Related
I just thought I'd share what the video is like from a Samsung Galaxy S2 when it's strapped to an RC plane... with duct tape!
Sorry about the noise from 1m 35s (the start of the whole flight), maybe next time I'll disable sound recording!
Maybe the first of many flights and whilst only done twice thus far, each time I put the phone in 'flight mode' I have to smile
eeek .. I cannot post video links Umm, 8 posts? ..
the link if anyone cares to see it is: [EDIT] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf_V0VgMLXU
Here's a clickable link for the more lazy users here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf_V0VgMLXU
Thanks D3 .. I've not got many posts as I spend more time reading than writing
BTW, what did you use to mount it to the plane? I'd be way too worried about it falling off to try something like this
EDIT: just read the rest of the first post
I guess I should spend less time writing and more time reading
Crazy bastard.My heart would be beating at an excess of 400 beats per minute if my phone was strapped on an RC plane flying high enough to trash my phone completely if it fell.
Although I reckon you'd be more worried about the plane in such a situation,eh?
Hahahahah, awesome! You sir are nucking futs! And for that, I thank you.
I was more worried about the phone actually .. and in hind sight, the plane was repaired once after it fell out of the sky and I still decided to strap my phone on... what was I thinking?!
Years ago, there was a video of a Nokia N93 strapped to a plane that fell off but survived! youtube.com watch?v=l_o-vxvaN6c [sorry... can't link yet!]
I consequently bought an n93 and after I lost that, an n93i, which I attached to a larger plane with rubber bands At the time, that was my 'current phone'..
he must trust his RC plane flying skills a lot
Where I want to take this:
Onboard sensor logging + HD video. It'd be nice to see the accel., etc sensor data for the flight... I tried a few, with varying success ... after sensor/flight tracking, wireless transmissions!
The possibilities truly are infinite!
You are NUTS.
But that's awesome. RC planes is something I want to get into eventually, mainly to experiment with stuff like the DiyDrones autopilots.
Too bad the BeagleBone doesn't have a video encoder... it would be perfect for airborne video if it did!
Entropy512 said:
You are NUTS.
But that's awesome. RC planes is something I want to get into eventually, mainly to experiment with stuff like the DiyDrones autopilots.
Too bad the BeagleBone doesn't have a video encoder... it would be perfect for airborne video if it did!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can buy some cheap planes these days and controllers. I looked into the DIY drone system and bought myself an Arduino, never used with RC and made a basic laser projector and a few other bits but not to it's potential. As I'd not even heard of the BeagleBoard, I briefly looked and it seems promising. The thing I'm ever so curious about is the Raspberry Pi...
I only ever wanted to film aerial photography but now I find myself seeing a few pieces of technology finally being hacked together. Options: Arduino + plane, Arduino + android + plane. One's smartphone could indeed, be a smart controller.
My phone has all sorts of sensors and records video, why not put that to good use, it's got datalogging, GPS, accelerometers, compass, it comes with a touchscreen interface and records video, I want to put it all to good use
If you are looking at easy DIY drone, you could start looking at the ArduPilot, and other variants. I think it caters for planes, helis, quadcopters and hexacopters... I think the later options are worthy aerial drones as they hover... and are quite stable... ArduIMU .. there are lots of free source code, etc available should you want to check it out.
I wonder if one of these could hold a Galaxy S II .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CR5y8qZf0Y
crazy man!
Hey guys,
Recently I have been seeing companies releasing devices for Android that are not phones e.g.
Android USB Sticks:
techland.time.com/2012/05/18/pc-in-your-pocket-74-android-stick-goes-on-sale/
or more recently a game console:
kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console
I'm in University now studying Electrical Engineering and I've had an interest in electronics since I was young, so now I thought it was possible for me to design my own device. But so far my only luck with getting anywhere was drafting designs of the device and finding development boards online. Sure i could start off with development boards to test software (which i'm planning to do) but I am quite lost as to where I should go next. For example where to I get a manufacturer to produce my device or where to purchase a processor/motherboard that is custom designed for my project.
It would be really great if someone could point me in the right direction,
Scott
that's an ambitious project, I've just finished 2 degrees in EE and in the long term i'm looking to do similiar projects, but right now it is beyond my capabilities. But what i have done is buy a very cheap dev kit from STmicroelectronics with their ARM m4 chip onboard. (STM32F4)
this chip should be powerful enough to get started on and all the pins are broken out, plus the device includes a programmer and is powered over usb.
It was less than €20 but is still sat in its box as I've a lot to learn before cracking it open.
Have you any experience with RTOS for ARM, Keil offer a free trial version of their well respected uVision MDK software, it supports the above board directly and removes the need to configure a tool chain etc. Personally i'm trying to get eclipse on ubuntu to program it bit Keil uVision will allow me to blink LED's etc so long as my program is under 4Kb.
I too am only starting down this project but i hope the little i know has been of some help.
