Develop Bugs

My 6 month impressions/review - long

I am very unhappy with the latest (1.40) ROM update and this has finally pushed me to this post. I thought I would provide some general thoughts/comments after about 6 months of use. I keep hoping and praying that each ROM release will actually fix some of the devices more serious issues but it never seems to happen. Certain things actually get worse through the updates.
Overall the level of integration and the sheer amount of things our device accomplishes is staggering. However, the reliability and robustness is terrible, about as good as an "alpha" release, but certainly not a production device. You may argue that I should be happy with what I have and I guess I am because I keep carrying my PDA2K. I love not having to carry so many devices but almost always feel like I have the worst of each. My "relationship" with my device is absolutely love/hate.
As background I use my device as a phone, camera, video camera, mp3 player, movie watching, internet, e-mail, gps/navigation, games, Metro subway maps, weather, pdf reading and of course all the std. windows goodies like Excel, Calendar, Contacts, etc. However, the device performs most all of these functions poorly. As a small bit of background I am not a programmer nor hardcore techie but do consider myself a power user and am comfortable with registry editing, ROM upgrading and most features/functions of all of the standard software. I do also install a fair amount of 3rd party applications. I do not see how you can get by without doing this. I use the device for work as a sales professional and also for personal use.
The phone is much less robust and reliable than almost all cell phones I have previously owned, just buggy in general, often not functioning despite a good signal and often will not connect nor hang up properly. The camera is plain terrible, nowhere even close to a decent 1MP camera, good only for a small caller ID photo taken in perfect lighting conditions. Networking in general is almost unusable: Bluetooth during navigation always disconnects when a call comes in, WiFi will almost never start with out a soft reset, and sometimes the same with GPRS. General system stability/robustness: terrible! With a device such as this it should not be possible to have spontaneous hard resets where you loose ALL data. I have them fairly often (without Sprite, I would truly throw my device away). I have also had spontaneous loss of SD card data. MS Voice Command is fantastic, except the first use of every day always requires the name to be repeated twice. The built in e-mail software is really poor, the invisible items that show up in various mail folders which require a complete cleaning out of all mailboxes to fix is beyond annoying. The long 20 second or so delay when opening the Calendar to show days with appointments really causes me delays at the most inopportune times. I suppose I could go on and on but I will wrap up this summary/gripe session
Again, the level of raw capability, variety of useful programs and integration is truly amazing. The speed when operating well is fine. However I am often nearly crippled by hard resets, poor phone, WiFi, GPRS and Bluetooth, usability and robustness and the need for soft resets. I guess this is the price one pays for being on the cutting edge, but again I can not help but feel this device is nowhere close to the reliability and performance any reasonable user would expect. From spending a lot of time on this board and other similar ones I expect to hear some quite similar echoes of my thoughts.
I do eagerly look forward to some similar comments (or different), fixes, general experiences or suggestions from the community.

Well put, some of the issues I have, some not.
Lets have a look at the hardware.
Well the case is metal which is great as it can take some punishment however the Keyboard, well.....
My Keyboard has a life of its own, I have the device in my hand and talk on the phone and it drops down. I pull the device out of my pocket and it comes out first screen then keyboard. I never use the keyboard as me fingers are to big so given a choice I would not have it.
If you hold the screen in one hand and the back plate in the other you can turrn the whole thing a good 3mm as its so loose. You can even lift the screen up away form the Keyboard at the bottom of the device and stick a piece of carboard into as a form of a break to stop it dropping.
Sound of calls is bad, tiny and to low.
Yup its a love/hate relationship and I love to hate the thing.
I too look forwared to a device that has camera which is useful (I still carry around a small 5 meg sony).
The only thing I feel that is realy good about owning a BA is this board, if I had not come here I would still have a german CE and be reseting the bugger every day.

love it
Probably, I am cheap and easily pleased.
I bought my IIs almost the same time with yours. I too have updated my ROM to 1.40 (stockROM 1.4Asia). Only the barest software I need are installed to maintain stability: KBattery, psShutXp, AgileMobile, Skype, VCard, Pcoket TV, GSPlayer, and Avantgo. For games, I only installed Smartfall, Chess, and BF Mines - not much of a gamer. IIs is too expensive for me to destroy its button playing games.
I love it very much except for some performance hiccups like restarting by itself. However, this only happens when I am using skype or agilemobile for sometime. Hard Reset rarely happens. in six months, I only remember it to happen to me once and I could not remember what I did then.
I love it because I could check my email whereever I am either thru WIFI or GPRS. In fact, I use to check my email thru XDAIIs rather than waiting for my PC to start in the morning before leaving the house. With so many "leaking" free WIFI around, no phone should be without.
I f---kng HATE the keyboard. A week after I bought mine it was already broken. Yes, it will open on its own. It was repaired though free of charge by Brightpoint Philippines. Now, I barely open it because constructionwise, it is so flimsy and I know will easily be broken again. Now, I know why they remove the keyboard in the IIi.
Will buy it again. YES, It is so neat and convenient that I could do emailing, IM and chat on the go. Of course, it is a great electronic photo album to show my family pictures to friends with MP3 background playing.
Before this phone, I was using NOKIA 9210 Communicator. It was a great phone during its time. WHAT I WOULD REALLY WANT NOW IS A NOKIA COMMUNICATOR 9500 RUNNING WM Ver.5. DREAMING....

So you guys say that the keyboard is a piece of s**t?
I'm asking because I'm going to buy BA or Nokias 9500. And if the keyboard sucks a** i'm not gonna buy BA, because I need the keyboard because I do lot of work in MSN and in IRC. So the phone must be capable to these specific applications. I know that Nokia 9500 is...

When I was still using my old trusty Nokia 9210, I sent literally hundreds of text messages per day. I love its built in keyboard. It was a breeze typing text in that old phone. I could even schedule sending text messages - what a neat feature.
The tiny keyboard of IIs is hard to use. Even painful to the fingers after long use. Now I sent few text messages because it is very hard to do so with the tiny keyboard (II's rehabilatated me, I am NOT text addict anymore). The tiny soft keyboard using the stylus is just as difficult to use.
If you will do lots of typing, I recommend you buy one of those external keyboards. Although, personally, I hate carrying extras like that. I dont want to look like Inspector Gadget carrrying with me that external keyboard. My Bluetooth suffered same fate. I dont carry it anymore. Too troublesome carrying two gadgets.
I use my IIs mainly as a communicating device (which should be) so the killer applications for me are:
Agile Mobile for IM like ICQ, MSN, AOL and yes YAHOO.
Skype for VOIP (yes, it works for me just dont expect quality calls. It's free who am I to complain)
AgileMobile will run on both Nokia 9500 and IIs BUT the SKYPE will not.
That is the deal breaker for me why I decided to go for the XDA path. Every one and then, I still do glancing look at that Nokia 9500 though.
If you will go for the XDA path and cannot wait anymore, get the IIi. The keyboard really sucks. Hard to use and easy to get loose.
If you go for Nokia path, please lend it to me sometime (hehehehe)

