Creative NOMAD II

This is the NOMAD II MP3 player in silver. It was announced by Creative Labs in October 1999 and released in May 2000. Improvements over its predecessor, the NOMAD, include a USB interface (instead of parallel), an inline remote control, and a larger, backlit display.

The front of the NOMAD II, featuring 4-way navigation button, dedicated Menu, A/B and Repeat buttons, and microphone.

NOMAD II photo - device, remote control, and SmartMedia card

The NOMAD II, remote control, and a 32 MB SmartMedia card.

The right-hand side with volume up/down buttons, Erase and Record buttons for the voice recorder, and a DSP (equaliser) button.

The left-hand side with a lock switch, and rubber flap covering the USB port.

The top features the 3.5mm headphone jack.

The bottom has a rubber-covered connector for the optional docking station.

NOMAD II photo - back of device with battery cover

The back of the player with battery cover removed, featuring a removable belt clip, and slider to eject the SmartMedia card.

NOMAD II photo - close up of battery compartment

The single-AA battery compartment with battery and SmartMedia card removed.

The USB 1.1 Type B port.

NOMAD II photo - front and back of SmartMedia cards

The front of a 64 MB SmartMedia card and the back of a 32 MB one.

NOMAD II photo - blue colour with headphones

The NOMAD II was also available in Metallic Blue colour. Pictured with included 'backphones' and remote control. (Photo: alexlance on eBay.)

NOMAD II photo - white colour with carrying pouch.

The player was also available in Pearl (metallic white). Pictured with included carrying pouch. (Photo: leoreturns on Mercado Libre.)

The docking station (sold separately) included a rechargeable AA battery, which charged while the player was docked.

Specifications

Size	65 x 93 x 21 mm
Weight	93 g (without AA battery or SmartMedia card)
Display	LCD, monochrome, backlit 1.7 inches 132 x 64 pixels (86 PPI)
Operating system	Proprietary
CPU	Cirrus Logic EP7212-CV-D, 74 MHz
Playback file formats	MP3, WAV, WMA, NVF (NOMAD voice file)

The NOMAD II supports SmartMedia cards for storage, up to 128 MB in size. Players were released with various combinations of in-built storage (from none to 128 MB) and SmartMedia card capacities. The 'IIc' variant doesn't have an FM receiver.

Listen to the demo MP3 that came with the player (and other Creative products of the time):

Using the player

The main controls for the player are the four-way and Menu buttons on its face. Holding down the Play button powers-on the player with a welcome screen, then the main menu after about four seconds. The Menu button jumps to the main menu from any area of the GUI. And while the player is on, holding Play from any area starts playing music.

The main menu is six icons, with one flashing to indicate it's highlighted. Press the Next or Previous buttons to highlight an icon, then press Play to select it. There is also a row of indicator icons at the top for battery life, volume, SmartMedia card presence and lock status.

The welcome message is displayed briefly when the player is powered-on.

The main menu.

Clockwise from top-left: List of songs in the Music area, the Info area, message shown briefly when shutting down the player, and playing a preset channel in the Radio area.

"Music" shows a simple list of songs by filename (three at a time), with an icon indicating if the song is stored on the SmartMedia card. "Radio" shows a list of 32 channel presets, while "Voice" shows a list of voice recordings made with the player.

"Info" shows the owner's name (configurable through PC software), available internal and external storage, and the abbreviated firmware version. "Time" shows the current date and time, which can only be set through the PC software.

"Settings" offers five more icons to adjust the backlight duration, display contrast, idle power-off, radio sleep timer, and to switch to line out (for use with an external amplifier).

Holding the Stop button powers-off the player. This takes about two seconds.

The player's main buttons are replicated on the remote control, allowing complete music playback control without needing to touch the player itself.

Managing the player

The player initially came with the 'NOMAD II Manager' software to manage the player, which was superseded by 'PlayCenter'. The software ran from Windows 98 up to XP.

NOMAD II Manager

NOMAD II Manager was an evolution of NOMAD Manager which came with the original NOMAD player, moving to a single-window design rather than having separate windows for the player and computer.

An MP3 transferred from the computer (left) to the player (right), and playing the MP3 on the computer.

NOMAD II Manager screen shot - voice files

Voice recording file on the player (left), ready to upload to the computer.

NOMAD II Manager screen shot - settings area

The Settings area (left).

A helper application called "NOMAD II Detector" runs in the system tray to detect when the NOMAD II is connected and open the NOMAD II Manager.

Navigating to MP3s on the computer is done on the right-hand side of the window, and clicking Download transfers the MP3s to the player (left-hand side). It doesn't seem possible to transfer MP3s from the player back to the computer (only voice recording files can be uploaded).

The bottom-left of the window shows a banner ad, although unchanging since the related servers are long gone.