As for custom devices, well thats a whole other ball game, you will need to make out a schematic, then a board layout, then gerber files. After that you need a small run on a pick and place / reflow line. It's very rare these work out first time round, attention has to be paid to details like noise sinking, pull up resistors, matching logic levels and optically isolating external devices etc.
It's great that you are looking beyond your course material, I've learned much more from personal geekery rather than just taking notes from a lecturer. Anything you do outside the course will benefit you in a better degree at the end.
I've never been designing device from scratch, and I'm also just first grade student. Anyway I could imagine how this might look for small company or single person:
1) Decide what do you want to build-up. Easiest todo is custom dev-board, it can be always redesigned and packed into tablet case. The hardest to-do is mobile phone, and it's nearly impossible to create such thing due to high level of embedding everything, and need to sign pretty serious agreements with RF CPU (and other things like transceivers, antennas, duplexers) supplier like Infineon or Qualcomm.
2) Think what main components you'll need, like LPDDR, SoC (CPU), PMIC (SoC manufacturer usually recommend PMICs to be used and provide reference board schemas for using both), battery fuel gauge, charging controller (both might be built into PMIC, depends on model), screen+touchscreen (there are dozens of such, one might want to decide its size already, but in case of dev-board like build it usually can be replaced by some smaller/bigger with small HW modifications or without modifications at all), sensors like gyro, compass, pressure, light, whatever.
3) Search through suppliers websites and decide what models of ICs you want to use (I'd pick only open hardware), order engineering samples and get reference schemas, rather start from SoC(OMAP4460 for eg.)+PMIC pair, then decide about the rest.
4) Don't forget about extension slots like USB ports, DC supply, serial converters, whatsoever.
5) Start designing PCB board. IMO it's impossible for begginer to project any usable PCB for embedded system, I'm begginer and I'm failing with simplest boost HF DC/DC converters (like 10-20 parts on board), while such board would have thousands of elements on it, and multi layer board to fit it everything in some rational size.
6) Find company that will make prototype for you - they should make board + solder all the components you provide them - one with no professional (and very, very expensive) soldering stations is not able to solder BGA components at home.
7) Test it out.
Relatively, assuming that main components are free engineering samples, this might be not so money-expensive way to create some useful stuff. But for sure it's very, very time expensive, and begginer alone will nearly for sure fail.
//edit:
I just re-read my post and figured it might be pretty demotivating. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I'd suggest you to start from something easier - ARM dev board is the thing you need. As Quiggers stated above.
Just noticed these - cheap and powerful dev boards:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Allwinner_A10#Other
Custom design
I'm looking to do the same, has this worked for you? I'm looking to build a custom android based mobile device as the original poster. I haven't had any look finding the correct electrical or device engineer to provide me any assistance. Are you available to assist?
Quiggers said:
that's an ambitious project, I've just finished 2 degrees in EE and in the long term i'm looking to do similiar projects, but right now it is beyond my capabilities. But what i have done is buy a very cheap dev kit from STmicroelectronics with their ARM m4 chip onboard. (STM32F4)
this chip should be powerful enough to get started on and all the pins are broken out, plus the device includes a programmer and is powered over usb.
It was less than €20 but is still sat in its box as I've a lot to learn before cracking it open.
Have you any experience with RTOS for ARM, Keil offer a free trial version of their well respected uVision MDK software, it supports the above board directly and removes the need to configure a tool chain etc. Personally i'm trying to get eclipse on ubuntu to program it bit Keil uVision will allow me to blink LED's etc so long as my program is under 4Kb.
I too am only starting down this project but i hope the little i know has been of some help.
As for custom devices, well thats a whole other ball game, you will need to make out a schematic, then a board layout, then gerber files. After that you need a small run on a pick and place / reflow line. It's very rare these work out first time round, attention has to be paid to details like noise sinking, pull up resistors, matching logic levels and optically isolating external devices etc.
It's great that you are looking beyond your course material, I've learned much more from personal geekery rather than just taking notes from a lecturer. Anything you do outside the course will benefit you in a better degree at the end.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technexion
I have used OMAP3530 CPU. The TAO3530 is a good starting point and you can get a Tsunami board.
s8500 board with tablet touchscreen
hi dudes,
i have an old wave s8500 but the screen is broken. and i have an old tablet screen 7" from herotab8/dropad8.
can i use the tablet screen with the s8500 board? is not drivers necessary for the touchscreen? and where will i get the drivers?
and do i not need the datasheets of the pins to connect?
