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bravenet.comI2GO Ego and Audiovox mp4000 support and latest news
Video Greetings 56k
videogreetingbroadbandI2Go website helpfiles from old website modified and commented
Please check back here often. I will be putting up actual RECORDINGS for
you to download and listen to. In these recordings I will tell you some of the information
I and some of my friends have found about the Ego. I bought the ego NOT as a device
to listen to mp3 music or audio books on, but as a recording device. I have
been exchanging audio tapes for over 30 years and have now advanced that into the digital
age using the ego and internet. I record memo files on the ego, convert them to mp3
with some utilities we made up to make it easy, and then put them on my ftp server for my
friends to pick up. They do the same in reverse and we talk to each other most every
day while driving to and from work and errands. It is one of the things I really enjoy on
a day to day basis.
Here are the files I have recorded so far. The WMA ones are smaller and more easy to
download using dial up speeds. The mp3 ones are larger. I will give you the
filesize. Download the file and unzip. Play them on your computer OR play the mp3 in your
ego/mp4000. WMA will play ONLY on your computer. These files contain click by click
instructions that you can follow alone. Be sure to download the software that goes with
the audio so you can follow along. Please go to the forum and let me know what you think
of these hints and instructions.
WMA MP3
mediamanager setup and use 900k 1.71mb
our file conversion utilities
2.2mb
4.4mb
covering sc4 to mp3 and wma
Ego tips covering memory
2mb
4mb
management, microdrive use
and other tips we have found
Download mediamanager and firmware upgrade here
Download our file conversion utilities here
Here is info on these utilities. You will find this documentation installed on your start menu under ego utilities.
Clay's eGo Utilities v1.0 - 16 September 2004
=============================================
The eGo Utilities don't have shortcuts. You invoke them by right-
clicking on the folder containing voice files and selecting the
desired option from the pop-up menu. The options listed below are
available when you do a "complete" install. You may change your
installed feature selections at any time by going to the Control
Panel, running Add/Remove Programs, selecting eGo Utilities, and
clicking "Change."
1. UTILITIES FOR USE ON FILES THAT YOU CREATE ON YOUR eGo
======================================================
Convert all SC4 to WAV
----------------------
Use this to put WAV headers on the SC4 files that your eGo produces.
Note: To play the resulting WAV files, you need the SC4 Codec, which
comes in a separate, third-party installation package. After doing
this, you can use Winamp or other utility to convert your WAV files
to MP3 or other desired format.
The SC4 to WAV converter standardizes your WAV file names in the
same manner as described below for the "Rename eGo WAVs" feature.
Additionally, it intelligently builds upon any existing WAV files
in the folder. For example, suppose you place files MEMO 1.SC4 through
MEMO 42.SC4 in an empty folder, then right-click the folder and choose
"Convert all SC4 to WAV." The result will be MEMO_001.WAV through
MEMO_042.WAV. Now suppose you format your eGo's memory and record a
new batch of files MEMO 1.SC4 through MEMO 15.SC4. You can simply
copy them into the same folder and perform the conversion again;
they will not conflict with your existing files. The converter will
see that you already have WAV files numbered through 42 and will
assign the name MEMO_043.WAV to your first new SC4 file. Thus, you
will add MEMO_043.WAV through MEMO_057.WAV to your existing file set.
Convert all SC4 to WAV /Retain_name
-----------------------------------
This is the "dumb" version of the SC4 to WAV converter. It uses the
existing SC4 file name as-is, changing the extension to WAV and affixing
the WAV file header, but it does not standardize the names nor does it
append to your existing series of names. The "Typical" installation does
not include this feature; if you want this you have to do a "Complete"
or "Custom" install.
Rename eGo WAVs
---------------
Use this feature to standardize your WAV file names. The blank
space becomes an underscore, and all file numbers become three
digits long (MEMO_001, MEMO_002, etc.). This was most useful with
an older version of SC4 to WAV that didn't do file name standardization
and file set appending. The "Typical" installation does not include
this feature; if you want this you have to do a "Complete" or "Custom"
install.
Rename eGo-Winamp MP3s
----------------------
When you process your WAV files through Winamp to create MP3s, Winamp
prepends sequence numbers and trashes your file names in other ways too.
Use this feature to standardize your Winamp-generated MP3 file names for
eGo-originated voice files. Note that this feature uses decimal file
numbers; if your files will be played on an eGo, you should use the
Octal renamer instead of this one. For this reason, the "Typical"
installation does not include this feature; if you want this you have to
do a "Complete" or "Custom" install.
Rename eGo-Winamp WMAs
----------------------
This feature renames Winamp-generated WMA files. It works the same way
as the MP3 renamer described above, but it processes WMA files instead.
The "Typical" installation does not include this feature; if you want
this you have to do a "Complete" or "Custom" install.
Rename MP3/SC4 in Octal
-----------------------
Like the MP3 renamer described above, this utility cleans up Winamp's MP3
voice file names. However, instead of using the original decimal numbers,
it converts those numbers to octal. This allows an eGo that plays those
files to bookmark them all correctly (the eGo bookmark fails on file names
that contain the digit 8 or 9; renaming in octal eliminates such digits).
This is the renaming utility of choice; therefore, it is included in the
"Typical" installation. To distinguish octal-numbered files from decimal-
numbered files, the octal files are named VOICE###.MP3 (where ### is a
three-digit octal number from 001 through 777).
