Hi! I'm very happy to share with you my latest electronics project - the replacement display for the NW-E30x / NW-E20x / NW-S20x(F) and NW-E00x series Network Walkmans! I've been working on this one for the past two months, and I finally have something to show for it. There were two large problems I had to deal with, in order to make it work:

1. The power situation

OLED displays require high voltage (~9-12V) to drive the pixels. Sony's old displays put half of the electronics which create this high voltage in the actual display itself. Because of that, if you remove the old display, you also remove the power supply for it. I solved this issue by recreating the boost circuit with the help of the chip in the middle of my PCB. That chip is also responsible for preparing the data to actually put content on the screen. Thanks to that chip, this screen is very power efficient - my driver disables high voltage generation when the screen is off.

Here's some measurements (done on E305): ``` Display plugged in: Sleep mode - 0.4mA Playback, display active - 12mA Playback, no display - 6mA

Display not plugged in: Sleep mode - 0.1mA Playback, display active - 6mA Playback, no display - 6mA ```

2. The driver

This screen is pin-compatible with the original display, but it communicates with the Walkman in a different way. Because of that I had to modify these Walkmans' firmware to get it running. I wrote one common driver, but had to "tune" it to every device separately. This involved recovering, then reverse engineering the firmware, ripping out the old driver and installing the new one in its place. Finally, packaging the new firmware into the system upgrade image (MSFWUPGR.UPG), which can be used to update devices over USB. (Note that the firmware for NW-E300 / NW-E200 devices is still a tiny bit buggy - going through menus causes audio to skip*)

Side note: Sony has race conditions in their firmware. Multiple race conditions. 🙃

In addition to recreating the displays, I've also added full support for them to Web MiniDisc Pro (https://web.minidisc.wiki). That makes it possible to write ATRAC / MP3 files onto these things straight from the browser, without installing any extra software, and works on Windows / Linux / MacOS or even Android devices.

For those wondering: AI has not been used at any point throughout this project. It just kills the fun for me.

* - These walkmans are, to the best of my knowledge, single-core machines. It's the RTOS' job to feed audio frames to the VME (Sony's special in-hardware codec processor). When my driver takes over, it doesn't yield to the RTOS' scheduler at any point, and the RTOS is not preemptive. Drawing on the display using my driver is more complex in comparison to Sony's original code, so the VME runs out of frames to decode, and it plays silence until the display code completes its job. This is only a problem on the E20x / E30x devices, because their system clock is twice as slow as the one in E00x / S20x ones - those do not exhibit the same bug.

This guy sits in my back pocket while I’m driving cars at work, figured the cushioned seats and my voluptuous rump would keep this from being an issue but here we are. My question is if this is a known issue and if I need to stop sitting on it immediately to prevent further damage. Hoping that this is fine but I’m not taking chances without consulting the experts first. Also, I have reasons for not using my front pocket, but it’s not out of the question. Back pocket is more convenient and comfortable.

It is definitely the screen and not the protector, checked with a flashlight. Saw it happen yesterday after I sat down on a metal chair for a couple minutes, but it remedied itself within 24 hours, just wanna make sure I don’t destroy my lil guy.

And before I see any “ew Bluetooth” comments, I’m a mechanic and wired is just not an option. I’ll save the intentional listening for when I get home, the shop is too loud anyway.

Thanks for any feedback!

hello, is anyone have this player with working motherboard and memory and want to sell it? I mean it can be broken screen but motherboard needs to work and connect through USB without issue so I can replace it to mine.

I have this Sony walkman but look like it has broken memory and it lags everytime I connect it to PC and it freeze the whole PC and can't really do anything with it. From what I found out it's corrupted memory and any kind of formatting and recovering the memory I tried didn't fix it so I need to replace whole motherboard

Just bought this tps l2 and It’s missing the retaining pin that holds the door arm to the door any ideas on how to replace it?

I plan to connect my Walkman to my computer using a 3.5mm jack. After that, I intend to play a song, record it, and save the music to a cassette player. I’d like to ask those of you who have experience recording with cassette players: the recorded music won't be terrible, right? I don't mind as long as I can listen to it. Please note that this translation might be clumsy as I used a translator.

So I left it for a couple of months with the battery in, and then there was some white crystal substances so I cleaned it out with a tiny bit of vinegar and a q-tip. Then, I placed new batteries, but whenever I do that it shows the battery icon as full, but stays on the FM 87.50 station and just plays static. None of the buttons work. Not the volume, not the radio on. The CD won't spin. I tried a few different batteries from my pack and none of them make a difference. This is a Sony CD Walkman D-FJ210. I tried moving the hold button back and forth and then the G protection. button too just in case, but that did nothing. I tried pressing the on/off button together for 30 seconds and that did nothing. It's just stuck on the 87.50 station with static. Some help would be appreciated.

I recently picked up this WM-AF54 that I had when I was a kid and it is missing the radio faceplate. Is anyone aware of a 3d model that anyone has created to replace this? Thanks in advance!