From: Alun Thomas <athoma00_at_orcon.net.nz>
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2006 08:05:11 +1300

George Styles wrote:
> Hi,
> I want a rockbox-capable, video capable, small, 60gig+ player. It seems
> the iPod video is perfect, except for one thing, it doesnt have a LCD
> remote (which is the killer feature of my H140).
>
> Looking at
> http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/IriverHardwareComponents#Remote_Control
>
> and
> http://ipodlinux.org/Dock_Connector
>
> it seems that the iPod doesnt have any digital IO lines on its dock
> connector, but does have a serial interface.
>
> I was thinking we could have a PIC chip connected to power and serial on
> the iPod, with a simple program to drive the LCD remote. I imagine it
> would accept a serial input from the iPod and bit-bang the data into the
> LCD remote, and monitor the buttons for presses and return them to the
> iPod via serial.
>
> Of course, it would require software support on the iPod, but now we
> have a (almost working) Rockbox port, that should be simple.
>
> The main problem I see is that this would not be 'mainstream' so I would
> be left porting my changes to each new release of Rockbox. And getting a
> connector to mate with the odd iRiver remote.
>
> Of course, the Rockbox project could 'adopt' a LCD remote of some kind
>
> Any comments? anyone know of a LCD remote that already works via serial
> only? (how do the Sony minidisc ones work?) ideally one that is still in
> production.
>
> g
>
>

On sony minidiscs the buttons use a resistor network with different
values for each button. The ones with a display use serial comms for
this part of it AFAIK. It's a while since I had one though.
Received on 2006-02-07