Gp2x External Storage On The Go (sorta Working!)

[Sofox]

Hey, first up I'm Sofox, been reading this for a while, just didn't want to post until I had something useful to contribute.

Okay then, one recurring issue on this board is better storage for the GP2x. Well I may have something of a solution, and what's more it seems to work today.

I was looking at the ports iRiver H320 (20gig mp3 player), when I suddenly realised the significance of it having two usb ports, one of which had "host" written under it. I thought of the file browser the H320 has, and an idea germinated. A quick search on the internet later, and my ideas were confirmed:

I plugged into the Host port the connector that came free with the player. This expands the small usb port into a normal sized one. Into this I plugged in my usb flash card. After going to the control menu on the iRiver and setting the USB Conn. Mode to HUB, and then going to the Browser icon in the main menu, I discovered that there was a connection going on between the two devices and using the file browser I could transfer files between them any way I wanted. If this works with a USB stick, it could easily work with a GP2x (don't have mine to test just yet, dammit).

Image of the hookup: http://www.netsoc.tcd.ie/~sofox/storage/iriverUSB.jpg
A fourm post with more info (such as the required firmware update): http://www.misticriver.net/showthread.php?...=link+usb+drive

So yeah, while this isn't the full run-GP2x-directly-off-external-storage (yet!) and it does require having the mp3 player in the first place, it is still a nifty way of carrying around a heck of a lot of extra files for your GP2x.

What's more, all this is done using an established specification called USB On-The-Go or USB OTG which is designed for allowing portable usb devices to link directly to eachother. My iRiver can't be the only one that uses it so there must be other devices that can do the same thing. Doing some searching also finds bridges that can transfer between any 2 flash storage devices (Eg. http://www.usbgear.com/USB-OTG.html , http://www.everythingusb.com/hardware/USB_Bridges )

Who knows (here's the suggestive comment where I propose something I'd really like in the hope that someone else will do it) there may even be a way to get the GP2x to read directly off of the device now that we know a connection can be established.

 

[jcbnetwork]

Something like this was done on the GP32 as well,

check out the old post:

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=16362

 

[no_skill]

this is incredible.

(i'm say this while glaring at the h320 on my desk)

 

[Ryan]

*looks at his HP340*

*smiles*

 

[Jarska333]

*Looks at his coffee mug*

Empty...

 

[jdwrrzmm]

Can you delete things on the SD card with it or can you just add stuff?

 

[sinkyboy2000]

Total non-techie here, so sorry if this is a stupid question but..........

Is there any chance that something like this can work with a player that doesn't have USB On-the-go, like my Iriver H140? That player could only operate as a slave, so it would require the GP2X to have an app that could read from the player presumably.

 

[Sofox]

First up jdwrrzmm, if by SD card, you mean SD card plugged into a USB card reader, or a GP2x with a USB cable, then the short answer is yes. When pressing the "A-B" button with a file selected on the iRiver's file broswer, your options are: COPY, PASTE, DEL and INFO, whether the file is on the iRiver's hard drive, or a connected device. So put simply, it has all the basic file functions.

sinkyboy2000, sorry, but it dosn't look like you can. The GP2x is also only capable of operating as slave and you don't seem to be able to hook two slave devices together. The H320 works because USB OTG allows it to be a host.

Finally, there's one thing we need to be wary of, apparently US iRivers don't support USB OTG. I don't know why, or exactly what the situation is, but apparently there's a hardware hack to get around it: http://www.misticriver.net/showthread.php?t=7700 . It involves stripping USB cables and connecting them directly to a battery pack. Something like this may work to get the GP2x opertating in host mode, but I'm unsure as the hack seems to rely on the US iRivers having USB OTG components left into them. If anything else, it definitly seems to be a way to power a USB cable between two slave devices.