New Gp2x Dev - Thoughts, Observations.

[MSweeney]

Hello, I am a new user to the site and an finally registering as I recieved my GP2X.

I wanted to post my observations on the unit, and the ease of getting it up and running etc. IF this is the wrong forum, please delete/move.

1. My Unit was shipped from Lik-sang using Airmail to Portland, OR area of USA. I recieved the unit in 6 days - far less than I expected for Airmail. The unit was packaged 'ok' and the outer box was damaged. The contents were perfect condition.

2. The unit was shipped with batteries, but they lasted all of 10 mins. I suggest getting new batteries and ditching the supplied ones.

3. My screen protector was scratched - yes I removed both films, but the actual plastic screen has a scratch in it. This sucks, but at least I can replace it.

4. The USB connection has some problems, I tried on two machines with the following results:

a) AMD64-3200+, Windows XP (32) XP2, nForce3 Mobo. USB connection fails completely with yellow exclamation mark in Device Manager (all 2.0 ports). Interesting thing is, once removing.. ALL my USB devices fail with the same error. Removing and reinstalling USB hardware drivers fixed problems, but GP2x never worked.

B) Tosh 2.4g P4-M Laptop, Windows XP XP2, Intl Mobo. USB connection works fine, it is plugged into a USB 2.0 port, but detects as 1.0. And works fine.. although slow.

5. I am using a SanDisk 1gb UltraII SD card from BestBuy $59.99 special. Works perfect.

6. Tried to perform 1.4 firmware upgrade. Apparently works, but utility still says 'version 1.2.1'?? And I do not have any special options for CPU speed etc. On boot-up the device says 'Firmware 1.4'. I R Noob?

7. The Joystick is horrible, hardly ever seems to recognize moving to the 'Right'.. Even in test mode it hardly ever works. This is a major flaw, but I will be getting the joystick mod so hopefully that will help.

8. The screen flickers really bad - sometimes its not so bad, but others its so bad I have to reset the device and then it is better.

9. Tested some videos - all worked perfect. Even oversized 480x xVid videos played fine, although the resizing code is not optimal. No stuttering, sound is fine. A+++


I know there is some way to fix the flickering, but Im new so any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am starting a GP2X dev group here in Portland, OR.. so any interested peoples should contact if you want.

matthew.sweeney@digitalstormllc.com

Ok great site, back to work!

 

[yaustar]

Look around for the LCD tweaker which should help the flickering pre 1.4. In 1.4 you have a built in LCD tweaker where you can change the timings etc.

Get a card reader. MUCH less hassle in the long run.

Get High capicity (2500mah+) Rechargable batteries, the GP2X eats power for breakfast.

Good luck.

 

[MSweeney]

Look around for the LCD tweaker which should help the flickering pre 1.4. In 1.4 you have a built in LCD tweaker where you can change the timings etc.

Get a card reader. MUCH less hassle in the long run.

Get High capicity (2500mah+) Rechargable batteries, the GP2X eats power for breakfast.

Good luck.

​

Hey thanks for the response - I do have a couple of questions.

As I noted, I did 'upgrade' to the 1.4 firmware, and it says '1.4 Firmware' when it boots up. But I have no LCD tweaking option anywhere, and in the utility it still says '1.2.1'. Is this a problem seen before?

As for the card reader, I intend to do some heavy programming for this device including messing with the hardware directly - therefore I am concerned about having to reboot the device every time I want to remove the SD card for a code update.. or is it possible that the SD card can be removed with the power on in 1.4? (removing my card causes device to freeze instantly).

Thanks!

Matt

 

[Vimacs]

run the .gpu taht comes with the firmware update..

 

[PSyMastR]

Look around for the LCD tweaker which should help the flickering pre 1.4. In 1.4 you have a built in LCD tweaker where you can change the timings etc.

Get a card reader. MUCH less hassle in the long run.

Get High capicity (2500mah+) Rechargable batteries, the GP2X eats power for breakfast.

Good luck.

​

Hey thanks for the response - I do have a couple of questions.

As I noted, I did 'upgrade' to the 1.4 firmware, and it says '1.4 Firmware' when it boots up. But I have no LCD tweaking option anywhere, and in the utility it still says '1.2.1'. Is this a problem seen before?

As for the card reader, I intend to do some heavy programming for this device including messing with the hardware directly - therefore I am concerned about having to reboot the device every time I want to remove the SD card for a code update.. or is it possible that the SD card can be removed with the power on in 1.4? (removing my card causes device to freeze instantly).

Thanks!

Matt

​

Did it say frimware upgrading?
If so? Did you run the utility patch after it?

 

[MSweeney]

Ok thanks again for replies, as I said in my first post:

'I.R. N00b?'

And indeed I R, because I did not even notice the need to run the utility patch - which would make perfect sense given the problems I am having.

So there you go, thanks for helping =)

 

[DaveC]

Look around for the LCD tweaker which should help the flickering pre 1.4. In 1.4 you have a built in LCD tweaker where you can change the timings etc.

Get a card reader. MUCH less hassle in the long run.

Get High capicity (2500mah+) Rechargable batteries, the GP2X eats power for breakfast.