xcalibur said:
The tiny keyboard of IIs is hard to use. Even painful to the fingers after long use. Now I sent few text messages because it is very hard to do so with the tiny keyboard (II's rehabilatated me, I am NOT text addict anymore). The tiny soft keyboard using the stylus is just as difficult to use.
If you will do lots of typing, I recommend you buy one of those external keyboards. Although, personally, I hate carrying extras like that. I dont want to look like Inspector Gadget carrrying with me that external keyboard. My Bluetooth suffered same fate. I dont carry it anymore. Too troublesome carrying two gadgets.
I use my IIs mainly as a communicating device (which should be) so the killer applications for me are:
Agile Mobile for IM like ICQ, MSN, AOL and yes YAHOO.
Skype for VOIP (yes, it works for me just dont expect quality calls. It's free who am I to complain)
AgileMobile will run on both Nokia 9500 and IIs BUT the SKYPE will not.
That is the deal breaker for me why I decided to go for the XDA path. Every one and then, I still do glancing look at that Nokia 9500 though.
If you will go for the XDA path and cannot wait anymore, get the IIi. The keyboard really sucks. Hard to use and easy to get loose.
If you go for Nokia path, please lend it to me sometime (hehehehe)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that's the thing...those are the programs I would also use plus I need an IRC client (Nokia has s2putty which is great), so this is going to be a real hard decision.
It seems in a operating system level, Windows/qtek9090 kicks Symbian80/Nokia9500 ass, because Nokia has a pretty slow processor and Symbian80 is a little bit greedy, but so is windows.
Nokias online time should be better than Qteks so that's important fact (going to use Wlan a lot). Nokia also has much better keyboard if I have read reviews right.
But...Qtek/WM2k3 has a lot more apps if I'm right and it's hardware is better than Nokias.
But the bigges issues are still on the fact that how does the device handle Instant Messaging and IRC environments. In IRC i'm in a few VERY active channels so would like to know how well does the BA handle IRC messaging, viewing etc....
Is the keyboard slider going to loose very easily? I have read that in some models it's big issue? Or is this only problem with branded phones(i mean like T-mo etc)? Qtek 9090 is the only one which they sell here in Finland.
xcalibur, yeah sure i'll borrow you the 9500, if you come to visit Finland someday =)
The above fact is the only thing keeping me away from ordering BA...

I don't want to keep on ranting against IIs.
Yes, the keyboard will easily get loose. We have here two units and it is the same. I talked to the Brightpoint service people, they say almost all IIs they repaired is about the loose keyboard.
And yaiks, I noticed now that my IIs keyboard is misaligned by a millimeter or two. I cant stop looking at it now. I hate it.
Consider also after sales service of XDA there in Finland. These things do break down. I am sure Nokia will have superb service there in Finland as they have already excellent service here in Philippines. In fairness, Brightpoint too has good service here though their location is not so good.

My keyboard experience
I have had no problems with my keyboard. I like it, use it and it has not developed any problem with the keys themselves nor the sliding mechanism. Perhaps you guys talking all about Nokia vs HTC could move that topic to a separate thread?

Keyboard's great! However, other than for impressing your friends this phone is horribly unreliable. Also, windows is not as polished as Symbian. You will find yourself installing so many 3rd party apps (which make an already unstable handset even less stable) just to perform basic phone functions.

In my opinion, XDA IIs is truely an ingenius device. However, Ias much as I hate to agree with most of you, I share the same sentiments of hating/loving it.
I really dislike the part whereby I receive/dial a call and no sound comes out of it. Also when my IIs hang the moment I exit from Bejeweled 2. I dont use a bluetooth headset, so the bluetooth bit doesnt affect me so much. I also detest the so very prominent gap between my keyboard and screen.
However, on the other hand, my IIs had helped me in so much many other ways, so much so its advantages exceeds its disadvantages. Despite the small keyboard, it had been extremely useful, and having compared with the onscreen keyboard and Transcriber, I personally found that it is so much faster and efficient to key text with the keyboard. Despite haing mid-sized fingers, with good practice, keying in text can be so much of a breeze. I especially liked its soft touch and blue iluminous glow.
Also, the calander feature of Microsoft CE is great. With appropriate 3rd party software, and its extremely ease/stability to sync with Outlook, my contacts and appointments are always at my fingertips. Tho the ringer is quite soft, I have no problems with it as I have always been using traditional ringing ringtones, which are much louder than fanciful mp3 music. Besides, I can see that O2 is doing its fair share by providing support thru O2 connect as well as the after sales service. O2 plus beta had been a great software. I had used it to replace phone alarm and pocket plus. I especially liked it phone profile feature and the part whereby my IIs vibrate upon receipt of call response. I no longer have to hold my device against my ears waiting for the other party to pick up the call.
Another comment is that the screen is clear and even using 10% backlight, I can view the screen to great details, even under sunlight conditions. The extra 4 hardware buttons for today, messaging, IE and OK had been great and it had aid me in single-handed operations with my device.
Overall, all I can say is, its been a great device. You choose to hate / like it. Cheers. Just my two cents worth...

I also came to the XDA series from the Nokia Communicators and have always been looking for a communicator with MS OS.
Can't wait for the Universal

a wonderful use of keyboard! + comments abt XDA IIs overall
hi all,
i have a very very good argument in favour of the keyboard on XDA iis and a big -ve for the absence of it in XDA IIi:
i live in india where the roads at times tend to be a bit bumpy. on such roads keying in with a stylus becomes frustrating! (those who have tried it will know). it is on these roads that u appreciate the inbuilt key board the max.
2ndly, by the grace of GOD, till date i have had NO SOUND issues with my XDA IIs.... so no probs about that..
with 1.40 update i have seen that wifi wont connect usually without a soft reset but thats not very bugging! also there is some camera application brightness control bug and thats also ignorable.
But overall i think that XDA IIs is overall a very good buy... better than XDA IIi and Mini.... NOKIA is ****ty in front of this and looks more of a brick!
i suggest you all not to load any 3rd party apps for password lock and dialler except smart dialling included in mini rom. and must haves are pocket plus, pocket informant,pocket music, skype, phonealarm, alarmtoday and 1-calc. dont forget norton anti-virus and sprite backup as the very very very imp. 1st loads.
All the best to XDA lovers... LONG LIVE XDA IIs... Doom to Nokia!

