Using the tablet for something

[Ugo Riboni]

Hi folks,
Among other projects I'm working on lately I'm trying to use the
Neuros tablet to do something useful.

Basically what I plan to do is to put a small app on it that will
connect to a daemon on the Link (or my laptop, or on the OSD1 when I
finally get around resurrecting one and making it my low-power audio
player remotely controlled by my laptop or cellphone).
The app will get from the daemon the metadata for the currently
playing track and display it on the screen in the most readable way
possible.

The tablet itself will be hanging somewhere on a wall where anyone in
the room can see it -- velcro straps, a wooden frame/cradle, something
like that, depending on what I manage to scavenge around.
Possibly when there's no music playing it will act as a wall clock, or
display RSS feeds and that stuff, or just go to sleep to consume less
watts (if doable on android and this hardware, I don't know).

I'm doing this because being a glorified wall is at least better than
sitting in a box gathering dust, for learning some more about android
dev and so that my girlfriend will stop asking me "what band is this
?" ten times a day ;)

So to start off I cut away the power cable and soldered a couple extra
meters of wires to it, since I really hated the tiny tiny power cord
and I will need to have a long wire anyway since I'll be hanging it
not too near the wall outlet.

Then I tried uploading an hello world app to the tablet with adb, but
it's not seeing the tabled via USB (it's seeing it only as mass
storage).
So I thought that a newer firmare would've been better, and tried
"Mercury" from a link from slatedroid [1]

However with Mercury the wifi is pretty wonky, not connecting and not
seeing the networks even one meter away for a while, but then suddenly
connecting -- but when trying to browse it's actually still offline
even though the WiFi icon is showing as connected with full power.
adb over USB still doesn't work.

I also tried the original 2.0 version of the firmware from the
manufacturer (from a link that Joe posted on this list a long time
ago), but same crappy wifi and broken adb.

So for now I'm gonna go ahead developing the app in the emulator,
hoping that someone of you can help me figure out how to get the
system in a somewhat stable config that can be used. I don't need the
latest and greatest, just something working.

If there's a better firmware for the tablet or a newer version of
Mercury or anything that will give me a more decent WiFi and adb
usage, please let me know.

Cheers,
--
nero

[1] http://www.4shared.com/file/97peRAjL/M002_Slatedroid_Mercury_RC__Lo.html

[Anthony DeRobertis]

You probably need to enable USB Debugging to get adb to work.

(Not completely sure, since I don't have one of the Neuros tablets, but
that's how other Android devices work).

[Vladimir Pantelic]

and add the usb vendor id to that adb usb ini file...

[Fernando Cassia]

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 6:48 AM, Ugo Riboni <neroc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The tablet itself will be hanging somewhere on a wall where anyone in
> the room can see it -- velcro straps,

Oh yes, another Velcro Worshipper. Welcome to the Church, brother. :)

And glad to see this list is back alive. For a moment I thought this
list -and Joe along with it- had disappeared into a Neuros sabbatical
or something.

FC

[Tim Cusack]

I, too was wondering where our joeverlord went...hope this picks up more conversation...Also, Ugo, could you post some more detail about the power cable replacement?

I was thinking of doing something like this as well...

Tim

--
FOR REALTIME DISCUSSION GO TO IRC #neuros on freenode

You received this message because you are subscribed to the "Neuros" group.
To post to this group, send email to Neu...@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to Neuros-un...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Neuros

[Daniel Jircik]

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 10, 2011, at 8:29 PM, Fernando Cassia <fca...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 6:48 AM, Ugo Riboni <neroc...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> The tablet itself will be hanging somewhere on a wall where anyone in
>> the room can see it -- velcro straps,
>
> Oh yes, another Velcro Worshipper. Welcome to the Church, brother. :

Duct tape :-0

>
>
> And glad to see this list is back alive. For a moment I thought this
> list -and Joe along with it- had disappeared into a Neuros sabbatical
> or something.
>
> FC
>

[Marco Pantaleoni]

AFAIK adb over USB doesn't work on this tablet. I'd love to be proved wrong though :-)
I'm said that it works over wifi instead.

As I am at it, it would be wonderful to have a wiki page summarizing all the info about the different firmwares (a comparison table would be optimal: wifi hack, swap, root, market, synchronization, camera, audio, ...). It would be a great starting point for this kind of projects.

Ciao,
Marco

--

Marco Pantaleoni

[Ugo Riboni]

I had already the debug enabled on the tablet.
Didn't know about the adb_usb.ini file, so after some research that's
what I did:
* android update adb : this will generate the file in ~/.android/usb_adb.ini
* lsusb tells me that I have as my tablet:
Bus 002 Device 008: ID 040d:8510 VIA Technologies, Inc.
* So i edited the file and it came out like this:

# ANDROID 3RD PARTY USB VENDOR ID LIST -- DO NOT EDIT.
# USE 'android update adb' TO GENERATE.
# 1 USB VENDOR ID PER LINE.
0x040d

* then adb kill-server and adb start-server

But then doing adb devices will not list the tablet anyway.

