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Releases: BasilSkyWalk/echopod
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EchoPod 0.9.1
EchoPod 0.9.1, replacement firmware for the Snowsky (FiiO) Echo Mini 8 GB.
Use it at your own risk. EchoPod is early, has been tested on one player, and comes with no warranty. Read the known issues and make sure you could recover the player through maskrom before you install.
Most of this comes from a comparison with FiiO's 4.0.0 firmware that velppa's Claude Code made (issue 12).
New
- Settings → Filter and Balance. Filter has five options, 1 to 5, that write FiiO's five DAC filter values; the names aren't known, so they're numbered. Balance runs from L12 to R12 and turns the louder side down by one dB a step (the step size is a guess, not FiiO's). Both are saved and apply at once.
Fixed
- The quietest volume steps are quieter. Step 1 starts at FiiO's quietest level and the first three steps rise smoothly from it. Before, step 1 was about -60 dB, which was loud with sensitive in-ear monitors.
- Bluetooth has its own volume curve, 6.5 dB quieter than wired, as in FiiO's firmware.
- The screen type is read from the panel instead of assumed, so a unit with the other panel gets its own start-up sequence. Tested only on a panel that uses the one EchoPod already used.
- The headphone-jack detect pins get their pull settings at start-up, as in FiiO's firmware.
- Turning off while music plays powers the DAC down first, which should avoid a pop.
- The updater also installs
ECHOMINI.IMG. - The second firmware slot is found by its header when it isn't where EchoPod assumed it. On the tested unit nothing changes.
When you update
- Your library, settings, equalizer, orientation, language and Bluetooth headphones stay as they are.
- The settings file gains a filter and balance byte. Going back to 0.9.0 or earlier makes that older firmware ignore the file and start from default settings.
- Delete the update file from the player once it has installed, or it installs again.
Full notes: docs/release-notes.md.
Install
Follow the user guide. Already on EchoPod: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage (ECHO MINI), eject both drives and unplug; the player installs it. From FiiO firmware 3.7.0, 3.9.0 or 4.0.0: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage, eject, unplug, take the microSD card out and restart. Installing from Windows is the tested route. One tester whose FiiO firmware kept refusing the file got it to install after first updating to FiiO's 3.8 firmware.
Check the download first: the SHA-256 of HIFIEC90.IMG must match SHA256SUMS.txt.
Your music goes on the microSD card; EchoPod doesn't read music from internal storage.
The 512 MB Echo Mini is not supported.
EchoPod 0.9.0
EchoPod 0.9.0, replacement firmware for the Snowsky (FiiO) Echo Mini 8 GB.
Use it at your own risk. EchoPod is early, has been tested on one player, and comes with no warranty. Read the known issues and make sure you could recover the player through maskrom before you install.
New
- Languages. Settings → Language: English, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish. The choice is saved and applies after you restart the player (the toast says so). Menus, settings, the equalizer, Bluetooth, USB, the updater and the diagnostics all follow it. The English text is no longer part of the firmware's code: every language, English included, is a small pack stored in the image and read when the player starts, which also leaves more free room for code than before.
- The translations are unreviewed. They were written by Claude and no native speaker has checked them; the Chinese starts from chuqiao's translation (pull request 11). Some long texts may wrap or be cut on the small screen, and this version's screens haven't been checked language by language on the player yet. Corrections are welcome as changes to
assets/lang/<code>.txt.
Fixed
- Cyrillic, Greek, Polish, Czech, Turkish, Romanian and Vietnamese letters in track, artist and album names show instead of
?(reported by Katsuki, issue 7). - A long text that doesn't fit its box is no longer cut in the middle of a character.
When you update
- Your library, settings, equalizer, orientation and Bluetooth headphones stay as they are. The language starts on English.
- The settings file gains a language byte. Going back to 0.8.1 or earlier makes that older firmware ignore the file and start from default settings.
- The Battery low notice shown before the player's storage starts, and the panic screen, stay in English.
Full notes: docs/release-notes.md.
Install
Follow the user guide. Already on EchoPod: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage (ECHO MINI), eject both drives and unplug; the player installs it. From FiiO firmware 3.7.0, 3.9.0 or 4.0.0: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage, eject, unplug, take the microSD card out and restart. Installing from Windows is the tested route. One tester whose FiiO firmware kept refusing the file got it to install after first updating to FiiO's 3.8 firmware.
Check the download first: the SHA-256 of HIFIEC90.IMG must match SHA256SUMS.txt.
Your music goes on the microSD card; EchoPod doesn't read music from internal storage.
The 512 MB Echo Mini is not supported.
