w00t! I now have a 100gb portable mp3 player after swapping the 2.5" standard laptop 20gb drive out of an old Archos Jukebox Studio. My music collection is now entirely portable, something currently impossible with today's 60gb limited (and über-expensive) ipods. This is not news really... folks have been doing this for years already, but I got tired of waiting for a capacity increase in 1.8" drives -- the kind most hard drive based mp3 players like the ipod, creative, and archos brands are using. Meanwhile, the capacity of 2.5" drives keeps on increasing.
With the new parallel 160gb tech rocking the laptop drive world, once pricey 100gb drives can now be found on sale and for rebate. The free and open source rockbox firmware will further extend the device features -- and flashing the rockbox firmware into the Jukebox Studio was doable (although reading through lots of documentation was a necessity). Rockbox is a very useful firmware replacement since it supports OGG-Vorbis encoded audio files and gapless playback. (UPDATE: gapless only works if your mp3s are encoded in LAME with the gapless switch. Rockbox does not support ogg-vorbis on archos jukebox studio/recorder models :( .
ebay seems ripe with the old Archos now, but I was not the only one shopping for them. Folks are bidding over $100 for the Jukebox Recorder's with USB 2.0. I relented and bid on the older Studio model with usb 1.1. (Hint: can be had cheaper than the Recorder).
Things I learned if you'd like to do something like this.
0. A jeweler's sized Philips head screwdriver will come in handy for removing the very tiny screws holding on the Jukebox faceplate. Otherwise, the directions for upgrading the drive at mctubster are fairly accurate.
1. To transfer your files over from your main computer to the new 2.5" drive, use a usb 2.0 portable enclosure or some other speedy connection. Connecting via a 3.5" to 2.5" ide converter is fraught with danger (bent pins and too high voltage in your new drive).
2. Move your files over to your new HD before you swap it. And don't forget to defragment it too, cause that will take a longish time over USB 1.
3. The rockbox manuals for flashing the Jukebox Studio and Recorder models are inaccurate. You might think that rockbox will create an id3 tag database on these models with rockbox's Tag Cache feature. No. The included RAM in these models is too small (2mb) to use Tag Cache.
4. id3browse is some very useful free and open source software to use in generating m3u playlists. (You'll need to generate playlists in lieu of an id3 tag database. Otherwise, you'll have to rely on playing files according to directories. This is limiting since without a playlist, Archos will only play one directory at a time without advancing to successive or nested directories).
5. Be patient. If you're confused don't blame yourself. Continue to read. Nerdy, zen like acceptance of tedium will be rewarded. Take a nap.
6. And, oh yeah, be patient bidding on eBay. It's not like there is a supply problem or anything and yet impatient demand is driving prices up. If everyone could just wait their turn, they'd get their obsolete but upgradeable old archos at a reasonably cheap price.
My Trusted MOGs
Great post! I've been considering a project like this.
My Trusted MOGs
I'm happy to help. Compared to today's ipod the Archos is a real brick. But aren't those blue bumpers cute?
My Trusted MOGs
Not exactly a low profile piece but damn if it isn't impressive! I love the idea of a Frankenplayer like this. Why should multi-million dollar corporations have all the fun?
My Trusted MOGs
Indeed. Power to the people!
Anti-Amy: Your external drive enclosure contains the larger 3.5" drive standard in desktops. These aren't typically, without much hacking, portable since they are powered by AC rather than batteries. Nevertheless car modding folks have long been working on hacks to get 100s of gigs of audio in their dashes. I want to give you a link here, but I'm not so familiar with that scene. The 2.5" drives (with wireless audio) are super convenient for bicycling though.
My Trusted MOGs
Awesome post!
Hopefully things like this will encourage the major audio player makers to make some major improvements to their players. ...so I don't have to monkey around to build this myself.
Frankenstuff rulez, though.
My Trusted MOGs
Killer. :)
My Trusted MOGs
Sexy creation! Made me nostalgic enough to pull out my Jukebox 20 Studio, which I retired last year after finally getting sucked into the iPod world by the Nano. It's fun to look at my two players side-by-side; maybe I'll get kooky and charge the Archos up!
My Trusted MOGs
crazy mad beautiful. and easy. merci for the info and pretty blue bumpers. actually hadn't tackled such a project, but knew it was possible and now within reach.
My Trusted MOGs
Oh good. Best to repurpose electronics than let them go to waste.
My Trusted MOGs
KICK ASS THE PEOPLE WILL TAKE THE POWER BACK BRUTHA RAWK ON
My Trusted MOGs
Fantabulous! Repurposing old equipment is one of my favourite things to do. I used to have an iRiver h300 player, which was great and versatile, but the hard drive fucked up. Before I could think, I traded it in on warranty. I could have slapped an 80GB into that badboy and loaded up rockbox on it. It was ugly too, so it had a certain charm to it. Now I have a 60GB video iPod that is unreliable and tells me how I should listen to my music (fuck you Apple and your shitty interface - how can a company that makes such a good OS make such a bad DMP interface?!). Not happy with it at all, and seriously considering some linux action on it (as the 5g rockbox firmware is not quite up to par yet). Post more old electronics mods if you have 'em!
My Trusted MOGs
This is all very informative, but unfortunately, not being a tech junkie and my life busy as it is, I don't think I'll get around to seeking out/installing/putting together any of these things. But it's good to know there are alternatives out there. I hate how the iPod is (has) monopoliz(ed)ing the market. I mean, who really uses the picture feature on the pod? I myself do not, and so I assumed the majority doesn't either, but they market the player with all these features and jack up the price, and it's, what the hell, I only want to use it for music. And and what Barrie above says, that interface totally sucks. And it's portable, but yeah, 100gbs for music would definitely be nice.
My Trusted MOGs
happy belated birthday dood
My Trusted MOGs
thanks man... is there some sort of MOG update about things like this?... or did you really discover my myspace page? (to the irreparably bored: it's linked from one of these widget things up at the top).
My Trusted MOGs
um jess made a post 'bout your birhday man! HERE i have not been to tha space in a few days maybe i need to slide on by.....nah
My Trusted MOGs
oh my