At one point I used to carry an iPAQ 3870, a mobile phone and a collapsible keyboard. With my suit on, some people thought I was a bodyguard due to my swollen breast pockets. I also also had a Navigator 3000 GPS sleeve and the WiFi CF card.
The iPAQ made me love the Pocket PC. However carrying two or more devices was cumbersome.
I then discovered the Blackberry. Look mum, no wires. Over the air synchronization using the GPRS network was great. The keyboard is also excellent. No GPS and a lack of good application was a minus. Furthermore any interesting application would be pricey.
… but I still missed the Pocket PC.
Then came the Blackberry Connect embedded in the Blue Angel. That is the best of both worlds. My dream was to have a Pocket PC with push email and WiFi with an embedded keyboard.
The cherry on the cake came with Skype. I use desktop Skype a lot and I love it. As I am an international self-employed consultant, my cellphone bills amount to at least £300.00 ($550.00) a month. Skype on the BA will save me money but I need to find a good noise cancellation headset. So what if the sound quality is not that good, my customers would expect that from a roaming mobile phone anyway.
As for the camera, at its current resolution it is a gimmick. I would rather have a lighter BA with no camera. My 5.1 Mega Pixel camera will have to stay.
I agree with everyone that says the keyboard has a bad build. The MDA III and the XDA IIs I have seen at the T-Mobile and O2 shops had the keyboard sliding out on its own as soon as I picked up the device. I had already arrived to the conclusion that the keyboard will break down even before reading this thread.
I know that I will miss the stability of the Blackberry software but the advantages I get from the BA far outweigh the disadvantages.
I don’t thing anyone of us on this board will ever find a device that is perfect in every aspect. This is technology.
I will be moving from the Blackberry to the BA XDA IIs this weekend and I am sure that most if not all on this board will encourage me.

i agree with you
hey,
i agree with you fully... no technology can be perfect... but still XDA IIs is the best bet!
just a doubt: how did u manage to get a BA with blackberry connect? any software for that available for asian users too?

Re: i agree with you
studdocs said:
just a doubt: how did u manage to get a BA with blackberry connect? any software for that available for asian users too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The T-Mobile MDA III supports Blackberry Connects. The XDA IIs should support it soon. I will be using the XDA IIs but I am hopping to use the MDA III software.

hoping 4 the best!
i am just hoping that XDA IIs supports it soon!
the earlier the better!

You have two choices...
1. Purchase an old used XDAII and upgrade it to WM5.0. Very stable and flawless communications and Bluetooth.
2. Wait for the new WM5.0 devices this summer.
(my 2 cents)

I fully agree with the love/ hate, as per others - I to have experianced neumerous resets, lock ups no sound etc. after two weeks I returned it to the shop and swapped my XDAIIs for another one (it was clearly faulty) - loaded it up with exactly the same applications as the previous one and since then I have only experianced the no sound issue twice in the last month, my unit runs on the "stock" O2 firmware loaded in using Corporate mode. I love the flexibility of the device and my ipaq-4700 is now rarley used as the XDA does everything I need of it with the addition of the phone functionality - great idea and concept, but I still feel it is nowhere near the level of maturity that it should be - Mike

Hi guys,
could you guys tell me where can I download for the latest firmware for my O2 XDA IIs that are going around currently? and is it true that updating firmware will results data losts ? thank you

A hard reset will allways result in data loss, but if you back it all up onto the SD card you should be able to return the unit to the same condition - note I say "should" its probably wise to re-install the lot from scratch to gain the true performance, as yet I have not tried the 1.140 ROM but I am tempted - you don't state whice service provider you are with - try their web site for a download to see if you are upto date - my philosopy is that the service provider should provide a functional device, in pratice the HTC unit is a bit hit and miss - but if you load up anything other than official firmware then taking it back and complaining is out of the window - I am on my second handset from O2 and this apears to work OK - at least it does for the demands I make of it, this includes running bespoke "home" created software scripted using Labview and it performs quite well - mike

Why I am taking my Artemis back

I really was excited about the Artemis, here's why I am taking it back:
1) I got mine from T-mobile Germany, and they have purposefully crippled the device, and gone on the record to say that they removed the wifi chipset to a) give people a reason to buy the Vario, a higher end model, and b) make customers use the web n' walk feature they sell. In other countries and markets, this phone has wifi, T-mobile actually had to go out of their way to remove this functionality; just to make a buck.
2) Even though on the after-sale website at t-mobile.de, it shows the Artemis being used with an english OS, they do not offer an english ROM; I had to pay 35eur to unlock the CID and put on the UK rom.
3) The camera is the worst camera I have ever seen in any device; even worse than the first generation of black and white webcams. Everything is blurry, and it cannot resolve anything within 4 feet of the device. My old HTC SDA had a far better camera than the trash they put in this. Please dear god someone tell me I am wrong, and I didn't see the 'don't take ****ty pics' button, because this is one of the main reasons I am taking this device back. This is just unforgivable, it makes me wish there was no camera included at all, that would be better than one that takes blurry, sad pictures; ruining any moment you wanted to capture. But hey; I can scale the images down from 1200 to 320 and they look crisp! But I may be wrong, I have only taken about 30 pics in varying conditions.
3a) The buttons on the side rails are way too hard to find or press. They do not stick out at all. You can't just pop out the device for a sec and turn it on to check the time, you have to feel around for the damn button first. Also, the camera is so bad and you have to hold it so still that using the camera button to take a picture is almost useless because you have to press pretty hard and it makes you move the device.
4) The trackball was a great idea, but it just doesn't register sometimes. The click wheel is really loose and lint/dirt gets stuck in it. I want a phone to keep in my pocket, not to keep on some lame leather belt protector. Lots of apps do not support the trackball, and even more the wheel. T-mobile says that you can 'scroll around maps' not in the map software i own. Also, the scroll wheel is imprecise, you almost always overshoot the item you want and have to go back.
5) For a serf star 3 shipset, it takes 1-3 minutes to get a fix sometimes. There is no support for anything you would want to do with a phone+cam+gps device. I haven't been able to find any geocoding apps, or anything that would take advantage of the hardware in this phone.
6) A personal thing, but I hate PPC, I got this because T-mobile DE no longer offers a windows smartphone. I find it so pathetic that you can't do things like enlarge buttons or font size. I want to use my device without the stylus; which is why I got this to begin with. I have having to take out the stylus to click some small. I wish there was a 'smartphone' mode that had profiles, even something ismple like holdinga button to lock the device needs special 3rd party software... or SHOWING THE TIME LARGE ON THE TODAY SCREEN... needs a 3rd party plugin. I finally got my artemis somewhat how i want and it's just this house of cards, this glued together mess of mismatched hardware/rom or 3rd party utilities and tools to do what the damn thing should when you buy it. Why should I have to go into the REGISTRY to add an icon to the launch bar at the bottom? Or to change which direction the screen turns when you go to landscape view? For how much code and time has been dumped into this OS, it is so unconfigurable through a decent UI; almost everything needs to be done in the registry or through 3rd party software. What a complete mess.
Anyway; my two cents, I am going to go through the complete hellish ordeal of taking it back on tuesday, so if I am wrong about some of this stuff, let me know; I would like to keep it, I really want to like it; I just can't.

