Introduction
When it comes to Android TV sticks, I'm a bit of a seasoned veteran. I still own a Uhost1 and was the first person in the UK to own a Uhost2 (in fact, the fourth in the entire world) thanks to some connections I had to Smallart, the company behind that device. I really do believe that these little devices have the potential to be something a tad special, if done right of course. That brings me onto this little device:
The Transpeed MK809V, also known as the CX939. Let's be honest, the numbering/naming is completely irrelevant nowadays, because there are different versions of the same named device, which all contain different chipsets and functionality. I was able to get this one in the 11/11 AliExpress sale for just £15 (http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/7084183665.html?orderId=70864234952489)
Specification
CPU: Quad-Core RK3128
Android: 4.4.2 (yet the ROM says 4.4.4?)
GPU: Embedded 3D GPU Mali 400, High frequency 500Mhz, Support OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0
RAM: 1GB
NAND: 8GB
Photos
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In The Box
Transpeed Android TV Stick
2A USB Wall Charger, UK Plug (yes, that's right a UK plug)
Female to Male HDMI Extension Cable
Micro USB Cable
OTG USB Cable
Instruction Manual
There's probably £5 worth of cables and bits and bobs in the box, bringing the actual cost of the dongle down to about £10-£11. Crazy.
First Impressions
The device is about the size of a Chromecast v1. It doesn't weigh much at all, I'd have no problem sticking this directly into a HDMI port (but I'll use the extension just to be safe). There is a red slide bar on top of the device with absolutely no explanation of what it actually does. The instructions are borderline unreadable, so they're not much use. On the bottom of the device is a sort of vent and what looks like a pin hole in one of the corners. There is a full size USB port, and two mini USB Ports respectively. It is not clear exactly which is the power source. There is a pin hole next to one of the sockets on the side, so I've assumed this is most likely the power source.
The device boots pretty quick actually, for a cheap device. The interface is slick and smooth, buttery as they say. It's running some sort of Lollipop launcher (not sure if it's Now Launcher), which feels smooth but the app switcher takes me back a year or two (horizontal slide thing). It comes with Kodi and Show Box pre-installed along with a few other apps and Google Play Services. The firmware is very AOSP with almost nothing in the way of customized launchers etc.
There are a few little issues I've noticed, the AOSP keyboard seems to sometimes double play the sound when you click a key. It has a really tough time coping with my IR remote, I think this is to do with the Rockchip issue I speak about below. Still, the plan is to install Droidmote.
Connectivity
The one thing that often lets these little devices down, is the Wi-Fi, but so far, the Wi-Fi on this has been very very solid. I've not done a speed test yet, but I will when I get chance.
I was also pleasantly surprised to see Bluetooth with a fully functioning stack which includes file transfer, I tried this and it works well.
Disassembly
Taking this device apart is probably as easy as you could hope for. There are 8 clips spread evenly around the device. Pop the top ones nearest the HDMI port (either side) first and then work your way down and it falls apart. These clips do break pretty easy so I imagine a few of these will be held together with tape soon enough.
BE CAREFUL, the WiFi antenna is soldered directly onto the motherboard and is stuck onto the casing.
So interestingly, the red slide bar does absolutely nothing. It's not connected to anything, and it's certainly not doing anything, which is a shame considering what you'll read about the pin hole later.
Rockchip board, very similar to the FireFly FirePrime.
Soldering is a tad iffy on the Wi-Fi antenna.
Underside of the board.
Rear vent case.
Scratch on a chip, plus the poxy recovery button is also damaged slightly. Read why further down.
Disassembly also reveals the pin hole on the back leads to absolutely nothing, which might be misleading for some. Do not stick your pin in there as you'll simply scratch your circuit board.
Rooting
Rooting this device took all of about 2 minutes. Although SuperSu detects root, it is unable to install its own root binaries. However, KingRoot (http://www.kingroot.net) has absolutely no problem and roots it in under 2 minutes. I will probably replace the KingRoot binaries with SuperSu binaries, but for the moment, this will do.
Recovery/Flashing
WARNING: Please read the Problems/Issues section regarding the pin hole.
To access the recovery (which from the factory is just a standard Android 'no command' recovery) press pin hole while plugging in power from wall socket, keep hold until you see Android Recovery on your TV/Monitor.
To access RK flashing mode, you MUST install the drivers first using the DriverAssist tool. I will include all of this stuff as attachments to this post. Once the drivers are installed, press the pin while plugging into your computer, Rockchip class devices should appear. You can now flash using BatchTool or AndroidTool.
Problems/Issues
- Build quality. While the device itself runs nicely and works okay, the build quality leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion. I suppose you pay for what you get. The case doesn't fit quite as well as other TV sticks, but I'm willing to turn a blind eye.
- Pin hole. What I'm not willing to turn a blind eye to is this disasterous implementation. On the Uhost (and Uhost2), Smallart simply put a small case button above the little SMD switch, easy as pie to use. This device simply has a pin hole on the case, and you're required to put a pin through. The problem is the circuit board doesn't sit perfectly inside the case (most of these cases are universal anyway), therefore you'll often find yourself poking around inside this little device desperately trying to find the switch. Luckily, I don't think there's anything you can really damage, however looking at my photos above, you can see where I actually scratched the top of a chip and also chipped the switch as well. I now only operate that switch after disassembling the device, although at a push, you could use a small screwdriver designed for mobile phones as these are usually small enough to get through the hole but bigger than a pin. Why didn't they just use that slide? It would have been so easy to implement a switch.