EchoPod 0.8.1
EchoPod 0.8.1, replacement firmware for the Snowsky (FiiO) Echo Mini 8 GB.
Use it at your own risk. EchoPod is early, has been tested on one player, and comes with no warranty. Read the known issues and make sure you could recover the player through maskrom before you install.
Fixed
- 176.4 kHz plays at the right speed. It ran 0.28 % slow (about 5 cents flat) because of a clock setting inherited from FiiO's firmware; it now uses the same clock as 44.1 and 88.2 kHz. Found and measured by guiral lacotte, who is building another firmware for the Echo Mini.
Changed
- A steadier 200 MHz clock. The main PLL ran its oscillator at the very bottom of its range; it now runs mid-range and gives the same 200 MHz.
- Quicker menus. Home, Settings and choice lists act when you press Play, not when you let go. Holding Play on a song or an album still opens its menu.
- Less work when nothing moves. A screen that is not changing is no longer redrawn, and the player sleeps between key presses, which should help the battery a little (not measured yet).
- Pause and skip respond sooner, because the resume file is written after the screen is drawn.
- Albums, Favorites and Cover Flow open and scroll with fewer reads from the card.
- The splash is shorter, 0.5 s instead of 1.1 s.
When you update
- Your library, settings, equalizer, orientation and Bluetooth headphones stay as they are.
Full notes: docs/release-notes.md.
Install
Follow the user guide. Already on EchoPod: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage (ECHO MINI), eject both drives and unplug; the player installs it. From FiiO firmware 3.7.0, 3.9.0 or 4.0.0: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage, eject, unplug, take the microSD card out and restart. Installing from Windows is the tested route. One tester whose FiiO firmware kept refusing the file got it to install after first updating to FiiO's 3.8 firmware.
Check the download first: the SHA-256 of HIFIEC90.IMG must match SHA256SUMS.txt.
Your music goes on the microSD card; EchoPod doesn't read music from internal storage.
The 512 MB Echo Mini is not supported.
EchoPod 0.8.0
EchoPod 0.8.0, replacement firmware for the Snowsky (FiiO) Echo Mini 8 GB.
Use it at your own risk. EchoPod is early, has been tested on one player, and comes with no warranty. Read the known issues and make sure you could recover the player through maskrom before you install.
New
- Portrait mode. Settings → Orientation → Portrait or Portrait, flipped turns the screen upright straight away, and the player starts that way next time. Home shows the album art under the menu, Now Playing puts the cover above the track, Cover Flow scrolls albums from top to bottom, the Custom EQ shows its seven bands as rows, and lists show 11 rows. Long messages, such as the update progress, wrap onto more lines so they fit. The volume rocker turns with the screen, so the button on top moves up through lists; in Portrait (not flipped) it also turns the volume down.
When you update
- Your library, settings, equalizer and Bluetooth headphones stay as they are. Orientation starts on Landscape.
Full notes: docs/release-notes.md.
Install
Follow the user guide. Already on EchoPod: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage (ECHO MINI), eject both drives and unplug; the player installs it. From FiiO firmware 3.7.0, 3.9.0 or 4.0.0: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage, eject, unplug, take the microSD card out and restart. Installing from Windows is the tested route. One tester whose FiiO firmware kept refusing the file got it to install after first updating to FiiO's 3.8 firmware.
Check the download first: the SHA-256 of HIFIEC90.IMG must match SHA256SUMS.txt.
Your music goes on the microSD card; EchoPod doesn't read music from internal storage.
The 512 MB Echo Mini is not supported.
EchoPod 0.7.1
EchoPod 0.7.1, replacement firmware for the Snowsky (FiiO) Echo Mini 8 GB.
Use it at your own risk. EchoPod is early, has been tested on one player, and comes with no warranty. Read the known issues and make sure you could recover the player through maskrom before you install.
Fixed
- The first start with a FAT32 card no longer looks frozen. With a FAT32 microSD card full of music, the first start after installing could stay on a black screen for minutes while the player set up its files on the card, so it looked like it wouldn't boot. It now finds the free space on the card in one pass instead of one pass per file, and shows "Setting up the card..." while it works. exFAT cards weren't affected.
When you update
- Your library, settings, covers, equalizer and Bluetooth headphones stay as they are.
Full notes: docs/release-notes.md.
Install
Follow the user guide. Already on EchoPod: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage (ECHO MINI), eject both drives and unplug; the player installs it. From FiiO firmware 3.7.0, 3.9.0 or 4.0.0: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage, eject, unplug, take the microSD card out and restart. Installing from Windows is the tested route. One tester whose FiiO firmware kept refusing the file got it to install after first updating to FiiO's 3.8 firmware.
