A couple of people in both forums and IRC have recommended the Acer Aspire Revo 3610 net-top machine as a candidate for running Boxee, so after a little research I picked on up from eBuyer at a bargain £180 for the N330 / 2GB / 250GB / Linpus configuration, delivered the next day for free. After firing it up for the first time, I spent less than 5 minutes poking around the pre-installed Linpus out of curiosity (the 250GB disk was oddly configured with a single 10GB partition), then promptly wiped it and installed Ubuntu 10.04 (x64) and the latest Boxee release.

Having previously read Liam Green-Hughes’ website, I was aware that I needed to tweak some settings to get the digital sound working, though there was a slight difference with my Revo in that I have three different S/PDIF levels within alsamixer – “S/PDIF”, “S/PDIF Default PCM” and “S/PDIF 1″. I un-muted all  of them but have yet to experiment to see what each of them does. I set my output device to “Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output” within the Ubuntu sound configuration as I want the audio to be sent to my amp over S/PDIF for decoding; after messing around with a few different combinations of settings within Boxee I was getting sound for files encoded with normal stereo sound, but silence for anything with multiple channels (DD / DTS). After a couple of hours of tinkering and research, it turns out that pulseaudio has a default sample rate of 44.1kHz and AC3 (Dolby Digital) is signed 16-bit little-endian 2-channel 48kHz PCM data, configuring pulseaudio to run with a sample rate of 48kHz appears to have fixed the issue, as I am now getting DD and DTS passed to my amp for every media file I have tested.

After playing around with the Revo / Boxee combination for about a day, it’s generally all positive; it plays back 720p/1080p content perfectly by passing the majority of the HD video decoding to the ION chip with the help of VDPAU available within GNU/Linux, the CPU is running at ~10% during all of this while managing perfectly with non-HD content too but with a little more strain on the N330. While “idling” on the Boxee home screen, one of the CPU’s threads is curiously always running at 100% load, though it is possible it is still indexing all of my media with it reporting “identifying” next to one of my sources. It has currently successfully identified 99% of my media requiring me to manually identify a handful of files, but this is perfectly acceptable considering the brilliant interface complete with covers and descriptions for all of my movies and TV shows. There is a slightly annoying wait when switching between the different areas of Boxee and sometimes a slight bit of lag when browsing through the media, but this could be down to it still indexing the content.

There appears to be plenty more to play with such as web content and applications, from what I have looked at, Flash video plays back fine in standard definition but HD Flash content is completely unwatchable – This is likely down to the lack of 64bit Linux support from Adobe. Other web based content such as the video made available within the Revision 3 application plays back perfectly, I’m pretty sure it’s HD too, but I couldn’t find an option to switch between the different encodings of their content.

Our new printer, an HP 2727nf MFP, was a completely different experience. After hooking it up to the network and selecting to add a new printer within Ubuntu, it searched for printers, found the new HP, fetched and installed the required drivers and just worked! Pages are sent to the printer almost immediatly and have printed perfectly every time, so far.

Also, I set the same printer up on 6 machines in the office, 1 x Ubuntu, 2 x Xubuntu, 1 x OS X, 1 x Vista, 1 x XP Pro. By the time it was set-up on the first Windows machine I had already completed the set-up on all three Linux machines – Two thumbs up for Ubuntu and HP.

After taking it apart and hooking it back up to some power, a guitar and an amp, in its disassembled state it was working fine – Reassemble and the fault reappears. It was instantly obvious that something was shorting out against the metal casing. You’d have thought that there was some form of non-conductive coating on the base-plate – Maybe there is, but defective near the switching area of the circuit. Covering the base-plate with insulation tape fixed the issue and it’s now working perfectly again!

Upon booting there was no sign of the cards BIOS during POST and no sign of the disks attached to it either after booting into Ubuntu, though running lspci reported that the card was present. After poking around with a mixture of Google and the Ubuntu forums, a number of people were having issues with the card but no conclusive fix had been found.

So I head on over to the Silicon Image website to check if there are any new BIOS images available, and surprisingly there was! After downloading, and realising that the only flash tool available was DOS based along with my server not having a floppy drive or a CD drive to boot into a DOS shell with I managed to get a USB stick booting into DOS with the flash tool.

To cut the story short – Flashing the card with the latest non-RAID version of the BIOS fixed my issue. It was now displaying the BIOS upon boot, and the attached disks were visible when running lshw -C disk.

After doing a little research, it turns out that the mic is surface mounted to the keyboard PCB so to replace the mic I’d need a new (or working) keyboard PCB. The only place I could find this component new was on some American website, which after shipping and other taxes involved in importing stuff, would have cost about £70. Or, I could have sent it off to Vodafone for repair at a cost of £60 and a few weeks Blackberry-less no doubt.