- Droidmote. Rockchip have this thing about messing up the input to Android, this means Droidmote doesn't really work properly without some changes. However, the issue is that changing the lib file in my case caused a soft brick. It's possible to fix this in external keyboard helper, but will need to do some investigation on this.
- USB. The USB implementation is a bit iffy for some reason. It has no problem with my IR remote and also had no issues with a USB keyboard, however I plugged a USB mouse in and actually soft bricked the device. I had to flash the firmware to fix this.
Firmware/ROMs
Stock Firmware -
4.4.2 (labelled as 4.4.4) - https://mega.nz/#!C45iTKKQ!bQaow8xVpjKb1nYZbIe_mQx1R8B574Ikt1kZA9J44VU
Mods
TODO
Development
It's rare that any kind of development can take off for these devices, but this little thing shares the same chip and hardware as a very popular dev board called the Firefly FirePrime (http://wiki.t-firefly.com/index.php/FirePrime/en). Not only does this board share almost identical hardware, they have uploaded the source for a 5.1 Lollipop build. Now, I've compiled this but I'm yet to flash it yet. I am wary about going ahead and flashing before I do some research into exactly what is going to happen. However I may flash the kernel.img, resource.img and system.img as a test to see if I can get anything to happen. I imagine to begin with, it'll be completely broken, but there's no reason that with some effort I can't make this work.
Status:
CWM - In Progress
Lollipop - Alpha (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=64253545&postcount=4)
Working: Audio, Video (needs further testing), USB, SD Card, Reboot
Broken: WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI Mode, HDMI Scaling, Sleep, Shutdown, Others?
CyanogenMod(?) - In Progress
Hopefully others with this device can talk about it and share their experiences.
I actually used one of these with a lot of pleasure for quite some time before I moved to a full sized box. I'll be watching this thread carefully as I still have the stick lying around and have been wondering whether I should do something with it. So much potential shouldnt go wasted
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Glad to see I'm not the only one using this cheery little device.
Incredibly, after just three attempts and a few changes to the code (nothing major), I've been able to get it to successfully boot lollipop. Has to be the fastest port I've ever done. It's pretty alpha, wifi is broken, Bluetooth is broken and there's no way to scale the screen or change the hdmi mode, so it's stuck in 720p mode right now. Still, it's all proof I need that this device can handle lollipop. Those features can be sorted pretty easily. The interface is seriously slick. Very fast and smooth.
I tried to upload some photos but the xda app isn't working for me lol.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using XDA Free mobile app
Photos of lollipop 5.1.1 working. Are there any Android tv sticks out there that actually run lollipop or is this the first?
It's certainly the first that cost less than £15
Sent from my GT-I9505 using XDA Free mobile app
Wow! This looks really promising! I just bought the same one as well. Will probably take a month before I receive it though.
horizophon said:
Wow! This looks really promising! I just bought the same one as well. Will probably take a month before I receive it though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine didn't take too long to come. About 2 weeks I think. It's a decent enough device right out the box, Kodi is fully loaded with goodies and Show Box works well, but I think with all the potential it has, it would be a waste not to at least explore some sort of Lollipop ROM. We all know that the manufacturer is unlikely to put out another ROM anyway. They tend to get a single ROM bug free then quit while they're ahead.
Interestingly, my USB Mouse now doesn't soft brick the device. Clearly something is up with the stock firmware and that mouse. Anyway, I'm going to spend today investing the WiFi and how to get it working.
Good luck!
Building a new image, hopefully the Wifi and bluetooth should work with this image. That's half the fun of course. One of the biggest issues I'm having is it appears to be impossible to flash a singlee partition image to this device, otherwise you soft brick it. Pain in the arse.
Some more work today, let's see if I can get this WiFi working.
Here we go, first boot of the new Lollipop build built by me with the correct connectivity chipsets etc. Will WiFi be working, or will it be broken still ?
Edit:
In fact, will it even boot
Yep, it boots. WiFi now causes reboot lol
2nd Edit:
Pretty obvious looking at logcat why it's not working.... Android still thinks it's using the Firefly AP6212 Wi-Fi. Need to work out why that is.
Still working on the WiFi, might not be as easy as I first thought to get this WiFi fixed. No SDK whatsoever for it, so I'm using an SDK for a similar chipset that is publicly available. I have a .ko file which should work but it won't insmod for some reason.
The funs of building from other peoples code. The .mk files are a complete mess. Still, looks like I'm slowly getting there.
Sounds like a challenge, good luck!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Finally got it to build using this RealTek SDK from t'interweb. Did require some changes though and I had to find a few libraries that seemingly aren't really used anymore, plus a few hacks thrown in there to make those libs work, so I really don't know what's going to happen here. Currently on the Android boot screen. It might boot, it might crash, it might boot-loop, I really don't know.
At an educated guess, I Imagine it'll boot but I fully expect it to fail when switching on WiFi.