Hi,
1) No real argument here, it should have had Wifi, but it doesn't. You must have known this before you bought it though. Personally I can count on one hand the amount of times I used Wifi on my JAMin so not a major concern personally.
2) I am lucky to stay in the UK so got an English based OS anyway.
3) The camera is average. So was the camera on my JAMin, personally I woudl never buy a Pocket PC for the camera, my Canon does that job. Overall all Pocket PC cameras are poor compared to other phones.
4) Trackball works fine for me and I think it is a great idea. Yes the scroll wheel is a bit loose and it does overshoot. I am sure this is a design that will improve over time, one of the problems of being an early adopter!! Overall though I find it a great phone to use with these two options.
5) Hmmm, I get my fix from the GPS in usually less than a minute, occaisionally it takes a bit longer but I am never in that much of a hurry. Not sure what it is you are trying to use the GPS for. I personally use it with Tom Tom 6 for road navigation and Memory Map for off road navigation and it works faultlessly in both (certainly much better than my JAMin/BT receiver combo). It also works well with the new Google Maps.
6) Can't argue with you too much about the points here. Personally the only thing I would like is bigger text on my Text Message notifications. I like having the stylus option for writing and have found Mousemode on the MDAC3 works well for all other uses. Sure I still have to resort to the stylus occaisionally (afterall it is how the OS is designed) but it is very rare. I could turn this around on you and say that having so many 3rd party apps is a good thing. There are not many devices this size which offer so much diversity in apps. It is just a pain you have to pay for them!!
It sounds like your use is not suited to the Pocket PC in general. Why not sell the MDAC3 on eBay and use the money to buy a suitable smartphone?
Regards

[flame mode, he asked for it]
Do not buy a smartphone. Buy a nokia 1100 and a nikon D70.
My second phone is a nokia 1100:
battery last 1 week
it can receive and make a call
you either push the red or the green button (no thinking, no choices, just push)
you can get it for free if you buy a toaster
Since you are in germany buy a nice beamer or benz, it has wonderful GPS.
PS: next time you buy something INVESTIGATE what it can and cannot do.
[/flame mode]
PS II: my MDA compact III has WIFI and you know what, I never ever use it, I use my LAPTOP for email and Inet...
PS III: why did I buy a MDA compact III? To get rid of the GPS mouse
(I live in Amsterdam beamer and benz cost a fortune here...)

I was thinking about just taking it back to tmobile, I can do that, I don't know much about Europe, can I get a good smartphone and just pop my sim in it? I was thinking about getting the Nokia n73 (sold by tmobile). It has a great camera, and my friend says it syncs to outlook great; just like a smartphone.
I dont have a car, I wanted the GPS for geocoding photos, and for hiking/biking/walking and stuff (recording gps loaction with photos you take)
Check out these pictures taken by the camera:
http://chrisevans3d.com/temp/IMAGE_026.jpg
http://chrisevans3d.com/temp/IMAGE_027.jpg
This is me holding the cam AS STILL AS POSSIBLE.

Hey Bman; you're talking to a guy who has an Axim x51v, and a toughbook CF-W2, I use portable devices a lot, and I know what I do or do not want in my phone; this wasn't my first PPC device. I knew this didnt have wifi when I got it; though at that time no one knew if it was disabled or the hardware was missing.
It is the company coming out and saying their reasoning for nixing the hardware was to make the Vario seem more useful that turned me off.. It's more a problem I have with t-mobile than the device itself. It not having wifi was not a 'surprise' to me. Also, I had heard phones had altered ppc os enhancements, like a dailer and other apps with larger buttons you could press. (I cannot press the buttons on the dialer very well; maybe i have sausage fingers)
As I said I got this because t-mobile no longer even offers a SmartPhone, and I love them. This looked like it was capable of one handed use, which it is for some things, so I picked it. I have a business contract through my company, and it was ~100eur.
I have a good technical head on my shoulders, the crappiness of the cam really surprised me. I mean look at this:
http://chrisevans3d.com/temp/IMAGE_007.jpg
This photo was taken under an array of 5 very bright halogen point lights in the ceiling above. This image quality is inexcusable. Do you not agree?
Maybe the CCD is broken?
CE

pangloss said:
Hey Bman; you're talking to a guy who has an Axim x51v, and a toughbook CF-W2, I use portable devices a lot, and I know what I do or do not want in my phone; this wasn't my first PPC device. I knew this didnt have wifi when I got it; though at that time no one knew if it was disabled or the hardware was missing.
It is the company coming out and saying their reasoning for nixing the hardware was to make the Vario seem more useful that turned me off.. It's more a problem I have with t-mobile than the device itself. It not having wifi was not a 'surprise' to me. Also, I had heard phones had altered ppc os enhancements, like a dailer and other apps with larger buttons you could press. (I cannot press the buttons on the dialer very well; maybe i have sausage fingers)
As I said I got this because t-mobile no longer even offers a SmartPhone, and I love them. This looked like it was capable of one handed use, which it is for some things, so I picked it. I have a business contract through my company, and it was ~100eur.
I have a good technical head on my shoulders, the crappiness of the cam really surprised me. I mean look at this:
http://chrisevans3d.com/temp/IMAGE_007.jpg
This photo was taken under an array of 5 very bright halogen point lights in the ceiling above. This image quality is inexcusable. Do you not agree?
Maybe the CCD is broken?
CE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think th t-mobile firmware degrades the camera function. there are people that can make good pictures with the artemis. But they don't use t-mobile firmware...
I also use a MDAc3 mine is poor as well.

http://chrisevans3d.com/temp/IMAGE_034.jpg
http://chrisevans3d.com/temp/IMAGE_036.jpg
Here are two more pictures. There is green noise all over any picture I take; can anyone confirm this stuff? Any cMDA3 people have photos to send? If you want you can email them to me and I will post them here (that is my site, my email is there as well)
I have even tried all resolutions, thinking that they might have been scaling in software to get the 2MP res. Nope; all resolutions are terrible.
CE

pangloss said:
http://chrisevans3d.com/temp/IMAGE_034.jpg
http://chrisevans3d.com/temp/IMAGE_036.jpg
Here are two more pictures. There is green noise all over any picture I take; can anyone confirm this stuff? Any cMDA3 people have photos to send? If you want you can email them to me and I will post them here (that is my site, my email is there as well)
I have even tried all resolutions, thinking that they might have been scaling in software to get the 2MP res. Nope; all resolutions are terrible.
CE
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=33214&d=1168977457

If you have CID unlocked the handset and changed the ROM good look taking it back. Doing that voids the warranty plus your option to return the handset 'in the original condition'

Touch Pro 2 radio

Hi guys
Followed the slightly concerning threads re the radio disappearing from the specs.
It is now back on the specs at Clove and never disappeared from the Expansys ones.
I called HTC UK support yesterday. They said to me that it was all still subject to change (as it would be officially until the shops get it) but their internal current spec still said it had an FM Radio.
Paul.