I ended up grabbing what was described as a faulty 8800 from someone on eBay for about £40, the description said it had a software fault, so there was a good chance that the hardware was in good condition. It turns out that there was nothing wrong with it from what I could gather after messing around with it for a couple of minutes. But it was on the o2 network, so no use to me.

After disassembling one of my 8800s it turns out that the keyboard PCB is somehow permanently fixed to the chassis. I made several attempts to split the two apart, but was concerned as to how functional the PCB would have been afterwards, and how I was going to mount the replacement. I’m assuming that if I were to order the replacement part from America, it would arrive mounted to the chassis. The only issue with this, is that the sticker with the serial number, IMEI, BT MAC etc. is also permanently stuck to the back of the chassis.

There isn’t too much work involved in taking one of these things apart. After removing the battery, MicroSD card and sim card out there are four Torx T5 (or T4 – My precision Torx drivers aren’t marked) screws to remove. After removing the two chrome plastic side plates, which are just clipped on, the back cover comes off with a bit of jiggling.

After removing the back cover, there are a further two T5 screw to remove near the top which releases the clipped on front cover and keypad. At the bottom there is then a plastic cover that just pulls off, underneath is a small PCB which looks like it contains some form of antenna, possibly GPRS/EDGE based on what was printed on the cover.

The next task is to remove the frame that the loudspeaker is mounted to. This frame is just clipped on with two clips either side, and two clips at the top. There is also a wire linking the main board to the antenna board which is clipped to the frame, it’s easiest to unplug the wire at each end before removing the frame.

After the frame is removed, the main PCB should be fairly easy to remove after unplugging the ribbon cables from the display and keyboard. Flip the chassis over and remove the display by firmly pulling it away from the metal backing plate, it is only held on with an adhesive pad. At this stage I got the second 8800 to the same stage, and reassembled my original phone around the chassis with the working keyboard mounted to it. It’s always worth checking that it is functioning before putting it back in its casing – You don’t want to put it all back together only to find there is a bad connection somewhere!

After doing a bit of research, this appears to be a fairly common issue. One suggestion that did work for me was to remove the bluez-* packages, but apparently there is the side effect of other Bluetooth devices no longer working. This isn’t an issue for me, so it’ll keep me happy until a real fix is in place.

Drop the following into your CLI if you’re having the same issue…
sudo apt-get remove bluez-cups bluez-pcmcia-support bluez-pin bluez-utils

In a nutshell, I have created a sequence and have it looping while I play with some samples over the top. When playing patterns over the top, it appears to be affecting the playback of other samples in the sequence.

More often than not, by pressing a pad to trigger a sample it is causing another sample in the sequence to end prematurely. Also, when holding down a pad the assigned sample only plays for 1 bar and then cuts out.

Here is a YouTube video of my problem

The set-up:
- 8 Bar loop.
- Six tracks.
- Default programs in memory.
- Loaded Strings (mono) program.
- Loaded program of mono samples from a TV show I’ve sampled.
- Tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Muted.
- No effects applied to any samples.

Explanation:
- 00:03 – Track 1 playing. Low strings.
- 00:19 – Un-mute track 2. Drums.
- 00:36 – Un-mute track 3. Unknown, could be empty!
- 00:52 – Un-mute track 4. Synth?
- 01:07 – Un-mute track 5. High strings.
- 01:24 – Un-mute track 6. Voice.
- 01:40 – Load strings into track 7.
- 01:47 – Demonstration of sample not playing to end.
- 02:10 – Playing pattern with strings, voice sample play to end.
- 02:20 – Playing pattern with strings, voice (track 6) sample cuts out.
- 02:35 – Playing pattern with strings, voice (track 6) sample cuts out.
- 03:03 – Demonstration of sample not playing to end.
- 03:14 – Stop loop, show full length of string sample.
- 03:22 – Start loop. Demonstration of sample not playing to end.
- 03:40 – Playing pattern with strings, low strings (track 1) not playing to end.
- 03:55 – Select program with voice samples.
- 04:17 – Demonstration of voice (track 6) sample cutting out.
- 04:25 – Stop loop and show full length of voice sample.

There’s quite a bit of unnecessary bits in the video and explanation, but I tried to capture as much of the problem as bearable.

I have updated the firmware from 1.10 to 1.13, which didn’t fix the problem.

Is this a hardware or software limitation? Is it likely to be fixed in a later firmware update, or can the audio processors only handle a certain amount?

I have dropped Akai Pro an e-mail explaining the above hoping that they can offer an explanation and/or fix.

There are a number of items packaged with the BTA1000:

• The BTA1000 itself.
• Microphone, with clip.
• Jack fixture, for securing the microphone jack when plugged in.
• 3 cable clips.
• 4-pin (2×2) microfit connector.
• 12-pin (6×2) Ford connector.
• Some odd shaped red plastic thing – No idea…
• Variety of pre-terminated cables.