Edit: Boots OK. Few BT force closes, might have to freeze BT for the moment. WiFi still dead. Let's try get some logs shall we
Quick update, feel as though I've hit a bit of a brick wall with this WiFi implementation. Can't get it it to insmod the modules from 4.4 (no surprise) but don't have the source to build newer 5.1.1 modules. The source I do have doesn't seem to work, so either I am missing something or there's a configuration issue. I will continue over the next few days but can see this being a real ballache. I may investigate whether we can use a USB wifi, at least temporarily while I work out a way in which we can use the inbuilt Wi-Fi. With so few people owning this hardware, that also makes it difficult as it's a one man project
On a side note though, I have been able to get it to run Ubuntu lol! It's a trimmed down version but it runs surprisingly nicely. Audio is broken, so is WiFi but USB Ethernet works well and was browsing and even installed Kodi onto it.
Who'da thunk it ?
Received mine today! Took me three minutes to brick it. :good: Couldn't stop myself from trying ART. Now i can't make the drivers work with W10. In fact it doesn't even show up as an unknown device... :silly: Will try with Ubuntu in the morning.
horizophon said:
Received mine today! Took me three minutes to brick it. :good: Couldn't stop myself from trying ART. Now i can't make the drivers work with W10. In fact it doesn't even show up as an unknown device... :silly: Will try with Ubuntu in the morning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It won't be hard bricked.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using XDA Free mobile app
To access RK flashing mode, you MUST install the drivers first using the DriverAssist tool. I will include all of this stuff as attachments to this post. Once the drivers are installed, press the pin while plugging into your computer, Rockchip class devices should appear. You can now flash using BatchTool or AndroidTool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And where ?
@skezza Do you have any update? I have this TV stick, but it has a fake 1080p (upscalled from 720p). Do you have another kernel for this tv stick or maybe a kernel sources ? (I have found about 4 firmwares for this stick, but all of the has a fake 1080p)
Anyone notice video playback in Kodi stutters badly. (Mkv and Mp4 ..especially 1080p)
Sometimes after few mins, but shows up immediately if, along the time line bar, jump back and fort, once or twice.
Easily seen at movie end credits.
Tried few different firmwares all have same issue.
To add to my previous post, my Rk3128 board looks this.
http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/12...ith-512mb-ram-8gb-storage-sell-for-15-and-up/
FirePrime Lollipop works fine, but no WiFi.
Surprisingly snappy for a 512MB DDR board.
Related
Updating with just the patched classes, instead of the update.zip due to complaints. Inside you will find the source to the app (yeah doing it in Settings.apk would be better, I'm being lazy) and the modified classes for services.jar. This is not working yet, it is being uploaded so other devs can tinker as well. We need kernel source before this will work, more than likely.
Issues known:
->breaks dock support.
Needs:
-> Drivers
-> ??
Cable Details:
GizmoDroid said:
From what I have gathered, there are three common types of cables most people might have hiding in their closet. There are multiple devices that use these types of cables, but most of them tend to follow those pinouts. If we definitively find out the right layout, you can mod a cable you already have, or get them for dirt cheap off of ebay/monoprice (fully recommended, they have nice cables for cheap).
[Size=+0]Common Cable Pinouts[/Size]
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A) Samsung Galaxy S official cable, Nokia (cable #CA-75U), cables that come with most Media Players (Archos, Gigabeat, Creative, Zen Vision, Cowon iAudio, Apple iBook)
B) Standard Camcorder cable -This is the most likely kind that you'd find at a store if it doesn't specify what it is for.
C) Zune
D) iPod Video
[Size=+0]Quick Fix[/size]
Some cables you already have can be used without modding the cable, even if the pinout isn't the same.
Type B/C/D device with a different Type B/C/D cable
By plugging the video plug into one of the audio channels, and vice versa, you can swap the signal without cutting your cable. Refer to the chart to see which audio channel to plug the video into.
Type B device with a Type A cable
Plug the cable in all the way, then pull it out one notch. You will have only one working audio channel though, so this will sacrifice audio quality.
[Size=+0]What type do I have?[/Size]
If you have a multimeter, it is easy to find which type of cable you have. Set your multimeter to resistance (ohms). Put one lead on an RCA signal pin, then touch the other to each of the 4 spots on 3.5mm jack. Whichever one shows ~0 ohms means that that RCA signal is connected to that spot on the jack. Some MM have a continuity mode that will beep whenever you make a closed circuit. This is easier since you don't have to look at the MM while you are doing this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jcase said:
Status:
I have no phone yet, this will improve once it gets here (this week? damn slow ebayers).
Patches Applied
Kernel /init.rc
->patch applied to run tvoutserver as a system service
services.jar /ServerThread.class
->patch applied to see the tvoutservice
services.jar /HeadsetObserver.class
->patch applied to properly detect rca cable
App
->applies needed setting, launches hidden tvout settings menu
Issues known:
->breaks dock support.
Our tests were inconclusive, as we only had one cable of an unknown pinout and one tester. We have gotten rid of all errors, the device sees the cable now, runs the service and communicates with the service.
Patch is for Superclean based on eb01 with voodoo. I am not responsible for any thing that happens due to this patch. Please don't apply unless you know what you are doing and can recover a "soft brick" on your own.
Patch
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8699733/apks/tvoutpatch001.zip
App
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8699733/apks/BallmerPeakTVOut.apk
Please report back any crashes, failures or for sure if it works.