If that's what the current internal spec is then I'm pretty dang sure it will have it. That means that it's been designed to have it and removing it would just be removing the chip from the board. The chip is probably pretty dang cheap as it is. Then it would just be wasted space.

Specs don't just disappear from web pages for no reason. The main HTC site still shows the FM radio as not being included, when it used to be there. I'm hoping it will continue to be there, but somebody took it down for a reason, even if it wasn't taken down from all sites.

at this point, if they say it still has it, it likely still does. They have to be manufacturing them in mass by now with it being as close to the release as it is (least outside of the US). T-Mobile/AT&T may have the radio removed tho, it wouldn't surprise me for them to remove features (ie cmos camera). But who knows. Either way, i couldn't care less. I don't listen to the radio as it is. Not to say that others wouldn't want to, but technically, this is a business phone so a radio would seem a bit out of its way.
Personally, i would say, if they included a radio, they should also include a 3.5mm jack to Listen to it on.

That's pretty much my point. At this time, they most decidedly are not saying that it has it, when in February they specifically said on the same page that it was included. I hope it was right then and wrong now, but I have my doubts.

Business or phone phone
I do wish people would stop pandering to this rubbish.
No one buys a highend PDA phone (privately) to use it just as a business / organiser device or just as a fun / media device.
It is fair to say that some people won't mind if a radio or tv-out or gfx acceleration or decent camera or 3.5" jack is missing .... but that isn't a justification for HTC or anyone else not to put these things in on expensive new devices.
Most people I know that have a highend device like the HD or TP2 will probably want at some point to dump some movies to it and play it on an hotel TV when they are away with work because they don't have their Archos or ipod with them. This means that TV-Out and support of embedded gfx hardware should be a given.
Most people would prefer a proper wired headphone jack for wired listening of any description.
Many people find themselves on the train, at an airport or in a break and at some point may like to listen to the news. If you live in the UK or a country where most providers insist on realmedia for streaming, Resco News etc is no good ... you need a decent radio. PDA and phone manufacturers have demonstrated that hardware for this sort of thing is typically on chipset anyway and just needs enabling and exploiting in firmware.
HTC very irritatingly artificially leave these things out which makes the device in complete ... for no good reason other than to force people to either get two devices or feel frustrated from time to time (even if rarely) when they want to use things like the above.
The camera situation is the same. 30fps vga video is common place on SE and Nokia ... Apple and HTC should not be forgiven for not including it (yes ... I know the TD2 and TP2 now have it ... at last) ... also ... yes ... you'd expect if you were planning to take holiday snaps you'd take your Pentax or Canon SLR with you .. but often you want to take adhoc pictures .... why shouldn't they be of decent quality ... the technology is there and in mass production SE and Nokia have shown that it shouldn't raise the cost of the devices.
We shouldn't be so accepting about things like this ... it allows HTC to treat us with some contempt and encourages them to continue to do so.
All these devices they are bringing out ... long after the Snapdragon ... but still no sign of official support ... again ... getting people to buy last generation technology today. Are we forced to ... no ... but given their position in the market ... they still have no viable competition on the WM front ... they are exploiting that.
Sorry for the rant ....

Hope this helps...

Some food for though...
If HTC remove the FM radio, at this late stage (after some devices with it have been released) will they keep the chipset's the same?
If so I'm sure some of the guys on here could get the Drivers for it working again...
If such a project is needed, count me in, I'm missing FM radio from my Kaiser
Dave

Speaking of rubbish...
pgamble said:
HTC very irritatingly artificially leave these things out which makes the device in complete ... for no good reason other than to force people to either get two devices or feel frustrated from time to time (even if rarely) when they want to use things like the above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I'm sure that this is precisely the reason HTC does these things. Market analysis, purchase trends, customer preferences research - all of these things are meaningless next to the opportunity to make their customers irritated and frustrated.
pgamble said:
The camera situation is the same. 30fps vga video is common place on SE and Nokia ... Apple and HTC should not be forgiven for not including it (yes ... I know the TD2 and TP2 now have it ... at last) ... also ... yes ... you'd expect if you were planning to take holiday snaps you'd take your Pentax or Canon SLR with you .. but often you want to take adhoc pictures .... why shouldn't they be of decent quality ... the technology is there and in mass production SE and Nokia have shown that it shouldn't raise the cost of the devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Define decent quality. I'm not sure what your gripe is here. Lack of a flash? OK, I can see that. But if you are complaining that you're not getting 30 FPS for your ad hoc videos, then HTC is just not the camera for you. Your priorities dictate the purchase of a different device. That's no reason to suggest that HTC is being intentionally annoying. They are making the decisions that will earn the highest sales for any given device in the markets for which they have seen they can effectively compete.

ajbopp said:
Define decent quality. I'm not sure what your gripe is here. Lack of a flash? OK, I can see that. But if you are complaining that you're not getting 30 FPS for your ad hoc videos, then HTC is just not the camera for you. Your priorities dictate the purchase of a different device. That's no reason to suggest that HTC is being intentionally annoying. They are making the decisions that will earn the highest sales for any given device in the markets for which they have seen they can effectively compete.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read HTC somewhere (I forget where) that it will be removed because of battery life performance issues. HTC are still trying to make this a business phone (hence the conference calling and Straight Talk) so it makes sense that a business phone would benefit more from battery life than an FM radio.
Just my 2'cs
Dave

I have to ask this again. Why would a radio chip and software waste battery when it's not on? It just doesn't make sense. Please enlighten me!

