SanDisk Sansa AMS Port Page

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Models

The term "Sansa AMS" is applied to all Sansas with the AMS AS3525 SoC: namely the Fuze v1, Clip v1, e200 v2, c200 v2, and m200 v4 (m200 with firmware v04.xx.xx) or the AS3525v2 SoC: namely the Fuze v2, Clip v2, Clip+, and Clip Zip. "Samsa" is a pet name sometimes applied to the AMS Sansas.

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Port Status

Rockbox is considered Stable on Fuze v1, e200 v2, Clip v1, Clip v2, Clip+ and Fuze v2; Unstable on C200 v2 and Clip zip; and Unusable on m200 v4.

AMSv1 issues (m200v4, c200v2, e200v2, Fuze v1, Clip v1)

Battery:

• SansaRuntime and FS#11765. Battery life is quite shorter than when using the original firmware (OF). Some (unknown) hardware is likely misconfigured leading to higher power consumption.

m200v4: sporadic (volume related) shutdowns, probably due to misconfigured voltage regulator.

AMSv2 issues (Fuzev2, Clipv2, Clip+, ClipZip?)

USB:

• USB seems to work poorly on the Clip Zip, possibly due to memory corruption FS#12705 FS#12638 .

Audio quality:

• FS#11915 - Background noise with Sansa ClipV2 : rockbox has some background noise on Clip v2 that is not present in the original firmware
• FS#11907 - Annoying CPU noise with Sansa Clip+ : Some clip+ hardware variants have noise in both rockbox and the original firmware

Line Out:

• We don't yet know how to detect line out dock's on the Fuze V2: FS#12074 - Add setting to enable/disable lineout on Sansa Fuze V2

Radio:

• FS#11791 - Some Fuzev2 models freeze on Rockbox logo while loading firmware : we have a work-around in r29378, I (bertrik) suspect that the core problem of failing radio detection is not really solved yet.

Clip Zip:

• Not all plugins have been updated for the Zip's screen size
• The manual still requires additional screen shots of the Zip once the theme and plugins are working

Port status as of March 23, 2012.

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Installation

Disclaimer:

• Even though the bootloader installation and rockbox itself are tested, there's always a risk of BRICKING your device PERMANENTLY. Some Sansa AMS (m200 v4, C200 v2) have no known method for recovery, so this risk will not go away, even in (if any) future stable releases.
• There's no known user-friendly recovery method for the AMS Sansas, those which can be unbricked (not all of them can) need to be physically opened, and they can be potentially damaged in the process.
• Installation of a bootloader may or may not cause any DRM music in the Sandisk player to suddenly expire. If it does, you may be able to fix it using these instructions.
• mkamsboot will reject OF files which were not tested by us. If you try to patch a newer firmware then it supports, it will refuse. Use an older firmware in this case.

Installation:

Automatic installation with RockboxUtility is recommended and far easier

Note: M200 v4 automatic installation is currently disabled. You can try a Development build of Rockbox Utility. Beware that development builds might not be fully tested. Make sure to read the RockboxUtility wiki page first and check the changes listed on that page.

Manual installation

MANUAL INSTALLATION IS DISCOURAGED IF YOU DON'T FEEL CONFIDENT ABOUT IT, USE THE AUTOMATIC METHOD ABOVE

Files to download:

For all models

• mkamsboot: http://download.rockbox.o...sk-sansa/mkamsboot/

e200 v2: An original firmware (OF), the bootloader, the normal Rockbox build.

Fuze v1: An original firmware (OF), the bootloader, the normal Rockbox build.

Fuze v2: An original firmware (OF), the bootloader, the normal Rockbox build.

Clip v1: An original firmware (OF), the bootloader, the normal Rockbox build.

Clip v2: An original firmware (OF), the bootloader, the normal Rockbox build.

Clip +: An original firmware (OF), the bootloader, the normal Rockbox build.

Clip Zip: An original firmware (OF), the bootloader, the normal Rockbox build.

C200 v2: An original firmware (OF), the bootloader, the normal Rockbox build.

M200 v4: An original firmware (OF), the bootloader, the normal Rockbox build.

Linux & Mac OSX

• Make sure your player is in MSC mode.
• Download and Extract the normal build (rockbox.zip) onto your device.
• Create a folder 'rbinstall' in your home directory (e.g. 'mkdir ~/rbinstall' from a terminal window)
• Download and Extract the OF, the bootloader AND mkamsboot into that folder.
• Open a new terminal window. CD to the 'rbinstall' folder ('cd ~/rbinstall')
• Run mkamsboot from the terminal window you opened in the previous step, passing the name of the OF file you've downloaded and the the bootloader file you've downloaded, as well as a name you can chose yourself for the patched output file
  (e.g. ./mkamsboot fuzea.bin bootloader-fuze.sansa patched.bin)
• Retry or abort if it does not report success!
• Copy the output file to the root of your device and rename it to whatever the OF file you've downloaded was named
• Safely unmount and wait for the firmware update to finish.
• You've successfully installed the bootloader and Rockbox. It boots by default. For booting the OF press |<< very quickly or plug the cable in while the device off (plugging the cable doesn't work on Clipv2 and Clip+).