Please report the type of cable you used, if it worked or not and if known the pinout.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What the!!!??
Have you actually gotten to see anything on the screen yet?? I'm going to bust this out and try it now. I have my own cable that has been sitting in the packaging for weeks just waiting for someone to come out with this. I will test it out and report back shortly. I have no qualms about bringing my Fascinate back from the dead if I bork it ...
If this works, and something actually shows up on the TV, super big thanks!
Wait as in a micro usb to composite/component? HDMI?
Wait, wha? This would be awesome!
Before I blow $40 on cable ... do you know if this is supposed to only work for analog NTSC output or if HDMI output over the microUSB is one of the available options?
edit: sorry finakechi, you beat me to it.
Subscribed.
3.5mm to RCA, we haven't gotten output to the screen. I ordered a grip of cables and a fascinate, but it wont be til friday when I can test it.
Testing shows it seems to work, and nolonger errors. We just haven't gotten output. I posted here with hopes of someone having a working cable with the right pinout, or another dev picking up interest and joining us.
the usb to hdmi cable is to costly and I won't be looking into it unless someone sends me one. I think RCA is good enough.
I know we have two cables at work that are from two different digital cameras..they both work with their respective cameras but only one works with the fascinate and the vibrant phones we have here... the pinout looks the same though... so you may be getting output and you just don't know it yet.
Got an error report:
<fuzzhead> i do think your app/patch is kind of working or trying to work though. i opened gallery and video player and both fc'ed while i was playing with rcas. leads me to believe it was trying to output
If someone with experience using logcat can reproduce this, and get me the log it would greatly help.
kmalinich said:
I know we have two cables at work that are from two different digital cameras..they both work with their respective cameras but only one works with the fascinate and the vibrant phones we have here... the pinout looks the same though... so you may be getting output and you just don't know it yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean works on the fascinate?
I have this EXACT cable. Will test out in the next 24 hours. If this cable doesn't work, nothing will.
Syn Ack said:
I have this EXACT cable. Will test out in the next 24 hours. If this cable doesn't work, nothing will.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the cable doesnt work, switch out the wires, it might not be yellow that is video out. Also if it doesnt work, then we just investigate further.
jcase said:
What do you mean works on the fascinate?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
damn, that was a hell of a typo. I meant captivate
kmalinich said:
damn, that was a hell of a typo. I meant captivate
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hahaha. That is a little bit of an "oopsie."
Edit: Well, this is weird. I installed the patch, and now it's doing the robotic female voice and taking forever to reboot. I wiped caches and such, but I don't remember changing any voodoo settings ... hmm. Yeah, it's still talking to me. Weird. We'll see what happens. I'm on EB01, but not a superclean. Suppose locking up a phone is as good a reason as any to try a new ROM.
Well, after a successful boot, the app indeed runs and lets me change settings without any apparent issues - no force closes, etc. I have the mini jack to the three RCA breakout cables. It's the Dynex brand from Best Buy (purchased when I still had employee discount, of course!) With TV Out enabled or disabled (I tested PAL and NTSC both just for fun) I couldn't get the TV to display any audio or video regardless of how I plugged each cable in - red, white, or yellow. I am going to have to find some cable clamps and do some individual circuit testing and see if it's send out any signal at all, and trace it. It should at least be sending out some kind of audio, because I tested regular stereo headphones, and they still work. I'm excited to monkey around with this a bit. If I can narrow down which signal is going where on the 3.5 to RCA adapter cable I have, I can at least detect, hopefully, that audio is still being sent properly, and even more hopefully, if there is a pos/neg combo that will magically be a video signal. No more time to work on this tonight though.
Thankyou, jcase. I am waited for it, will beta test it as soon as get my cable.
djp952 said:
Wait, wha? This would be awesome!
Before I blow $40 on cable ... do you know if this is supposed to only work for analog NTSC output or if HDMI output over the microUSB is one of the available options?
edit: sorry finakechi, you beat me to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Before anyone overpays for a cable:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/search.asp?keyword=3.5mm+to+RCA&x=0&y=0
O this would be awesome if it works! I'm following this.
I already have the cable, it's a generic from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I1D0BW
Will test and report. I think I love you.
Not all cables will have the correct pinout (which we dont know what it is).
Damn, jcase. First you help me with my Droid and now that I got a Fascinate you help with that too!
This is really a concept, and perhaps a request, nothing more and it is directed at Asus, who seem to not be shy about using its relationship with the user community to better it's products. This is directly inverse to Samsung who (at least with mobile phones, I cannot speak to the way they manage tablets) It appears that Samsung would rather pretend they aren't aware of the ICS "Leaks" that are coincidentally issued at regular intervals, only to hit the enthusiast user base in the form of an Odin leak, and then multiple re-worked ROMS with bugs identified and often resolved. Sure, this is speculation, but if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck... Particularly "coincidental" is the way every succeeding "leak" has the fixes that were either identified or requested during the public alpha testing phase.