any news?
it's weird to see the Radio feature still on the official italian specification web page ...but it's not anymore on the english page

cocoaju said:
I have to ask this again. Why would a radio chip and software waste battery when it's not on? It just doesn't make sense. Please enlighten me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's Possible the FM radio stuff can cause interference with other devices in such a small space, meaning more power is needed to overcome any distortion.
There might even be a form of idle state it keeps itself in. Take the radio feature on the mp3 player next to me, it doesn't scan through like normal unless you force it to retune. It presets itself stations it can find gets RDS for them and names them and keeps track of it when not using the radio feature and more annoying it will do this when the whole device is in it's standby mode and will do so unless fully turned off.
Personally I believe it's just an oversight when they updated the battery spec on the UK HTC page as mass production is likely to have started and removing it last minuet would have likely been costly.

magius00 said:
There might even be a form of idle state it keeps itself in. Take the radio feature on the mp3 player next to me, it doesn't scan through like normal unless you force it to retune. It presets itself stations it can find gets RDS for them and names them and keeps track of it when not using the radio feature and more annoying it will do this when the whole device is in it's standby mode and will do so unless fully turned off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand that if it's on standby mode, it may use up battery life. I mean if you leave software running in the background, it will run down your battery as well. So it's understandable.
But if you fully turned it off, it shouldn't kill battery life, cos it's not on, right? So, again, it doesn't make sense for battery life to lower, with or without the radio.
As you said, it could be HTC updating on the battery life spec because they got it wrong the first time round. And they thought the radio is no longer needed on this phone so they take it off as well.
I think this happened to the Samsung Omnia HD (not out till end of June) as well. GSM Arena just took another preview of it and some specs has changed prior to launch. They took the radio out as well.
So anything can happen until everything is set on launch date.

Just thought of a good reason to keep radio for business - GPS traffic data! GPS software use FM radio to receive the traffic data. if no radio, no traffic for GPS software.

Apart from no Radio, I just saw a couple of videos from you tube on TP2 reviews, it looks like the zoon bar is missing too.
I checked HTC's website and their gallery still shows the zoom bar. The videos were uploaded this week as well. So unless they took the video a while back and just uploaded it now, it looks like we are missing more features.
European Version Video Review
Asia CNET Version Video Review
Hope this is my mistake.

I just watched again and on the start of the video, I think I saw a glimpse of the zoom bar but never again afterwards. Maybe it's just so reflective, that I can't see the zoom bar. Maybe it is really me... being too imaginative

european video at 3.36 min, it's there !!!

Ha! You are correct! I saw the glimpse. Super reflective screen makes it hard to see on the video.

cocoaju said:
Ha! You are correct! I saw the glimpse. Super reflective screen makes it hard to see on the video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
which icont is it? i cant easily make out what one is the radio

Building a real Thermal Imaging addon for Android Smartphones

Hi everyone,
Thermal imaging has been a long-time dream for me, and I guess for many other as well. However, even the most simple TI cameras tend to be too expensive to justify if you want then just for private use.
It seems like their might be a way out of that now...
A Company called Melexis has released a cheap and low-resolution Thermopile Array (Melexis MLX 90620), that could be the ideal base for an extremely basic Thermal Camera. It's 16x4 Pixel Sensor won't win any prizes for building inspection or detailed thermal analysis, but it is cheap (if you buy a single unit it's around 60$ from Digikey or Futureelectronics, should be in stock this week at Futureelectronics according to Melexis) and comes complete with built-in signal amp, RAM, EEPROM and digital I2C output.
I came across this idea through the Kickstarter Project "Sensordrone" that gives you an easy way to hook up Sensors to your Smartphone via Bluetooth. They are planning to build this TI Sensor as an addon Module to their Sensordrone, but they need somebody to help build the app that turns the raw data coming from the sensor into colourful pixels...
Connecting the Thermopile Array to the Sensordrone is as easy as connecting the 4 pins to the Addon Connector pins. Adding a simple Silicon Diode to reduce the power from 3.3v down to the recommended 2.6v is the only additional step.
You could also hook the Thermopile Array up to a standard Arduino or the Android ADK board I guess if you don't want to go for the Sensordrone.
So it all comes down to Software, and this is where I hope somebody in this fantastic community might help. If you would like to see this happen and (unlike me) have the required coding skills, just go ahead, contact the Sensorcon Team (developers of the Sensordrone) or build your own ADK kit with Thermal Imaging.
TecSpecs for the Melexis MLX90620 can be found on their website together with a demo video. The Sensordrone can be found on Kickstarter (just enter the name) and specs for their unit are available there or on the Sensorcon forums.
I hope somebody takes this up and makes my (and I hope many others') long time dream real! Once the cheap and low-res version works, going for the more high-resolution Heimann Thermopile arrays with 32x31 and 64x62 might be the next step to an affordable Smartphone Thermocam.

I had the same idea and ordered the sensor a few days ago.
Got a message from Future electronics that they get the sensor on the 23rd and than it will take 5 to 7 days for me to receive it.
So I will have to wait a little bit longer and than start programming.
I have some ideas to combine it with the phone camera to make it a real thermographic camera.
I don't know if i will use the Sensordrone or a standalone bluetooth solution. With the later I have more control over the firmware.

Thanks for replying Mardaso.
The idea of combining it with the smartphone cmos camera is great, I had thought about that as well, but am not sure how it could be achieved. You'd either have to synchronize the FOV, which is pretty much impossible given the parameters of the Melexis module or you'd have to track the area the sensor is "scanning" with the smartphone and overlay the image then. This might work with LEDs or laser dots, but it would be difficult.
But maybe I'm missing something here and it might not be that complicated after all.
My idea for increasing the effective resolution was in using motion sensors and "image stitching" to create a larger and more detailed image with the low-resolution sensor. This would work much like the "panoramic" feature in Android smartphones. It works perfectly for my Nexus. This might be rather challenging to program though...but maybe also worth a try.
I think this would maybe all be relevant for later on if/when the basic functionality is there...
I'm hoping you'll give the Sensordrone a try since I ordered one and would like to see Theraml Imaging on it ASAP...or if you go with a standalone Bluetooth module, would you provide your sourcecodes for the app so that it can be easily adapted for use with the Sensordrone?
The main advantage of the Sensordrone from a dev. point of view is that it takes care of the low-level stuff for you. You'd get the required raw data from the sensor easily and could concentrate on the features of the app...
Maybe you could contact Sensorcon, the creators of the Sensordrone, and see whether you'd like to work with them on this project. They are really nice guys. Are you going to do the initial work on an Arduino based ADK btw?
Whatever you do, I'm glad that you're picking this up. Your work will be useful in bringing a "world's first thermal imaging device" to the Smartphone. Since the Sensorcon folks are also in contact with Heimann Sensors for a later-to-come higher resolution version of the the TI module there is definitely a future for this and your software could be the basis for all that...:good:
I'd like to offer my assisitance, but since I am absolutle yno good at programming I'll probably not be able to do anything useful...

