Re: Which firmware for Zipy Panda TR?
 

Since I can't open my mp3, I opened my "old" mp4, which is also from Zipy (the brand was called e-zipy by then)

I found the following in the green board:

0638 MD660IFOD-PCB-V1.2A BW

The MD660IFOD part was the only thing I could find on a google search.

There was also this written in one of the two black chips (or whatever they are):

ALi DRE
M5661R B1
0634 TG05
Y615211000GA

It had a round green sticker saying ROHS. Don't know whether this is useful.

I couldn't read the other chip since I couldn't remove the sticker it had.

So, what does this tell me?

ROHS is just a certification. That sticker was probably on the memory chip or something.

ALi... Acer Laboratories inc., well known for their shitty laptops, slow mobo chipsets and poorly-sounding soundcard chips. Their driver division is even worse than the hardware they manufacture. :lol: Since when did they enter the cheap MPx player business?

If it's an ALi chip there's really not much to do with it, as i know of no utilities to extract or edit firmware from those.

Re: Which firmware for Zipy Panda TR?
 

1) Are you sure it's Acer? I think I read somewhere (aha! it was here) that the ID would be in the green board. Perhaps that is just the device ID, not the firmware chip? :( By the way, with the info I provided (0638 MD660IFOD-PCB-V1.2A BW), what can you tell me regarding the device's manufacturer? Maybe if I can find other brand names under which this player is commer******ed, I will be able to find some reference to the firmware... (well, the data I have is still from the old mp4, but it's better than nothing, I guess...)

2) I suppose my mp3 might have different firmware, since it's not an mp4. It doen't even have a color screen, it's BlackLine, or something. Do you think its firmware is also from Acer, or is it possible that it's from another company?

3) Even if it's Acer too... is it too hard to program a tool to extract data from it? I read about this guy, Dancemammal, who made a tool for Rockchip/Actions. Maybe I'll contact him and see what he says...

4) btw, apparently it is possible to hack the button configuration... I just have to find in what line of code it is, for my firmware! lol

Re: Which firmware for Zipy Panda TR?
 

Some links regarding the ALi chip:

• from mympxplayer.org:[list:70e33a3dbd]
• problem with Mp3 (chipset Ali) (he mentions Bellwood)
• ALI M566/Hynix HY27 Firmware NEEDED PLEASE mympx is dying (he writes "0643 TG05", It might be a coincidence, or it might be the same as mine: "0634 TG05"...)
• Re: Links to firmware for MPx players

[*]elsewhere:

• prosba do serwisujących sprzęt audio DK-Digital (in polish - I din't even try to read it)
• MP3 Grundig MP600 FM (chinszczyzna)po wgraniu firmware PADŁ (in polish - same thing, no clue what they say)
• ((quien revive mi MP4 )) ? :- ( (in spanish - probably refers to one of these: Duo, Razor or NB/NW)
• #rockbox log for 2007-07-20 (this one refers a Coby MP-C7085 - their website has a LOT of other players, I'lll check if any of these look similar to my mp3)

[/list:u:70e33a3dbd]

Note: the Axxis webpage I referred to, in the spanish link, has this one, which is very similar to mine (shape, button configuration, etc.) I'll try to see if I can find its firmware. But I don't think it's the same, the screen doesn't look like mine at all:

http://www.axxis-usa.com/images/MP3DUO.png

Is it possible that it is the same device as my Zipy, with a different chipset?

On the other hand, the screen looks pretty unnatural, perhaps it was added digitally, or is just a sticker...

Note 2: the Belwood website has a player that has a firmware exaclty like mine. Exactly the same icons, altgough my screen is black on color and not the contrary -- I guess LED instead of OLED/BlackLine as the casing said xD. Some icons are not in the same place as mine, but overall it's very much alike. Not sure if this really means anything, but here is an image:

http://www.bellwood.pl/new/images/st..._ukos_lewy.jpg

Re: Which firmware for Zipy Panda TR?
 

I found out what the mistery hole was!

It's a Micro SD socket!!!

check this out: http://emea.apacer.com/en/products/A...teno_AU524.htm

I bet the guys at Zipy don't even know about this, as it isn't mentioned anywhere in the box, or the manual. LOL!

PS - thanks to pawgal for the link in his post (the Bellwood one i listed in my previous post)

Ok, confirmed. I talked to Zipy's technical assistance, and Panda definitely uses an ALi chip, too. By the way, the company isnt Acer: it's really ALi Corp. here's their website.

The Axxis player in that picture is DEFINITELY an Actions chip.

As for the discovery of that MicroSD slot, that's great! Now if it actually works it'd get even better. :P

As for the ALi company, i know 'em, they made some of the worst mobo chipsets ever. ALi is the company actually designing and building the stuff, while Acer is the brand they are sold under.

Check this out: [google]acer laboratories inc[/google]. As you can see, the first result is the Chinese version of the site you linked.

Now for something funny.

Nah, that doesn't sound good.

That's closer to the truth. :lol:

OMG!!!

You mean, Acer is that? THE Acer??? www.acer.com??

I'm stunned...

*deep breath*

Welll... as for what you said,

, I'd like to point you to what I noted in that post:

Don't you agree?

In any case, that's not my firmware anyway. Do you, by any chance, recognize the one from the other image?

Yup, Acer as you know it is engineered by ALi.

It doesn't matter how the picture was made, that's an Actions player, period.

No, unfortunately i don't recognize the second one. But if you say it's similar to yours, then it may be based on an ALi chipset too.

Still, that doesn't bring us any closer to editing that firmware, and honestly, i don't think it's worth the effort.

But you say it's an Actions because of the firmware, right? I mean, you are saying that that screen (icons, fonts, etc) is an Actions one, right? Sorry to insist, but I'm still in doubt that that specific player uses an Actions, and I'll explain why:

Even the box in which my player came showed a different screen (OLED) from what it actually has (multi-colored LED). (Hum, maybe I'll request them to change it because of that, lol!). But my reasoning is, they could just have put a placeholder image in that pic. I'm not saying that Axxis doesn't use Action on some of their players, but that one is so much the same as mine, physically, (compare it, for instance, with the Apacer Audio Steno AU524, the one that helped me discover the SD socket), that I find it hard to believe that the firmware it uses is actually the one in the image.

...too? you mean, too, like mine? As you said yourself, that doesn't get me closer to knowing the firmware and editing it. Although it nevertheless is another keyword to search for the ALi firmware... I'll keep trying to find something, will post here if I find anything about it.


Well, I'd really like to hack the buttons, at least; the main reason I bought it was because it said it was capable of deleting files (the other usb drive/mp3s I saw in the stores did't have this functionality, except for Creative's Zen Nano Plus -- which I didnt buy only because it doesn't allow browsing the folder stucture...)

Anyway, I managed to get some software (The firmware updater, I suppose) from the technical assistance. Maybe someone can help me explore the files in the package and figure out something about the firmware.. Maybe I'll contact Dancemammal, send him the files, see what he says. He seems to be fairly comfortable with firmware editing. I'm not sure if you are into programming, if you want I can send you the files :)