I admire Asus (partly) for their more direct approach, even if it feels like the moves of a smaller company, which of course they are. For the most part Asus has tried to directly engage the user community with unprecedented moves like entry into these forums. Unfortunately they haven't been super successful at getting perfect results from the approach, even if they have found some solutions. A perfect example is the GPS Extension Kit - an antenna when you boil it down. Yes, it solves an issue. It does so effectively, it IS an elegant solution in spite of claims to the opposite. Where it falls down is an R&D, something that Asus seems to be inconsistent with. The "kit" does not allow for charging while in use, something that most agree would have been possible, via a pass though port. In fact, were such a port present (an this may or may NOT be physically possible) Asus might have been able to either a) Attached the keyboard, not directly, but with a small cable via said pass-through port. Or, consider THIS: If a small cable attachment were part of the kit, might it not be possible to attach the antenna via a cable TO the attached docks charging port?
Okay, okay, I am straying really far afield here. None of the ideas I mentioned are elegant in any way, nor are they simple and clean as the actual design was. BUT they do illustrate that with further R&D, a more fully fleshed out concept might have been designed.
Now, two things in Asus' defense:
1. They were under tremendous pressure to design a fix quickly as the backlash from the original GPS flub (R&D falls down again)
2. It needed to suit both Tablet-only customer and Tablet-Dock combinations.
With that in mind, the singular, basic design makes sense. More to Asus' credit, it works. Quite well. But the absence of a pass-through for charging, on a device that says "Please remove GPS extension when not in use "to save power" is just poor design. My daughter (9 years old) suggested Asus build an "a" and "b" version for attachment to the tablet and dock respectively. Not bad. I suggest Asus get BACK to the drawing board and great a GPS Kit v2.0 that has some or all of the above mentioned capabilities.
ESPECIALLY the power pass through. If a re-design is not practical (likely as the cost would not make sense from a ROI perspective) then what about a Y-splitter? It WOULD be a complex little adapter, one that effectively allows a pass-through, and assuming firmware could be designed, might also fill the requirement for a keyboard/dock connection while the antenna could still be connected. Visualize: a pair of female connectors, one to the port on hinge side of the keyboard, one to the exiting GPS Extension antenna. Now a short section of durable cable, and put a male connector on that end to attach to the base of the Tablet's screen, which, although not nearly as "elegant" as the kit by itself has the singular distinction of allowing Prime owners to charge while navigating, and/or attach the keyboard dock while navigating. It may not LOOK elegant, but on a technical level, is as elegant as you could wish for.
Well, my views on the GPS Kit they sent out are:
Aesthetics:
- I am not too impressed with the fact there are three screws on the front, wouldn't it of looked better the other way round? [Minor]
- The color looks a tiny bit different because the Dongle has a sparkly type paint where as the prime has a solid color with the pattern. [Minor]
- It's bigger than I expected, I would of liked a smaller more compressed one. [Minor]
Functionality:
- I put it on and tested my GPS and It found 5 satellites but couldn't get a lock on any of them and I left my prime trying to get a lock for over an hour, I rebooted and tried it again, It just found 13 satellites and locked onto 8 of them with a accuracy of 16ft (Inside a solid brick house) which quite impressed me.
- It has no slot to enable charging which is a major flaw.
- You can't dock your tablet to the keyboard so you can't take screenshots or obviously use the keyboard.
- The lock & unlock toggle is not spring loaded, which is poor design.
- It does however make the tablet on it's own easier to hold, less slip chance.
- Because it's not a permanent solution it prevents some of my security working as it is supposed to and it also prevents me from having the keyboard attached and having a lock on for Google Latitude.
You can't dock your tablet to the keyboard so you can't take screenshots or obviously use the keyboard.
You can take screen shots without the keyboard. Hold down recent apps button.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Smurphjw said:
You can't dock your tablet to the keyboard so you can't take screenshots or obviously use the keyboard.
You can take screen shots without the keyboard. Hold down recent apps button.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct. Also as was mentioned the lack of a pass through charging port is unforgivable, no matter how "rushed" they were to provide this (and they were rushed). GPS is a major power drain, so much that Asus has a sticker on the dongle telling you to take it off when not in use. A pass through port would have been easy and not add a tremendous amount to the cost. Of course the firmware would need to support it, but we all know how good Asus is with tablet firmware. :silly:
Or.........
they could have added a wifi antenna or module where the GPS on the module could be switched off through software (or hard wire; easy block to do)
Or........ they could have impressed ALL of us by adding a separate BT, wifi, and GPS chip. Albeit, more expensive but how many of us wouldn't have paid for the more expensive option if given the chance?
now the AIO combo (wifi, bt, GPS) is equally impressive but it still doesn't solve the charging problem. extended antennas however would have allowed to provide better signal though. they did solve the wifi issue, if not more than 6 months later, by holding steady, staying mum and not publicly addressing the issue, and RMAing when appropriate (even if it didn't solve the problem).
There is a thread i posted a while back in reguards to adding a power input (+15v) to the gps dongle to power the prime. Find the thread about it here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1633747
Because of the extremely fine pitch leading to the dock connector and the lack of space and general lack of time on my part (school started up, derp) i have not had time to move the project forward however i will def help if someone wants to give it a shot.
I recently purchased a dell 20 inch touch screen. One of the major selling points was that it supported an MHL-HDMI, meaning 1 simple cable would supply both an HDMI and USB connection from my phone to the monitor... which it does. The issue however is that the touch screen does not respond correctly to input. Anywhere I touch on the screen it simply hits the same spot near the top left over and over. USB devices plugged into the monitor (it's also a hub) work just fine.