That would be really cool!!!
Can the Bluetooth handle that much data???
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

Bluetooth should not be a problem. Even BT 2.1 has about 3Mbps capacity. With the low resolution of the Thermopile arrays that is a non-issue.
@Mardaso
which FOV option die you order? 40 degree or 60?

CommanderROR said:
Bluetooth should not be a problem. Even BT 2.1 has about 3Mbps capacity. With the low resolution of the Thermopile arrays that is a non-issue.
@Mardaso
which FOV option die you order? 40 degree or 60?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ordered: MLX90620ESF-BAB-000-TU so the 60 degree version. They had only this one listed and the evaluation board.
I want to start programming asap. So when the sensors arrive I will start first with a controller (arduino or pic(32)) sending data serial to a PC.
After that go for bluetooth and an android app.
When looking at the data sheet there is a lot of calculation to be done before you get the actual temperature. These calculations could be handled by the Pic32 processor. But we could always use the sensordrone as a gateway for the serial data.
I want to use the motion sensors from the phone to "stitch" the data.
Maybe we will need some kind of holder to align the thermo sensor and the camera pictures so you won't need an extra laser or manual alignment. Just some thoughts.

Futureelectronics seems to have the 40 deg sensor listed now. I'm not sure, but I think that might be better for image stitching...not sure though.
Aligning the sensor with the phone for motion sensor useage...I'd probably go with a bit of double-sided sticky tape...
At least for initial trials that could work well. It would not overlay the "real" image with the Thermal image but would create a more high-res thermal image. That might be easier as a start.
About the calculations...I read that data sheet too, but I'm not sure what is done in the sensor itself and what you have to do in software. It's rather confusing in some passages...
As far as I can tell, calibration values are stored in the EEPROM and can be changed (but I would leave those well alone) and the 65 data packages are written to RAM from where they can be read. 64 temp readings for T(Object) and 1 for T(Case). I'll try to figure out what I can from the Spec sheet, but it's not exaclty my field of expertise...^^
If it gets really complicated you could always ask Melexis for advice. They are really helpful.
The Output from the Sensor should be handled as I2C, that would be easiest and would also be the way the Sensordrone receives data. I'm thinking about getting an Arduino ADK board and a breadboard so that I can at least help with testing, but I'll wait a bit...not sure whether it's worth the money if the Sensordrone comes in October and can do the same and more...
I just reread the spec-sheet, and it seems that the calculations really are not done internally but have to be performed each time you read data from the sensor.
I'd suggest doing those calculations in the app rather than in the microcontroller since that would make things fully compatible with the Sensordrone which as far as I know only passed the data through.
Btw...have you thought about refresh rates? The default is 1Hz (1fps) which is ok for tryouts, but probably not very satisfying for actual use. I' suggest something like 12Hz for general use, maybe more for "painting" a larger image with the "stitching" method. However, I do not know how much the accuracy suffers then...

OK...the Sensors and Evaluation Boards are now listed "in Stock", so you should receive yours soon.
I'm looking forward to following your progress.
If I understand correctly, you'd need to initiate a PTAT read and a Full Frame read to get the raw data from RAM. In addition, you'd have to read the Constants from EEPROM since you need them for calculation.
One constant is set to 25°C, I'm not sure whether the others have to be read each or if they can be stored somewhere in the app and read from there after the first initialization (since they are constants they should not change).
Values are sotred in two's format, so you have to convert them to "real" numbers before using them...my god this is complicated. I think I'll make lunch and leave the calculating bit to somebody who knows what they are doing...

CommanderROR said:
OK...the Sensors and Evaluation Boards are now listed "in Stock", so you should receive yours soon.
I'm looking forward to following your progress.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes! got an email that they have been shipped.

Great news!
Post when it arrives, will you? And don't hook it up to 5V...

MLX90620 progress
Its worse than that!
Firstly, the chip is designed to run at 2.6V, despite what is says on some (though not all) of the pages of the manual. So,
you will need to get 2.6V from somewhere - I used a LM317 variable voltage regulator. Then you will need level changers
between the 2.6 and your 3.3 or 5v of your microprocessor.
The first thing to do is to extract the contents of the eeprom that is built into the chip. Not difficult, because it is a
22AA02 Mircochip device.
I was disappointed to find that I couldn't get all the information from the EEPROM which is supposed to be there - notably
the temperature gradient coefficient (TGC) and all the "Ta dependence of IR pixels offset" and the "individual sensitivity
coefficients" which all came out as 0! As the other variables came out, I don't think this is a fault of my code.
I have no confidence in the values I did get out either.... The first thing you need to do is to get the temperature of the
chip itself (Ta), as the 64 pixel readings are relative to that. You read a value called PTAT from the Melexis and run it
through some maths. I did that and got crazy values, even when I put the configuration into a spreadsheet. So, I have put
my Melexis in a temperature controlled oven and taken a number of readings from room temperature up to 60 degrees C to
create my own formula.
The next job is to read the 64 channels and the 'compensation pixel' value. I failed to get these out in one I2C session,
but that might be my code. I get the data pixel by pixel at the moment.
If you had confidence in the configuration variables, you could then start to run this data through the 'maths' that is
well documented in the manual (section 7.4.2). There is no way that I can get that maths to run in my target MCU - when
was the last time you tried to calculate 2 to power of 42 in an 8-bit micro!
Not the easiest thing to program for!
CommanderROR said:
Futureelectronics seems to have the 40 deg sensor listed now. I'm not sure, but I think that might be better for image stitching...not sure though.
Aligning the sensor with the phone for motion sensor useage...I'd probably go with a bit of double-sided sticky tape...
At least for initial trials that could work well. It would not overlay the "real" image with the Thermal image but would create a more high-res thermal image. That might be easier as a start.
About the calculations...I read that data sheet too, but I'm not sure what is done in the sensor itself and what you have to do in software. It's rather confusing in some passages...
As far as I can tell, calibration values are stored in the EEPROM and can be changed (but I would leave those well alone) and the 65 data packages are written to RAM from where they can be read. 64 temp readings for T(Object) and 1 for T(Case). I'll try to figure out what I can from the Spec sheet, but it's not exaclty my field of expertise...^^
If it gets really complicated you could always ask Melexis for advice. They are really helpful.
The Output from the Sensor should be handled as I2C, that would be easiest and would also be the way the Sensordrone receives data. I'm thinking about getting an Arduino ADK board and a breadboard so that I can at least help with testing, but I'll wait a bit...not sure whether it's worth the money if the Sensordrone comes in October and can do the same and more...
I just reread the spec-sheet, and it seems that the calculations really are not done internally but have to be performed each time you read data from the sensor.
I'd suggest doing those calculations in the app rather than in the microcontroller since that would make things fully compatible with the Sensordrone which as far as I know only passed the data through.
Btw...have you thought about refresh rates? The default is 1Hz (1fps) which is ok for tryouts, but probably not very satisfying for actual use. I' suggest something like 12Hz for general use, maybe more for "painting" a larger image with the "stitching" method. However, I do not know how much the accuracy suffers then...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thanks for your input!
getting the voltage down from 3.3v to 2.6 should be easy with at silicon diode, they have a drop of 0.7v built-in and cost less than 1$.
Getting it from 5v would require more work. According to the spec-sheet the sensor should work at voltages between 2.4 and 3.6v (if I remember correctly) but I'd definitely try to run it at it's optimal voltage of 2.6v
The math is indeed strange, there is one step I don't understand where they convert something and I can't figure out what it is they are converting too and from...but I'm not good at math anyway so I guess there'll be somebody out there who gets this...I'll keep looking at it though.
mardaso is the one who plans to write the app for this, if you'd be willing to join in then I'm sure this could go better and smoother. I won't be much help, but I'll try my best to assist...
edit:
This is what I could not work out:
from page 16 in the spec-sheet: 256.26 + 120 = 6776 decimal value
The example hex values convert to 26 and 120 without trouble...but I have no idea how the result of the addition yields 6776
edit2: I figured it out..sort of.
run the results, for examle 6776 trhough this converter http://www.statman.info/conversions/hexadecimal.html and you'll see something interesting about the values...
Doesn't really make sense to me, but it does work...