The Settings area allows setting a name for the player (which is displayed in the player's Info menu), and setting the FM radio channel presets.

Creative made it difficult to install the management software if you didn't use the CD that came with the player. They seemingly never made the full versions available to download - only 'upgrade' versions that required an existing installation.

After tracking down the NOMAD II Manager 1.02 'upgrade' version (EXE, 3.9 MB), it was necessary to remove the previous-version check in order to install it:

Run the executable - it'll display an error because it can't find a previous version of the software.
While the error message is still on screen, navigate to C:\Windows\Temp and copy the "pftX~TMP" folder (e.g. "pft2C6~TMP") to c:\temp.
Click OK on the error message to close it (this deletes the folder from C:\Windows\Temp).
Navigate to C:\temp\pftX~TMP, and open "Nomadm2.ini" in Notepad.
Change "CheckPreviousVersion=1" to "CheckPreviousVersion=0", then save the file:
Then run "Setup.exe" in the same folder.

PlayCenter 2

PlayCenter was Creative's all-in-one application for managing audio files and MP3 players. It took the non-rectangular window fad to the next level with its abundance of curves and slide-out panels.

PlayCenter 2 with the computer browser on the left, and the NOMAD II browser panel expanded on the right.

The Player view.

The Player view with panel expanded.

The ridiculous Player skin called "ACUPunch (Pinky Club)".

Installing PlayCenter 2 version 2.50 (EXE, 16.1 MB) leaves NOMAD II Manager installed, but replaces NOMAD II Detector with NOMAD Detector to open PlayCenter when the player is connected.

PlayCenter adds the ability to rip audio CDs, and interestingly allows transferring of MP3s from the player to the computer.

It has three windows sizes - the standard 'jukebox' view, a larger view of the same, and a mini 'player' view. The player view style can be changed by selecting from one of six available skins.

PlayCenter 3

Version 3 is largely the same. The banner ad is gone, and the standard view window is now dynamically resizable rather than the two fixed sizes. Reference to the version number is removed, with it just called "PlayCenter".

PlayCenter 3 with the computer browser on the left, and the NOMAD II browser panel expanded on the right.

PlayCenter 3 working its way through a queue of MP3s being transferred to a NOMAD II.

Installing PlayCenter 3 version 3.02.52 (EXE, 11 MB) replaces PlayCenter 2. It warns that the NOMAD II drivers should be updated to the latest (EXE, 700 KB).

The NOMAD Detector is still there to detect the player, but hovering over its tray icon shows "Creative Player Detector".

PlayCenter 3 was the last Creative application to support the NOMAD II, but there were third-party alternatives such as Red Chair's 'Notmad Explorer'.

Upgrading the firmware

Creative provided firmware updates for the NOMAD II to add features such as WMA playback and support for larger SmartMedia cards. After a firmware update, settings like the player name, time, contrast, and backlight timeout, are reset to default.

Upgrading a DAP-3204 model to the latest firmware (version 3.04.229) (EXE, 450 KB):

Running the executable, it extracts 3 files: Disk.id, nmflash3_04_229.exe, Readme.txt.
Running nmflash3_04_229.exe:
After clicking upgrade:
Shortly after:

After the unhelpful error message, the player was stuck showing "Upgrade Mode - Downloading Firmware - Okay", and after shutting it down it appeared unresponsive. But after removing and re-inserting the battery, it started OK and the firmware had been upgraded.

Customising the player

ChgLogo is a third-party software program by Rainman (Bill Yuan). It allows changing the appearance of the NOMAD II's GUI - the icons, text and startup logo - by making changes to an original firmware update file.

ChgLogo's About tab.

After selecting the original firmware upgrade file.

Specifying where the modified upgrade file should be saved to.

After selecting the skin (bitmap file).

Ready to save the modified upgrade file.

Rainman's instruction page has more screenshots of the software in action.

WARNING: ChgLogo was designed for use with firmware '2.00.19' and the NOMAD II MP3 player with 0 MB of onboard memory (DAP-0001/DAP-0002). Using the program on any other model or with any other firmware may render your player useless. Use the program at your own risk.

ChgLogo is no longer being developed, and will not be made available for other models or firmwares. Also, some newer firmwares have been encrypted, making it harder to design software to edit the interface. See this thread for more information.

Make sure the NOMAD II connects to the PC properly and is able to transfer files normally.
Get the ChgLogo 2.00.19 software from Rainman or from this site (ZIP, 124 KB), compatible with Windows 9x/Me/2000/XP.
Get version '2.00.19' of the NOMAD II firmware from this site (ZIP, 210 KB).
Run ChgLogo.exe from the ZIP file and follow the simple instructions. You may wish to view Rainman's ReadMe.txt for more information.