I thought it might have been the cable so I tried an external MHL adapter and ended up with the same result. Then I hooked up some other android devices(tronsmart prometheus, and an ouya (running CM11)) through hdmi with USB attached and again received the same response. It does however work normally with every variety of x86 computer I've tried; even android x86.
This seems very similar to a configuration issue I fixed on an a touchscreen Ubuntu laptop years ago. Some googling helped me solve that one quickly and easily, but the problem is that I have no idea where to start on this one. Searching is almost impossible as any combination of "android" and "touch screen" tends to take me off in the wrong direction. Even here 4 out of the 5 threads I've found are at least 5 years old and quite hypothetical.
Of course it could always be a deeper issue involving a lack of kernel support, in which case I'm probably screwed.
Any suggestions on where/how to start? If nothing else this can at least act as a warning for people not to buy MHL HDMI touchscreens and expect them to work with android phones out of the box. At least not yet.
Thanks for any ideas in advance
i`am exactly in the same position right now, beside not having bought a touchscreen yet.
my thoughts were also to buy a dockingstation for the htc one x (m8), to have
hdmi and usb , then just connect both to a touchscreen monitor and make use of mhl
to make it work, meaning having proper touch functionallity on the monitor.
and you`re right, i`am searching this topic for some time now, seems like this idea diyed out in 2011,
at least according to the internet
so, not much of help from my side, but def. interested to see how this thread goes !
Got my Moto 360 2015 today and quickly realized that the main block to us getting any development on this is that we don't have a way to access it with a computer. I did a partial [very partial] tear down and noticed several pins that could be a usb interface. My question is what would be the most logical way of figuring out what pins do what?
P.S. I know there is a lot of talk about if there is a hidden speaker or not, while I wasn't able to get the watch apart enough to answer definitively it does look like the slot on the side corresponds to a hole under the plastic back... hopefully we'll know more soon.
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Posting this image for smartphone. Couldn't get it posted on his account.
I can't find the pins,,can you find it?
Hey,
Do you have some more information about the pinout? I have the same watch and I want to try connect it to USB, because I can't switch it on, and maybe with USB I can start some recovery mode or something like this.
I also found other "test pads" below the plastic cover with antenna. I found some pins, that I am sure about function. Below I wrote two links to images (I can't add attachment to post - just remove the spaces from the address below):
menuet. no-ip. biz/ images/ moto_360_2015_pinout_back.png
menuet. no-ip. biz/ images/ moto_360_2015_pinout.png
Here is description of pins on the images:
1-Power switch; 2-?; 3-?; 4-Battery; 5-?; 6-GND;
A1-?; A2-?; A3-Antenna; A4-?; A5-USB5V; A6-GND
Maybe you have some other info how to switch on this watch?
Best regards,
menuet
I know this is so old... but maybe someone that is passionate about electronics could find a way to connect usb cable...
There must be a way... The bootloader says this..
I was thinking that in @menuet pictures, A1, A2, A5, A6 could be the 4 wires that should connect to a usb cable
If you're looking to send adb commands to the watch why not use Bluetooth debugging?
https://developer.android.com/training/wearables/apps/bt-debugging.html
I know that... I was hoping to find a way to make a usb cable like for the first generation, and in this way to unlock the bootloader, root...etc...
The 1st gen had pogo pins -- have you checked the corresponding location of the second gen? I'm interested to find out if the layout is the same (although completely enclosed by the case).
stevemw said:
The 1st gen had pogo pins -- have you checked the corresponding location of the second gen? I'm interested to find out if the layout is the same (although completely enclosed by the case).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, didn't checked yet... I don't want to disaasembly my watch yet.. I just added some comments, maybe someone has already an old/broken watch an can check the pins...
@icysea and @SmartphoneER and @menuet posted some pictures that might be helpful...
I don't know electronics. I am just a programmer. BUt I asked one of my colleagues that knows, and he told me that doesn't recognize the new look of the wires...
I think that they made a special cable to access the bootloader...
P.S. I attached, @menuet 's pictures...
Thank you....
UPDATE:
found the full disassembly process: http://it.sohu.com/20160126/n435898447.shtml. It has more technical details...
I remember the white latex-covered finger tips. I came across this teardown a while ago but couldn't find it again.
hei... let's work together and find those PINS... Maybe someone has a broken watch that can use to find out where are the pins for an USB cable...
Motorola did a great job with hiding the pins, but everything that is done by human can be hacked by human....
Some more research done by me:
Maybe we can use some pogo pins (like those attached) to make contact on that golden contacts bands (numbered A5 -A6 etc.) . Now, @menuet found the 5V as A5, and the ground as A6. WE still have 3 more tries (A1, A2, A4) for the data+ and data- from the SUB scheme. I don't know if something will break if we don't guess from the first time the right arrangement, (and we switch data- with data+ ).
And we can make something to hold those pogo pins stabilized (see that sketch made in paint)
Maybe this will be helpful for someone with a broken watch or already disassembled watch
found one more disassembly:
http://www.btspeaker.cn/thread-7582-1-1.html
UPDATE:
Also, seems like swapping the D+ and D- from the USB scheme, doesn't do any harm. Maybe someone can try this. I would have tried on my watch, but I am from Romania and my watch was bought from US. So, no warranty. And it's still functional, and working great....