)
What we REALLY need is for someone to make a SoC that's basically like the one in the Raspberry Pi, but substitutes a FPGA for the GPU that's big enough to re-implement GPU functionality... long after the chip has left the fab & gotten soldered onto an open-ended generic ARM stick with no specific purpose, and thus manages to officially avoid getting infected by DRM-mandated licensing terms (ie, anything *officially* licensed to support h.264 or HDMI) that keep making totally open drivers nearly impossible. After all, if the drivers were 100% open source, there's no way they can stop you from commenting out the part responsible for implementing Cinavia, or lying to endpoint devices (like your home theater amp) about HDCP compliance
To deflect infringement claims, a company that made Android boards from the FPGA-equipped SoCs could make it with a soldered-on DVI port instead of HDMI (HDMI connectors are encumbered by viral licensing, DVI isn't), and put a reference design on their website for a wacky octopus cable that used the DVI-A pins to output unbuffered 3-bit pseudo-VGA, and used the remaining pins as a high-density breakout connector for a bunch of half-duplex RS-485 ports and GPIO lines that just *happened* to use DVI/HDMI logic levels
Of course, you'd never be able to legally sell a product based upon that board to end users in the US with the taboo technologies supported "out of the box", but other companies outside the US not subject to our self-inflicted wackiness could, and hopefully WOULD, buy enough of those boards to drive the price down enough to make them cheap for American hobbyists to buy on eBay and use for our own guerrilla Android-powered hardware projects.
In theory, the Xilinx Zynq 7000 series sort of does this... but at the moment, they're so ungodly expensive, you could almost buy a half-dozen Nexus 7 tablets for the price of their Android-capable dev board.
sounds great dude
Nice
Nice post
Hardware for Android D
Its not even turning on now...guess i will have to take it to a computer shop now, are you sure it has to be major things like "dead hard drive to a burned up chip to a bad motherboard."?
I'm just looking to be pointed in the right general direction here.
How would I go about hooking up an LCD and touch panel to an Android board (Raspberry PI or something similar). This is for an embedded device.
Something like a Hannstar HSD062IDW1
sbarrow said:
I'm just looking to be pointed in the right general direction here.
How would I go about hooking up an LCD and touch panel to an Android board (Raspberry PI or something similar). This is for an embedded device.
Something like a Hannstar HSD062IDW1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, most of these ARM dev boards have raw LCD headers. If you're an electronics designer then you can go design a PCB to do things like level shift those bits and maybe convert those parallel signals to something else (LVDS or HDMI or watever). But from what I understand, you already have a video out in the form of HDMI and svideo. Some of us here at ArcDatum have done embedded systems research on a whole bunch of ARM boards (BeagleBoard, Pandaboard, the obscure ODROID-X) and almost all of them should have LCD headers. As for touch screens, that's more difficult. Chances are you'll have to use GPIOs or find a screen with HDMI input and USB output for touch sensing. Otherwise you'll have to design an touch screen input/output driver (which actually isn't that hard once you know how.....finding out how is the difficult part since so many of the chips they use have little or no documentation).
You might be in luck with iPhone screens. I personally have heard rumors of people reverse engineering the screen signals and driving them.
Edit: So i looked at your Hannstar link. Looks like you have a 10.5V LED backlight. So u'll have to drive that separately; that's easy enough. As for the actual signals. Looks like the pinouts you have all the RGB 8bit per color channels as well as your power stuff, ground stuff, and your clock inputs all of which can come from either your LCD header on ur RPi (if it has one; i know the BeagleBoard-XM has them) or an external power supply (for Vcc etc). Note you should tie all grounds together in many cases. As for the other random signals you will have to figure out if they're necessary to connect to something (Even if it's ground) or if you can leave them floating. Watch out for your voltage levels and how much current the RGB signals on the display will sink. Likely case is you have to do a level shift from something like 1.8V logic to 3.3V logic or something like that. When you're picking your IC to do that level shifting, also be very aware that the IC has to be able to change from 0 to 3.3V fast enough. You will have to verify that within one clock cycle, the slew rate of every pin (aka each bit for the RGB channels) is high enough to change from a high value to low or vice versa before the next clock edge comes along. If not you're data will be considered corrupt or just completely invalid.
Edit2: Your title states that you're trying to make this work with Android. I think in fact you are trying to drive the LCD with the System on a Chip on the RPi. Depending on the SoC and kernel, you might have to enable the LCD header pinouts in the kernel. Don't quote me on this though. I could be totally bull****ting you. My GUESS is that the same signals that go to the HDMI chip go to the header and in fact when using the header, you're just pulling the logic of those same signal lines (which also means you have to be extra careful of the current you're sourcing from those lines)
I wish to understand your motivation.
There are plenty of cheap Android tablets available with LCD touch screen. Now instead of trying to use one of these you want to get inferior "WhateverBerry" and engineer LCD interface + software stack etc spending your time and money.
Am I correct describing your intention?
Also I am not sure that Android is a good fit for embedded development which is mostly applied to some type of real-time controllers. It is not real-time OS.
If your want to build quickly an embedded controller with LCD touch you can get it done using Arduino boards. There are few LCD modules with touch capabilities available but with very poor documentation. It will require some work but it is feasible to achieve in a few days. It would cost you about $100 in components including Arduino and LCD shield and software is free.