This kit can be used in a number of vehicles, hence the Ford connector and pre-terminated cables. These are for constructing the radio mute cable, along with the 4-pin plug.

Considering that the Gateway 500 has already been installed, the addition of the BTA1000 was relatively straight forward, it only had to be plugged inline between the Gateway 500 and the iPod cable. The difficult bit is hiding the microphone somewhere, I didn’t really want it clipped to the sun visor, that’d look a bit wank.

There is a factory option of an in-car phone system when ordering from Porsche, but as you would imagine, it has a silly price tag attached to it. When you have this factory option, the microphone is located behind a grill to the right of the instrument cluster – So this is where I installed mine. It just clips out after getting your nails under the edges. It’s pretty dark inside that little hole, even with a torch I was struggling to see if there was anywhere the cable could be routed through, there’s not really much room in there at all. I have access to a See Snake, which is a camera and light on the end of a bendy tube with an LCD screen. So I messed around with that for a bit, feeding it in from under the steering column, looking for somewhere to route this bloody microphone cable. Not much luck.

The next step was to remove the instrument cluster from the dashboard to get a better look at the situation. This is held in with two Torx 20 screws, one behind the microphone grill and the other behind the hazard light switch. The cluster is then clipped in in a number of places, so takes a bit of rocking and force to set it free. Then there are four wiring looms plugged into it, three of them are removed by lifting the black lever upwards, the forth is clipped in and doesn’t really need to come out as there was plenty of slack on it. A warning though, the clips that hold the cluster to the dash are bloody sharp and risk damaging the dash surface. Also a tip if you’re planning on removing the cluster: Disconnect your battery first! See, I didn’t, and upon reconnection the OBC was spitting out all sorts of worrying errors: Failure oil level indicator; Refil washer fluid; Failure of fuel level indicator Drive to workshop. It took me a while to figure out how to clear these errors! Ooops!

Without completely dismantling the cluster, I could only really see one way in which was a small gap right where my finger is pointing to on the image to the right. It took a bit of jiggling to get the right-angled 3.5mm microphone jack though, I even ended up loosening the back panel to make enough room. There are only two Torx 20 screws holding it down. After removing the pop-shield and cable molding from the microphone, it was pretty much a perfect fit for the grill fixture that houses the original microphone. I fed the cable down through the hole in the dash where the wiring looms for the blue and green plugs go, then round the back and under the carpet behind the pedals over to where the BTA1000 and Gateway 500 live. Then I reassembled the dash and should have reconnected the battery, if I had disconnected it. The Gateway 500 also needed resetting by inserting a pin in the reset hole on the aux switch unit, I was getting inconsistent errors and glitches on the iPod screen before resetting.

As always with Dension, the manual isn’t exactly clear on how the thing works. To clarify the situation, to pair a device with the BTA1000 you have to be in the Gateway 500 mode, then select disc 6 track 6 to get to the Bluetooth Hands Free mode (track 5 takes you to Bluetooth Audio mode), then select disc 1 track 3 to enter pairing mode, which is active for 60 seconds. The pin it asks for is 0000. Though a pretty annoying process, its all easy from here on. The BTA1000 automatically connects to my phone on turning the key and switches to hands-free mode when receiving a call, I either have to press the ‘next track’ button to answer, or ‘previous track’ to decline.

If your phone supports voice dialing, you can use that to make calls though there is a number of buttons to press before you can do this if you’re listening to some music. My phone doesn’t have voice dialing, so I have to initiate the call on the phone, but upon connection it automatically switches to hands-free mode, and then back to the music upon termination. I’m currently using a Blackberry 8800 and I had to switch it to ‘discoverable’ in my Bluetooth settings otherwise it wouldn’t connect for longer than a second, even though it paired fine.

I didn’t install the radio mute cable for a couple of reasons. It’s there to mute any audio source that is not the Gateway 500 so that you can hear the phone ringing, you then have to select the Dension setup (CDC) on the head unit to answer the call. I rarely listen to anything other than the iPod, so I couldn’t be bothered with the extra hassle of installing it. The Becker head units used in Porches were also not documented in the install booklet and a number of people have said on forums that there is no radio mute function on MOST based head units – I have since downloaded the schematics for the CDR23 and there is in fact a pin labeled as ‘TELMU’ which I can only assume means Telephone Mute, though I have not tried it to confirm that assumption.

For this little project I had to pick a few things up from Maplin, I used their website in the end as all of the bits I was after were unavailable in my local store. First of all I’d need a project box to house all of the components, they didn’t exactly have a huge range of suitable enclosures but I found a fairly good die-cast aluminium one that measured 145 x 95 x 45mm that fit the bill, its Maplin part number is N92BQ. I also need a couple of 1/4″ stereo sockets and some heavy duty momentary foot switches, part numbers HF93 and N92AP respectively. Those parts came to about £25 delivered, I already had the required wire and tools knocking around.