See here for more details:
http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/73295/in-a-usb-cable-is-it-ok-to-swap-the-d-and-d-wires
This is going to sound weird but I have the second gen and it does appear to have an unlocked bootloader. I noticed because I bought this watch used and I couldn't update. The thing is the guy I bought it from didn't do it. The plastic ring is still on the watch so I don't understand how this was done unless they accessed the pins. Can you even do that over Bluetooth?
I'm posting here because I would need help in regards to this. Otherwise I'm screwed I guess.
You cannot enter fastboot commands through bluetooth... So, the only plausible reason will be that someone, somehow made an interface and unlocked the device..
P.S.
And this will be a very good information... I am waiting for so long for this to happen..
eltigre4jc said:
Some more research done by me:
Maybe we can use some pogo pins (like those attached) to make contact on that golden contacts bands (numbered A5 -A6 etc.) . Now, @menuet found the 5V as A5, and the ground as A6. WE still have 3 more tries (A1, A2, A4) for the data+ and data- from the SUB scheme. I don't know if something will break if we don't guess from the first time the right arrangement, (and we switch data- with data+ ).
And we can make something to hold those pogo pins stabilized (see that sketch made in paint)
Maybe this will be helpful for someone with a broken watch or already disassembled watch
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am almost completely sure that the interface cable has to be built, upon those golden contacts.. If the original poster still has the watch or someone else, that has a broken watch., maybe can try to make an interface..
P.S. a link with another teardown, this time for Moto Sport http://imgur.com/a/yFb4s
eltigre4jc said:
Some more research done by me:
Maybe we can use some pogo pins (like those attached) to make contact on that golden contacts bands (numbered A5 -A6 etc.) . Now, @menuet found the 5V as A5, and the ground as A6. WE still have 3 more tries (A1, A2, A4) for the data+ and data- from the SUB scheme. I don't know if something will break if we don't guess from the first time the right arrangement, (and we switch data- with data+ ).
And we can make something to hold those pogo pins stabilized (see that sketch made in paint)
Maybe this will be helpful for someone with a broken watch or already disassembled watch
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3965954&d=1481526286
These may in fact serve as the pogo pins found on the 1 gen watch.
stevemw said:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3965954&d=1481526286
These may in fact serve as the pogo pins found on the 1 gen watch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gosh, this is awkward. Well guys, i contacted Motorola and gave them pictures of my watch and they say I got a Prototype Watch.
My bootloader is already unlocked on this watch but there is very old user-build firmware installed. I would like to flash the latest one, but as i read this here, its not possible without an USB connection right?
Edit: my watch is also rooted! I debugged it with bluetooth and tried to shell it. I tried ls the /system dir which failed. But after i su'd it listed me the system directory and all files in it.
I removed the plastic ring from my watch so i am able to see the golden contacts now, and I am ready to try to create an interface if someone teaches me how to do that.
My aim is to flash a custom recovery to it like twrp. I noticed there is a moto 360 twrp recovery, so i guess it shouldnt be to hard to port this to the second edition right?
Edit: I am going to create an interface cable with that 4 pins..
Two pins I know, GND and 5V. The other two pins i will need to find out, but basically, if i found the correct ones and they are connected to the watch and the watch is in bootloader, and i do fastboot devices i should see the watch as fastboot device right? (To make sure the interface works ofc.)
I built an interface, but its not recognizing USB. It says unknown device, error while getting device descriptor or something like that. But I only get that device popping up in device manager when i am using pin A1 (no matter Data+ or data-). If i use A2 and a4 for example, then this device doesnt even pop up in device manager. So i guess A1 is for sure either data+ or data-
When it comes to driver stuff now i have no clue. I tried updating the driver and navigated to google usb driver located in android_sdk\extras\google but it said best fitting drivers were already installed...
So i got no clue what to do next now..
Yothri said:
I built an interface, but its not recognizing USB. It says unknown device, error while getting device descriptor or something like that. But I only get that device popping up in device manager when i am using pin A1 (no matter Data+ or data-). If i use A2 and a4 for example, then this device doesnt even pop up in device manager. So i guess A1 is for sure either data+ or data-
When it comes to driver stuff now i have no clue. I tried updating the driver and navigated to google usb driver located in android_sdk\extras\google but it said best fitting drivers were already installed...
So i got no clue what to do next now..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank for trying.. Now, can you, put a picture of the interface you built? And also, can you try to attach the watch through USB to a fresh system, that has no previously installed drivers?
Maybe you can look for drivers for the version one of the watch....
Hello there. I am an early adopter of this device.
After all the disappointment with the wifi and gps capabilities and failing to utilize the tf201 as a light netbook replacement, I stowed it away somewhere and lost interest, as I didn't buy the thing to play angry birds. Now about two weeks ago I remembered the tablet and wanted to try amusing our cat with it (which amazingly works great, he is all about those cat video games now ) and got out the dock as well, since someone had apparently ported a few linux images to the tf201 more successfully then last time I read up on it.
The keyboard dock was pretty much an external battery it seemed. None of the keys would work whatsoever but the touchpad did. The battery was recognized and charged fine. I tried the sd-card slot and usb connector, both also working.
I have been searching the net for similar issues and found a lot of people whose docks were dead, with various symptoms. I tried a lot of things unsuccessfully and continued to use the dock as an external battery and for quick charging with the wall plug.
