed many of our desired goals, and several new ones
+     that were implimented to fullfill user requests.
+
+Q32: I've heard talk of a 'Rolo'.  What is that? (Or 'All you ever wanted
+     to know about Rockbox boot loaders')
+A32: The developers have discussed the possibility of a boot loader.  (Mainly
+     because having one sounds cool, and isn't Rolo just a great name?)
+     The idea would be that a user could use the load to choose between
+     different verions of Rockbox or the Archo firmware itself.  We have a 
+     working version of ROLO implimented for the players, and a version in 
+     development for the recorders.  However, at this time, the patch for ROLO
+     is not optimal for use and is not part of the main branch of the CVS.
+     Once this improves and has been tested sufficently, it will become part of
+     the main release.  Please check the mailing list logs and irc logs for more
+     information.  
+
+Q33: I was thinking about making the USB a bit more usable.  What are the
+     chances of using the USB port to [play games / share files / list
+     the device as something other then a hard drive / sell my soul to you
+     for a nickel].  What do you think?
+A33: You really don't want to know what I think, it involves road flares, 
+     microwave ovens and shaved cats.  Enough said.  But regarding the USB 
+     portion of your question, this is not feasible.  First, any ideas 
+     regarding special communications over the USB port will not work because
+     we have no control over the USB port itself.  We are capable of 
+     dectecting if it is in use (so we know which mode to switch to) but that 
+     is it.  Second, if you would like to have your Archos as a harddrive for
+     another device, know that this will not work either.  The Archos unit is 
+     a slave.  Most other USB devices are slaves as well.  So without some
+     master involved there can be no communication.  Sorry.  Now about your
+     soul.  Would you settle for 3 cents and a small wad of belly button lint?
+
+Q34: When I use RockBox my jukebox's red "error" light turns on a lot, but this
+     doesn't happen on the factory firmware.  Why?
+A34: Rockbox uses the red LED as harddisk activity light, not as an error 
+     light. Relax and enjoy the music.
+
+Q35: How do I use the loadable fonts?
+A35: Loadable fonts are a work in progress.  We do not have full documentation
+     for it.  The best we can do now is tell you that you need a valid .bdf
+     font, and to use the tool "bdf2ajf" from CVS to conver to the .ajf format.
+     The final .ajf font must be stored in the archos root as 'system.ajf'
+     We do expect more documentation on this process shortly.
+
+Q36: I have a question about the batteries...
+A36: STOP!  We have put togeather a completely different FAQ for battery 
+     related questions.  Check out: http://rockbox.haxx.se/docs/battery.html
+