Good luck.

​

Hey thanks for the response - I do have a couple of questions.

As I noted, I did 'upgrade' to the 1.4 firmware, and it says '1.4 Firmware' when it boots up. But I have no LCD tweaking option anywhere, and in the utility it still says '1.2.1'. Is this a problem seen before?

As for the card reader, I intend to do some heavy programming for this device including messing with the hardware directly - therefore I am concerned about having to reboot the device every time I want to remove the SD card for a code update.. or is it possible that the SD card can be removed with the power on in 1.4? (removing my card causes device to freeze instantly).

Thanks!

Matt

​

I had the same problem. I put the kernal.img as well as the rest of the stuff on the card. It updated the rest but not the kernal it just deletes it with no upgrade. It is a bug as it doesn't upgrade correctly with some cards. Dodgy upgrader code. One thing to note is that you will get messed up LCD screen when having only a partial upgrade. You will get a washed out background, blurry display, a white line on the left and flicker. I just went back to 1.2.1 all of the way through and the LCD contrast was better and no white line on the left. I figure I will upgrade to a new FW when it is less buggy as 1.4 doesn't really seem to be a big deal anyway.

 

[nickspoon]

We're all very helpful around here. So long as you obey the rules and/or Rico, we'll happily help you with any problems (God, I sound SO much like customer support). That's what you won't get with any other handheld. What makes the GP2X unique.

Enjoy your stay (Damn it, from customer support to hotel check-in).

 

[virusx]

As for the card reader, I intend to do some heavy programming for this device including messing with the hardware directly - therefore I am concerned about having to reboot the device every time I want to remove the SD card for a code update.. or is it possible that the SD card can be removed with the power on in 1.4? (removing my card causes device to freeze instantly).

​

Try to go back to the main menu (start) before removing the Sd card.
If the Sd is in use and/or currently accessed, I think it is normal that your Gp2X doesn't like it.

 

[richufc]

I had problems getting the firmware to updgrade to 1.4 too. What got its sorted was...

1. Removing everything from the SD Card,
2. Format the SD Card (FAT32) and then put just the files that came in the firmware rar file in the root of the SD Card and nothing else.
3. As soon as you switch the unit on the unit should then upgrade - good luck!

 

[Dzz]

As for the card reader, I intend to do some heavy programming for this device including messing with the hardware directly - therefore I am concerned about having to reboot the device every time I want to remove the SD card for a code update.. or is it possible that the SD card can be removed with the power on in 1.4? (removing my card causes device to freeze instantly).

​

Try to go back to the main menu (start) before removing the Sd card.
If the Sd is in use and/or currently accessed, I think it is normal that your Gp2X doesn't like it.

​

I agree with this. I probably copy new code over to the gp2x 50 times a day, and the only times I need to power cycle it is when I thoroughly hose the machine or when I pop the card while it's still "in use" -- usually because an app is running.

MSweeney, if you have an irc client, pop over to the EFNet #gp2xdev channel while you're coding. it's a quick way to get answers to technical questions or at least express frustrations.

 

[MadDog]

Shame to hear some of the probs you've had, I got mine a couple weeks ago now, from www.gp2x.co.uk

The USB thing could do with sorting, not sure if its the fault of the gp2x or if there is anything it can do to get round poor windows drivers. I would not be suprised if it cost the earth to get a custon driver written.

I've had no probs with my screen, joypad or battery life. I've got rechargeables now and the power pack. But the ones that came in the box still lasted a few hours.

My upgrade worked a treat and after a few questions got the dev enviroment up and running.

Sorry, not gloating, but just thought i'll add my noob experiance, would not want to put anyone off, the groups can seem at times full of peaple with probs, but then thats one of thier main uses. we don't have a "my gp2x is fine, I have no probs" NG.

Anyone thinking of getting one be rest assured that there is loads of support out there, more than your get from Sony or Nitendo.

If your into home brew one of these are a must, i'm very pleased with mine. B)

 

[MSweeney]

Oh yes I do not mean to be negative - even with the problems I have seen (which from my research are not very common); I admit most of these issues are due to operator error.

The device itself is fantastic, and I recommend it fully if you are at all interested in getting into embedded development - especially for the ARM based platforms. Its a heck of a alot cheaper than an official ARM development kit, and has a solid community to boot.

Im sure any other 'issues' will be mostly solved by future patches (even from the community, thats the wonderful thing about linux). And so far there are no real nasty hardware issues that will prevent me from working on the GP2X as a development device (aside from the USB probs, but they are workable even so).

A++

 

[Aninhumer]

3. My screen protector was scratched - yes I removed both films, but the actual plastic screen has a scratch in it. This sucks, but at least I can replace it.

Not to seem patronising, but, are you sure?

Try scratching the screen with your nail (on the side), if it scratches then you still have the 2nd layer on. If it doesn't then your screen really is scratched, but I don't see how that could happen in transit with a film over it.

 

[nem]

I had three films on mine. One on the LCD screen and two on the screen protector.

 

[MadDog]

Yer, mine had three. Took a while to make sure I had no dust on the LCD, my hover helped!