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.