Quick-Start Guide for the Rockboxed Sansa Clip Plus talking MP3 player

Created by: Laz Mesa on: 12-07-10 Updated on: 12-09-10

This document is meant as a quick start guide. You'll find more in-depth inform
ation and instructions in the accompanying Rockbox manual. However, the Rockbox
manual was written for advanced computer users, so I suggest you take advantage
of the free tech support instead.
This quick-start guide covers the following models: Sansa Clip + 2 GB, 4 GB, an
d 8 GB. These players are identical with the only differences being the color o
f the player and capacity of the built-in memory.
First of all, a little orientation as to what is what and where it s at on the San
sa Clip + talking MP3 player.
The way you should hold it is with the screen facing you, towards the top with t
he buttons towards the bottom. This is the face of the player.
The buttons are used to scroll up and down the menu items and going into and out
of the items. The best way to think of them is like the arrow keys on your com
puter's keyboard.
The left button is the previous track/rewind button. This button also serves as
the way to get to the original menu if you have navigated deeper into the menu
structure.
The right button is the next track/fast forward button. This button also serves
as the way to navigate deeper into the menu structure, and can be used to selec
t items as well, such as a track to play or in the settings menu to select your
choice of a menu item.
The up button is used to scroll up menu items and is the pause/play button. Whe
n a file or the FM radio is playing, pressing it briefly will pause playback and
pressing it again briefly will continue playing.
The down button is used to scroll down menu items. When in playback mode, The b
ottom button brings up a quick screen feature, where one can select which type o
f files should be displayed, etc, on the player. I suggest you don't go into th
is button but if you do, be sure to choose supported. There may be other functi
ons concerning this button, but I have yet to fully investigate it.
All the above mentioned buttons can be used to answer no to any queries by Rockb
ox.
The larger center button is the select button, which can be thought of as the en
ter key on your computer's keyboard. It also brings up different menus by press
ing and holding it down, depending on what is currently happening on the player.
It can be used to change some of the settings or to add a track to a play lis
t, etc. You also use this button to answer yes to Rockbox queries.
Above the buttons and to the right, you ll find a small round button, called the h
ome button. This button is used in conjunction with the FM radio to list the pr
esets. It also locks the controls when you press it and the select button for a
second or two. Repeating this will unlock the controls.
Those are all the controls on the face of the player.
The power button is located on the top right hand side. To turn on the player,
briefly press the button. To turn the player off, press the button and hold it

for about 3 to 5 seconds until the player says shutting down. The power button i
s also used to stop playback, just press it down briefly to stop playback. To r
eset the player, just press and hold the button for a full 15 seconds, as in 1-M
ississippi, 2-Mississippi, etc, then release it.
The built-in microphone is immediately to the left of the power button. Don't w
orry if you can't find it, as it's a very tiny hole.
On the right side of the player, you will find the headphone jack close to the t
op. This is a standard 3.5-mm jack. There is no built-in speaker on this playe
r; you have to use headphones or external speakers to hear any sounds from the p
layer.
Below the headphone jack is the microSD card slot. The memory card shows up as
another removable disk on your computer, usually right after the Player. ON the
player, it shows up as a folder spelled out as m i c r o S D inside the files m
enu, right at the very top. If you don t see the microSDHC cards when you try to
find them on your computer, try the below instructions.
01. Safely remove the player or eject it.
02. Physically disconnect the player from the USB connection.
03. Engage the power for a full 10 seconds to ensure the player is off.
04. Hold and continue to hold down the left button and click the power button,
count to six and then release the left button.
05. Connect the player to the computer.
06. When the player connects, see if your microSD card shows up now as a remova
ble drive.
Down the left side of the player is the mini USB connection. You plug the USB c
able into this end. The player will charge as long as it s plugged into a powered
USB slot. It only needs to charge for approximately 3 hours, and the battery i
s charged for approximately 15 hours of playback. When you check the battery st
atus under system, it may only show between 90 and 99% charged. For some reason
, some players show a full charge as less than 100%. This is nothing to worry a
bout, as the percentage is just an estimate and isn't very accurate. You won t be
able to use the player while it s connected and charging.
The volume control is a rocker switch and is located below the USB connection sl
ot. Press the top part to increase the volume and the lower part to decrease it
.
Note: When disconnecting the player from the computer, it's necessary to engage
the power button for a full 10 seconds. This ensures that the player has turne
d off, after which the player can be turned back on.
I suggest you stay away from the Audible and "Music" folders, as these folders h
ave some sort of encrypting and DRM protection scheme features, and your files w
ill not behave normally while in these folders. These folders behave strangely
when one uses them, so to avoid any problems, just don't use them. Try using th
e Audiobooks and My Music folders instead.
Files from Audible, Rhapsody, and NLS are encrypted and will not play while usin
g the Rockbox firmware, nor will any DRM-protected files, such as DRM-protected
WMA files or some files from iTunes which are still encrypted.
The easiest way I've found to get audio files onto the player is to just copy an
d paste them in using Windows Explorer or My Computer, as opposed to synching th
e player with the Windows Media Player. Remember to stay away from the Audible
and Music folders. You can create your own folders as well, just like on any US
B drive.

