Last update 28.10. 2002 , 10:44
D O W N L O A D
Release of V 0.926
changed "ADD PLAYLIST" function - ignore failed check for file existence if file already loaded - thx remick ;-)
note: this wont work for bare "ADD FILES" - they have to exist
0.925
added yampp 7 LCD / Logo support
0.924
important addon in RdWr DLL for yampp 7 users - this should fix the RESET issue
0.923
minor fixes around the file-naming bug, added sources for transport DLLs in the download section.
FAQ: will be set up as soon as possible - meanwhile here is a mini FAQ collection:
Sources ?
NO, yL sources are not public (yet ?)
Other OS than windows ?
Linux and MAC ports seem (!!!) to be on the way - by other users . All of you being interested in starting on their own:
get the DLL & yampp firmware sources and see how the USB interface works. try to implement a raw read_sector()
and read around a bit in Qt ;-)
As soon as I have more details, I will put them here !
Connecting problems ?
Win 98 etc seem to be less stable than W2k & XP. Right now we have no idea what to do to improve that ..
I am lost ! How to start ?
Just making sure you're doing everything in the right order.
1. Get the bootloader onto the board. Make sure the BOOTRST fuse is set.
2. Power up while pressing "STOP" (or short display connector pin 15 to GND.
3. Download firmware with YL. Do _NOT_ try to connect before downloading firmware. Also, make sure the Comport in YL preferences are set to the same as the USB driver comport.
4. Connect a disk. yampp should detect this as a new disk and want to format it. Press "PLAY" to confirm (twice).
5. Connect to the player with YL by pressing the Connect button on YL. YL should now detect your new disk and initialize it.
6. Download tons of MP3
7. Have fun
Cannot get the disc formatted as YADL ?
Connect a new disk to yampp with latest firmware. power up. press twice "g" on terminal or "play"
Release of V0.922 , includes:
- added retries to minimize dll-errors
- selectable naming sequence - user can re-arrange priority of V1 Tag , V2 Tag and Filename
- and some _very_ interesting news for the venturous guys: "Direct Disk Access"
Transport Errors
added retries upon read and write - hope that helps - unfortunately I never have had any trouble here to test with
File Naming
From the first issue i was sure this would become a real "problem" as anybody names its files different. So for those of you with proper tags: Here is the solution
YOU can tell yL which tag to use first and or filename (formatted as yet with that '-' separating artist and title) .Go to the preferences dialogue and enter your preferred method order there
0: filname/ 1: V1 tag / 2: V2 tag So the first relase had the sequence "012" which is the default too
Note that you _need_not_ take all three methods, if you e.g. only want the ID1 tag to be taken, simply enter "1"
NT Direct Disk Access
the zip contains an additional transport DLL that you can use instead of the normal "RdWr.dll" if the following requirements are met:
1) You use Win2000 or Windows XP (NO, 98 et al _will_not_ work !)
2) you can directly attach your disk to the computer, either via IDE or (as I use it) over FireWire with an external case
3) You are aware that this method is (a bit) _risky_ and - in the worst case (although i have no idea how that should happen) might _TOTALLY_RUIN_ your computers data
Why should I use it ?
Speed , speed , speed ... my disk reaches around 12 MByte/s via FireWare (YES !) . Single songs do well over USB, but the initial fill does really profit from that speed !
How can I use it ?
1) you need a working yampp3/usb with already "YADL" style formatted disk. (the PC _won't_ do anything on non "YADL" disk!)
2) connect that disk physically (IDE direct, fireWire,USB 2.0 or however) to your NT-PC
3) don't touch that disk at all from the operating system (no format, drive manager etc. !!)
4) create a second directory for another copy of yamppLink.exe , copy yL.exe there and the included second DLL named "NT_RdWr.dll", rename it to "RdWr.DLL" and then start yamppLink
5) if you tell yL to connect, it looks for any YADL-Style disk. If it does not find any, it'll exit
6) Use yL as normal, then disconnect
7) detach disk and attach it to your yampp again
What could happen ?
worst case (a mad running program) ruin your disks data
How does it work ?
this DLL uses a direct physical link to the disk, only available under NT to read/write the disk.
Anyone interested ?? -> go and search the web for "\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE"
Are there any restrictions ?
obviously yL won't be able to do any yampp-specific stuff if no yampp is attached (e.g. the "UpdateFirmware" will fail .. ;-)
1: preps
Get the USB drivers from FTDI and install them acccording to their HowTo.
Look into {control-panel}{system}{hardware} to see what COM-port the FTDI-chip gets mapped to.
(ususally COM3,4,5 or so ...)