Good luck!
sbarrow said:
I'm just looking to be pointed in the right general direction here.
How would I go about hooking up an LCD and touch panel to an Android board (Raspberry PI or something similar). This is for an embedded device.
Something like a Hannstar HSD062IDW1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Adapt0r said:
I wish to understand your motivation.
There are plenty of cheap Android tablets available with LCD touch screen. Now instead of trying to use one of these you want to get inferior "WhateverBerry" and engineer LCD interface + software stack etc spending your time and money.
Am I correct describing your intention?
Also I am not sure that Android is a good fit for embedded development which is mostly applied to some type of real-time controllers. It is not real-time OS.
If your want to build quickly an embedded controller with LCD touch you can get it done using Arduino boards. There are few LCD modules with touch capabilities available but with very poor documentation. It will require some work but it is feasible to achieve in a few days. It would cost you about $100 in components including Arduino and LCD shield and software is free.
Good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with this, for the most part. Although theres no reason his application wouldnt be better with Android. What if theyre making some sort of consumer friendly appliance. Android wud be a great place to start. Arduinos wud be good for tiny applications but if they want anything pretty it wont have enough horse power.
Also Im not sure how RTOS fits into this. Sure Android isnt an RTOS, but ur phone is Android and thats an embedded system too. Just because it isnt deterministic doesnt mean it isnt suited for embedded. Just go look at basically any of the Texas Instruments ARM based android/linux dev boards.
Anyway back to the topic at hand. If you want a high powered device then try a BeagleBoard with a third party LCD attachment. It wont be cheap, you would basically have an android tablet only itd be for development (and I mean product development, not just software development). But if you dont need 700+mghz of 32 bit addressing lol, then yes go with a much cheaper arduino and lcd.
Edit: Look at this, I think you'll like it (its an all in one ARM development board):
e2e.ti.com/group/universityprogram/educators/w/wiki/2252.am335x-starter-kit.aspx?sp_rid_pod4=MTk2NzAwNDYzODgS1&sp_mid_pod4=40798754
Also I should clarify Arduinos are a 'cheaper' solution, not a 'cheap' solution. Arduinos are not cheap for the amount of processing power u get and they are almost never suited for LCD applications (but there are a few).
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app
I am glad to have this discussion, it helps to clarify choices we make and avoid waste of time.
RTOS is needed if high rate data acquisition is the core application. If time uncertainty of Android apps execution is tolerable then it might be a good choice considering great UI and communication capabilities.
A number of projects utilize commercial Android hardware with external Bluetooth or USB accessory/ host. In this configuration external accessory acquires and stores data in a buffer, Android terminal reads this data buffer and then does data processing and visualization if necessary.
This combination looks the most efficient since it provides great flexibility with minimal resources.
Low price of Raspberry PI and good marketing attracted a lot of people but usability of this board is very limited. You get what you paid for. It is underpowered for modern Linux and Android, does not have ADC, not suitable for low power (battery) applications. Originally, its main purpose was declared to make learning of programming languages more accessible.
Cheers!
screen
hello Folks,
i even have a broken tablet, but the touchscreen is still ok.
and i still have a samsung wave s8500 with broken screen but it still running.
is there any solution how i can connect the 7 inch screen with the wave?
the 7 inch screen is a mid tablet dropad/haipad.
is there any link to hardware manuall..
and where can i get the driver of the mid?
thanks in advance
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7" to LCD
is ther anyone trying connect samsung galaxy tab 2 7" to LCD
or it is imposible.... (
Hey all the good people at XDA. I have an idea and the potential parts to make this work. Think of it like a Google Glass ( another glass concept ) but for the combat Infantrymen. We wear eye protection already and put some crazy stuff on our helmets. We get shot at and we shoot back.
This is where I and trying to help.
The concept:
Being able to know and many rounds you have fired.
able to tell distance, direction and elevation the shots originating from.
Able to tell what round was fired.
The hardware:
Will be tested on Oakley M frames. I am drafting up at the moment.
Small screen on either eye but supposed to be your non firing eye.
there will be small mics around the helmet. This is what will give direction.
There will be a small shock sensor and mic to give an accurate round count.
What I want to try to use:
I have an electronic viewfinder screen from an old digital camera. that's what I will look up to. I have the orignal PCB that I know has the TI DPS. I think it has whatever display chip on the board as well. Basically I tore a kodak easyshare z710. I don't know what firmware type is it. Maybe Linux but I don't know.
Can I get some help on this. Is a little near and dear lol.
Sent from my Nexus 7
I don't actually understand what kind of help you need. Do you need hardware or software help? And if you plan on an endeavor such as this how do you plan to obtain funding?
Please give a thanks if you think this post helped you!
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 Mobile App .
can you elaborate it a bit more,seriously I could not make out where you need help
I'm sorry guys, I think my sleep meds started kicking in and I just zone out.
