Database Develop

Enough brain power to rival a nuclear reactor

But yet with all the talent on this board...
We can't figure out how to get the damn keyboard light to stay on longer than 5 seconds (8125)... Errrrrrrr
Just my rant! Thanks for stopping by.

5 secs is more then enough for me, if I dont type, I dont need the keyboard light on...and when I start typing, it goes on again....no problem at all

I did some work on this, but without a Wizard I can't test any ideas out.
For anyone interested or with a fusion powered brain, have a look through the battery driver. That's where this is effected on the Universal.
V

Keyboard light
Yeah - I am not a geek, just a user. Having said that, I simply keep my left thumb on the "dot" key and tap it if I need the light. Do I have to say that I tap it again when I want to type a non-special key?
I understand the light is a creature comfort, but, sheesh, the machine is already soooo awesome, this seems like a very trivial complaint.
IMHO
TR

vijay555 said:
I did some work on this, but without a Wizard I can't test any ideas out.
For anyone interested or with a fusion powered brain, have a look through the battery driver. That's where this is effected on the Universal.
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you need a beta tester for a work around for this let me know. I can load it up and let you know if it works.

something to try
There is a backlight hack in the Univelsal wiki forum Try to do that
wiki.xda-developers.com

vijay555 said:
I did some work on this, but without a Wizard I can't test any ideas out.
For anyone interested or with a fusion powered brain, have a look through the battery driver. That's where this is effected on the Universal.
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Howdy Vj -
I was going to start poking around the Wiz driver soon. Can you point me to any forum posts I can reference on the relevant locations within the Uni driver?

summiter - hi! I spent quite a while disassembling the Universal stuff, because we know that does use the reg key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Backlight\QKeyLedTimeout
to control backlight time.
I traced this back to the battery driver, which also has some other useful stuff. Then I think I got bored, but you can check the Wizard driver to see if it has an equivalent. Otherwise I tried to hook directly into the driver to activate the backlight directly with an IOCTL, but not successful at the time. It doesn't export a function directly to activate the backlight I think.
I did try and it did not work, simulating a keypress, modifying the input queue, and various techniques for spoofing keyboard input, but the backlight is activated by the driver at a hardware level, not because of spoofed keyboard presses. So I think best way is to reverse engineer the driver and hack into the backlight there... but I moved on to other things first...
V

vijay555 said:
summiter - hi! I spent quite a while disassembling the Universal stuff, because we know that does use the reg key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Backlight\QKeyLedTimeout
to control backlight time.
I traced this back to the battery driver, which also has some other useful stuff. Then I think I got bored, but you can check the Wizard driver to see if it has an equivalent. Otherwise I tried to hook directly into the driver to activate the backlight directly with an IOCTL, but not successful at the time. It doesn't export a function directly to activate the backlight I think.
I did try and it did not work, simulating a keypress, modifying the input queue, and various techniques for spoofing keyboard input, but the backlight is activated by the driver at a hardware level, not because of spoofed keyboard presses. So I think best way is to reverse engineer the driver and hack into the backlight there... but I moved on to other things first...
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow.... Like I said lots of brain power, and yet the solution to a simple task eludes even the most bright...
As for all current reg hacks none of the work on the 8125.

DXL007: don't know if that's a complement or an insult, but I have to choose my battles: as the famous quote says, this type of stuff is "99% perspiration and 1% inspiration"... I had to do quite a lot of reversing just to get to an educated point of failure Then I just play call of duty until I'm ready to do the next one! And I'm working on several new, unrelated apps first.
But as I said, I don't have a Wizard, and there are a lot of other guys on the board capable of this! But I'll try to have another look when I get time... I tend to drift between projects subject to time.
V

DXL007 said:
vijay555 said:
summiter - hi! I spent quite a while disassembling the Universal stuff, because we know that does use the reg key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Backlight\QKeyLedTimeout
to control backlight time.
I traced this back to the battery driver, which also has some other useful stuff. Then I think I got bored, but you can check the Wizard driver to see if it has an equivalent. Otherwise I tried to hook directly into the driver to activate the backlight directly with an IOCTL, but not successful at the time. It doesn't export a function directly to activate the backlight I think.
I did try and it did not work, simulating a keypress, modifying the input queue, and various techniques for spoofing keyboard input, but the backlight is activated by the driver at a hardware level, not because of spoofed keyboard presses. So I think best way is to reverse engineer the driver and hack into the backlight there... but I moved on to other things first...
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow.... Like I said lots of brain power, and yet the solution to a simple task eludes even the most bright...
As for all current reg hacks none of the work on the 8125.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VJ handled your message quite gentlemanly. I on the other hand think you should take your sense of entitlement elsewhere.