If you want to use the yL-Firmware update feature you need the latest boot loader.
You will find it at Jesper's pages. Burn it via SPI (yaap et al) into your yampp.
And, finally, get the very latest MIS-Firmware (as of 1.9., from now on called V1.00)
Jesper is preparing a more detailed page concerning initial setup/files/drivers etc. There you will find the neccessary links.
Check it out. Should be available soon ...
2: installing
Unpack the ZIP-file to a place of your choice - but note that yL will need write access "under" its EXE directory
and sufficient free disk space (some meg - depending on the yampp-disk size) to store working and caching data !
3: setting program options
Before you use yL first, you need to set some program options. Start yL and go to "Preferences".
- Enter the COM-port name you found in the control panel here without ':' eg "COM3"
- Select a scratch directory. yL will use it for files that you want to upload from yampp to PC and for playback on PC
- Auto-Upcase is just a cosmetic gimmick upon importing files - leave it or set it
- if you do not have a permanently opened internet-connection via flatrate or so, deselect the "check for updates" - option
4: using yL
Start yL and have yampp connected via USB. Then "connect" to yampp. Throw M3U or MP3 files via drag'n' drop into yL.
yL transfers the files. When done, disconnect. Go and listen to your yampp !
5: playlists
How to generate ?
a) use WinAmp or any other player that can write WinAmp-compatible m3u playlists.
Arrange your list as required and save it onto disk
b) use a texteditor and write down filename after filename, one in each line
c) simply use "dir" with the "/b"' switch at the command prompt
for example "dir *.mp3 /s /b > all.m3u" will generate a plylist from all mp3 files under the current directory
- Important:
yL takes the filename and searches for a '-', If found, it takes it as "artist - title". If not found, yL looks into the file to find MP3-tags.
If file is not tagged, yL will emit a warning and refuse to load that file !
- a general rule: all playlists MUST have the extension "M3U"
6: FAT 32 or what ?
With yL, you are leaving the well known FAT32 disks. yL supports only disks in the so called "YADL" format (Yampp Advanced Disk Layout). I designed this format in order to speeed up things , to get the firmware slimmer and to get rid off all the weird FAT32 stuff , eg like the unbelievable long filname madness .. Using yL will require that you reformat your yampp disk once and - from then on - only transfer data via USB.
7: details
- Every file inside yampp looses its original filename - yL does not keep track of the file's original source file name.
- Files inside yampp are identifed _only_ by their combination of {artist}{filename} which is kept unique inside yL.
Guess you have a playlist A with "Abba-Arrival" and a Playlist B with "Abba-Arrival" too , but playlist B finally refers to ANOTHER file
(a live version or so), yL will not transfer that file but map the playlist entry in B to the file already transferred
for playlist A.
Just keep that in mind and give different files different names ;-)
And that is important for your tags too. If you try to import two files named "file1.mp3" and "file2.mp3" and both files
have identical tags , yL will import only the first as it took the combination {artist}-{title} from the MP3-tags.
- Every yampp needs its own logical identifier. yL uses it as directory name "under" yamppLink.exe - that is the place where yL stores some extra data.
If you use more than one yampp - you MUST give them different names upon disk initialization. To be precise: Every yampp storage device needs its own logical identifier. So - in the case of yampp 7, you have to uniquely identify each CF / Compact flash card .. ;-)
- After changes were made, yampp needs disk finalization.
Thus - never simply unplug yampp while yL is still in connected state, always use "disconnect" first
- If you encounter problems in initial connecting, just try and give yampp a reset
- Files inside yampp not belonging to any playlist are being called "orphaned"
- To add playlists or single files, "throw" them into yL
- To delete a playlist, mark it by single click and press the violet scissors-icon
- After deletion of a list, some files may (but need not) become orphaned.
These files are marked with that black cross icon in the "Tracks" view.
- To delete these files , press the yellow scissors
- VBR-files are marked with an extra character in "Tracks" view and their average bitrate is given
- The "Ref" column indicates the number of playlists using that file
- Dblclick inside "Playlist" view opens that list for browsing
- Dblclick inside "Tracks" uploads that song to PC and hands it over to the application that is registered for MP3 playback.
- Right click inside "Tracks" opens a context menu
- final note: yL was not intended to be the ultimate playlist utility. Administer yours lists by text editor or WinAmp or any other tool of your choice and when done, hand the lists over to yL.
- Download it here .
And all the rest not written here?!?!
(unfortunately no time yet - as we - from time to time - DO have to earn a real living ;-)
So just go and give it a try ...
yL never does anything but reading with your original PC files, so all you can -worst case- do is destroy yours yampps disks content ;-)
have fun ...
U L I