Basically I want to make a small projector with the hardware provided to project an image onto the lens of my Oakley eye pro. The mobo in the camera has some sort of OS. I don't know what it is (I would think Unix of some sort).
There is more to it, but the hardest things is getting the projector work right and have control from a smartphone.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
So what do you need from us? I'm confused...
Please give a thanks if you think this post helped you!
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium 4 Mobile App .
It sounds like the basic concept is there. I'm guessing you are looking for technical help to make this a practical reality.
So far I see that you have most of the sensors planned out:
-shock sensor
-mics
And the output:
-LCD from the camera
But it seems to me you need a microcontroller somewhere in there. You could use an Atmega (the kind Arduino boards use) or Microchip (probably 18f series) or AVR. I'm sure there are others. Depending on your level experience you may decide to go with Arduino (which are a little more expensive (usually $15+) then the others but includes it's own programmer (assuming you get one that has the USB on the board) and are easy to program (Arduino IDE has lots of code examples)) or you can go for a more low level one like a Microchip 18f4550 ($5) for example and program in C (I think this costs) or assembly (free) but you'll need to understand registers and some of the lower level aspects to microcontrollers (however there are free very in depth datasheets that will give you all the information (you'll just need a few months to digest it).
Those are just some ideas, this projects sounds quite awesome though. It may take you a 6 month to year to do though.
You can go to Essential Bi-Weekly Reddit AMA from 10/4/2017 and read the comments.
I think the highlights were (not in any order and if there is spelling or grammer errors sorry):
10/04/2017
Today's OTA NMI81C fixes some of the freezing issues that people were having
Fingerprint reader gestures are in progress and should be coming soon, possibly the next OTA
Night mode (blue light filter) will come probably around the Android O release for the phone, probably be out with Android O
Double tap to wake is not being worked on "right now"
360 Camera and skins don't like each other, see the Reddit link for further information
Lag/screen stuttering is an identified issue with Qualcomm and will be patched within one of the next OTA's
Essential Services app is an app that collect high-level statistics to improve the user experience
White is ready to be shipped but China is on holiday so shipping will be a little later, maybe a few days? Depends on the Chinese holiday/shipping.
Android O is in the early stages of testing at Essential, the hope is to have an Open Beta ready in a few weeks.
Samsung Gear issue, still not able to get it working because Essential cannot pinpoint the issue on Android N, however the early tests with Android O appear to fix the issue.
Kernal Source/System Image is still not available however Essential is working to get this to us ASAP...whatever that is worth...lol
All RMA's should be out by now so you should see something coming soon if you RMA'd
SnapChat issue is being worked on with the Devs
360 Camera live streaming is being worked on and is expected to be part of the Fall OTA, starting with testing going on right now with FB and Periscope
360 Camera doesn't support external audio input for recording
Android Auto issues with 2016 VW Jetta has been added to the list of reports of Android Auto issues
Working on adding compression level changing for the 360 Camera
Essential is planning on releasing the SDK for the rear connectors (the one for the 360 camera, dock, etc.) but no word on dates yet.
You can go toEssential Bi-Weekly Reddit AMA from 10/8/2017 and read the comments.
I think the highlights were (not in any order and if there is spelling or grammer errors sorry):
10/18/2017
New/RMA hardware variances are due to allowable tolerances, there is only one source for the Display. Essential is working on tightening tolerances for these sort of things.
Samsung Gear S3 will be coming with Oreo Release
Android O integration is going well and the team is still validating
October Security update, wifi patch (for KRACK), Scroll patch, and overall stability/performance improvements to the camera in the next OTA
Portrait mode is being worked on for a future OTA
While Essential is trying to improve video stabilization there is no solid “commitment” yet
USB C audio dongle support – Any Digital audio accessory should work. Some adaptors route analog audio over the side band USB pins.
No ETA on factory images but Essential is in the final stages of getting to release them. Keep an eye on social media/reddit
Oreo easter eggs will remain
No dev work for Calling Plus on Sprint or Sprint Visual Voicemail
Essential White phones from Amazon delivery logistics should be the same as if purchased from Essential
Battery Percentage is only accessible through UI tuner at the current time
Essential has been reaching out to larger developers to get their apps Whitelisted. Also Essential is in the “ending stages” of “working out an elegant solution for this that is scalable for all apps based on how 3rd party developers handle full screen. We will be sure to announce as soon as we have this finalized.” Microsoft’s Launcher was identified as one and has been added to Essential’s “list”
Sprint RMA issues, have been identified as a who is going to provide support. This has been figured out and Essential has configured logistics and they are working on getting Sprint RMA’s working better.