So if anyone can see anything wrong in what I did, please let me know.

[Vladimir Pantelic]

lsusb -v should list a composite device with MSC and a 2nd function.

If you don't get that, then there is most likely no adb running...

[Ugo Riboni]

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 3:33 AM, Tim Cusack <thagra...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I, too was wondering where our joeverlord went...hope this picks up more
> conversation...Also, Ugo, could you post some more detail about the power
> cable replacement?
> I was thinking of doing something like this as well...

The power cable replacement is really just a crude hack.
I took scissors and cut the original power cable in two parts, then
with a wire stripper i exposed the two cables inside.
Then I cut some meters of multi strand cable, stripped it, spliced it
together with the original cable and soldered the two ends together.
Then I covered the exposed parts with insulating tape, and that's it.
Worked at first try, even though it was the first soldering I've ever
done in my life (took me about 30 years, but hey... ;)).

But i'm sure that if you go with the power brick to any electronic
shop they will be able to sell you another brick with the same specs
and a longer cable :)
--
Ugo

[Ugo Riboni]

>>>>  You probably need to enable USB Debugging to get adb to work.
>>>>
>>>>  (Not completely sure, since I don't have one of the Neuros tablets, but
>>>>  that's how other Android devices work).
>>>
>>>  and add the usb vendor id to that adb usb ini file...
>>
>> I had already the debug enabled on the tablet.
>> Didn't know about the adb_usb.ini file, so after some research that's

>> what I did: ...

>
> lsusb -v should list a composite device with MSC and a 2nd function.
> If you don't get that, then there is most likely no adb running...

This is what I get: http://pastebin.com/KzArpKEj

iConfiguration 4 Bulk-Only Configuration
This makes me suspect there's in fact no adb on the device :(

Now, using adb over wifi would be ok, if only the wifi wasn't so unreliable...

[Jeremy Coleman]

Ugo,

Sounds like a good way to get some use out of the device. A few people on slatedroid have claimed to have adb over usb on some of the stock firmwares, but I have never seen any reliable breakdown on how to get it working. I have used every stock firmware and most of the custom firmwares, including ones I have put together. I have not been able to get adb over usb to work even once on this device.

 

Here are some thoughts on wifi. There are some things that you can look into for getting it to work better. The first thing is to make sure you are using a rom that has the txpower reduced. This will reduce heat and help your signal to noise ratio which should hlp with your connection. The next thing to look at is adding an antenna. The default configuration of these devices does no include an antenna on the wifi adapter. People have reported success using psp wifi antennas which can be purchased online for $10(US) or less. You might also want to checkout the projectgus website because I know at one point he had a newer version of the wifi driver compiled. I don't know if any significant differenece is seen with it, but it can't hurt to try. If you find that there is a newer driver available from projectgus, but need a way to install it, let me know and I can probably throw something together. I have never had any issues with the wifi connection and my router, so I'm not really able to test for improvements in a helpful way. Another thought is that if your router is running in some sort of mixed mode, you may want to try strict 802.11g only.

 

As far as using adb over wifi goes, you will want to make sure you have issued your adb connect command before trying to do anything else. With wifi you will not get an automatic connection when executing your adb commands like you do with usb, so the adb connect command is required.

 

-Jeremy

 

[Ugo Riboni]

> Here are some thoughts on wifi. There are some things that you can look into
> for getting it to work better.

So, looks like I actually found a ROM where WiFi works like it should:
it's called Ecotox [1] and it was found while checking some of these
posted on Slatedroid.

I also set my router to G-only mode, just in case, but it didn't seem
to do any difference either with stock or Mercury.

So, I can now do ADB over WiFi, which works great.

That ROM is also pretty cool in that it has out of the box working
Market. I downloaded some games and they all downladed and ran fine
(well, except Angry Birds which i guess needed more memory or
horsepower than the device could give it).

I guess I may try the antenna mod if it looks like the reception is
not good enough for the usage I need but it seems pretty good so far,
so if I do the mod will be more for the fun of it than anything else.

Cheers,
--
u.

[1] http://www.slatedroid.com/index.php?/topic/3453-romecotox-v14ifudntlykthisiwillreplaceurheartwithc-akestealurwaffles1011/

[Fernando Cassia]

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 3:21 PM, Ugo Riboni <neroc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I guess I may try the antenna mod if it looks like the reception is
> not good enough for the usage I need but it seems pretty good so far,
> so if I do the mod will be more for the fun of it than anything else.
>
> Cheers,
> --
> u.

Ugo,

I´m personally not interested in wi-fi, when I have ethernet on every
room. So the big question is: do the Neuros tablets support
USB-Ethernet adapters hooked via USB?. Are the drivers present on the
stock firmware?.

TIA...
FC