Database Users

Android Automation Project [WiP]

Android Interactive Multitouch Table and Automation Project
Hi all!,
let me start by saying if this thread is in the wrong section please by all means let me know (It is starting with a question but will eventually come to host something more).
Now that that's out of the way, I am currently working on a multitouch table, one which will directly interface with android devices and after doing so allow full control via a special app to a multitude of cool things such as :
- automated door locking and unlocking
- media controls
- powering on and off certain household objects
- other random things using arduinos and android controls
- control of phone functions via the table
I've already built most of the table, and have a basis which I'm using as a starting point for the other things (I have no intention to ever profit from this i just want to make something really cool and share ideas / experience). Please be patient while I do the initial updates and postings and what not here (as its really late right now and im also a college student / part time developer) . I will break this up as follows:
POST 2: section to be updated about the table and my knowledge / tidbits involving such
POST 3: section to be updated about app functions and my experiences / info regarding such
Post 4: random automation info / arduino adventures
SO long story short on top of the above I have the following question: how do i send an intent from my special app to other peoples ( I think they have to be set to do so?)

The Multitouch Table
The Multitouch Table itself has a 2 foot x 4 foot surface. The frame was constructed using several 2x3 's and compressed board to enclose it.
Basis for the table is this:
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/maximum_pc_builds_a_multitouch_surface_computer
The Surface
The surface is a 2 ft x 4 ft sheet of tempered glass, tempered glass because I was told it was amazingly strong and from my experiences relatively close in price to the acrylic and plexi I was looking at.
The Multitouch
The multitouch aspect of the table is powered by 4 infrared lasers and a modified playstation eye. (details soon to come)
The Lasers:
4x 780nm 25mW modules
chosen for this project at the advising of some friends who built a similar table as well as several people on the web
obtained from: http://www.aixiz.com/store/index.php/cPath/61
The Camera:
From my understanding you can use any usb webcam, however for the price the playstation eye gives the biggest bang for your buck (its not that expensive either).
Be careful when buying one, apparently some of them don't allow for the IR filter to be removed. If you are really worried you can buy pre modified lenses for 2 bucks.
useful site for camera supplies:
http://peauproductions.com/store/
To learn how to remove the IR filter from your PS Eye use the google
Misc. Internals
The Projector:
I obtained some front facing mirrors and heat absorbing glass to help with throw distance. A good enough projector wont need mirrors but it really depends on what distance you want. Mine was covered but I got a mirror so i had alot to work with.
Mirrors and Heat Absorbing Glass:
http://www.surplusshack.com/
Acer X1230PS:
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-X1230PS-DLP-Projector/dp/B0036RBHT2
The Computer:
To run the table I have used an old machine of mine in a micro atx case.
You could use a less powerful machine but mine has the following.
2.4 ghz Quad Core
4 gbs DDR 2
a simple graphics card
More Coming Soon....

The APP
A basis for the app is there, trying to put in intents for other apps to signal user choice of remotes.
Coming Soon....

Arduino Adventures
Ideas:
- Door lock/unlocker
- light controls
- electronics power on/off
Coming Soon....

Sounds good!

Hardware for Android Device

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."?

Setting up LCD with Android

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.... (

can OPPO Find 5 OmniRom be used on ASUS Padfone 2?

The hardware of the OPPO Find 5 and ASUS Padfone 2 are very much the same, have a look here
My NOOB question: would it be safe to try the Oppo Find 5 Rom on the padfone 2?
Cheers,
Adrian

You'd be risking a brick.

thanks for the answer Chasmodo.
may I bother you with another beginners question? I am a true layman in these matters. What does it take to get Omni running? would it mean a lot of work to make the Oppo OmniRom "fit" the Padfone? Would the fact that the hardware is so much the same an advantage, less work to be done?
If i understand it correctly the hurdle to tackle is mainly the kernel as it is the handler between software and hardware.
If answering is too much of a hassle ( I would understand and this might not be the correct place to ask), perhaps you know a good starting point for me to learn more about the basics of adapting KitKat ot a new phone.
Thanks,
Adrian

Kernel is a big part of it, blobs are too.
Just because the SoC is the same doesn't mean there is much else. Display (1080p 5" means nothing - there are at least 5-10 different displays that all meet this criteria), charging circuitry, audio routing, camera, etc.

Entropy512 said:
Kernel is a big part of it, blobs are too.
Just because the SoC is the same doesn't mean there is much else. Display (1080p 5" means nothing - there are at least 5-10 different displays that all meet this criteria), charging circuitry, audio routing, camera, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, thanks for the answer Entropy512.
Guess it means I have to be hopeful and patient..... I definitely do not have the skills to do this myself.

Best device for ROM dumping

I'm more of a software guy, but looking to get more into hardware hacking. In particular, I'm interested in dumping firmware off embedded devices. As such, I'm looking for a device that will do this for me. A lot of the advice online seems quite dated, so just wanted to check if there was any update in thinking in 2021.
Here are the criteria I'm looking for in a device:
- Supports SPI - I2C, UART, JTAG are a bonus;
- Supported by flashrom - supported by OpenOCD is a bonus;
- Doesn't require messing around with hardware too much - a USB interface would be preferred;
- Actively developed - preferably open source;
- European shipping is a bonus.
The options I've come across so far are:
- Bus Pirate: v3 still actively developed, but apparently not great for JTAG stuff. v4 is being developed but apparently the hardware is still experimental;
- Shikra: looks neat, but community seems far smaller, and much less well documented;
- Attify Badge: I really don't know anything about this - any good reviews?;
- Raspberry Pi: I have a bunch of Raspberry Pis lying around, but I'd prefer something that I can just plug into my laptop/desktop. Using a Pi feels like overkill here;
- FTDI FT2232H/FT232H: I understand a lot of SPI programmers are built on top of this chip, but I feel the low level dev boards for this are a bit too low level for me - looking for a higher level of abstraction;
- CH341A SPI Programmer: people seem to have a lot of success with this, but looks a bit "cheap" to me.
Does anyone have any strong recommendations for any of these solutions over the others? Is there anything else I've missed?
Thank you in advance - any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.