vijay555 and summiter,
I hope DXL007 meant this more as encouregment than it came across, but I hope you guys realize that the vast majority of the people on this forum appreciate what you do for us and don't feel it's something you owe us. There aren't many people that can and will provide such useful software and information and not expect an arm and a leg for it. Mainly because of the two of you my 8125 is the perfect pda and keeps getting better.
Thanks,
Mike H

summiter said:
DXL007 said:
vijay555 said:
summiter - hi! I spent quite a while disassembling the Universal stuff, because we know that does use the reg key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Backlight\QKeyLedTimeout
to control backlight time.
I traced this back to the battery driver, which also has some other useful stuff. Then I think I got bored, but you can check the Wizard driver to see if it has an equivalent. Otherwise I tried to hook directly into the driver to activate the backlight directly with an IOCTL, but not successful at the time. It doesn't export a function directly to activate the backlight I think.
I did try and it did not work, simulating a keypress, modifying the input queue, and various techniques for spoofing keyboard input, but the backlight is activated by the driver at a hardware level, not because of spoofed keyboard presses. So I think best way is to reverse engineer the driver and hack into the backlight there... but I moved on to other things first...
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow.... Like I said lots of brain power, and yet the solution to a simple task eludes even the most bright...
As for all current reg hacks none of the work on the 8125.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VJ handled your message quite gentlemanly. I on the other hand think you should take your sense of entitlement elsewhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL...I always like messages like this. Yeah, it's a simple task so it must be that these "experts" are all lazy and liars. Takes me back to the old days (yesterday?) when a Pocket PC could do anything a laptop could do but the evil Microsoft hid all the features in the registry. Yep, whatever you say and good luck with that. :lol:

Autorotate screen via camera project...

so I downloaded the latest diamond album to my kaiser to try it out and I like it but I can't rotate the picture the same way I could with the htcalbum... So I looked at the help file and saw that to rotate the picture all I had to do was turn the phone.. WOAH.. but didn't work... obv. I've been doing some research and it seems possible that we could trigger the screen rotation by turning the phone. It uses the camera to figure out your position.. Now I'm not nearly good enough at this stuff to figure it out on my own, but I did find a little game that is supposed to move the snake based on the movement of the camera, this might be a good place to start, but I couldn't even get the game working.. it's called "CC snake" (attached below) Looking for some ideas, maybe ripping out the controls from the game is a place to start?
http://www.clutch-productions.com/ccsnake.cab
I can confirm that this program runs on my old SDA (wm5 smartphone)... still get an error when trying it on my tilt

Dunno if this is relevant or not but a short while ago, i saw a website where someone had used the camera on a Nokia mobile (i think the phone was a 6600) to create a wireless optical mouse. You had the screen in the palm of your hand and the two hardware buttons were left click and right click. I believe the data was sent over bluetooth. It probably uses a similar technique to work out the direction of travel as you would use to work out orientation.
I haven't been able to find the original website but i did find this
www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~sheridaj/publications/2005/PERMIDPointingDevices.pdf
which seems to be a paper about using a mobile phone camera as a pointing device. I haven't read it through as i'm at work but it could be useful?
I seem to remember the original site having code samples. If i find it, ill post the link.
(Tried to upload the pdf but the file is too big, sorry )
Edit: I believe i found some more info
here are some more links:
http://www.pyrofersprojects.com/blog/?page_id=41 - This guy reckons he's done it but he's not giving out the code
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT1h_ITR0G0 - The video i found, the related videos section looks like it might have some answers.
Please stop me if this isn't helpful!!

video looks bullocks...