Check the download first: the SHA-256 of HIFIEC90.IMG must match SHA256SUMS.txt.
Your music goes on the microSD card; EchoPod doesn't read music from internal storage.
The 512 MB Echo Mini is not supported.
EchoPod 0.7.0
EchoPod 0.7.0, replacement firmware for the Snowsky (FiiO) Echo Mini 8 GB.
Use it at your own risk. EchoPod is early, has been tested on one player, and comes with no warranty. Read the known issues and make sure you could recover the player through maskrom before you install.
New
- Equalizer. Settings → Equalizer, or hold ≡ on Now Playing. It has the presets from FiiO's firmware (Retro, Bass, Heavy, Pop, Jazz, Unique) and a 7-band Custom EQ (63 Hz to 16 kHz, ±12 dB): Vol± pick a band, ▶ grabs it and Vol± set its level. You hear each preset as you scroll to it, and the player remembers the last one you used. Boosts lower the overall level a little so loud music doesn't distort. It works for tracks up to 96 kHz and through Bluetooth; it's off for 176.4 and 192 kHz tracks and in USB DAC mode. For FLAC and ALAC the second processor does the equalizing at full speed, so the screen stays smooth on hi-res tracks, at the cost of a little battery while the equalizer is on.
- ALAC (Apple Lossless) plays.
.m4afiles in Apple Lossless play at 16, 20 or 24 bits, mono or stereo, from 44.1 to 192 kHz, with seeking and gapless playback. - AAC plays.
.m4afiles in AAC (the kind iTunes and most phones make) play, mono or stereo, with seeking and gapless playback. HE-AAC files (often used for podcasts and radio) still say they aren't supported. - Opus plays.
.opusfiles show up in the library (with their tags and length) and play, mono or stereo, with exact seeking and gapless playback.
Faster
- Hi-res playback takes half as much of the main processor. A 96 kHz 24-bit FLAC went from 61 % to 29 % of the main processor, which leaves more time for the screen and the buttons.
When you update
- Your library, settings, covers and Bluetooth headphones stay as they are. The equalizer starts Off.
- To see Opus files you already have, rescan once (Settings → Rescan library) or run echo-sync again.
Full notes: docs/release-notes.md.
Install
Follow the user guide. Already on EchoPod: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage (ECHO MINI), eject both drives and unplug; the player installs it. From FiiO firmware 3.7.0, 3.9.0 or 4.0.0: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage, eject, unplug, take the microSD card out and restart. Installing from Windows is the tested route. One tester whose FiiO firmware kept refusing the file got it to install after first updating to FiiO's 3.8 firmware.
Check the download first: the SHA-256 of HIFIEC90.IMG must match SHA256SUMS.txt.
Your music goes on the microSD card; EchoPod doesn't read music from internal storage.
The 512 MB Echo Mini is not supported.
EchoPod 0.6.0
EchoPod 0.6.0, replacement firmware for the Snowsky (FiiO) Echo Mini 8 GB.
Use it at your own risk. EchoPod is early, has been tested on one player, and comes with no warranty. Read the known issues and make sure you could recover the player through maskrom before you install.
New
- Random album. Cover Flow starts with a Random album tile (a shuffle mark as its cover), just before the first album. Press Play on it to hear a random album from its first track, in order.
- Albums stay together when some tracks feature another artist. When files have no album-artist tag, a track by "The Weeknd & Justice" used to split off from the rest of "Hurry Up Tomorrow" by The Weeknd. Tracks without that tag that share a folder and album name are now one album, under the artist most of them share. Rescan the library (Settings → Rescan library) or run echo-sync again to see it.
Fixed
- Bluetooth connects within seconds. "Connecting…" could last 20–30 seconds after the headphones had already announced the connection. The player now asks the Bluetooth module for its status every second while connecting, as stock does, so "Connected" shows within about a second of the link coming up.
- Headphones put in pairing mode are found. Headphones the player already knew didn't show up when put in pairing mode while it was searching, until Bluetooth was turned off and on. Like stock, a search that follows a connection attempt now restarts the module first. Remembered headphones a search finds connect straight away; after Pair new device or a disconnect, their row shows "Nearby" instead. Devices found stay listed between searches.
- Play no longer pauses again on Bluetooth. A late "paused" report from the headphones could pause playback right after Play was pressed. Reports are now ignored for 3 seconds after Play or Pause on the player, and a pause the headphones cause shows "Paused by ".
- Diagnostics → Bluetooth keeps the last 12 module messages, with the commands the player sent and the seconds between them.