Well then yesterday I connected the dock again to charge the tablet a bit, and what do you know? the keyboard is working again. WTF? I have reconnected the tablet multiple times now, folded and unfolded the whole combo and it is still working today? Could it be a software problem? Is it multiple things causing this?
I decided to open a thread and gather information in one place, so that others might find it easier to troubleshoot this.
Following is a list of things that other's who have similar problems might try to fix/investigate. After that I will post some things that I have tried in order to troubleshoot my problems and please share what ideas you might have, as I am sure the problems with my keyboard dock will return eventually.
Here is what I was able to gather as potential root causes and possible fixes for dead keyboard docks:
1) The ingenious product design of the dock hinge makes it a premium dirt trap. Lots of bits and dust can get inside and will all the time, as the gap is wide open and there is convenient rubber on the sides with glue that dissolves and attracts crap that is basically uncleanable. But the connector is! So try cleaning the first. Sadly it is not easy to access but cotton swabs and a tooth brush with some cleaning alcohol will do it. The tablet side can be cleaned more easily but also isn't so problematic as a dust trap.
2) The flex cable inside the dock can become loose due to vibrations. This was a problem with the transformer generation before and they seem to have improved the design but I still read reports from people who had this happen. This is the easiest to fix out of all of these problems and if you have connection problems with your dock, make sure to check this. The dock is very easily opened with a phillips screw driver, a plastic prod (guitar pick, old credit card, cheap phone repair tools etc) and some patience. Be sure to not lift the two halves away from each other, as the cable connecting the top to bottom is very short and if you are not careful, you'll rip off the connector on the pcb. Check the flex cables and reseat them.
3) The connector between the tf201 and the dock is built very flimsily, but better then the first transformer series. The connector on the tablet side can lift off the pads it's soldered to due to flex and stress because it carries the tablets weight partially without a lot of support. The good news about this is, that if you have a decent rework station, this is potentially fixable. Opening the tablet is a hassle, you need a heatgun to soften the adhesive around the case (noone mentions this it seems) and slide the locking tabs in the recesses (where the tablet usually locks to the dock, left and right from the connector) to the open position. Then carefully pry the whole assembly open and get access to where the flex cable is connected to the dock/charge port. with a proper hot air rework station, that port can be reflown if the pins have indeed lifted from the pads on the little pcb. But this is also very finicky, as you will melt stuff in the process without shielding it from the heat (captone tape or maybe aluminum foil can do the trick).
4) Software? I only have theories on this but I think a lot of cases have some sort of software problem. What is known about how the dock functions?
- it contains a battery, which can be charged independently of the tablet. Charging this battery requires 15V and cannot be done with a common usb connection.
- there is a usb host connector, so there must be a controller for that inside the dock. it's not just wired through to the tablet, there is stuff happening here.
- there is an sdcard slot, so there must be some hardware responsible for powering and reading/writen to that as well.
- there has to be some sort of firmware, responsible for the low level things going on in the dock I am thinking, it has to do powermanagement for several internal devices.
so my conclusion from this information is, that maybe some of the problems could be caused there. how could this be debugged?
or:
- the custom rom could have a problem with the dock. The software side might be wonky for whatever reason. I am running a KatKiss 7.1.2 rom and AOSP is the only choice I can set as the hardware keyboard. Some people had success with hard reseting their tf201 or even a factory reset or reflash. A lot of people reported this did nothing for them.
TL;DR if your keyboard isn't working, your dock isn't charging, or some other feature on your dock seems dead suddenly, try the above things and please report. I am trying to collect all info on this to help people troubleshoot and investigate these issues.
- I have tried to hard reset the tf201 with dock attached and without. didn't help.
- I opened the dock and reseated the flex cables, but they looked fine in the first place. Also didn't help.
- I tried fiddling with the keyboard and language settings, also did nothing. Don't want to reflash/change roms just yet, I couldn't gather any cohesive info on wether people -had these sorts of issues due to a custom rom.
- I cleaned the connector on the dock and the tablet with isopropyl and got out lots of gunk but this also did not help.
now I was about to reopen the tablet (I was in there before to fix something on the case), but then it suddenly started working again. So I am pretty reluctant to just open the tablet to check at the connector pcb, since it is quite risky and I am glad I was able to get the thing back together so neatly, after I opened it the first time. I have a hot air rework station and a microscope to check and repair this, but now that I am thinking it might be a software issue after all, I really don't want to risk ruining the tablet. It's obviously not made for being repaired/maintained (thanks ASUS, it's not like it was extraordinarily expensive...).
Here's the issue I had..
https://www.androidpolice.com/2011/...-battery-drain-here-is-why-and-how-to-fix-it/
Having missed the window to have this repaired by Asus I just leave my keyboard in a drawer to keep papers from curling.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk
HorthLithperer said:
Here's the issue I had..
https://www.androidpolice.com/2011/...-battery-drain-here-is-why-and-how-to-fix-it/
Having missed the window to have this repaired by Asus I just leave my keyboard in a drawer to keep papers from curling.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A6013 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for that link. So that apparently just concerns people who have a dock that has it's battery draining, which I am luckily not one of. I also did the test described in the link, so I guess powermanagement is not affected by the firmware incompability in this regard.