Verizon Visual Voicemail is not a feature supported by the Essential phone
Version 81C has the same bandwidth fixes [for India] as 81D, “D” denotes the “dogfood” version for internal testing
OK Google Detection issues, is now on the radar for Essential
No update on STELLAR GREY color but here’s a photo https://imgur.com/a/kJAs8
Update on phone dock/accessories – “Team members in Taiwan working on it now. Will post a photo as soon as I can. -Joe” and “The dock will take some time to complete. Team is in Taiwan now working on the Dock. -Joe”
Casting to display off center report … Essential was unaware of the issue but a user has brought it up with some information
Why some users have not received the 81C update, “…carrier approvals to release OTAs can vary depending on their own internal processes to insure best experience for their customers. This sometimes causes rollouts to take a little longer to certain network providers. – Marcus”
UK release timeframe – No updates or firm dates
You can go toEssential Bi-Weekly Reddit AMA from 11/1/2017 and read the comments.
NOTE: This AMA was with the Design team at Essential and sorry to get a little quotee with this one, it was really hard to follow this one. Cheers!
I think the highlights were (not in any order and if there is spelling or grammar errors sorry):
11/1/2017
The Dock is being worked on to get it ready for production, keep an eye on social networks for updates.
What about the magnetic connection strength of the dock for vertical mounting?
"...we're taking a different approach here: easy in, easy out. We've made the magnetic connection for the dock quite light and designed custom power pins that glide easily into place. The dock has a gentle slope to it that guides the phone into place and easily ramps out when you want to grab & go. The magnet it just strong enough to keep it secure and make it feel intentional, reliable, and engaged. It's super graceful and intuitive, but it's definitely not a wall / car / helmet mount. -- Dave"
Design wise the idea was to keep things “pure” and to enhance the tech inside the device would shine not fancy decorations.
The question was, “From a material perspective how do you make the finish matte while still keeping it sealed so it doesn't absorb skin oils or other substances?”
This was Essential’s response, “The engineering team worked closely with our manufacturing partners and the industrial designers to get just the right feel and look for a micro texture on the ceramic. In the end we use a custom polishing process with a ultra-fine media blast to get the depth and uniformity of the texture just right, all while keeping the part insanely flat. The final process in ceramic manufacturing is to deposit an anti-fingerprint coating onto the part. This nanometer thick coating helps to seal the surface from skin oils and other contaminants.”
(Shortened) If the phone uses Ceramic why are there signal issues? The ceramic wasn’t done to help with signal rather to keep the back of the device one solid piece lie the flagship phones using glass backs. The phone meets the RF (radio frequency) capabilities of the carrier’
ETA for next color? Stellar Grey is the next to come out, Ocean Depths still has some issues that do not meet Essential’s standards but they aren’t quitting on it.
Why is the back of the phone so easy to scratch with the 360 Camera? Ceramic isn’t perfect but more than likely it’s the coating over the ceramic that is scratching not the ceramic itself.
IP-67 difficulties during design/production – The borders of the phone would have been much larger
"To achieve IP67 or IP68 on this device unfortunately would have required some significant design trade-offs that were unpalatable for our first device: larger display borders, a thicker product, much larger receiver opening, to name a few... . To make a phone more waterproof + repairable takes space for sealing solutions. IP67 has been a resounding request from our customers. The good thing is, this give me more fuel to push on Linda for the next phone. -Will"
The chin on the device is where the LED touch drivers are.
The status bar being a little below the front camera was so that it would seem like it was a part of the status bar instead of cutting it in two
Why two black devices? “We wanted one polished black model that feels like a monolithic gem, and another matte & sand-blasted model that feels more muted and textural. This way we can balance the spectrum of personalities out there. -Linda”
Why no first party cases (for things like the 360 Camera)? The Essential team decided to focus on the device itself and allow the 3rd parties create accessories.
Why is the PH-1 so difficult to fix, as shown on iFixit? “The phone was designed to be assembled and disassembled with a different process than what iFixit attempted. We use a fairly standard hot-melt glue to bond the display glass to the chassis of the phone. By heating up the perimeter of the display to ~85C the glue softens and the display can easily be pulled off (using a suction cup) and the glue removed, ready for a new display to be installed. It's important to only heat up the perimeter and not the center of the display to prevent damage to the LCD panel. The battery is also pretty easy to remove and replace if done properly. After disconnecting the battery from the circuit board there are two pull-tabs for the standard stretch-release adhesive. Just like the stretch-release adhesive hangars you can use to hold stuff on your wall, you just grab the pull tab and pull straight up. Working with modern Li batteries is dangerous, however, so make sure you have the right safety equipment on-hand in case a mistake is made. We currently don't sell parts to consumers but do offer a competitive extended warranty plan. My team and I are always hoping to make our devices as easily repairable as possible while trading off the sleek and elegant design aesthetic. -Will”
Side bar to the last item… “…we mostly want you all to be super happy with your devices and all the attendant realities of real-world use. If telling 3rd parties how to properly repair our device leads to happier users then we're all about it. (Also, get a little whiskey into Will and then ask him about iFixit. You'll get an ear full...) – Dave”
Question, “-portrait mode. Any idea when the release is? Let's start taking advantage of the dual camera!” Answer, “…Portrait mode, as the competition expresses it, is not really something we set out to do. There are two categories of dual-camera designs: wide+tele & RGB+BW. We implemented the latter.
