Extending the Capacity of Creative Nomad IIc MP3 Players?

A not-so Anonymous Coward asks: "I recently bought a second hand Creative Nomad IIc. I've since found that it is a good little MP3 player, with one slight exception: it's lack of memory. Sixty-four megs of memory was good, but with the 10 and 20 GIG players out now it's a little lacking. Plus, being Canadian has it's downside: with the new 'tax' being applied to anything that can store music (another reference, here), MP3 players are set to double in price. Being the kind of person I am, I'd rather try upgrading my current MP3 player then buy a new one. Are there any ways to attach a laptop hard drive to my Nomad? Are there any Smart Media > IDE converters I could use? Is there any information on how to make one myself?"

Re:The best part

[Lord Bitman]

My favorite part is when the 'fixing my laptop' guy is talking, he's running SETI@Home in the background. That's the sort of attention to detail in commercials I love.

Re:This will soon be a problem in the USA

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is a web site that has several homebrewed MP3 players

http://ee.cleversoul.com/mp3_projects.html

Enjoy

A (somewhat) proud owner speaks out

[Azerphale]

First lets clear up the specs of the Nomad IIc mp3 player (sorry, sign says "No oggs allowed"). The II designates this as the Creative's second effort to sucker users into paying good money for a player with some problems. The c means that you're not get the fm radio tuner present on the normal model II (don't worry, commercial radio is ass anyway). The IIc comes with an internal memory capacity of either 32, 64, or 128mb. Every model is also blessed/cursed to have a smartmedia expansion slot on the rear of the unit, tucked up under the battery cover. The unit has one Line Out/Headphone jack a built in microphone and a USB connector. Various buttons are also present for tinkering with things like volume, voice recording, and accessing the internal memory. The LCD is mercifully backlit with a delay that can be adjusted in the internal settings menu.

One of the biggest shortcomings of the unit is the lack of file organisation. Files are present in one long list with no "search" or "jump" function. To go from song 5 to song 15 takes 10 clicks of the "skip right" button. Only while your nomad is connected to your computer are you able to sort this list of unhappiness. So connecting a 10Gig hard drive would give you an amazing amount of storage and an RSI of your index finger.

The IIc does have updatable firmware (available from Creative [creative.com])which dictates the maximum size of the smartmedia card that the unit can take. Unfortunately there are no firmware updates for the 128mb version but the 64mb updates seem to work ok.

Also, not to be forgotten, is the pox on the house of every Nomad user; Playcenter! This packaged in garbage software from Creative is the only way out of the box to store files on the your IIc to internal memory or smartmedia cards. The Nomad doesn't even show up as an external device in explorer. I've experienced repeated hangs/crashes when reading from 128mb smartmedia cards and long waits while it updates the database containing songs on my computer. Any respectable program should be able to handle a 6Gb+ mp3 collection without choking. The quick solution to this is Notmad Explorer [redchairsoftware.com] (the free version only allows the transfer of 1 file at a time $15 US for the single player version $35 for all nomad support).

That's about it, so I present to you two major hurdles to overcome in hacking this little wonder:

1) Powering the unit and an external HD on the go. The battery cover must be off to access the smartmedia slot so you run the risk of that AA battery popping out at inopportune times. Perhaps you could power both through a 12v cigarette lighter outlet of a car.

2) Firmware. You'll have to become a master of rewriting the firmware or know someone who is to overcome the 128mb barrier, find some way to skip to a certain song, and allow folder organization for easy browsing.

Perhaps some potential for expansion lies in the USB connection on the side of the player.

Maybe instead of hacking away looking for a big storage fix, save your pennies and order a Zen [nomadworld.com] from another country.

Amazing What Comes Up

[Anonymous Coward]

Homebrew MP3 Players

http://ee.cleversoul.com/mp3_projects.html

While it might not the best idea to add a hard drive to a Nomad, this thread did come up with a few cool tidbits like the do-it-yourself MP3 players.