First up we’re going to have to decide how we want our switches positioned on the top of the box, it’s probably worth taking both usability and aesthetics into consideration. I chose a staggered configuration which would give me fairly easy access to all four switches and give adequate space for labeling each switch. This is also a good time to decide where we want to position our stereo sockets.

I guess this is a good time to point out that it isn’t totally necessary to go the stereo socket route, I chose to do it this way so that I have the flexibility to use different lengths of cable depending on what I’m plugging the footswitch into. I decided to put my sockets in the face furthest away – if you’re planning on putting a switch close-by, check the clearance, I had a lucky escape on that one! So, mark it all up and drill! The switches I used required a 12mm hole and I found that my project box was a bit inconsistent in its hardness!

Now we’re going to want to mount the switches in their holes, give them a good tighten with some pliers as they have a habit of coming loose when not tightened properly – But don’t over tighten them otherwise you’ll strip the thread. By mounting the switches this early on it gives us a good sturdy platform for soldering the wires onto the switch terminals. When cutting our lengths of wire it’s a good idea to build in a nice bit of slack so that we have the freedom of changing the positions of the switches at a later date.

Strip, tin and solder one end of each of your lengths of wire to each switch terminal. For those not down with the jargon, tinning is the process of coating the exposed wire and terminals with solder, this makes it easier to solder the wire to its terminal. You might find it a lot easier by fashioning a hook with your exposed and tinned wire and then hooking it onto the terminal before soldering.

Next we’re going to want to solder the other ends of those wires to the stereo sockets, each stereo socket will accommodate two switches. To avoid the requirement for a third-hand, I mounted the sockets on the outside of the box to keep them in place while soldering. Take one of the wires from each of the two switches that you want to associate with the first socket, these two wires will both be soldered to the ground tab of the stereo socket. The ground tab will be the one that is a part of the same piece of metal that touches the largest part of the stereo plug when it is in its socket, you might find it easier to identify by plugging in a 1/4″ jack and following the bit of metal to its tab. Before soldering, twist the two wires together, tin it and use the hook technique to make the process easier. You’ll now be left with one wire free on each of your two switches – Solder one to the tab that traces back to the tip of the stereo jack, and the second to the tab that traces back to the small section of the shaft. Repeat on the other two switches for the second socket.

We can now mount the stereo sockets in the inside of the box and tighten them in the same fashion as you did the switches. Bunch up the wiring so that it fits comfortably inside the box, not obstructing the stereo sockets or in a position where it will get trapped between the lid and the rest of the box. Screw the lid down and go test it out! If your switches aren’t doing what they’re supposed to be doing, double check all of your wiring making sure that your solder joints are good and solid, also check that nothing is being shorted out.

At this point, feel free to paint the box if you wish – I don’t think I’m going to bother, I quite like the industrial look which I am going to finish off with some labeling done with one of those sticky strip letter puncher-outer things if I can find one, I remember having a couple of them knocking around somewhere.

It’s worth pointing out that I kinda cocked up a bit in this process – I didn’t really do any research on the VFS-2 that I was looking to replace, after testing my switch out on my amp, I realised I should have bought latching switches instead of momentary ones. Unfortunately, latching switches tend to be both more expensive and deeper so they would only fit in the foremost positions where I wanted them in the rear. Luckily, my Boss GT-8 has amp control functionality and the ability to connect two external switches, so my GT-8 now controls my amp channel switching and has two extra assignable switches and my RC-2 now has bank switching and single-tap stopping. So, even better than what I first set out to achieve!

GW5_MOST_100.ZIP
GW5_MOST_104.ZIP
GW5_MOST_105.ZIP
GW5_MOST_202.ZIP
GW5_MOST_203.ZIP
GW5_MOST_205.ZIP

The above firmwares are for the MOST based version of the Gateway 500, i.e. Porsche, not the D2B version that is used in Mercedes cars. Installation is as follows:

Extract the G5_B_UPD.ROM file from the update package and copy to the root of an USB flash drive, then connect the USB drive to the Gateway 500 while it is powered. If there is an iPod connected to the Gateway you can leave as it is in any playback mode or status, do not need to disconnect or stop playback.

Update procedure will start automatically within few seconds and takes cca. 1.5 minute. Do not disconnect the USB drive within this time.
After a successful update G5_B_UPD.ROM is deleted from the USB drive and GW.EES.BIN file will appear with the new software version. If an iPod is connected during the update the iPod screen will light for the second time when the upgrade is completed and the new firmware version appears on the right upper corner of the screen.

When finished, it is better to restart the Head Unit and the Gateway 500.