2. UTILITIES FOR USE ON FILES THAT YOU RECEIVE
===========================================
Note: If you receive files that have names containing the digits 8 or 9,
your eGo won't be able to bookmark them. Use the "Rename MP3/SC4 in Octal"
feature, described above, to rename the files for compatibility with your
eGo's bookmarking function.
Combine VOICE###.MP3 Files in 5 MB Blocks
-----------------------------------------
This feature combines several small MP3 files into a large file of
approximately 5 MB. When the first file has been built up to the target
size by appending subsequent files, the next file not yet appended becomes
the base upon which the next large file is built. Thus, a set of many
small files becomes just a few larger files. This helps you work around
the eGo's file name limit. If the eGo has a total of 128 file names,
including directory names, it cannot record a file but will display
"MEM FULL" even though the chip may have plenty of free space. By
combining your received files into a few large files, you conserve
file names, making it easier to record on the same chip.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This feature does not work on decimal-numbered MEMO_###.MP3
files. You must first use "Rename MP3/SC4 in Octal" to convert such file
names to the form VOICE###.MP3 (octal numbers) before making this selection.
Combine VOICE###.MP3 Files in 10 MB Blocks
------------------------------------------
This is identical to the feature described above, but it combines smaller
files into one or more 10 MB files instead. This does an even better job
of conserving file names. Again, the MP3 files must be in the VOICE###.MP3
octal-numbered form before making this selection.
If you perform a "Custom" installation, you can specify your own right-
click menu option for combining VOICE###.MP3 files into larger files of
any number of MB you specify during installation.
Download winamp here Look for version 2.60
How to install and use a microdrive
I have found a BUG in the Ego bookmark feature. This feature was NEVER really documented. To bookmark a file is pretty simple and can be done a number of ways. While playing an mp3 file simply press pause and it will save a bookmark. You can also simply power down the ego while it is playing and it saves a bookmark. To retrieve the bookmark shut the ego off and power back on. The ego should be sitting on the bookmark and when you press play will resume from where it left off. NOW here is the bug I found. I exchange mp3 voice files with people and we number them. The number is embedded in the filename such as memo_01 and memo_02 I have found that if a 2 digit number is in the filename and contains an 8 or 9 it will NOT bookmark at all. If the filename has no numbers... such as song names and such you will be fine but if your song name has a number and that number is 2 digits and one is either an 8 or 9 you are in trouble if you try to bookmark it. Example... you rip a cd and the ripper assigns each track a NUMBER..... track08.mp3 will NOT bookmark. The simple cure is to rename your files without numbers OR avoid 8 and 9 unless you want to put up with the fact that certain tracks will not bookmark but will instead go back to the root A directory.
Maximum File Limits: The Ego has 2 file limits that we have been able to document. One is the maximum number of files you can put on a memory chip and actually be able to have the ego see it and play it. The number is 180 files!!! this means that if you copy 200 songs onto the chip the ego will only SEE the first 180 of them and the last 20 will NOT show up on the ego even though your card reader shows them on the chip. If you doubt this check out for your self. This means that depending on the size of the files you have you may have more memory than you can really use. If the average mp3 file is 4 meg (4 min file at 128kbs) than a one gig chip would let you put a lot of songs on it that the ego will not see. Some people may think its the ego not seeing the memory but it is not... its this file number limit
The second limit has to do with RECORDING files. If you wish to record files the limit is 128 files. After that it will say out of memory even if there is plenty of memory space left on the chip. This 128 file maximum limit counts ALL files... both recorded files in the outbox and ALL files in any other folders on the chip. If the combined number of all these files exceeds 128 you will not be able to record any more files.
MICROMANAGEMENT I have found that mp3 agent is BETTER than the newer media manager for micro manageing my files on the ego. You see I load up a chip with files to listen to each day and at days end I come home and note where my bookmark is. I then delete all the files I have listened to and add more files to the space I have created so it is fully loaded for the next day. I tried doing this with a card reader but found it did not work well. The card reader is not as totally compatible with the ego file system as the ego itself is. When I deleted files on the card reader the ego did not free up the space. I found it best to hook up the ego via the USB and use mp3 agent to delete all the files. I could then use the flash card reader and add more files to the chip. If you both record AND listen to files from the same chip as I do this is especially important. I find the ego will give you an out of memory error unless you do this. You will also have to re initiliaze the ego now and then to have everything right as well. This involves simply powering up the ego while holding the plus key down and then confirming the re init by pressing the plus key again.
Our close knit group has done a lot of experimentation and found out a lot of info on the ego that was not well documented, if at all. We also put together some procedures that work a LOT more reliably than using the original hardware and software. These are documented in the voicefiles you may download above and listen to. PLEASE send me your comments and tips. Either join our forum using link below OR send me email and you can even record me a memo file and attach it to your email
Click on the NEW yahoo groups forum to find upgrade firmware and all the ego programs. Lots of support documentation here but you MUST join Yahoo groups (free) and sign in before you will get the link on left side for FILES. You will find the stuff there. The OLD Yahoo groups has a lot of old postings made when I2go.com was still alive and well.
New Yahoogroups forum and OLD Yahoo groups forum
Click below for our forum