Sunplus SPCA536: I've got one, interested in fiddling.

[yyttu]

Here it is:

Download Here

I have sent an email to sunplus requesting the full suite of tools, and documentation. It's worth a try imo. Please post if you find out anything special with this program. It looks like it's just for fonts to me, but that might not be true. Good luck, and don't go flashing any Mp4s with it yet! Everyone else has killed theirs.

Edit: While searching around for more stuff I came across what I think is a Sigmatel Mp4 player firmware updating program, but it seems to be "customised" for an NTO player. Get it HERE if you're interested. The program name is "stupdaterapp". I haven't had a close look at it since I'm not interested in Sigmatel but someone else might find it useful.

Edit again: I have found yet another tool, but I can't download it because the Chinese moron that hosts it feels that only his fellow chinese friends should use it (I think..) The translated page is HERE, but if you want to attempt to register, you can't do it through the translator proxy. Cut out the url and use that, then cut and paste the parts of the register query to babelfish or whatever you wish to use. I get stuck on the last input. They want some sort of number thing, at first I thought it was a referral number so I left it blank, but it wont let me in. It also says something about external, so I think if I try it through a proxy in China it might work, but I'm not up to installing a proxy program at the moment. Anyone else want to give it a shot?

[yyttu]

Well, I found another piece to the puzzle that is Sunplus firmware modification. I got that software off the Chinese site (Strangely I could register off a different computer)

You can download it HERE. I have kept the file structure in the not-so-friendly way that it came in case anyone wants to Google for the file names. The chinese folder name within the RAR file translates to "Most common male version PMP (SCPA-536) promotion tool"

It looks like the firmware that comes with it is for the Sunplus SPCA-536 camera version, rather than my one which doesn't have a camera. However, I would be surprised if it wouldn't upload firmware to my one.

Now I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction for decompiling firmware "BIN" files. I have no experience here but with a starting point from one of you guys and Google, I'd be on my way.

I want to back up the firmware I have on the device now before I go fiddling with it. Does anyone have any pointers here? Where do I start?

Also, please take a look at this new program and tell me anything that comes to mind. Have you made much sense of the other program, tadad1? I've been meaning to ask - how have you made over 1000 posts in just a couple of months? That must be a world record or something...

[yyttu]

I have got some stuff on repairing a bricked Sunplus PMP as well as updating firmware with that ISP software off that Chinese site. I translated then with Babelfish, then re-wrote them myself (adding in some personal insight too).

Here's the two of them zipped up

Now if I could just work out how to back up my firmware, I could have a carefree life of testing out random firmware files with the knowledge that if I bricked it I could just do the trick in one of those files and put the original back on...

...but I was hoping someone here with some programming skills would help with the backup thing. It seems at s1mp3 they have made up some pretty nice tools for that stuff. Where can I get started here?

I've noticed that this is my 3rd post in a row. Tadad1, are you not so interested now? I would have expected atleast a few people with Sunplus PMPs and some computer skills to be interested in all this. I've sent a bunch of emails out to a bunch of websites asking for tools, firmware files and so on. I've had one reply so far and have begun discussing firmware stuff with them.

I can probably spend a long time on Google searching around for Sunplus stuff, but it comes down to needing someone here with programming skills to do whatever it is they do. I've got a few files to work on as a starting point. I might ask some of the regulars at s1mp3 what they think.

[tadad1]

yyttu, So many toys to play with so little time. As you suspected it appears to be a font map generator. Once you build your font or icon map you can compress them into .bin files supposedly for upload to your player or incorporated into the firmware file.

I am not sure how many sunplus PMP owner frequent the site and from some of the requests that have gone unanswered not to many programming savy members either.

How is your player performing as you expected, no disapointments?

[Uncle_Chop_Chop]

I'm currently scouring the web, trying to find a solution for you. So far, I have found one site, but it seems to be about a 6 in 1 dealie. Here is the link 6 in 1 review

It talks about needing drivers from your device

Web cam:

This is actually the only function that I was not able to test during the review period. I tried to get it to work with my Powerbook and AV Chat, but the camera was not recognized. The user manual does say that the camera will work with Microsoft's Movie Maker and Net Meeting for the PC. When I set the M Catch to web cam mode and plugged it into my PC, it brought up a Hardware Wizard that wanted to install drivers for a Sunplus SPCA536 device. I opted not to install the drivers.

Not sure if this will help at all, but it might be a lead on another way of getting a software upgrade for your device....i'll keep on looking

The player performs ok, however sometimes it will keep mounting and unmounting the SD card over a period of a few seconds, which makes it impossible to view any movies on it. Usually if I just keep accessing the videos it tends to settle down. Also the boot screen goes funny. Sometimes its 3/4 green, and the last quarter is the picture I chose... Also the signal to noise ratio for audio is nothing short of crappy, and sometimes there are fast horizontal "wave" type things that look like a guitar string vibrating across the screen. The TV out has only worked realiably on one television, which happened to be in Singapore. Otherwise there are bands of noise that move slowly down the screen.

Thanks for having a look around Uncle_Chop_Chop. That 6 in 1 device sure is odd looking! I'll have a google around for it and hopefully some more info.

[Uncle_Chop_Chop]

i've found quite a few chinese manufacturers that sell PMP's based on the sunplus spca536 chipset....I'll see if I can find one that offers software/firmware downloads

[yyttu]

Thanks. I've already emailed a few but I haven't received any replies except for one, although (s)he didn't know of the model I was interested in.

I have the sunplus 536 (with the camera) it looks about the same. It came with a little cd full of buggy software, most of them refused to install. For flashing or updating the firmware (i assume) there came this tool. I'm pretty interested in playing with mine too but I had no idea how to use this program. I can email it to you if you want, but I think it's a little flawed. (pressing ver. check fails. as does all the other 5 buttons that come with it.)

But since some of the other software on that cd could be found on the net try looking for ISP_V5.2.exe (the name of the program, which comes with a few .bin files in the folder)

the folder on the cd was called (assumedlyt the date of the firmware):
isp_v5[1].2_200441229

keep me posted.

[yyttu]

Yeah I've got that one. For it to recognise your device you have to go into setup>storage>Software update. When you next connect it to your PC (before turning it off) it will switch to a blue screen with your version number and it'll be recognised by that program. Don't go flashing it though, it'll probably make it useless!