When you update
- Your library, settings, covers and Bluetooth headphones stay as they are.
- To keep albums with featured artists together, rescan once (Settings → Rescan library) or run echo-sync again.
Full notes: docs/release-notes.md.
Install
Follow the user guide. Already on EchoPod: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage (ECHO MINI), eject both drives and unplug; the player installs it. From FiiO firmware 3.7.0, 3.9.0 or 4.0.0: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage, eject, unplug, take the microSD card out and restart. Installing from Windows is the tested route. One tester whose FiiO firmware kept refusing the file got it to install after first updating to FiiO's 3.8 firmware.
Check the download first: the SHA-256 of HIFIEC90.IMG must match SHA256SUMS.txt.
Your music goes on the microSD card; EchoPod doesn't read music from internal storage.
The 512 MB Echo Mini is not supported.
Notes
- echo-sync changed in this release (album grouping): use the echo-sync downloads attached here.
- This build uses pid.codes' shared test USB IDs (
1209:0001for storage,1209:0002for DAC mode) until an assigned product ID is available. HIFIEC90.IMGis built from commit8b0bad5.
EchoPod 0.5.0
EchoPod 0.5.0, replacement firmware for the Snowsky (FiiO) Echo Mini 8 GB.
Use it at your own risk. EchoPod is early, has been tested on one player, and comes with no warranty. Read the known issues and make sure you could recover the player through maskrom before you install.
New
- Bluetooth headphones. Settings → Bluetooth (third in the list) turns Bluetooth on, pairs headphones with Pair new device and remembers up to six, most recent first.
- With Bluetooth on, the player connects to your last headphones by itself at start-up and when they come back in range, and resets and retries a connection that stalls.
- Press Play on the connected headphones to disconnect them, on other remembered headphones to switch, and hold Play to forget them.
- Music goes to the headphones whenever nothing is in either jack. Their pause, play, next and previous work, and taking them out of your ears pauses if they have in-ear detection. A dropped connection pauses playback.
- A small Bluetooth mark next to the play icon shows Bluetooth on (dim) or connected (bright). With nothing connected for 5 minutes, Bluetooth switches itself off until you open its screen or restart.
- Tested on the player with OnePlus Buds 3.
- Charge screen. Switching off with a cable plugged in, or plugging a charger into a switched-off player, shows the battery level and "Charging" or "Charged". The screen goes dark after 5 seconds; any button lights it. Hold Power to turn the player on, or unplug to switch it off.
Fixed
- Battery percent (#4). The level dropped a few points whenever playback or the screen briefly loaded the battery, and could show 98 % on the charger while the battery held less, which then looked like drain while switched off. It now averages about a minute of readings, never shows more than 99 % while charging, and settles to the true level within a minute of unplugging.
- Switching off on a cable. Holding Power with a charger or computer plugged in left the screen black and the player unresponsive until the reset button. It now shows the charge screen.
- Start-up. The screen stays dark until EchoPod's first frame, so the panel's noise no longer flashes in the corner.
- Dark screen during USB. A message shown with the screen off (such as "Computer found") could stay almost black for the whole USB session; it now lights fully.
Known limits
- To switch from Bluetooth to wired headphones, pause, plug them in and press Play: while music goes to Bluetooth the player can't read the jack.
- Bluetooth has been tried with one pair of headphones so far. Reports with other headphones and speakers are welcome.
When you update
- Nothing to do: your library, settings and covers stay as they are. Bluetooth starts off; turn it on in Settings → Bluetooth.
Full notes: docs/release-notes.md.
Install
Follow the user guide. Already on EchoPod: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage (ECHO MINI), eject both drives and unplug; the player installs it. From FiiO firmware 3.7.0, 3.9.0 or 4.0.0: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage, eject, unplug, take the microSD card out and restart. Installing from Windows is the tested route. One tester whose FiiO firmware kept refusing the file got it to install after first updating to FiiO's 3.8 firmware.
Check the download first: the SHA-256 of HIFIEC90.IMG must match SHA256SUMS.txt.
Your music goes on the microSD card; EchoPod doesn't read music from internal storage.
The 512 MB Echo Mini is not supported.
Notes
- echo-sync hasn't changed since 0.3.0: use the downloads from the 0.3.0 release.
- This build uses pid.codes' shared test USB IDs (
1209:0001for storage,1209:0002for DAC mode) until an assigned product ID is available. HIFIEC90.IMGis built from commite3c00f3.
EchoPod 0.4.0
EchoPod 0.4.0, replacement firmware for the Snowsky (FiiO) Echo Mini 8 GB.