slovoflud said:
video looks bullocks...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, it would have been more convincing if he showed the phone actually moving the cursor although the comments link to slashdot (I didn't read the article tho)

this seems to be interesting, too
http://www.gesturetekmobile.com/

http://youtube.com/watch?v=v0srY37kkMw
you can control via motion - that's unquestionable. The problem with the 'mouse' concept is that the cam is right up against the table, so there's no light and hence no contrast, so, you can't lock.
if it is true though - i's cool, but in my mind, pointless. why not use a Mouse instead?

slovoflud said:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=v0srY37kkMw
you can control via motion - that's unquestionable. The problem with the 'mouse' concept is that the cam is right up against the table, so there's no light and hence no contrast, so, you can't lock.
if it is true though - i's cool, but in my mind, pointless. why not use a Mouse instead?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
according to the guy's site, its for replacing a travel mouse or if you need a spare! pretty cool imo but i agree about the light source. Theres something not right about that video, did you check the others?

Shub-Niggurath said:
according to the guy's site, its for replacing a travel mouse or if you need a spare! pretty cool imo but i agree about the light source. Theres something not right about that video, did you check the others?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok, here's what he says.
"Things didnt go entirely smoothly of course. The first thing everybody is probably saying is, but the camera only shows black when its flat on the mousepad! You are of course right, Light is needed. My temporary solution is to hold the phone about .6cm above the pad, letting light in the side. My camera picks up enough to see at this distance."
don't see him do that in the video, and the window which he moves on the screen stops for a couple of seconds right before the camera points at the phone. that's why i said it's bullocks. i'm no programmer, we've done a couple of games for eyeToy, so i know you need light and contrast. (that's obvious) notice in the link i posted the guys were wearing contrasting, flat t-shirts. (Blue t-shirt/yellow block etc) not sure that Monster of a camera on that Nokia can handle patternless black surface (mousepad from the video, even at 6cm).
EDIT : Ok - just noticed he sais .6cm , not 6 .
so, half a cm... .. i don't know...
anyway - i'm open minded... might as well be true.

so has anyone been able to get the game ccsnake to work on their kaiser? might be a place to start.

what about using a glow in the dark material as a mouse pad ?

Tilt Sensor Not-Quite-SDK

I contacted HTC and asked them if they had a tilt sensor SDK, or had plans to release one, and they basically said "no". So, I decided to see what I could come up with to get tilt response integrated into my little pet-project, and to my surprise, managed to figure out how to get some basic data out of the existing tilt sensor DLL on the Diamond.
If you'd like, you can see my "hello world"-level app using the tilt sensor here on my blog. I've included the source so others can play with the few tidbits I've figured out. The app itself is pretty boring, it'll really only be of interest to developers looking to integrate tilt into their app, and even then, it's still a boring app =)
If accessing the tilt sensor is well known, feel free to ignore me.

Well done, thats great!
You should also probably look at this and talk to CharlyV, he might be able to add some info.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=403939

That's great news !
Now developers might use such information to release usefull applications and funny games !

Yes, I was wondering, for my car I use the G-tech for acceleration-measurement.
Is this sensor sensitive / good enough to also do those kind of things?
Also, navigation programs can be a lot more precise by knowing when accelerating, cornering or braking.

Riel said:
Yes, I was wondering, for my car I use the G-tech for acceleration-measurement.
Is this sensor sensitive / good enough to also do those kind of things?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good question: I might try to write some sort of logging program and see what kind of data I can get out of a car trip. That's a bit off for now.
Also, I made a minor update the project, I determined a few more of the unknown values that the API returns.

perhaps you or some other guys are capable to work with some tools mentioned in this post??
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2373447&postcount=56

Is there any chance to develop a calibration tool for this sensor?? Mine drifts to lower-left and thats annoying because Opera always means, I rotate my phone :-(
Thank you

I updated the project to include a sample of how to use the event driven notification of different orientations that Opera uses (instead of polling the sensor constantly to determine the current orientation).
I'll have to do some digging to see if there's any way to calibrate the sensor. It'd be nice (mine is a bit off too), but I don't see anything immediatly obvious.

Perfect news!
I hope there are devs, who will make apps or games for this. My idea of a new game is "Black Circle".
(Side in German bug game in English, dont worry)
http://spiele.isnichwahr.de/r432-spin-the-black-circle.html
What do you tink about it?