@cybersteveUK
Could you post the values you get from the sensor and eeprom? Then we can all go through the data together and try to find out how to translate it into useable temp readings.
Thanks.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Got the sensors! I hope that I will have some time to test them next week.

another sensordrone backer and mlx90620 owner
Hi there,
I just registered to this forum to let you know that I wish to participate in this effort too. I am also a sensordrone backer on kickstarter, and I just received my melexis mlx90620 sensor. To start with, I plan to use it with my pandaboard, which has more than enough power to handle the math. When I get the sensor working, I will try to register the sensor data with a camera to overlay the thermal data on the rgb image.
I don't own an android phone yet, but I'm planning to get a Galaxy S3 later. For using the sensor with the android phone, I guess I would start by connecting it with the sensordrone via some simple electronics and using sensordrone's bluetooth connection to send the data to the phone for processing. Later a standalone small bluetooth module that could be attached to the phone would be nice.. Registering the sensor data with the camera image would require that the module stays somewhat stationary in relation to the phone's camera.
I don't know yet when I have time to test the module, hopefully in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, should we set up a project and some version control in some place like github? It would be good to have some place to store the data we gather, documentation, and the code we write.

Welcome on board!
Feel free to start a project on google code or similar. So far cybersteve seems to have put the most work into this, but he has not replied in this thread apart from his initial post, so I don't know if he is willing to cooperate.

update: Did some first testing. Ram register values looking good but eeprom readings are NOK.
@cybersteveUK Did you get any further? My eeprom readings give all 249(dec) 2s complement => -7 except address 0 = 160 and address 87 = 49. Not something I expected. Tomorrow I will take the logic analyser to see if the I2C eeprom code is ok.

Good and bad news.
The good news is that the code is OK and the bad news is that the eeprom of one sensor is not.
Tried it with the second sensor and all readings are as expected.
At least I can start coding but I have to see if Melexis will exchange the other sensor.

Mardaso said:
Good and bad news.
The good news is that the code is OK and the bad news is that the eeprom of one sensor is not.
Tried it with the second sensor and all readings are as expected.
At least I can start coding but I have to see if Melexis will exchange the other sensor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Getting it exchanged should not be a problem. Futureelectronics should take it back without a problem.
I wonder if cybersteveUK also got a damaged sensor since his readings seemed to be off as well and what that says about the quality if this first batch...

One you get this project working, Are you going to make a YOUTUBE video of it working???
Thanks in advanced.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

[Q] Link Multiple Nexus 7's Car Install

So I am about to start my install in a 08 Chrysler Aspen. I have everything I need to swap the stock radio for a Nexus 7, I have been messing around with all the software and hardware for a week or so and think that most issues are worked out. I am running CM12 nightlies just because I am a bleeding edge type of guy and I like Cyangoenmod's implementation of extra features. They run on the ElementalX Kernel so that OTG charging and deep sleep are possible. Now the fun part that I have not seen anyone else do, that I can find anyway. I have two outdated, barely working, please replace me 7" no name linked DVD players in the headrests. Honestly, the market for those is utterly pitiful and overpriced, full of hardware that is practically obsolete, and runs on proprietary software. No thank you. Luckily I have two Nexus 7's, soon to be three.
I am software engineering student, so I have skills in that department, and I dabble in all things electronic. I can usually find a way to make anything work. So far on first thought I have successfully set up Nexus2 to wake from deep sleep when power connects, then via Tasker open Allcast Receiver. Which I can then cast media from Nexus1 to be viewed on Nexus2, then to Nexus3 via Koush's Mirror Beta. The great thing about Allcast and Allcast Receiver is that only a WiFi connection is needed, no need to have internet access. This setup works better than I expected, with very minimal lag on the Mirror( I tested this using my Gs3 as the third device). Ultimately I would like to pass video through hardware instead of software. Herein lies my question. I can accept a video stream, but I have been unable to find any examples of sending media to essentially a second monitor through hardware alone. I am sure there is a way through SSH, similar to this, but I would like 2 and 3 to be able to be used independently as I am going to make them easily removable. For example if my kids want to play a game , they can just take it out and it is back to normal tablet form.
If there is nothing available, the casting/mirroring route will suffice for the time being. I would just like something a little less vulnerable. Casting/Mirroring are relatively new and there are occasional crashes. Anyone who has young children knows that patience is not a word in their vocabulary. Plug and play, no crashes is my optimal goal.
Sorry for the essay, I hope that someone can help. I will post pictures of the install process here, and I'll start a new thread for a complete DIY.
One more thing, has anyone seen headrests made specifically to mount a Nexus 7? I can modify my current ones, but a prefabbed like this for iPad mini would be ideal.

I can't advise on the mirroring of the screens, but mounting the nexus in the headrests is something I can help with. Head over to my website www.rtafabrication.com
If your fabrication is up to scratch you could get a few Dash Panels and mount them yourself or I could do the fabrication for you. Location doesn't matter as I ship worldwide.
Just thought it might be something you're looking for.