Windows

• Make sure your player is in MSC mode.
• Download and Extract the normal build (rockbox.zip) onto your device.
• Create a folder 'rbinstall' in your on the Desktop
• Extract the OF, the bootloader AND mkamsboot into that folder.
• Open a new command promt window (Windowskey+R->cmd.exe). CD to the 'rbinstall' folder ('cd Desktop\rbinstall')
• Run mkamsboot from the command line window you opened in the previous step, passing the name of the OF file you've downloaded and the the bootloader file you've downloaded, as well as a name you can chose yourself for the patched output file
  (e.g. mkamsboot.exe fuzea.bin bootloader-fuze.sansa patched.bin)
• Retry or abort if it does not report success!
• Copy the output file to the root of your device and rename it to whatever the OF file you've downloaded was named
• Safely eject, unplug USB and wait for the firmware update to finish.
• You've successfully installed the bootloader and Rockbox. It boots by default. For booting the OF press |<< very quickly or plug the cable in while it's off (plugging the cable doesn't work on Clipv2 and Clip+).

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Uninstallation

• SansaAMSUninstall

Hanging, non-responding player

You can power off a hanging and/or nonresponsive player by holding the power button for at least 30 seconds. On many Sansas this is forces a hardware power-off and will always succeed; on some Sansas it's possible for this to fail, in which case letting the battery run down until the player is forced off may be the best solution. No one has confirmed whether the power button method works on the m200 v4.

Unbricking

It is quite uncommon to brick a player under normal operation.

Rockbox tools are designed to minimize the danger of bricking the device, it's practically impossible to brick your player without modifying the mkamsboot tool. Quite often people think their device is bricked when it is actually just hung/nonresponsive; try the above methods first.

The unbricking procedures which follow require hardware modification and are therefore somewhat dangerous. IF YOU TRY THESE WHEN YOUR DEVICE IS NOT ACTUALLY BRICKED, YOU ARE RUNNING AN UNNECESSARY RISK OF DESTROYING YOUR PLAYER. If you think your device is bricked, please chat with us on IRC to confirm this is the case before pulling out your soldering iron.

Some models can be put in a recovery mode by shorting a couple of pins on the PCB, see SansaAMSUnbrick for details.

Extensive tutorial using this procedure exists for Sansa Clip v2, see SansaClipV2UnbrickingTutorial for details.

The other AMS Sansas can also get into this mode, but can not be unbricked this way (they present as an USB disk of size 0 that cannot be written).

Unbricking using JTAG

If your Sansa can not be unbricked using the above method and you feel comfortable about soldering some wires to your device, you can try to unbrick using a JTAG debugger.

Formatting a Player that cannot get past the Database Refresh in the OF

If you damage the filesystem on the internal SD you can find yourself in a situation where the database refresh in the OF hangs up and you will be unable to boot into the OF and also unable to connect via usb to correct the problem. If you find yourself in this situation you can bypass the OF database refresh by connecting your player via usb and disconnecting it just after the Sandisk logo appears on the screen. This will bring you into the normal top menu in the OF and you can then format your player through the settings menu.

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Hardware Info

AS3525 datasheet

ARM922T datasheet as used in Fuze v1, e200 v2, Clip v1, C200 v2, M200 v4.

ARM926EJS datasheet as used in Fuze v2, Clip v2 and Clip +.

The SD/MMC controller used in the AMSv2 seems to be a Synopsys Designware block, more info at:

• Synopsys Designware Mobile Storage info page.
• Linux dw_mmc driver : a driver for an SD/MMC controller that seems to be identical to the one used in AMSv2 players, it mentions the LPC31xx range of microcontrollers by NXP.
• NXP LPC3100 page : NXP has a user manual for the LPC3100 with documentation about the SD/MMC controller.
• Linux patch for Mobile Storage Controller Interface - mshci : a driver for an SD/MMC controller that seems to be identical to the one used in AMSv2 players
• (no link available) as35xx linux patch

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Other pages of interest

• SansaAMSHardwareMappings - shows functions of GPIO pins for various SansaAMS players
• SansaAMSFirmware - an analysis of the sandisk firmware structure (historical)
• Forum thread (locked).