I wrote a managed wrapper based on Scott's work:
http://blog.enterprisemobile.com/2008/07/using-htc-diamonds-sensor-sdk-from-managed-code/

I think it would be possible to calibrate the sensor by replacing the HTCSensorSDK.dll with one that acts as a pass through to the real thing. Then it could "massage" the returned values with calibration adjustments.
Teeter -> HTCSensorSDK.dll (one we roll that tweaks values) -> RealHTCSensorSDK.dll (the real DLL)
I don't think that the DLL is replaceable unless the device is flashed with a new ROM.
Thoughts?

$ 100 Reward for Vibration Application for Hardware Keyboard

Hardware Keyboard - $ 100 Reward
100 USD PRIZE MONEY
Dear All,
I love my X1. The only thing I am not happy with is the (lack of) tactile feedback on the Hardware Keyboard of the X1. As there is little to no 'feel' to when you press the hardware keys.
There is an application out there from Snailslug which produces a small vibration whenever the touchscreen keyboard is pressed... see the following link: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=450256
Now I am looking for the same thing with the HW keyboard. If anyone out there is up to creating an application (with a very small footprint) that produces a small vibration (around 25ms) after each key on the hardware keyboard is pressed, I will give that person 100 USD as a big thank you. To make it fair, here are the rules:
- Deadline: 31st of August (not that someone comes two years later and wants a prize for an application I dont need anymore
- First application that does not slow down my X1 and provides the requested result will be rewarded
Thanks and all the best,

why did you open a new thread? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=544306

He want to pay a total reward of $200... I guess...
Or not?

the reward is $100. this thread was created as the last title wasn't 'clear enough' as to what the subject is about. good luck with the application. 100 bucks are waiting

go to advanced edit and change the title of the thread if thats all u wanted to change btw

Next time I know ;-)

............

Was anyone able to come up with an application? Shouldnt be that difficult for those that are able to programm

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=425063
Maybe this will work...
If so, I want my 100 USD!

casklaverstijn said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=425063
Maybe this will work...
If so, I want my 100 USD!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's different. He wants feedback for when the hardware keyboard is pressed, not the screen.

Features:
- Vibrate always on touch events (mouse down, or mouse up)
- Vibrate only if SIP is active
- Vibrate on Key press (hardware keys)
- Adjustable vibration (duration in ms)
- configuration over command line parameters
- fully event based, so only battery consumption while vibrating
- No runtimes needed (pure C++ application)
- Works with WM 5+ (not 2003)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this will do it, but i think the dev has stopt al long time ago. But it has the features WDM wants.

Oh..the 100USD is for the Developer...lol

this should be entirely possible and maybe even easy to do, IMO

matthewpapa said:
this should be entirely possible and maybe even easy to do, IMO
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so expect an app from you then?

Actually I'm not sure this is that easy to do at all.
I thought ok I'll take a look so created a new device application in visual studio, getting the device to vibrate is easy, this is well documented.
Trapping key events when you have a form / control with focus is also easy. The problem comes when you want to trap key events without having a form or focus.
I've read several posts online pointing to coredll.dll, but nothing definitive.

Lol you need a hook. Sure this exists on WinMo just like on desktop Win.

Great comments guys. Looks like there are at least a few willing to put some thought and effort in this. any chance of one of you coming up with the application anytime soon?

Firefall! said:
Lol you need a hook. Sure this exists on WinMo just like on desktop Win.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know I need a hook, which hook, which dll, documented where, that being my point.
I'll have another look at this tonight.

richard.ian.brown said:
I know I need a hook, which hook, which dll, documented where, that being my point.
I'll have another look at this tonight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You never stated so. There is not much to such a hook actually I would create the app myself if I had the means. That's about 5 lines of code, just make the device shake and pass the key on. The only trouble you will run into is that the keys seem to be hooked already, so you have to make sure you don't mess with that and prioritize your function.