I suggest you use the file menu item on the player to locate the folders and fil
es that you wish to play, which I find to be very straightforward as opposed to
using the database function although, this works relatively as well although not
as accessible. However, realize that once you've initiated the database, it wi
ll refresh itself when you physically disconnect the player from the computer an
d at times, when you turn the player on, which can take several minutes, dependi
ng on how many files it has to deal with.
If you plan to make some changes in the settings, please make a backup of the .Ro
ckbox folder onto your computer. That way if something goes awry, you can just r
estore it to the way it was before by just copying that folder back onto your pl
ayer.
The speaking of the folder and file names is not accomplished by changing any se
ttings on the player, it's accomplished by using the VoiceBox utility. IN order
for Rockbox to speak the names of any folders or files that you ve added to the M
P3 player, you need to run the VoiceBox utility on those folders and files. It s
included in the Utilities folder on the player. Here are the instructions for u
sing it:
*NOTE* This utility has been set up to have the appropriate settings preset. P
lease don't make any changes at all in its settings, unless you know what you're
doing. If you change something in the settings, it may not work properly.
01. Connect the player to your computer.
02. Using My Computer or Windows Explorer, locate the player.
03. When you locate the player, navigate to the Utilities folder.
04. Once in the Utilities folder, navigate to the VoiceBox folder.
05. Once in the VoiceBox folder, locate the file named voicebox.hta. There is
a setting on PC's which hides the file extensions and I've found that some of ou
r customers have had this turned on when their computers were set up. If this i
s the case on your computer, you will see several instances of VoiceBox when you
look for it. The one to run is the one which is an HTML application and should
be the first VoiceBox file on the list of several VoiceBox files in that folder
.
06. Press enter on voicebox.hta to launch the program.
07. Don't change any settings, just tab down to the browse button and press the
spacebar. Some of these settings can be changed by using the arrow keys, so pl
ease don't use them on any items before you reach the browse button.
08. Tab until you see the tree structure, arrow down to select the folder you w
ish to process, and then tab to and press the spacebar on the OK button. This f
unctions like any treeview, where you can use the up arrow to move upwards, the
down arrow to move down, right arrow to open a branch and the left arrow to clos
e it.
09. You will find yourself back at the browse button, just tab to the Run Voice
Box button and press the spacebar.
The larger the number of files and folders you process at one time, the longer i
t ll take to finish. When it makes a ding sound, it has completed the generation
of the .talk files. If you receive an error message instead of the ding sound,
see the below notes.
10. After it dings, just tab to the exit VoiceBox button and press the spacebar
.
11. Safely remove or eject the player.
Your folder and files should now be spoken by Rockbox on your player. If they'r
e not spoken or even spelled, then contact me.

Notes:
If you received a script error message right off the bat when you launched the u
tility, your copy of VoiceBox is most likely corrupted. Email me for a fresh co
py.
Some people running Windows Vista or Windows 7 have had problems using
but even though it gives an error message at the end of processing, it
ated the .talk files. What appears to be happening on these operating
s that the utility is looking for the ding.wav file and can't find it,
s Vista and 7 have changed its location.

VoiceBox
has gener
systems i
as Window

VoiceBox uses whatever the default SAPI5 voice is on your computer system to gen
erate the .talk files. You can use the control panel, speech to change this if
you happen to have more than one SAPI 5 voice installed. Realize that the voice
being used by your screen reader is not necessarily the default SAPI 5 voice on
your computer.
If you have any problems using this utility, please contact me, and I ll help you
get it working.
Do not update the Sansa firmware, as doing this will make the Rockbox firmware n
ot load, and you ll have to send your player back to me to restore it to working c
ondition for you, at a minimum charge of $20. to cover my time and the postage a
nd handling to mail it back to you.
I've only covered the basics in this quick start guide. You will find lots more
information in the manual, however be prepared to swim through a lot of geek-sp
eak. If there are any questions, don t hesitate to contact me at: accessibleelec
tronics@gmail.com
Created and updated by: Laz Mesa