Show HN: Wampy, interface addon for Linux-based Walkmans

9 comments

·February 27, 2025

Wampy is an interface addon for modern Linux-based Walkmans, which allows you to switch between standard interface and custom one using hardware Hold switch.

The project was born out of handful of standard UI nitpicks and "can I make a prettier UI?". There is no Rockbox port for my device (NW-A55), so I did a UI myself, unlocking and adding various features along the way, such as:

  - Winamp 2 skin support
  - Custom cassette skins
  - Digital clock skin ported from iPod Nano 7g
  - Audio amplification table editor for S-Master HX
  - All audio filters are available regardless of firmware
  - Per-song audio filter options
  - Standard interface enhancements (add clock and increase cover art size)
  - Low latency USB DAC module
  - FM radio on devices with FM chip and Walkman One (A40/50)

The result covers 6 models, from cheapest NW-A30 to premium NW-WM1Z. Development process involved a lot of reverse engineering, digging into device internals and was pretty fun overall; there are links to development stories in README.md, describing how this or that feature was added.

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aylmao

I don't have one of these, so I can't try, but very cool!

Seeing that Winamp skin screenshot was especially interesting to me, because I'd assume Winamp is itself a digital representation of an audio player— an abstract standalone device, turned digital, again, in a way, turned standalone, haha.

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gsora

Neat! I have A55 as well, I wish I had the time to port rockbox to it. I like Sony OS, but having the thing re-scan my library on each reboot gets old quickly

unknown321

Long rescan usually happens if there is a date mismatch between device date and pc. About porting rockbox - you'll have to integrate with almost all system services to keep Sony sound enhancements.

svl7

For me the database rebuild happens on every boot (NW-A55), no matter whether a file changed it not. It's the one thing that constantly annoys me with this device as it takes several minutes...

unknown321

AFAIK database rebuild is two steps; first is fsck_msdos, second is checking every file for changes. You can check the logs yourself by installing Wampy and enabling adb, maybe your filesystem is also having issues?

gsora

Ah I should check again then, thanks for the tip!

Re: rockbox, I’m not concerned about them, I’m sure the thing sounds good enough already.

csdvrx

Since you did reverse engineering and checked the internals, have you found the cause of the high power draw in suspend? (device on, screen off, wireless off, not playing anything)

I haven't checked, but I would suspect either the USB port of the internal DAC are left powered on

unknown321

You are talking about Android devices, right? Linux ones have no wireless (and power issues).