Use it at your own risk. EchoPod is early, has been tested on one player, and comes with no warranty. Read the known issues and make sure you could recover the player through maskrom before you install.
New
- Chinese, Japanese and Korean names. Song, artist and album names in Korean, Simplified Chinese and Japanese no longer show as
?(#2). The player now has the 2,350 common Hangul syllables, the 6,763 hanzi of GB 2312, the kanji of JIS X 0208, kana and CJK punctuation, at both text sizes, drawn with Noto Sans CJK SC. Tested on the player with Korean, Chinese, Japanese and accented titles. - Traditional-only Chinese characters, emoji and other scripts (Arabic, Hebrew, Thai, Cyrillic, Greek…) still show as
?.
Changed
- Accented letters (é, ü, ñ…) now come from the same glyph packs instead of being built into the firmware's code. They look exactly as before.
When you update
- Nothing to do: your library, settings and covers stay as they are.
- The first time a screen shows a character, the player reads it from internal storage; after that it comes from memory.
Full notes: docs/release-notes.md.
Install
Follow the user guide. Already on EchoPod: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage (ECHO MINI), eject both drives and unplug; the player installs it. From FiiO firmware 3.7.0, 3.9.0 or 4.0.0: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage, eject, unplug, take the microSD card out and restart. Installing from Windows is the tested route.
Check the download first: the SHA-256 of HIFIEC90.IMG must match SHA256SUMS.txt.
Your music goes on the microSD card; EchoPod doesn't read music from internal storage.
The 512 MB Echo Mini is not supported.
Notes
- echo-sync hasn't changed since 0.3.0: use the downloads from the 0.3.0 release.
- This build uses pid.codes' shared test USB IDs (
1209:0001for storage,1209:0002for DAC mode) until an assigned product ID is available. - The CJK glyph packs are made from Noto Sans CJK SC 2.004, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
HIFIEC90.IMGis built from commit120fad1.
EchoPod 0.3.0
EchoPod 0.3.0, replacement firmware for the Snowsky (FiiO) Echo Mini 8 GB.
Use it at your own risk. EchoPod is early, has been tested on one player, and comes with no warranty. Read the known issues and make sure you could recover the player through maskrom before you install.
Fixed
- Going back to FiiO's firmware 4.0.0. EchoPod 0.2.0 refused FiiO's newest 8 GB firmware (
HIFIEC40.IMG) as "isn't a valid image for this player". 0.3.0 accepts FiiO 3.7.0 to 4.0.0 and still refuses the 512 MB model'sMINIVnnn.IMG. Tested on the player: 0.3.0 installed FiiO 4.0.0, and FiiO 4.0.0 installed 0.3.0 again. Still on 0.2.0? Install FiiO 3.9.0 first and update to 4.0.0 from there, or update EchoPod first. - USB DAC plays on more computers and phones. Hosts that picked 88.2 or 96 kHz (Android always does, and some Windows and Linux setups) showed the format and played nothing. DAC mode now offers 44.1 and 48 kHz, 16 or 24-bit, and all four played from Windows 11. If you set your computer to 88.2 or 96 kHz before, pick 48 kHz.
- Gapless MP3. MP3s made with LAME or ffmpeg now play without a gap between tracks: the player drops the silence the encoder added, using the file's LAME tag.
Faster
- Rescans keep the covers. A rescan only decodes new albums and changed art instead of every cover. The first rescan after updating still decodes them all, once.
- echo-sync's covers are kept too. echo-sync now writes covers the player keeps when it later rescans. Download echo-sync again from this release to get this.
When you update
- The first rescan after the update decodes every cover once, and so does one after an echo-sync from 0.2.0.
- In DAC mode, if your computer was set to 88.2 or 96 kHz, it now picks 44.1 or 48 kHz.
Full notes: docs/release-notes.md.
Install
Follow the user guide. Already on EchoPod: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage (ECHO MINI), eject both drives and unplug; the player installs it. From FiiO firmware 3.7.0, 3.9.0 or 4.0.0: copy HIFIEC90.IMG to the top level of the player's internal storage, eject, unplug, take the microSD card out and restart. Installing from Windows is the tested route.
Check the download first: the SHA-256 of HIFIEC90.IMG must match SHA256SUMS.txt.
Your music goes on the microSD card; EchoPod doesn't read music from internal storage.
The 512 MB Echo Mini is not supported.
Notes
- This build uses pid.codes' shared test USB IDs (
1209:0001for storage,1209:0002for DAC mode) until an assigned product ID is available. - USB DAC mode at 44.1/48 kHz hasn't been tried on Android or Linux yet; reports are welcome.
HIFIEC90.IMGis built from commit798f576.