In very broad strokes, Wide+Tele lenses allow for "zooming" and more distinction between near and far objects, and thus are better suited for portrait modes. RGB+BW sensors are designed to optimize sharpness and performance in mixed lighting, but do not give any depth data.
So mostly we set out to create the world's thinnest dual-camera setup while retaining image clarity and quality, hence RGB+BW. So we're not really setup to do portrait modes excepting through purely computation methods. Which is all to say "I don't know, I still make the stuff not the software" …”
Ceramic was used, “…because it's a beautiful, premium material that is also is RF transparent.”
Will Wide angle Lens or telephot be used instead of B/W sensors in future designs? It’s possible.
What is the material around the display that isn’t titanium? “…that is a glass fiber reinforced plastic around the display. It serves two jobs:
a. to create a non-metal gap between the perimeter enclosure antennae and the display panel, and
b. to help protect the edge of the display glass during impacts like drops.
Thanks for the tactile feedback on the plastic frame. Linda and I will take that into consideration with our next phone.
-Will”
3.5 mm audio attachment update (this one is for you and me @flakko86…lol): “We got test boards in this week and it sounds super good. Crazy loud for high-impedance headphones, crystalline sound quality even through low-impedance earphones, impressive soundscape. I mean, it's really good.
What that means for progress is that the core architecture is locking this week, enclosure design can be tightened up, and we can start moving towards form-factor prototypes and then EVT...
Not that I'm putting hard timelines on any of this, but the hard part (sound!) is basically done. :: Dave”
PH-2 and other color updates?
“We are definitely already plugging away at PH-2. No time to waste. 1. PH-1 will actually be available in "Stellar Grey" very soon. This color-way will feature a blasted Titanium frame and matte finish ceramic. 2. It was discussed...then dismissed due to the thickness and optical clarity disadvantages that come with shatter-proof displays. We are working on improving our display/glass durability as much as possible in next gen. -Linda”
“Ocean Depths is more blue than green, the website render is definitely greener than it really is. How about this, the color of a recent batch is CIELAB 35.3 -15.7 -11. – Dave”
Was OLED planned?
"We actually planned on using LCD from day one because we had exclusivity to a new LCD display technology. This is what allowed us to get the smallest borders and actually cut into the display for the front facing camera.
Andy loves and appreciates great industrial design. He was involved in every part of the process linda"
You can go toEssential Bi-Weekly Reddit AMA from 11/15/2017 and read the comments.
This AMA was focused on the OREO Beta release, this AMA was particularly fun as it seems that the crew at Essential aren’t all “business” ?
I think the highlights were (not in any order and if there is spelling or grammar errors sorry):
11/15/2017
Oreo Public build is planned for release by end of year
The Kernel Source was not released due to trying to get the OREO BETA out, while not guaranteed it is an action item for Essential.
Full release history is a goal but nothing is promised yet
Testing of lower compression for photos is currently being done internally, which will increase file size of photos. Release 83 of camera app will be “releasing very soon”
Portrait mode is in dev right now but the goal is to release this feature before the holidays.
No new information, but Essential is still on the case, for the micro stuttering issue
AptX support is being worked on but it’s a “business and paperwork problem rather than a technical one”
Essential is only planning on BETA build but it might be looked at again as the BETA goes on
Future BETA builds will need to be sideloaded, however future incarnations of the sideloaded BETA thereafter will be OTA (not sure if I understood this correctly though, so take it with a grain of salt)
Google’s Camera will not be coming to Essentials phone but Essential is still working to improve camera performance
Silent call issue where the callers cannot hear eachother after phone app is not used for a while – Essential is aware and looking into the issue right now.
SPRINT texting delay – Essential is working with Sprint right now to find out the who/what/where and when of the issue & “Support has notified us that you are not alone. We are working very closely with Sprint to troubleshoot but it is not clear to us yet if the issue is Network related or SW related. The issue does appear to be isolated to Sprint customers under specific circumstances. We are however engaged with Sprint daily on this issue and partnering to create a consistent repo environment so we can resolve. Please know this is a top priority for the Software team. – Marcus”
Scrolling issue is still being looked at to be improved
LED not working issue – Essential is aware and tracking this bug
Easter Egg removal – Essential stated Oversight but are “confident it’ll reappear eventually”
Some HALs will still be passthrough because getting to full binderized HALs will take a while for Essential
When using wifi the cell radio is turned off, after leaving wifi the cell radio doesn’t come back on. Only fix is to power cycle and airplane mode toggling doesn’t work. – Essential answered, “What carrier? We are working on issues related to handover between wifi and mobile data so hopefully we'll have some improvements. As a workaround there's a setting in developer options called "Mobile data always active" you can try on Oreo. -Rebecca”
Is portrait mode going to come with OREO Production release? No, it will be done via an update to the app in the Play store so while they won’t happen around the same time it is hoped they are.