Thanks Firewall. Is there anyone out there that would be able to write a few lines of code. It appears to be simple enough, if you can programm (which I cannot) which is why i am asking the pros here ;-)

Apache! Track Ball! Landscape View! (questions)

Any chance there's a way to run Apache Home Server on my CDMA Hero?
Not looking for anyone who wants to convince me not to, I would just like to know if it's possible/doable.
Also, rather than making a seperate topic,
Is there any way we can:
1) Make a pointer for the track ball? Even, at the very least, while using the browser? I mean, really... why has this not been done yet?
2) Make it so our Home Screens turn when the Accelerometer changes to wide view. When sliding the keyboard out on the Droid and (I believe G1) the viewing automatically changes to landscape. I would love this feature as well. Is this doable, possible?
Thanks in advance, any advice given is appreciated!

bump...
>.>

if you compile apache and all the libs and whatever it depends on for android then it should be possible. afaik there is a webserver for android out there, any reason why it needs to be apache? i think it is way to complex for android, a small lightweight webserver should be no problem in theory.
a trackball pointer might be possible, but not trivial. personally i don't see the reason, when using the trackball in the browser the selected link is highlighted green, what do you need a pointer for?
again, theoretically doable is also the rotated homescreen. you "just" need to redesign sense ui for landscape view. which might be really hard, as it is more than just a small app, and it is closed source (because it is part of htc's modifications, not part of the original android). tbh, don't wait for it to happen unless htc does it.
and last but not least: no offense, but give your posts a few hours, not everything is answered directly.

kendong2 said:
if you compile apache and all the libs and whatever it depends on for android then it should be possible. afaik there is a webserver for android out there, any reason why it needs to be apache? i think it is way to complex for android, a small lightweight webserver should be no problem in theory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It doesn't need to be Apache, I'm just more familiar with that particular server software. If there are other options I would be glad to explore them. There are a few things I would like to test that I think would be kind of cool depending on the type of webserver I can run.
a trackball pointer might be possible, but not trivial. personally i don't see the reason, when using the trackball in the browser the selected link is highlighted green, what do you need a pointer for?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A track ball would help out in a lot of ways. If open to the OS it would let me select programs, etc. while wearing gloves. It would open up the option of navigating without having to actually use the touch screen in case the scenario presents itself (again, gloves).
If just the browser it could help with games and those types of things. One important thing I have noticed is that I can't scroll within a frame on the browser. If I had a pointer I could, at the least, be able to click and drag the inner frame down without moving the main browsing page. This is somewhat vital to me as my College's Blackboard System is completely based on these types of web pages.
again, theoretically doable is also the rotated homescreen. you "just" need to redesign sense ui for landscape view. which might be really hard, as it is more than just a small app, and it is closed source (because it is part of htc's modifications, not part of the original android). tbh, don't wait for it to happen unless htc does it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a shame. The one problem I have is the amount of rotating I have to do. I would prefer to have the home screens locked in landscape rather than how they are now. It's just a little ridiculous to be watching a video on the phone and texting someone... but every time you want to reply/text you have to rotate the phone. It just seems tedious and I'm a man of efficiency if I can help it.
Maybe I can convince HTC.
and last but not least: no offense, but give your posts a few hours, not everything is answered directly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry about that. XDA is very popular and I assumed my post had already become lossed in the fray. I posted on my lunch break and bumped one hour before having to go home so I had hoped I would get one response before then.
Thanks!
And anymore information would be appreciated. Not just from you but anyone else who has any information.

fatkitty420 said:
2) Make it so our Home Screens turn when the Accelerometer changes to wide view. When sliding the keyboard out on the Droid and (I believe G1) the viewing automatically changes to landscape. I would love this feature as well. Is this doable, possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe this is being done in the 2.1 Sense that HTC have promised us...sometime.
But imo its really ugly, nothing seems to be the right proportions (I'm a designer, so it kinda bugged me)

fatkitty420 said:
A track ball would help out in a lot of ways. If open to the OS it would let me select programs, etc. while wearing gloves. It would open up the option of navigating without having to actually use the touch screen in case the scenario presents itself (again, gloves).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that can be solved, press menu on homescreen, from there on you can use the trackball to navigate to all programs and then navigate through the menu.
i got myself some gloves from north face, which have a conducting fabric on the tips of thumb and index finger, so i can use the touchscreen natively with them. works great, actually got them before i had the hero because they are cool anyway
for the rest: i see your point now, but can't help. and tbh i don't think htc will take too much interest in your concerns... but try anyway, at least they should know about it!

For the web server you might want to try PAW server for Android. Although it's still in beta, it has a lot of built-in goodies like call log, send SMS and so on.
And you can serve your own static or dynamic (BeanShell) pages.