Android Auto issue specifically with 2017 Hyundai (updates) – “Yes, we have a handful of bugs with Android auto we are looking into in a fix in Oreo. We even have bugs filed and device logs specificially against the 2017 Hyundai. If it can be fixed in our software, we will do it.
-Marcus”
Is Android 8.1 planned - YES
Swiping issues especially with calls – “We're working on this particular issue with swipes but fyi if you start the swipe in the middle of the screen instead of right on the phone icon it works way better.
This issue is caused by the fact that our in-cell touch panel only reports data during the display blanking period. This is something we're tuning for specifically but it's especially challenging for short swipes like the one to dismiss a call. With fewer data points the system has a hard time detecting it as a swipe. We can overfit for that, but issues pop up elsewhere. This is something we will continue to improve in SW so stay tuned. -Rebecca”
OREO Bluetooth issues – “As we mentioned in our release notes for the Oreo beta we have a handful of Bluetooth issues we are trying to address that beta users will encounter. The bulk of our remaining Oreo opens for public release are in BT stability, connectivity and audio. We will check everyones submitted feedback to make sure all reported issues are prioritized accordingly.
-Marcus” & “Yes we are aware of the BT issues. Bulk of our opens to resolve before we release official Oreo build are in this area
-Marcus”
General issues with overlays and in specific Pokemon GO, “Per Adithya, he is one of our Software Engineers here working on the Android Framework.
"To be compliant with compatibility requirements for Android O, we need to letterbox apps that haven't declared support for tall aspect ratio screens. Pokemon Go doesn't support tall screens. You will see taller navigation bar when running Pokemon Go on Pixel 2 XL for the same reason. Developer can fix it by following guidelines at https://developer.android.com/guide/practices/screens_support.html#MaxAspectRatio."
Hope that helps, and yeah, I kind of miss that too “
General connectivity for cellular reception – “…I'm going to do the best I can to give you an answer. This is super complex and depends on not only the network you are on, but the specific bands, distance to towers and even the specific network equipment your carrier uses in your geography. Also on exactly what features are enabled on your account, exactly how your carrier handles open market devices etc. We're doing the best we can to continue to improve RF/service issues. The data we've collected so far shows a lot of issues coming from having advanced network features enabled on accounts that don't support them, so we are working on switching around how we handle that. We have done a bunch of work verifying our settings match what the operators expect for your device. We are working on issues related to handover between wifi and mobile data. We are working on some improvements to the time it takes to camp on your network coming in and out of service. Our oreo build has lot and lots of modem fixes and more will be coming when we do a full rollout to improve overall modem stability. We are continuously growing our modem engineering and test teams to get better and better at this over time. We're also getting better and better at using both lab and field tests to find and fix issues. I wish there was low hanging fruit I could promise you we were going to pluck but instead it's going to be lots of small continuous improvements.
-Rebecca”
Wifi Aware? – Essential will check and get back to the user who asked.
Dynamic Calendar icon – “You and me both . We'll have to do some custom work here but I'll add it to our feature backlog for future consideration.
-Marcus”
NOTE: I don't think I saw anything abour signal strength issues, if someone else did please let me know and I'll add it to the listing for this week.
Note to the MODS if this is in the wrong place please move if needed. Thank you!
For another quick listing of highlights for the AMA check out oct_4_2017_ama_highlights which I assume was posted by XDA's own flakko86. lol
Thanks for this. I returned my Essential phone in week two because the camera is the top priority on my daily driver phone . However, this level of support and engagement is exactly what I expected from Andy's company. It completely puts Google to shame where tens of thousands of Pixel XL owners have been suffering 25-30 daily spontaneous freezes and reboots for 3 weeks now without a peep from the Pixel or Android teams. In fact even the second iteration of the Oct 2017 OTA which was suppose to be a fix fails to even install.
It is highly likely that Essential 2 will be my next phone and I will be closely monitoring its XDA forums.
I'm with you on the support level, especially coming from a Pixel with autofocus problems (and on my wife's Pixel too). I can only hope major manufacturers and OEM's actually follow suit. Essential isn't the best phone but I am really enjoying it. Especially after seeing the ugly screen configuration on the Pixel 2...lol
@Ghost_1,
Thanks for the 10/18 update.
Oh wow thanks for keeping up with this one ghost I'm on vacation right ow with now laptop so I couldn't put one together for Reddit haha. IMO this AMA was one of the more informative ones.
---------- Post added at 11:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:09 AM ----------
Oh and here's some info about the reception:
...As for signal issues, we have met all our carrier's requirements but we're also hiring RF engineers to continue tuning. There are always new corner cases to discover and as a small team we are coving them as fast as we can!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse