tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45423369442404488472024-03-05T10:55:24.480+00:00Andy Brown's blogA blog of my thoughts, from car things, tutorials and ideas to Arduino, electronics, PVR (TVHeadend and Kodi) and a place to put my development ideas and thoughts.
<br><br>
Join me on Patreon <a href="https://www.patreon.com/andyb2000">https://www.patreon.com/andyb2000</a> to help support my HOWTOs and online guides.
Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.comBlogger123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-36061346107642723052019-06-11T22:49:00.000+01:002019-06-11T22:49:28.466+01:00Candy clothes dryer and "Smart Touch" phone appThis post starts with the failure of an old trusty workhorse. Our old Hotpoint dryer finally gave up on us after more than 12 years doing it's job. Several replacement parts (thermal cut-out and heater element) but otherwise it did a great job.<br />
<br />
So we were in the market for a new one, and buying a lot from AO I went with one of their "Exclusive" Candy products, with the catchy name "Candy Grand'O Vita CSVV9LG 9Kg Vented Tumble Dryer - White - C Rated". It claimed a decent 9kg load size, vented (Our previous was condensing, but as this was going in the garage I'd just fit a vent) and energy C rated (As we seem to eat energy in this house!).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-mIVb851F0CbB45c7FGXL-y1PVnFjl-3tII4WZ_0SBAO1_nUlEwP2Ed5hC8mBO6h8eRcXkpX-aRbPGlIBMUiTA2R3DNK5-TdeMH5C2ykyeCAToBQR5r6mpgRy3TCbfA6TnNf_8rvQoNY/s1600/candy_csvv9lg_wh_01_l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-mIVb851F0CbB45c7FGXL-y1PVnFjl-3tII4WZ_0SBAO1_nUlEwP2Ed5hC8mBO6h8eRcXkpX-aRbPGlIBMUiTA2R3DNK5-TdeMH5C2ykyeCAToBQR5r6mpgRy3TCbfA6TnNf_8rvQoNY/s320/candy_csvv9lg_wh_01_l.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The biggest attraction though came in the features:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWfh5dXjfMmLTHXvyvtLdV_jtk8M8mcG9L2WD9-72RP7KPESXPjqYpzSjURyk1DRQcT539Ntj2Y0ZAx8kvxIQbqDjJ9NTM_u54U4Zzu7uAWHnIWL1JX_CjwUBe5EMOoPdky7vyncswSE4/s1600/dryer-features.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="809" data-original-width="1239" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWfh5dXjfMmLTHXvyvtLdV_jtk8M8mcG9L2WD9-72RP7KPESXPjqYpzSjURyk1DRQcT539Ntj2Y0ZAx8kvxIQbqDjJ9NTM_u54U4Zzu7uAWHnIWL1JX_CjwUBe5EMOoPdky7vyncswSE4/s640/dryer-features.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
"Sensors work out the perfect drying time"<br />
and<br />
"Monitor & add new drying cycles from your smartphone"<br />
and<br />
"Time to End of Programme - YES"<br />
<br />
This sounded great, since the dryer was in the garage we never knew when it was done and had to keep going and checking on it, resetting it, etc (the old one).<br />
<br />
Reading the blurb it sounded ideal:<br />
"<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;">This model also has a Smart Touch feature, which lets you monitor the drying and even download new programmes using your smartphone."</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: arial; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
Cool, so for the gadget family like ours, being able to remotely talk to it, check the drying state and set it sounded good to us.<br />So it arrived, on-time as usual from AO (I have to recommend them and their deliveries, they are on time, ring you before, let you track their delivery, etc, which is pretty good) and we got it all setup.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We then followed the instructions to download the app "Candy simply-Fi" and went through the setup. It was when it asked me to place my NFC enabled phone beside the dryer over a special panel I started to realise something. It doesn't use WIFI, it doesn't have a CAT5 socket... It used NFC to talk to your phone.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDkfKJgYNUpVXlQBVNRUnPYs84eI6EC5eg9M0bKBsIKnfLCSzBpMEhWh2OwqHkf5mdBdQ6WZj7JJzDQnQc-lXlFx0x4vuVek92gJTgw_sufNZ1OYp3ebLNoBnBqmP_4W65Vc0sV4z09Vk/s1600/example-screen1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="318" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDkfKJgYNUpVXlQBVNRUnPYs84eI6EC5eg9M0bKBsIKnfLCSzBpMEhWh2OwqHkf5mdBdQ6WZj7JJzDQnQc-lXlFx0x4vuVek92gJTgw_sufNZ1OYp3ebLNoBnBqmP_4W65Vc0sV4z09Vk/s320/example-screen1.png" width="182" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
NFC (Near Field Communication) of course works up to around 10cm away, so this is the problem, it will ONLY talk to your phone, if you and your phone are stood in front of it, holding the phone against it.... Not exactly what we expected at all.</div>
<div>
This seems to be common, as searching in the Google Play store at comments for the app, it's the same over and over again, pointless as you need to be in front of the machine, needs to be in front of the machine to work, can't see the point since you're stood in front of it you can SEE what it's doing.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So all in all, there seems to be a con when it comes to the wording. There are TWO products from Candy:</div>
<div>
Smart Fi</div>
<div>
Smart Fi+</div>
<div>
See the subtle difference? The one with the + means WIFI equipped products, without the + it means NFC only.</div>
<div>
I started searching and discovered that practically NO dryer (regardless of manufacturer) has WiFI equipped (Some heat pump dryers do, but they are almost 2-3 times the price and heat pump isn't a technology I wanted as seems very long drying times).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So the lesson of the day? Don't believe what they tell you (I should have learnt this by now), the "Smart" tech is STILL lacking in most appliances, despite it being such a simple thing to implement (I say simple, as I can buy a wifi equipped Arduino device for around £10 retail that could do exactly what I wanted if I could interface it to the appliance).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I'm unsure whether to raise this with AO.com as they aren't really doing anything wrong here, other than perhaps not clarifying some of the details on their product pages, we certainly don't think it's sufficient to return the product, especially as there isn't an alternative that would fit what we'd expected.</div>
<div>
So for now I suspect we live with it, and potentially look into my retro-fitting of technology onto it, perhaps by using an Arduino and NFC board on the machine, see if I can read the NFC data it gives/do a handshake and get the information out of it, thereby converting it to a wifi enabled dryer!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com102tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-85542093578270971892019-05-31T19:30:00.000+01:002019-05-31T19:30:00.880+01:00Another cheap chinese Android phone adventure<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Well, because I'm an idiot I've gone for another Chinese imported phone!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The reason? My last chinese phone has developed an annoying fault with it's USB charge port, seems the connector is damaged and only occasionally takes power and charges the phone, so it's no longer reliable.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">So I decided to try another one.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">I ordered this phone from China (via wish) as specs were high and it was worth a bit of a gamble. Stated specs/product:</span><br />
<div class="bbcode-quote" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; float: left; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 15px 15px;">
<div class="bbcode-quote-text" style="background-color: #ebebeb; border: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); line-height: 18.62px; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 14px;">
Quote:</div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px;">
CPU: MTK6595 Octa Core<br />System: Android 9.1<br />ROM: 128GB<br />RAM: 6GB<br />Screen Type: 6.3 inch full<br />Touch Screen: Support Capacitive<br />Resolution:Front 800MA makes you more beautiful!<br />Network: 4G<br />Network mode: GSM/WCDMA<br />Network: Dual SIM Cards Support T Card<br />Camera type<img alt="" border="0" class="inlineimg" src="https://forum.xda-cdn.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif" style="border: 0px; line-height: 0; margin-top: -10px; max-width: 100%; position: relative; top: 7px;" title="Big Grin" />ual Rear Camera One Front Camera<br />Camera Pixel:<br />Front Camera:800 MP<br />Rear Camera: 16.0 MP<br />Software: Play Store, Air, Distance, Gesture, SmartWake,</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: #f9f9f9; clear: left; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
</div>
<img alt="" border="0" src="https://img.xda-cdn.com/NWzX5D1wOhixeRtTizl-zOE5198=/https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F0iraSks.png" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border: 0px; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; max-width: 100%;" title="" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><img alt="" border="0" src="https://img.xda-cdn.com/rXYwU6njKc2WlLKCge1IvL2ktnA=/https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FSqrEQwE.png" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border: 0px; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; max-width: 100%;" title="" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">And lots more impressive information.</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The bits that made me look interested was 6Gb RAM and Android 9.1. Ignoring the usual Chinese rubbish about how good it was, and how it made me more beautiful I thought I'd try it. After shipping it was around 80UKP.</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><img alt="" border="0" src="https://img.xda-cdn.com/yWa7viw-Ll48fMsXvNZYRSvM9Q8=/https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FwgqSvRv.jpg" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border: 0px; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; max-width: 100%;" title="" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><img alt="" border="0" src="https://img.xda-cdn.com/F5GG868n3d-z2vCFUJOA9q6Uj3E=/https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fww5RGmU.jpg" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border: 0px; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; max-width: 100%;" title="" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Arrival was within the stated time, but after starting to install apps and get used to the phone I found a few oddities. A few apps wouldn't install, saying not compatible with the phone, and it lagged at times quite badly for larger apps (facebook, whatsapp, etc).</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">I then thought I'd delve in deeper and see more info, checking the about page (and enabling developer mode) I saw the stats and a few bits didn't add up.</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Android patch level seemed old for such a newly built kernel. Kernel was supposedly built April 2019.</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">So I fired up ADB and wow, I found some interesting facts!</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><img alt="" border="0" src="https://img.xda-cdn.com/TKyG-tTQYSfjQ5bGECrYuUQb3Es=/https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F22bovdR.jpg" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border: 0px; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; max-width: 100%;" title="" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><img alt="" border="0" src="https://img.xda-cdn.com/rFNKcUQD-BFWTdet5Vgmtn-y-Hs=/https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FxdoLTDR.jpg" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border: 0px; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; max-width: 100%;" title="" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The product listed itself as the P35_Pro product with an ID of LMY47I. The hardware is mt6580 which is an older Mediatek chipset.</span><br />
<div class="bbcode-quote" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; float: left; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 15px 15px;">
<div class="bbcode-quote-text" style="background-color: #ebebeb; border: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); line-height: 18.62px; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 14px;">
Quote:</div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px;">
[ro.product.brand]: [Welcome]<br />[ro.product.cpu.abi2]: [armeabi]<br />[ro.product.cpu.abi]: [armeabi-v7a]<br />[ro.product.cpu.abilist32]: [armeabi-v7a,armeabi]<br />[ro.product.cpu.abilist64]: []<br />[ro.product.cpu.abilist]: [armeabi-v7a,armeabi]<br />[ro.product.device]: [P35_Pro]<br />[ro.product.locale.language]: [en]<br />[ro.product.locale.region]: [US]<br />[ro.product.manufacturer]: [alps]<br />[ro.product.model]: [P35 Pro]<br />[ro.product.name]: [P35_Pro]</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: #f9f9f9; clear: left; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
</div>
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">And then the magic part, the android release, SDK and security_patch level:</span><br />
<div class="bbcode-quote" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; float: left; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 15px 15px;">
<div class="bbcode-quote-text" style="background-color: #ebebeb; border: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); line-height: 18.62px; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 14px;">
Quote:</div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px;">
[ro.build.host]: [mht-15]<br />[ro.build.id]: [LMY47I]<br />[ro.build.product]: [P35_Pro]<br />[ro.build.tags]: [release-keys]<br />[ro.build.type]: [user]<br />[ro.build.user]: [android]<br />[ro.build.version.all_codenames]: [REL]<br />[ro.build.version.base_os]: []<br />[ro.build.version.codename]: [REL]<br />[ro.build.version.incremental]: [1555497787]<br />[ro.build.version.release]: [5.1]<br />[ro.build.version.sdk]: [22]<br />[ro.build.version.security_patch]: [2016-06-01]</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: #f9f9f9; clear: left; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
</div>
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">So it's actually running Android 5.1 Lollipop with an SDK of 22, security patch from 2016! So nowhere near Android 9.1. So my guess is the about app in the phone is hard-coded to hide what's truly running.</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Memory is also different to stated:</span><br />
<div class="bbcode-quote" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; float: left; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 15px 15px;">
<div class="bbcode-quote-text" style="background-color: #ebebeb; border: 1px solid rgb(216, 216, 216); line-height: 18.62px; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px;">
<div class="smallfont" style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 14px;">
Quote:</div>
<div style="font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 20px;">
Processor : ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)<br />processor : 0<br />BogoMIPS : 15.70<br />Features : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt<br />CPU implementer : 0x41<br />CPU architecture: 7<br />CPU variant : 0x0<br />CPU part : 0xc07<br />CPU revision : 3<br /><br />Processor : ARMv7 Processor rev 3 (v7l)<br />processor : 1<br />BogoMIPS : 15.70<br />Features : swp half thumb fastmult vfp edsp neon vfpv3 tls vfpv4 idiva idivt<br />CPU implementer : 0x41<br />CPU architecture: 7<br />CPU variant : 0x0<br />CPU part : 0xc07<br />CPU revision : 3<br /><br />Hardware : MT6580WP<br />Revision : 0000<br />Serial : 0000000000000000<br />shell@P35_Pro:/ $ cat /proc/meminfo<br />MemTotal: 2022700 kB<br />MemFree: 106920 kB<br />Buffers: 6436 kB<br />Cached: 599428 kB<br />SwapCached: 268 kB<br />Active: 912156 kB<br />Inactive: 588852 kB<br />Active(anon): 620728 kB<br />Inactive(anon): 276328 kB<br />Active(file): 291428 kB<br />Inactive(file): 312524 kB<br />Unevictable: 1424 kB<br />Mlocked: 4 kB<br />HighTotal: 1555456 kB<br />HighFree: 27680 kB<br />LowTotal: 467244 kB<br />LowFree: 79240 kB<br />SwapTotal: 163836 kB<br />SwapFree: 16 kB<br />Dirty: 40 kB<br />Writeback: 0 kB<br />AnonPages: 896404 kB<br />Mapped: 310784 kB<br />Shmem: 484 kB<br />Slab: 48328 kB<br />SReclaimable: 20672 kB<br />SUnreclaim: 27656 kB<br />KernelStack: 16976 kB<br />PageTables: 28424 kB<br />NFS_Unstable: 0 kB<br />Bounce: 0 kB<br />WritebackTmp: 0 kB<br />CommitLimit: 1175184 kB<br />Committed_AS: 31332204 kB<br />VmallocTotal: 499712 kB<br />VmallocUsed: 102800 kB<br />VmallocChunk: 131012 kB</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: #f9f9f9; clear: left; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
</div>
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">So only 2Gb of memory.</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Now, I don't need a lecture about buying from Chinese sites/etc, I expected there to be problems, etc, but maybe not quite this level! I'm going to complain and see if I get anything, I doubt it. Otherwise it's a functioning phone, seems OK. I'll be watching it closely to see what else unusual I find with it.</span><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">(All images at: </span><a href="https://imgur.com/a/u1OZo4A" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #de7300; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/u1OZo4A</a><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">)</span>Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-54746319718935382742019-05-17T14:24:00.000+01:002019-05-17T14:24:29.210+01:00gmail/google mail sending from PostfixHere's a nasty little change that google/gmail sneaked in over the past couple of months in 2019, adding further authentication/authorisation checks for sending emails to anyone on a google hosted domain/gmail account.<br />
<br />
The problem? Mails sent to google hosted/gmail accounts get bounced with a not very clear message:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #fbfba3; font-family: Tahoma, Arial; font-size: 12px;">relay=gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[2a00:1450:400c:c09::1b]:25, delay=0.62, delays=0.08/0/0.26/0.28, dsn=5.7.1, status=bounced (host gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[2a00:1450:400c:c09::1b] said: 550-5.7.1 This message does not have authentication information or fails to pass 550-5.7.1 authentication checks. To best protect our users from spam, the 550-5.7.1 message has been blocked. Please visit 550-5.7.1 </span><a href="https://support.google.com/mail/answer/81126#authentication" style="background-color: #fbfba3; border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; cursor: pointer; font-family: Tahoma, Arial; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">https://support.google.com/mail/answer/81126#authentication</a><span style="background-color: #fbfba3; font-family: Tahoma, Arial; font-size: 12px;"> for more 550 5.7.1 information. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fbfba3; font-family: Tahoma, Arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span>
So like a good user, you go to the url and lookup the address, which you're told all about bulk messages, mailing list best practices and pretty much it. It doesn't actually address the reasons specifically behind this error.<br />
I suspect this is because it's a generic failure message that google are using, generally rejecting mail that they don't want to accept.<br />
<br />
Now in this case, it's from an SMTP mail gateway/relay that several hundred people are behind it, this is a mail relay for an ISP connection, so the users behind it are of varying tech background, but are all on a known connection and various protection mechanisms are already in place to avoid spam and junk going over that connection. Therefore we believe the connection isn't generally junk/blacklisted. SORBS (urgh) and all the other mail checks show the server as clean and not listed, so WHY has google blocked/rejected mail?<br />
Also to add to it. It's not all emails, just some get bounced like this. Send to the same recipient and sometimes it'll get through, sometimes it won't. No real recognition of why, different google gateways/IPs do the same. IPv4 or IPv6 just the same, so no real connection between which ones fail and which ones succeed.<br />
<br />
The first thing to add was to create SPF records for the top-level mail relay server, and then get clients sending through it to add an include on their DNS records. This didn't appear to make any difference. Again some rejected some succeeded.<br />
The only last option was to implement DKIM to the relay. This is kinda tricky as DKIM wasn't exactly designed for this scenario. Multiple sending domains, IPs, etc, all going via one mail relay. So the mail relay would need to add the DKIM signature based on it's own signing regardless of who sent it (Since we authenticate/verify senders via the server, we KNOW when an email is accepted to be relayed that it's legit).<br />
<br />
To implement, first we have the current setup:<br />
Postfix accepting on 25 for relaying mail out.<br />
Multiple domains/IPs sending via Postfix, we don't KNOW all domains/IPs sending through us.<br />
Debian/Ubuntu standard Postfix install/setup for mail relaying.<br />
<br />
<br />
The first parts are standard installation steps for DKIM:<br />
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">apt-get install opendkim opendkim-tools</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;">Then you need to configure the base opendkim package:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">/etc/opendkim.conf</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">/etc/default/opendkim</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;">Configuration here is pretty basic, the key parts you need though are:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">/etc/opendkim.conf:</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">Syslog yes</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">SyslogSuccess yes</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">LogWhy yes</span><br />
<div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">Canonicalization relaxed/simple</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">Mode s</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">SubDomains yes</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">KeyTable /etc/postfix/dkim_key_table</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">SigningTable refile:/etc/postfix/dkim_signing_table</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">ExternalIgnoreList refile:/etc/postfix/opendkim-TrustedHosts</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">InternalHosts refile:/etc/postfix/opendkim-TrustedHosts</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So the above sets Syslog to log success and failure reasons. We set Canonicalization to relaxed/Simple as this relaxes the signing. Mode is set to sign and not verify (We only relay outbound via this server, we don't want to check mail coming in for DKIM signatures/validation).</div>
<div>
Then the Keytable, SigningTable, ExternalIgnoreList and InternalHosts contain the main parts to allow us to sign any mails going through.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">/etc/postfix/dkim_key_table:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">mail serverrelay.mydomain.com:mail:/etc/postfix/dkim.key</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;">Set "mail" as our signing name (keep it consistent throughout), define our servers name "serverrelay.mydomain.com" is our FQDN for our sending server. Again set our signing name and the path to our key.</span></div>
<div>
(We'll generate the dkim.key file in a moment)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">/etc/postfix/dkim_signing_table:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">* mail</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;">This sets the domain/entries we want to sign, so the * means anything/all and again "mail" is our signing name setup above.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">/etc/postfix/opendkim-TrustedHosts:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">127.0.0.1</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">0.0.0.0/0</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;">This defines what IPs are "trusted", i.e. allowed to be DKIM signed by us. In our instance we've set this to localhost and then to anything. This means that anything postfix is allowed to relay is allowed to be DKIM signed too. (Here we are assuming trust from postfix not being an open relay)</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">/etc/postfix/opendkim-TrustedHosts:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;">^^^ points to the above file as it's the same thing.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">/etc/default/opendkim</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;">Edit this and set the SOCKET to listen locally, by setting:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">SOCKET="inet:8891@localhost"</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;">As we want to use this to simplify our link into postfix (Since postfix is generally chroot'ed and using unix sockets/paths can get complex), easiest to use a tcp listen port.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;">Now we generate our signature:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">cd /etc/postfix;opendkim-genkey -t -s mail -d serverrelay.mydomain.com</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;">As above, "mail" is our signing name and our fqdn is at the end. This generates the files mail.private and mail.txt in the "current" directory, hence changing to /etc/postfix first. Then copy the files to be the ones you defined above in the config:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">cp /etc/postfix/mail.private /etc/postfix/dkim.key</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;">The /etc/postfix/mail.txt contains the DNS record you'll need to add to your DNS. So ours generated:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;">mail._domainkey IN TXT "v=DKIM1; k=rsa; t=y; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQDKjCZppULxQyiblah+blah+blah" ; ----- DKIM key mail for serverrelay.mydomain.com</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;">So create that in your DNS. I created it under the subdomain "serverrelay.mydomain.com" and the TLD "mydomain.com" to be sure.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;">Restart opendkim (service opendkim restart) and check it's running and listening on port 8891.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;">Then we can integrate into postfix:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">milter_protocol = 2</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">milter_default_action = accept</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">milter_connect_macros = j {daemon_name} v {if_name} _</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">smtpd_milters = inet:127.0.0.1:8891</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;">non_smtpd_milters = $smtpd_milters</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
Add this to your /etc/postfix/main.cf to incorporate the milter/opendkim into your install. If you already have other milters then append the inet line onto the end.</div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
Restart postfix and then watch the mail logs for the opendkim signing taking place.</div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
You should see:</div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
May 17 10:48:59 serverrelay opendkim[24500]: 2A9823C156C: DKIM-Signature header added (s=mail, d=serverrelay.mydomain.com)</div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
For each email sent through the server.</div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
Good luck and hopefully that has helped you out! This was a combination of information I gleaned from several sources as none seemed to join all the parts together for this particular mail relaying scenario.</div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
<br /></div>
Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-25572910725194188312018-10-15T19:30:00.000+01:002018-10-15T19:30:11.596+01:00Junkendriven - New car related content only on YoutubeMy new series is coming to Youtube shortly, named #junkendriven<br />
<br />
Don't miss out, subscribe to my youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/andybrown21/ and be ready for the new series to start soon!<br />
<br />
<br />Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-72253055857770842032018-09-11T17:55:00.000+01:002018-09-11T17:55:04.232+01:00UniFi APs and time schedulingUniFi has been my choice for WIFI access points for a while, I've put quite a few in now in large and small installations. The smallest being at home where I have two APs.<br />
One in the house and one in the garage to cover the drive, garden, etc. They work pretty well and I get good coverage generally. I've gone with setting them both to the same channel for the same SSID. In some ways this is frowned upon as you get overlap and arguing over channels, but I find it works really well and some of my older devices quite happily shift between access points.<br />
They're the older 11N/B/G units so nothing amazing, but for home use pretty good.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_NndY-0O_5iv-Zr1_YUII3Q3dqNYIfO16JfTABz-lPpMq_9eCoYMwlGjld5mjj9F_5aK7iLog6ztpySkBRFxnNrpR0PQ7TJW2-rz93b3p9zXMw6DTHxBhJaata9jmgkul_Wh1ykxa7Js/s1600/unifi-control1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="753" data-original-width="1421" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_NndY-0O_5iv-Zr1_YUII3Q3dqNYIfO16JfTABz-lPpMq_9eCoYMwlGjld5mjj9F_5aK7iLog6ztpySkBRFxnNrpR0PQ7TJW2-rz93b3p9zXMw6DTHxBhJaata9jmgkul_Wh1ykxa7Js/s640/unifi-control1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The biggest problem I have is their configuration. UniFi APs have no way of configuring them directly, they require the "UniFi controller" which is a java (Urgh... Really... Urgh) web control panel that drives it all. The panel is actually pretty good, shows client connections, signal strength, number of APs, nearby channels, lets you control guest access, etc. Here is where UniFi is nice and "just works", you can setup guest wifi hotspots, with doorway pages, terms to agree to, or just limit how long people can spend on the AP. You can also set wifi access times (Times of the day/week that the Wifi SSID is broadcast/available), block/permit MAC addresses, use VLANs and other clever parts that are all just built in.<br />
As mentioned before, the issue is their configuration. Their method of the APs being remote to the controller means after making most changes to the controller the APs have to re-provision to then take the new configuration. This re-provision causes them to STOP traffic/drop the SSID's, update and then come back online. This is a major headache as means after each change your entire wireless network drops, configures then comes back. Not really good for production use that! There isn't a clear indicator as to what changes cause a wifi drop either, so you're sometimes left guessing whether wifi will drop or not.<br />
<br />
WiFi access times - This is a feature I really wanted, it'd allow me to control my guest and kids wifi network, whilst leaving my own alone.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPgnMHV7UcXVkaAfrZ4z8EBoP5MIe782LeCVk_q2dANRGq-YS-vOlsmC9AM351c37amNbKicFvQFSAJLrS9EQpKr802woFHlXEgSowSvaArOblhZadQ-HQ5tNFusf1yyLlOA7T7MIyLDU/s1600/unifi-accesstimes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="1069" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPgnMHV7UcXVkaAfrZ4z8EBoP5MIe782LeCVk_q2dANRGq-YS-vOlsmC9AM351c37amNbKicFvQFSAJLrS9EQpKr802woFHlXEgSowSvaArOblhZadQ-HQ5tNFusf1yyLlOA7T7MIyLDU/s640/unifi-accesstimes.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Here you can see it setup to only allow access 8am-6pm 7 days a week. Firstly, you'll see you can't have multiple schedules per day, only one ON and OFF per day.<br />
There was another issue with this, if you want to make a one-off quick change to the schedule you can't really, you have to modify the time or disable/enable WLAN schedule (WARNING: If you disable it, when you go back to re-enable it, the times are all reset back to defaults). So this doesn't give you the option for dynamic changes to add time if needed, etc.<br />
<br />
At present this feature has been continuously requested from Unifi but no success. I've therefore been looking for alternatives, and at the moment have only a partial fix to this.<br />
There is a PHP class that provides access to the UniFi controller through scripts (<a href="https://github.com/Art-of-WiFi/UniFi-API-client" target="_blank">https://github.com/Art-of-WiFi/UniFi-API-client</a>) that I've used for a quick script that allows me to switch on and off the relevant SSID's on demand.<br />
The problem is that this makes a change to the controller, and so in turn all the APs go back through provisioning and cause all wifi clients to drop!<br />
<br />
No solution to that at the moment, so I'm open to suggestions, even if that might be to move to an alternative wifi product (Microtik maybe?).<br />
<br />Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-77325785422657930722018-08-09T19:00:00.000+01:002018-08-13T10:34:56.360+01:00Xgody D24 and the nasty background appAs my previous blog posting mentioned, I decided to get a cheap (less than £100) android phone from ebay, it's a chinese import and it's the Xgody D24 Pro. It's a really nice phone and I'm liking it, it's fast enough, designed well and other than poor battery life has been great.<br />
<br />
That is until around 2 weeks of ownership and then it seems to cause problems. It gets really hot at the back top (I'm assuming where the CPU is), battery life starts to suffer and then it starts switching wifi OFF.<br />
This was the biggest pain for me, as switching to my limited 4G data service wasn't ideal, so why was it switching wifi OFF. Annoyingly searching Android and permissions it seems the ability to turn wifi on and off is not a system/secured function and so pretty much any app can do this. I wanted to see if I could spot the app doing it so started to use adb to debug and view the logs from the phone. This is trival on most Android devices. Get into debug mode by going to about the phone and clicking 7 times on BUILD NUMBER, and you get the developer options. Enable USB debugging and you can then start using adb shell, logcat and others. This is good as we can now see debug output from the phone and get a shell.<br />
Unfortunately root doesn't seem an option at the moment as none of the traditional Mediatek methods of rooting work so far, so I'm still hunting for this.<br />
<br />
Anyway, back to debugging and nothing showed the wifi getting switched off, other than the android system messages showing the wifi trigger to switch off had occurred. So this didn't give me anything useful unfortunately. So I then wondered what the phone was doing, why did it want to switch wifi off, and why did it hate my wifi so much! It's not my WIFI as loads of other devices in the house were happy, so to me the phone was deciding to switch it off and move to 4G.<br />
I therefore started to capture what traffic the phone was doing, and in doing so got quite alarmed. I did this firstly by just capturing what DNS queries were being made, I run my own caching dns at home as I then filter out known dodgy websites, adverts, etc, so this was my biggest thought. Some app on my phone didn't like that I was stopping their ad revenue and circumventing my block! So looking at the DNS queries should help, here is a small extract:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:17:36.176 client -redacted-#37694 (ajax.googleapis.com): view internal-view: query: ajax.googleapis.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:17:36.245 client -redacted-#46380 (ajax.googleapis.com): view internal-view: query: ajax.googleapis.com IN A +T -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:17:54.151 client -redacted-#61674 (edge-mqtt.facebook.com): view internal-view: query: edge-mqtt.facebook.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:17:54.198 client -redacted-#41326 (edge-mqtt.facebook.com): view internal-view: query: edge-mqtt.facebook.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:18:05.719 client -redacted-#41059 (ad.gadmobe.com): view internal-view: query: ad.gadmobe.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:18:06.490 client -redacted-#47730 (www.kaka-games.com): view internal-view: query: www.kaka-games.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:18:07.553 client -redacted-#62811 (www.serving.d6f887.bid): view internal-view: query: www.serving.d6f887.bid IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:18:58.558 client -redacted-#37185 (trcklead.justmob.mobi): view internal-view: query: trcklead.justmob.mobi IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:18:58.660 client -redacted-#39907 (gameofads.com): view internal-view: query: gameofads.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:18:58.963 client -redacted-#40249 (www.wathspap.com): view internal-view: query: www.wathspap.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:18:59.497 client -redacted-#44690 (tango-deg.com): view internal-view: query: tango-deg.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:20:01.643 client -redacted-#53189 (track.miadx.net): view internal-view: query: track.miadx.net IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:20:02.847 client -redacted-#42812 (traffic.tc-clicks.com): view internal-view: query: traffic.tc-clicks.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:20:03.019 client -redacted-#34487 (mediaxds.fuse-ad.com): view internal-view: query: mediaxds.fuse-ad.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:20:03.198 client -redacted-#55749 (a1152.secureleadstrack.com): view internal-view: query: a1152.secureleadstrack.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
So these weren't great, but I can see how they were working, tracking on various software, phone-home stuff, click trackers. Not things I like seeing, but I can kind of see why, there are some googleapis in there, some facebook stuff, so unsurprising.<br />
But then the ones that worried me came along:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:20:53.374 client -redacted-#11447 (t1.contentfall.com): view internal-view: query: t1.contentfall.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:20:53.599 client -redacted-#4099 (t1.trackingfall.com): view internal-view: query: t1.trackingfall.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:20:53.829 client -redacted-#21446 (mobi.neweives.com): view internal-view: query: mobi.neweives.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:20:54.132 client -redacted-#23448 (smartoffer.site): view internal-view: query: smartoffer.site IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:20:54.517 client -redacted-#26753 (cdn.identies.com): view internal-view: query: cdn.identies.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:20:54.789 client -redacted-#27880 (identies.com): view internal-view: query: identies.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">08-Aug-2018 18:20:55.167 client -redacted-#18179 (ws021.coinhive.com): view internal-view: query: ws021.coinhive.com IN A + -redacted-</span></blockquote>
<br />
The last one was the one I was concerned about. What was coinhive? Cryptomining was the answer that google provided, and it was a method of embedding mining into websites, apps, in fact almost anywhere you could hide one. This was starting to sound a bit suspicious, why would my phone be mining? Well it's obvious when you stop and think.<br />
Cheap phone, potentially cheaper than cost of manufacture, how do you subsidise the cost? Get it to click on banner ads, and mine cryptocurrencies when the user isn't using it! At least that's my guess. So now I have an idea what's going on, the phone is doing this in the background and of course needs to phone home to upload it's progress, completion, etc. Well my DNS at home is blocking this (sending it to loopback) so it can't do that, so next option? Try to switch to 4G and go that way.<br />
<br />
This would also account for the hot CPU, as cryptomining uses CPU cycles to do the work, so that is also contributing to the battery running down so fast and as mentioned the heat generated. So now finding it should be straight forward, just wait for the thing to get hot and look at what process is using the CPU. It didn't take long to find it:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
User 95%, System 3%, IOW 0%, IRQ 0%</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
User 796 + Nice 0 + Sys 29 + Idle 12 + IOW 0 + IRQ 0 + SIRQ 0 = 837</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br /></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
PID USER PR NI CPU% S #THR VSS RSS PCY Name</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
5515 system 16 -4 91% S 93 1300280K 190604K bg com.mediatek.factorymode</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
834 system 20 0 3% S 114 1253876K 118232K fg system_server</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
6170 shell 20 0 1% R 1 12588K 1596K fg top</blockquote>
<div>
<br /></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
Here you can see the CPU is at 95% use (the phone was sat with screen off, idling here) and the process at the top was a strange background process "bg com.mediatek.factorymode". Which is again odd as the phone wasn't in "factory mode" or anything like that, it was in normal operation. So that was the suspect. Occasionally when I unlock the phone that process went away (I'm guessing it lowered its cpu use accordingly) and then when idle again popped straight back up. So this one I think is the problem.<br />
<br />
It's stored into the heart of the factory ROM, as I did a factory reset and this didn't remove it. The APK is stored at /system/vendor/framework/mediatek-res/mediatek-res.apk (SEE NOTE BELOW, I REALISE THIS IS WRONG!)<br />
However without root, I'm struggling to stop it from running. Ideally with root you'd stop the apk from being called at boot time and that would stop it in it's tracks, but without root this gets tricky.<br />
<br />
Luckily I've found what is currently (as I type) working, and so far the app hasn't restarted itself. I'm unsure if it will and how it is called, so only time will tell.<br />
I've used the Android developer tools themselves to help here.<br />
Go into Settings and Developer options. Down to "Running services" and click "Show cached processes" to see as much as you can. I then went down the list and found:<br />
"FactoryTest" showing 1 process and 1 service.<br />
Clicking it shows a service called "Vmaezz" which is a bit unknown so I hit STOP on it.<br />
I then had to also find "FactoryMode" when showing cached services and you can hit STOP on that too. When I did that, the process went away.<br />
<br />
So what you look for is:<br />
<br />
system 10762 345 1146172 155852 futex_wait 00000000 S com.mediatek.factorymode<br />
<br />
And once I stopped those processes that went away. Whilst that app isn't running, the wifi didn't switch off and the cpu idled away at pretty low values.<br />
<br />
The problem? What causes the app to run, there is probably another app somewhere that calls it, or schedules it to run, so no doubt it'll be back, so I really need to get onto the bigger challenge and find out how to root and kill this app.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, I'm going to extract and try to reverse engineer mediatek-res.apk to discover what I can about it and see if I can spot the triggers, etc.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
NOTE1:<br />
Wherever you saw me referring to mediatek-res.apk please note this is WRONG information! Don't break mediatek-res.apk as you'll get a bootloop which is evil on these no-name chinese phones!<br />
<br />
I did further discovery and found the key apk:<br />
/system/priv-app/FactoryMode/FactoryMode.apk<br />
<br />
So that was the one to focus on.<br />
<br />
I went ahead and used an online analyser of the APK to see what it said:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguTyei8G1xkvpjT7UOQ4XVvrCMgMGO6AQYuEeXJQ7P-D9PR-BPWOFLDVp3S99_f_CZ_fH4YE5O-bY6Txewhl85FnrUHrf-q3lQNQYwoqAS1PCJmEytgrqqpGg9pnV9ESmdXLrRiAsSP8g/s1600/nviso1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="770" data-original-width="1002" height="490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguTyei8G1xkvpjT7UOQ4XVvrCMgMGO6AQYuEeXJQ7P-D9PR-BPWOFLDVp3S99_f_CZ_fH4YE5O-bY6Txewhl85FnrUHrf-q3lQNQYwoqAS1PCJmEytgrqqpGg9pnV9ESmdXLrRiAsSP8g/s640/nviso1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwA_z4hF5Z-w26mcI6B6ja9TTIBFYrPvYfppzh_v2t4U6hvLpXp-7__dQs1Fkd1rMUoGaC3AJk679T2LSDNEVQZZZG5e5TEb-OAOsWR8dQcZLRDWBym-tVG8jT7Rz-mCWi6Z1vMnC4TjM/s1600/nviso2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="494" data-original-width="954" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwA_z4hF5Z-w26mcI6B6ja9TTIBFYrPvYfppzh_v2t4U6hvLpXp-7__dQs1Fkd1rMUoGaC3AJk679T2LSDNEVQZZZG5e5TEb-OAOsWR8dQcZLRDWBym-tVG8jT7Rz-mCWi6Z1vMnC4TjM/s640/nviso2.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Two interesting things appeared here in the services section. The first is that it had a wifistatelistener, so that makes me think it could check wifi. Second is the Vmaezz class which was the one I killed in android developers, so that does indicate that's the main process/class that's running this. Curiously this didn't report the app as malicious, but it depends on what this scanner was looking for.<br />
<br />
As of now, I killed the app around 20 minutes ago and it's not come back yet, and wifi has remained on, so hopefully this is the "solution" for now until I can dig further into it and extract the code from the apk.<br />
<br />
To try and get into the code, I've found that the .apk is a compile-at-boot type, so that produces an .odex file. In combination with the devices own "boot.oat" I then extracted the DEX and from that the majority of sourcecode. Viewing it with jadx-gui shows something interesting:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYNYCUacxZ9gJIWLBMdru2ndPDCwOux0HVa6U3Mlr0mDwZ-g864ZsBBYWvhbmHdPqL9zSNUb3hdMe06l-74RkubUDDRA-R-ii2aT7EhryUwmbaXq1oLlckxcRE3Ia9TAPlbpHWw8ei7sI/s1600/jadx1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="793" data-original-width="796" height="636" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYNYCUacxZ9gJIWLBMdru2ndPDCwOux0HVa6U3Mlr0mDwZ-g864ZsBBYWvhbmHdPqL9zSNUb3hdMe06l-74RkubUDDRA-R-ii2aT7EhryUwmbaXq1oLlckxcRE3Ia9TAPlbpHWw8ei7sI/s640/jadx1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
What looks like the factory (Mediatek factorymode) code is at the top with the normal attribute names and definitions.<br />
There is then an unusual one added below, so almost like a second program hiding within the first. This second program:<br />
com.p005a.p006y.kv<br />
I'd guess is what we want to investigate, so opening some of the source up reveals:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBNcW7CSod2nvRvj-qAaTg5Y4hQ7deKWntlBm_Xfgao-X8_ATMK7u1vx3e_sdY2VPx3vs_Gnvb2MhepHH-6GkbuJCTJVWoJOZiq-5YR0SWKk6XNIpNrmC56hho3IObXWJKq1TdkBmOC_o/s1600/jadx2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1436" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBNcW7CSod2nvRvj-qAaTg5Y4hQ7deKWntlBm_Xfgao-X8_ATMK7u1vx3e_sdY2VPx3vs_Gnvb2MhepHH-6GkbuJCTJVWoJOZiq-5YR0SWKk6XNIpNrmC56hho3IObXWJKq1TdkBmOC_o/s640/jadx2.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Sure enough, there is our vmaezz code that we keep killing off.<br />
<br />
I now started looking through the code for what looked to be interesting code. I found quite a few things, udplistener events, trigger and http download events, and this one which watches the network changes taking place:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEIgmAabomTnIJS__xJcsxrgxzaQuZqciNIRvHac9rMlLCiZsXugjZzVHs90yfgXLjySluZ95Gct4G-G5NwYZMfVxcoR2GtFUG8GO456vEYt3HLlkILS-ksveLq7j-DnnWxcEDJh7CMAQ/s1600/jadx3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="858" data-original-width="1434" height="382" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEIgmAabomTnIJS__xJcsxrgxzaQuZqciNIRvHac9rMlLCiZsXugjZzVHs90yfgXLjySluZ95Gct4G-G5NwYZMfVxcoR2GtFUG8GO456vEYt3HLlkILS-ksveLq7j-DnnWxcEDJh7CMAQ/s640/jadx3.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
So this lets the app recognise when a wifi state change happens, so this looks potential as if it watches for this change perhaps it also influences it.<br />
Couple that with the handler:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAISmXp_WIS1Blb-vc7mndZg68to27lgB_p_YSfet3mDZuqp9aq0zrtdqqNQWdvjQwUWMrWeKIFVg2NZW2ScauqpylO01XEfDRZSEhV2V5j_o3nAavzgZE0WqN0o5FDRHm_dOZ5rOu4SU/s1600/jadx4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="867" data-original-width="1433" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAISmXp_WIS1Blb-vc7mndZg68to27lgB_p_YSfet3mDZuqp9aq0zrtdqqNQWdvjQwUWMrWeKIFVg2NZW2ScauqpylO01XEfDRZSEhV2V5j_o3nAavzgZE0WqN0o5FDRHm_dOZ5rOu4SU/s640/jadx4.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I think we can see that it likes to watch and take action on changes to this state.<br />
<br />
I've also discovered from adb I can stop the application "automatically" by calling<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
adb shell am force-stop com.mediatek.factorymode</blockquote>
So as a short-term solution I've written a small shell script:<br />
#!/system/bin/sh<br />
<br />
while [ /system/bin/true ]; do<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>/system/bin/am force-stop com.mediatek.factorymode<br />
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>sleep 1<br />
done<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Uploaded it to /data/local/tmp and set executable. Then ran it with & to background it. It appears to stay running and does kill the process before it finishes starting. It's not very elegant but it'll work for now.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Slowly, I'll figure out how to kill this thing off!<br />
<br />
--UPDATE-- 13/08/2018<br />
I've found that the script above is working great, killing the process off the moment it tries to start (It works in my favour that it takes a few seconds to start up fully as it has to de-odex itself). So my shell killer is working. However battery life has reduced, I'm guessing because my shell script isn't letting the phone go to sleep.<br />
I'd also installed Blokada which is an interesting blocking method for non-rooted phones. It creates a local VPN (to itself) and then blocks known ad networks, etc. It seems to be working REALLY well, and added to the previous fixes seems good. I'm not sure if this is also eating my battery, but it seems worth it.<br />
<br />
I've just improved on my shell script killer:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
#!/system/bin/sh</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
while [ /system/bin/true ]; do</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>if /system/bin/pgrep "com.mediatek.factorymode" >/dev/null</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>then</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>/system/bin/am force-stop com.mediatek.factorymode</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>else</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>echo "Not running"</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>fi</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>sleep 10</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
done</blockquote>
</blockquote>
I'm not sure how long I can push the sleep timer to, so might experiment further on this.<br />
<br />
--UPDATE2--<br />
I've had Xgody reply to my queries, I'd opened discussion on them over the process using 100% CPU and if there was an updated ROM/firmware. They've flatly said there is no ability to update the ROM at all, but have now offered a partial refund of the cost of the phone which is an odd offer. I'm probably not going to take them up on this though.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-29421882570073627692018-07-13T20:08:00.000+01:002018-07-13T20:08:00.138+01:00Xgody D24_Pro android 4g phoneMy latest "basic" phone is the Xgody D24_Pro, which runs android 7.0 (Kernel 3.18.35) with baseband MOLY.LR9.W1444<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP7k8Cy8YSEAbBmg0yIL7KKFHRAO4osIVx-4inH_C90m-VmZ7NJLAg3rDN5zH7ERJJRD4Cv7i0NAjRFJ37L2SchWxlTtbgIfDA9xIvgubP06h3g2s4t8q6FrHgsLh2AAPuYf6JDw4Zolc/s1600/Xgody-D24-Pro-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="935" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP7k8Cy8YSEAbBmg0yIL7KKFHRAO4osIVx-4inH_C90m-VmZ7NJLAg3rDN5zH7ERJJRD4Cv7i0NAjRFJ37L2SchWxlTtbgIfDA9xIvgubP06h3g2s4t8q6FrHgsLh2AAPuYf6JDw4Zolc/s640/Xgody-D24-Pro-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
(PS the photos are stock ones, as it's difficult to take a photo of it, using itself as that's the only decent camera-phone I currently own!)<br />
<br />
This phone was purchased for under £100 as a temporary phone due to another phone being on order as I need something that did 4G and run latest android apps. It was bought from an ebay seller who seemed to be the Chinese importer of these, so as usual registered address was in China, but it's some UK shipping address, so it arrived after 2 days and it looks really good!<br />
The outside on mine was a blue metallic on the rear, and a lightly curved full front screen without bezel.<br />
It comes with the usual cheap power usb charger (1amp), charge lead, rubber casing and screen protector. This edition has the removable back revealing the battery, two sim card slots and memory card slot.. Taking the protective tape off the battery and connecting it to charge it showed a worrying 1% initial charge so I left it for 24hrs on charge to let it fill up and go happy.<br />
Powering it on, it's the usual android thing, setup, add google play credentials, go online, etc, and it was working great, really fast going through the setup and no apparent issues.<br />
<br />
The screen was very clear, if anything a little too bright/high brightness and the automatic brightness control seems to always prefer to be brighter than what I'm used to, but that's probably my preference.<br />
The phone boasts a fingerprint sensor on the back, headphone slot and usual high-def screen. Inside it's got a quad-core processor at 1.3Ghz and a decent 2Gb of RAM along with internal 16Gb storage for the o/s, apps, etc. I always put an SD-card in for photos and all the other stuff.<br />
Cameras aren't bad, rear 13MP is decent, if a little sluggish at waking up and focusing (processor?) and at first I was worried as the previewed photos looked poor quality, but after looking at them on a laptop they are really good. You also can use the UHD mode for really fine-grain detail. Front camera is 8MP which should do my snapchats decently (one for the kids there!).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJAw7GbDnG8j42jn2TyKUnLih8gpI02cOU08oGiDm1GNHJmiVS2fhgzwy-DpPyJRu5lRMIuN6GxPKC7kO5bmHYdw5hSPL2Wq_4XpLIh3Mw5gRaT1dtjFwpi89kjbL-nl2mEu2OVEjTpL0/s1600/Screenshot_20180707-161935.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJAw7GbDnG8j42jn2TyKUnLih8gpI02cOU08oGiDm1GNHJmiVS2fhgzwy-DpPyJRu5lRMIuN6GxPKC7kO5bmHYdw5hSPL2Wq_4XpLIh3Mw5gRaT1dtjFwpi89kjbL-nl2mEu2OVEjTpL0/s640/Screenshot_20180707-161935.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The battery looks like it's the weak point, specs show only 2400mAh and I've started to notice that I don't get a full day's use out of it so ending up by around 5/6pm down to 30%, so I then pop it on charge again. It's also not equipped to use fast charge, so pulls current at around 0.8amps on charge, so full charge is around 2hrs something like that, which isn't too bad.<br />
<br />
The buttons keep catching me out, but I think that's just because of what I'm used to.<br />
On the side are (from top to bottom) volume up, volume down and power. I've always preferred power on the top, but that's from HTC phones! You can also wake it up by putting your fingerprint on the fingerprint reader which is nifty and works pretty accurately I've found.<br />
<br />
Downsides:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Battery life/capacity/charging</li>
<li>No NFC (no android pay, etc)</li>
<li>charge port is at the top</li>
<li>Screen a little too high brightness (slightly whited out)</li>
<li>Camera slow to react</li>
</ul>
<div>
Upsides:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Price (Less than £100 for a VERY good android smartphone)</li>
<li>Fast - Processor and memory work well so keep android flying along despite all my apps</li>
<li>screen - slightly curved and really clear</li>
<li>weight - not too heavy at all, similar to most others</li>
<li>Camera - good front and rear cameras that take good photos</li>
<li>Android - 7 installed (updated Jan2018) and with NO bloatware installed, just raw android pretty much so it's very sleek</li>
<li>Good looking - I like the electric blue casing</li>
<li>Fingerprint - for unlock and in apps that support fingerprint unlock.</li>
<li>Removable battery - I always like the ability to remove the battery in case of problems, and in theory you can replace it (Not sure how easy that is with Xgody not being a popular/known brand)</li>
</ul>
<div>
So all in all, I'm really impressed with my "cheap" android phone buy!</div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
Update: After a week, and it's still working great, battery life I've learned to live with, charger plugged in and it's fine. The screen is a little brighter than I'd like (Perhaps causing the poor battery) but running it almost constantly on lowest brightness seems fine in all conditions I've tried so far.<br />
Fingerprint unlock is proving really good, I use that all the time now.<br />
<br /></div>
Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-4037885225435186812018-07-07T08:25:00.001+01:002018-07-07T08:25:50.713+01:00Smart Watch - Bakeey HB08SI've done it again, I've looked at smart watches, and again got confused and surprised by the range and prices they go for. Sure, you can spend several hundred pounds on a smart watch that looks amazing and does all sorts, but generally I'm not a watch wearer, I don't use it as a fashion statement, so my main requirements:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Alerts me of messages/chats on my watch and lets me see the contents/partial info</li>
<li>Easily adjustable for my tiny/thin wrists</li>
<li>Comfortable, not square and unweildy</li>
<li>Extra functions of stepcounter, heart-rate, etc, a nicety</li>
<li>Actually shows the time</li>
<li>Battery life longer than a couple of days</li>
</ul>
<div>
So not the biggest range of requirements, but enough to discount a lot of the cheaper brands that are in the low £10-30 it seems.</div>
<div>
This is the one I've ended up with, the Bakeey HB08S which should normally cost £40 (In this case I got it free, as a free gift so non-sponsored item!).</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvg53AZNsrXk18z9h32IDISGB9RL4EZbwGjodfDkmLUfvGSUE-M0aJayl-ez63FZzcnu7dKQMPageGQp_Mhyf44o4i-AP69gg_m93_-xTFtXTeTVKPSAAsIrUdAam8h-gbAFJbS5UUCh0/s1600/bakeey1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvg53AZNsrXk18z9h32IDISGB9RL4EZbwGjodfDkmLUfvGSUE-M0aJayl-ez63FZzcnu7dKQMPageGQp_Mhyf44o4i-AP69gg_m93_-xTFtXTeTVKPSAAsIrUdAam8h-gbAFJbS5UUCh0/s640/bakeey1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The first thing that stands out is the strap, it's really quite impressive and I'd never seen this type before. It's a sort of chain-main strap, BUT with a twist, it uses a strong magnet to fasten, so simply slip it round to the right place and let the magnet catch any part of the strap. That's great for me, as no fixed fastening holes or positions, so you can get the comfort level just right, and let's you adjust it constantly, so for a non-watch wearer like me, getting used to it is easier.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Next is the watch face, it's not huge, it's rounded and actually looks OK. When the screen is on you can see the simplicity of it though, the screen is square and just goes into a round bezel, but it's clear and shows the info you need.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG2_pUy5IbTsf8n8egKLfS93hHAXSxEtf2918b1gM-kti6244FfiyPswta065Hwlt9QFQKN_6WR2dGPPj5eFmRU4M5xFBqp6dN59I1HbvWG40jDaJ_GDoiDkT-HgX8-Zr6_nUPKdneS0w/s1600/bakeey2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="209" data-original-width="209" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG2_pUy5IbTsf8n8egKLfS93hHAXSxEtf2918b1gM-kti6244FfiyPswta065Hwlt9QFQKN_6WR2dGPPj5eFmRU4M5xFBqp6dN59I1HbvWG40jDaJ_GDoiDkT-HgX8-Zr6_nUPKdneS0w/s640/bakeey2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfk5OW2FjNlkY53fxXG2X2TGHZb4JxeG-2sCsbyrlVz5bRxvsjLP5KT1Gem_bj5g5jz6DoMDNDeiywNP3ZtiHt2t5KIh9Gh4zqSWx0IsuT1bJUZHO4S3xS4700LBjSKe3MvcQP13eu3OA/s1600/bakeey3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfk5OW2FjNlkY53fxXG2X2TGHZb4JxeG-2sCsbyrlVz5bRxvsjLP5KT1Gem_bj5g5jz6DoMDNDeiywNP3ZtiHt2t5KIh9Gh4zqSWx0IsuT1bJUZHO4S3xS4700LBjSKe3MvcQP13eu3OA/s400/bakeey3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I prefer the first two options for display, I was a little disappointed there was no "classic" watch display graphic, but these do work and give you a few good bits of info just when the screen turns on:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Time and date (month-day fixed format)</li>
<li>Heart rate at last sample</li>
<li>Stepcount</li>
<li>Bluetooth status (not too reliable, or I kept reading it wrong!)</li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyWiHXbxqAiFTu4pus3CpdmYwQrPc8SFQTAhh8eDyntmVV5JQB_WMzH3lhBawOjzK889kwK_pCnouLY0lLCl9ySQLGOYIL9LyTY8M0472wFC_u1XIRvJyWO_5WDqxHGZDQn3GoBRVWF0/s1600/IMG_20180707_080922.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyWiHXbxqAiFTu4pus3CpdmYwQrPc8SFQTAhh8eDyntmVV5JQB_WMzH3lhBawOjzK889kwK_pCnouLY0lLCl9ySQLGOYIL9LyTY8M0472wFC_u1XIRvJyWO_5WDqxHGZDQn3GoBRVWF0/s400/IMG_20180707_080922.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Next up is battery life. AMAZING, it lasted me for 5 days before needing a charge on my first test run (Which admittedly was without being paired to a phone), but so far whilst paired to a phone it's made it two days and battery still shows 90+% so that's good. Also the battery level indicator works well, full is 4 bars and they go down slowly, no sudden drops/jumps. That also takes me onto the charger. It's a nice neat little 'rest' charger, just place the watch onto it (you see the contact pins on it) and it charges, so far it's always just sat right on it and didn't move off, so again, really easy for charging.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The alert reminder goes with the app itself you install "iband" and out of most of the chinese applications, this one works really well! Setting it up and connecting to the watch was quick, and all the settings in the app seem to work without a crash or problems.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidDxTNDWftJ7L_RyvcRN2Yzxv5HodqqCAU5P-cAfSTzpnrfOW3SvsdK_XJ0VS9ZyDckW892nBzA85KKsOiADoiI_uqLcSJpWHDAYzAIACycG4Pc_3tLbtL5wEAaJ5nvXDkk_C7K6h5Y54/s1600/Screenshot_20180707-081041.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidDxTNDWftJ7L_RyvcRN2Yzxv5HodqqCAU5P-cAfSTzpnrfOW3SvsdK_XJ0VS9ZyDckW892nBzA85KKsOiADoiI_uqLcSJpWHDAYzAIACycG4Pc_3tLbtL5wEAaJ5nvXDkk_C7K6h5Y54/s320/Screenshot_20180707-081041.png" width="160" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmlEbA4VZt-Nqphvf67yRa62gUp6MuhnMwarkwdfRdrry3kulYKZGLq5qAoka_YFijOY3CreZq0iwoi7m16JJFRlkO0hA-N7aDfKBmP8fxaN8HaXgBxljoUSeVJR2y8Rpk4X__H6U97ms/s1600/Screenshot_20180707-081052.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmlEbA4VZt-Nqphvf67yRa62gUp6MuhnMwarkwdfRdrry3kulYKZGLq5qAoka_YFijOY3CreZq0iwoi7m16JJFRlkO0hA-N7aDfKBmP8fxaN8HaXgBxljoUSeVJR2y8Rpk4X__H6U97ms/s320/Screenshot_20180707-081052.png" width="160" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh27oq0M3eqedZXqNui0seE4j2kWKgx2hO0LtUmPODZkzLl4MtVV7xVsdTsrngkL8zeTMKyV4ZZxJxRrpEB4y-VWKDRIQ1B9kL-2JIKbf-0FReod1uQwivonXYEuUFjLX-0wCbQwQOfUbg/s1600/Screenshot_20180707-081106.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh27oq0M3eqedZXqNui0seE4j2kWKgx2hO0LtUmPODZkzLl4MtVV7xVsdTsrngkL8zeTMKyV4ZZxJxRrpEB4y-VWKDRIQ1B9kL-2JIKbf-0FReod1uQwivonXYEuUFjLX-0wCbQwQOfUbg/s320/Screenshot_20180707-081106.png" width="160" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
You can set how it wakes up (I set it when I turn my wrist, and it's surprisingly good at detecting when you lift your wrist and look at the screen!), medium brightness (It's fixed, so in bright light it can be difficult to see) and the various notifications so I get alerts based on txt messages, whatsapp, etc. You can't add all notifications to be alerted to, which is a shame, but they include the main ones.</div>
<div>
The alerts are pretty clear, when you get a TXT message the watch vibrates and shows you the first 6 characters of the name of person sending and a letter icon. You then touch the watch to see the contents of the message, and it will scroll through each page of the message, which is really impressive! The text is very blocky, not very elegant, but it works well.</div>
<div>
<br />
It's difficult to comment on the step count and heart rate as don't have a good frame of reference, but the step count does seem reasonably accurate based on me counting my steps and seeing how it increases on the watch, so it seems close enough for what I'd want! The sync back to the phone is regular and shows steps, activity, sleep cycles, heart rate over monitored period (It does periodic checks), blood pressure (Unsure on this one!) and the last one, SP02 in percent (No idea!).<br />
<br />
So in summary, I'm liking the watch, it's not stylish or particularly clever but it does the job really well and compared to a lot of the Chinese "smart" watches I think this one is really impressive.<br />
<br />
One problem: I'm not sure how, but I managed to crack the plastic casing of it, which meant the front watch face was starting to come off. Taking a peak inside I could see the battery li-ion package is glued to the base and the screen with the circuit is attached to the face, so if you do prise it apart, you need to disconnect the thin ribbon that joins the two before you lift the screen too far. Prising it from the bottom of the face looks the best option! I used a few dots of superglue to put it back together, hopefully it will hold.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaoCfjCYuIAPkMgR-tlfc5kI8TYMZY3QjtlLrnae34pM-RL4_vmY7U-lQ53lMBlWnxC_XtkPj62GOjDXf1Yd9CCeqiySorrVVhO-7uM3RqN7v8FW3yYIr9tYA3kQUdu5weqIhjGxq5K28/s1600/IMG_20180707_082351.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaoCfjCYuIAPkMgR-tlfc5kI8TYMZY3QjtlLrnae34pM-RL4_vmY7U-lQ53lMBlWnxC_XtkPj62GOjDXf1Yd9CCeqiySorrVVhO-7uM3RqN7v8FW3yYIr9tYA3kQUdu5weqIhjGxq5K28/s640/IMG_20180707_082351.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-50614200507182309042018-06-09T09:21:00.000+01:002018-06-09T09:21:00.687+01:00Draytek router hacks and odd DNSThis is quite a common thing when you work in IT, you hear about exploits, hacks and malware doing the rounds. In fact you get slightly immune to it over the years, you hear so much about it, so many hacks and general attacks going on you start to ignore it all as noise. Risky? Yes, but unfortunately part of the territory.<br />
<br />
Well, I'm in such a situation, I've seen so many releases about exploits or denial of service to Cisco, HP, Windows, Linux, Android and various hardware that I now don't often read them or if I do it's glancing due to workload and lack of time! So it had to be the case I'd be bitten by that lack of attention.<br />
In this particular case it's due to a Draytek exploit, but I didn't know that at first. The issue? My HIVE home heating system wasn't connecting to the outside world, so I couldn't control my heating/hot water remotely!<br />
Not exactly earth shattering, but being a techie I had to figure it out. So I started looking at the units (rebooted them all, obviously!), checking why they couldn't talk, and nothing seemed right, they looked fine, I could see them on my local network.<br />
<br />
So I went to plan-B, change the gateway of the hive hub in my house to my server IP and then sniff the traffic it was sending and receiving to see if that gave any clues.<br />
After changing the gateway for the device in my DHCP server and restarting the service, I watched the logs to see the hive unit get a new IP to confirm it had moved.<br />
I then started to see something odd, complaints about NAK and an alternative DHCP server giving replies. I checked the IP and it was my Draytek router.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQNdzzic53bYO1QmkLOV1RvWqpYoF0X5KXoFDQukb7o09OJ2AQ2-77Owi2jJW4cI_wWNgr35KYon11jqNja-n4XT5wIO3rQi_aurI-dD4is5vLHjjKFtr8tAj22ZmsZXFP0BvWhnJ3Ve0/s1600/draytek_img.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQNdzzic53bYO1QmkLOV1RvWqpYoF0X5KXoFDQukb7o09OJ2AQ2-77Owi2jJW4cI_wWNgr35KYon11jqNja-n4XT5wIO3rQi_aurI-dD4is5vLHjjKFtr8tAj22ZmsZXFP0BvWhnJ3Ve0/s320/draytek_img.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Now on my network, the draytek router does very little, it does FTTC to Ethernet conversion, does the PPP auth and then sends all the raw public stuff to my server. So why it would be handling DHCP is an odd question.<br />
A while back when having DSL issues I did temporarily use it for DHCP whilst BT checked out problems, but I was sure it was set back!<br />
So checking the web interface for the Draytek it revealed it DID have DHCP enabled, and then I spotted an odd DHCP DNS server address.<br />
38.134.121.95<br />
What is that address, not one I recognised. The secondary was my normal secondary DNS but that primary was odd.<br />
<br />
I simply switched DHCP off to let my server do the work, suddenly the HIVE started to work. So it looks like it was that DNS entry to blame. I decided to search for it and then all the security advisories came up! I've pasted a couple here for info:<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/draytek-router-zero-day-under-attack/">https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/draytek-router-zero-day-under-attack/</a><br />
<a href="https://www.draytek.co.uk/support/security-advisories/kb-advisory-csrf-and-dns-dhcp-web-attacks">https://www.draytek.co.uk/support/security-advisories/kb-advisory-csrf-and-dns-dhcp-web-attacks</a><br />
<a href="https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/05/dns-vulnerability-strikes-popular-draytek-broadband-isp-routers.html">https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2018/05/dns-vulnerability-strikes-popular-draytek-broadband-isp-routers.html</a><br />
<br />
Not good, so it appears somebody had hacked my router, switched DHCP back on and set this rogue DNS server. But it's an odd thing to do. You can glean a certain amount of information from this hack, you can see what websites are being visited, and you can do a redirect to try and grab sensitive information.<br />
For example, say our rogue server gave out their OWN IP address for something like your banks website, presented a fake banking website and got you to enter your details.<br />
Now think of this on a larger scale, they'd only be able to re-create SOME banking websites, SOME online account websites on their hack servers, so it's quite a limited attack depending on what they're targeting and trying to achieve.<br />
<br />
Now I suspect I've been lucky here, being in the UK there are fewer websites I suspect the attackers will have re-created or redirected. I'm also curious what their aim was, but nobody seems to know much about it.<br />
The IP is innocent enough, hosting webspace in the USA, so I suspect it will have been shutdown quite some time ago, and checking DNS queries today to it fail, so looks like it's been stopped. But even so, that's odd, and how long was it sniffing my traffic?<br />
<br />
My guess is it's been a couple of weeks for me. That's when I had "odd" behaviour, the HIVE hub stopped connecting, etc.<br />
<br />
The answer? PATCH, I went to Draytek and updated my firmware, which is something we all have to start getting used to. Keep updating, keep patching, etc.<br />
What a chore! Maybe there is a better way, but for now we have to be aware, and watch for this sort of thing and not let it wash over us!<br />
<br />Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-92194486866490660412018-05-19T18:03:00.000+01:002018-05-19T18:03:08.741+01:00Cheap car radio antennaFor a while my car radio reception has been pretty poor. I suspect it's a poor ground somewhere on the aerial, the aerial itself is a loop in one of the rear windows, so all sorts of problems are potentially there. Also with it being a large car, the wiring run will be long too which won't help.<br />
<br />
So rather than fix the problem (!) I decided to look for alternatives, as I know you can buy cheap antennas that fix to windscreens, hidden away, etc, and have an amplifier in it too.<br />
So I trawled various websites and there is very little on reviews on what is good and bad! So I decided to take a look and take a chance on a cheaper powered unit.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-kUNjZ_FfuIk-FDYEJj93A-YZC2qxuXtc_dvFzY3W1le1S_7IUplMs-QKVpRpr04Rblp2dBoiIQ_SiRuERDlnGK8qIgNshaBNSXJcKQe54GpuoFtht1WlzlD1AqSah-VNO877bEv1Vk/s1600/car-radio1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="1162" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-kUNjZ_FfuIk-FDYEJj93A-YZC2qxuXtc_dvFzY3W1le1S_7IUplMs-QKVpRpr04Rblp2dBoiIQ_SiRuERDlnGK8qIgNshaBNSXJcKQe54GpuoFtht1WlzlD1AqSah-VNO877bEv1Vk/s640/car-radio1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
This was what I thought I'd try, as it was cheap but still had powered circuitry in it and from a UK seller.<br />
<br />
It arrived quickly which was good, so I fitted it into the car. It arrived looking like this:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDCaPkwsGyt6bCz7hNCy6m_lS8Fy_5G5ZOsibcbZMoKUjarZrvyMiv9kN_lDYxEoRwYhLmWL-HpjMMKVO9SgLJp2M7thQBRDu9IV7Z5AfYnsUFzyu1TYw-GT79OSFhPhwwq8ogHI822LI/s1600/IMAG3142.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDCaPkwsGyt6bCz7hNCy6m_lS8Fy_5G5ZOsibcbZMoKUjarZrvyMiv9kN_lDYxEoRwYhLmWL-HpjMMKVO9SgLJp2M7thQBRDu9IV7Z5AfYnsUFzyu1TYw-GT79OSFhPhwwq8ogHI822LI/s640/IMAG3142.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Two wires marked red and black were for 12v power to it, then it had the standard round connector for antenna into the radio.<br />
I wired it up, and placed it on top of the dashboard, powered on.<br />
<br />
Signal was TERRIBLE, really bad. To be honest a bit of wire was probably about the same quality. I'm not sure why it was so pathetic, but it really wasn't working at all.<br />
I checked connections, power, etc, to be sure but no it just was a pile of junk.<br />
<br />
So after removing it and swapping back I thought I'd take a look inside the boxes. To my surprise there was actually electronics in there (I was half expecting an empty box!)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdhORhBUfDm_V-ZggQ93fAvPKQGZ2N5uRqV1crXMvZqNJrZ07XdqettFFBF4bn1aF_Vu_gmvffzs38I8uC-i1rxHS_C64uJaoRUuTYV-v4fUWfxJZIZWClclddVS5FrtSeNrsg5TnxUDk/s1600/IMAG3146.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdhORhBUfDm_V-ZggQ93fAvPKQGZ2N5uRqV1crXMvZqNJrZ07XdqettFFBF4bn1aF_Vu_gmvffzs38I8uC-i1rxHS_C64uJaoRUuTYV-v4fUWfxJZIZWClclddVS5FrtSeNrsg5TnxUDk/s640/IMAG3146.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I'm going to take a look a the components and circuit as I'm not sure exactly what it's doing. From what I can see there are a few resistors and a couple of either gates or diodes on there, so i'm going to try and figure the circuit out and see what it was trying to do!<br />
<br />
The other end looked pretty unremarkable:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjENMEYjajAW2WiHui0D87sL4ATz8-NQHmJiZlhdJS4oSiqXXz-qLXDwxEZGQoE1z6GWB4QcDXc7c9j2rHNo_uGtI47qgkor52aQYKN9akvgagyKP6X6HbbxHM8_Qr2a2B8p60_AiGp3ag/s1600/IMAG3147.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjENMEYjajAW2WiHui0D87sL4ATz8-NQHmJiZlhdJS4oSiqXXz-qLXDwxEZGQoE1z6GWB4QcDXc7c9j2rHNo_uGtI47qgkor52aQYKN9akvgagyKP6X6HbbxHM8_Qr2a2B8p60_AiGp3ag/s640/IMAG3147.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
I should have known better really!<br />
<br />Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-75128513629688172102018-04-29T15:30:00.000+01:002018-06-12T09:00:04.418+01:00Fitting an Android head unit into a Vauxhall Corsa D (2011)This came about when I tried to fit an aftermarket stereo into my Wife's Vauxhall Corsa (An Xtrons, see the blog post here <a href="http://www.thebmwz3.co.uk/2018/02/xtrons-3-single-din-car-radio.html" target="_blank">http://www.thebmwz3.co.uk/2018/02/xtrons-3-single-din-car-radio.html</a> ).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm3W6YBI0-wgkeFK7fDZlP-XVvHFXoUwv_afE2Srn57_ALCZAYApCy7303E-YY1qBWHZdou0v4INNwnEbAq3KgY1AmGHrQjJLY0uTPMN9tvqUoZIMZwXCp7oCY7bqW7KzSSQ5if14JEWs/s1600/IMAG3060.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm3W6YBI0-wgkeFK7fDZlP-XVvHFXoUwv_afE2Srn57_ALCZAYApCy7303E-YY1qBWHZdou0v4INNwnEbAq3KgY1AmGHrQjJLY0uTPMN9tvqUoZIMZwXCp7oCY7bqW7KzSSQ5if14JEWs/s640/IMAG3060.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
However after just a short amount of use it turned out to be a really poorly made unit, and so I was looking for an alternative to fit that wouldn't cost much. Luckily a friend at work was selling his old android double-din head unit so I bought that off him.<br />
<br />
It's a typical cloned android head unit, but had the advantage of having various physical buttons, and I knew it to work well from my friend at work, so I bought it, not really thinking it through. Got it home and take a look at the size:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8HBh44pjaPp6AdzYVncxm8tA8hQkk1K8ZGqNr30WcBqP7QTwqVN4f18FHXREyz-AzV7h6nIkbM6s40jkiXajSICJhHnJ_TAeq0udCy4IDMlCUUtgzaGFdsRHDmhO8WBnMmk7kfsKEPMI/s1600/IMAG3061.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8HBh44pjaPp6AdzYVncxm8tA8hQkk1K8ZGqNr30WcBqP7QTwqVN4f18FHXREyz-AzV7h6nIkbM6s40jkiXajSICJhHnJ_TAeq0udCy4IDMlCUUtgzaGFdsRHDmhO8WBnMmk7kfsKEPMI/s640/IMAG3061.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Here you can see the xtrons unit still in, with it's plastic surround and the new unit. You'll notice the Vauxhall panel is tapered at either side, so it isn't a straight rectangular fit, so this may prove difficult!<br />
<br />
First steps were to remove the old xtrons unit, this just clips in so just pull it out and the bracket came with it. Disconnected all the power and audio connections from it so we've got it free (Apart from the power cables which were wired in, due to the Vauxhall radio connector not having an ignition power wire, more on that later).<br />
<br />
So now I got the chance to see what the fit might start to look like:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhleuJTY4Vgdo3Glq3e_o-qBVlBqoHHJ9PLIXbIt0JfO1Z8ZHVkvj2d57pTfqzBj9ixt1Ya4JvZIHoBdBcT7BqDs3GCppkPuH_d9-RlO2ETvM4n-AeRm0B78wrS_Tp9x9udvWFCIw-TLe4/s1600/IMAG3062.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhleuJTY4Vgdo3Glq3e_o-qBVlBqoHHJ9PLIXbIt0JfO1Z8ZHVkvj2d57pTfqzBj9ixt1Ya4JvZIHoBdBcT7BqDs3GCppkPuH_d9-RlO2ETvM4n-AeRm0B78wrS_Tp9x9udvWFCIw-TLe4/s640/IMAG3062.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
So it did start to fit in the hole, but this was as far as it went at first. On each side of the head unit there were the mounting brackets with clips, luckily these were just screwed into place, so removing those and the unit slid all the way back:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr7PokUiVfxsOO94VWHnJKrg4p3d3hIEcUS4lUfOqNc9WWmuLM0tTAGW1oC8RBb_o0dRyJtSWdVoMLl9kLnvrEvXYaZ3bfcp4_liH1pmFgjfBXnbXET7OjBYwnE3i8MEZZRP_hIhALJpw/s1600/IMAG3063.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr7PokUiVfxsOO94VWHnJKrg4p3d3hIEcUS4lUfOqNc9WWmuLM0tTAGW1oC8RBb_o0dRyJtSWdVoMLl9kLnvrEvXYaZ3bfcp4_liH1pmFgjfBXnbXET7OjBYwnE3i8MEZZRP_hIhALJpw/s640/IMAG3063.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixSEGeM8hTiZzTypPAh2pGzJu1qCTaiDBeRSeLQOSDa2BV7G1n5k_fyC4dujidbczUJPCVBLsLagfYRiqInu-a7NoBBZ-YTpkGQl6WDnAqF644Svz4_oF7AeIOO5f17QrRKTNkeVXVh2o/s1600/IMAG3064.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixSEGeM8hTiZzTypPAh2pGzJu1qCTaiDBeRSeLQOSDa2BV7G1n5k_fyC4dujidbczUJPCVBLsLagfYRiqInu-a7NoBBZ-YTpkGQl6WDnAqF644Svz4_oF7AeIOO5f17QrRKTNkeVXVh2o/s640/IMAG3064.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Not exactly a perfect fit though, and so make it fit flush would mean taking the Dremel to the dashboard. I had considered this, since it's something I've done in my Chrysler, however in this case that plastic bezel around it is actually almost the entire lower section of dashboard, so to replace would mean replacing almost the whole plastic dashboard trim, not something I wanted to pay out for, nor do should I want to return it to factory for when it gets sold.<br />
<br />
Therefore I thought we'd just live with it not being flush, and work to mounting it as securely as possible. In this case the only solution would be either from the top or bottom of the radio. Luckily there were a few screw holes in the top of the unit, so these would act as our securing points.<br />
<br />
So to get to the top of the radio, above the radio is the air vent, door lock and passenger air-bag cancel button unit (in silver on this edition), so this needed to come off.<br />
<br />
***WARNING : Before you do this DISCONNECT the battery. I didn't and when you disconnect the airbag disable button it triggers the airbag warning system which needs an SRS code reader/reset to remove!***<br />
<br />
** EXTRA NOTE - After almost 2 months the airbag light has gone out of it's own accord, so it does reset, it just takes a VERY long time **<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ-1prME0Isu7uFKiDaG7a7D_dp6jbZvs9kHVA_zMDEcFNmSH7EJKeyBWKF2E2LNDtQHWsb5-xrVmvUnS5ZbSsO5EhrZOwUX8XhonKPCXzCpm8PgHana1EX4WlHdLH3d15tTYmMXyiLcg/s1600/IMAG3065.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ-1prME0Isu7uFKiDaG7a7D_dp6jbZvs9kHVA_zMDEcFNmSH7EJKeyBWKF2E2LNDtQHWsb5-xrVmvUnS5ZbSsO5EhrZOwUX8XhonKPCXzCpm8PgHana1EX4WlHdLH3d15tTYmMXyiLcg/s640/IMAG3065.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
To remove this panel the first thing you do is remove the small speaker grill from the top (This has the lump that looks like an alarm sensor), that pops out using a thin screwdriver. Once out you'll see a single hex screw. Once that's undone you gently prise and pop the clock display piece out. You'll see from the photo above the clock display is separate to the silver vent housing, so that clips out (It folds upwards towards the windscreen). The clock has a clip connector behind it, so does the speaker. The speaker is a pop/plug connector that just pulls out. The clock connector has a mini lever on it you press and turn to disconnect.<br />
<br />
Once that's out you can then remove the further 3 hex screws which hold the air vent unit in, this again is clipped in at either side of the vents and then with two clips downwards towards the radio position. This whole unit then comes out, again the connector at the back for the airbag, etc, is a mini lever that once you release the clip on it, turning the lever will disconnect it and let you remove it. REMEMBER: DISCONNECT BATTERY FIRST!<br />
You can see the connector in the middle of this photo:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg-vdKBLFKfZ-TFlZbytxnsXMmEkGkZMeJMNgOicDKwGdoEVZFtu8UPD3MjEllVz-VzM_cYoH5TecIYAwDtGAPv8zbg8wIaI5klf8K1alt-BZOKqNdXOfU1eth7S1y4APnaEgsPxcZcHQ/s1600/IMAG3066.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg-vdKBLFKfZ-TFlZbytxnsXMmEkGkZMeJMNgOicDKwGdoEVZFtu8UPD3MjEllVz-VzM_cYoH5TecIYAwDtGAPv8zbg8wIaI5klf8K1alt-BZOKqNdXOfU1eth7S1y4APnaEgsPxcZcHQ/s640/IMAG3066.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
That's the unit removed, so now we have the plastic surround that the radio sits against (It's the piece with the connector sitting on it, so that's the top of our radio mount). In this case I thought the easiest was to drill two small holes into this, and then use a screw through this plastic piece and into the radio to hold it in place.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe9NjAs83ehW2JiUpHow5q5eVMwb0-dK973stbIqGG4NYo34vkPPIy1TA-dF8ku0B9Xj9T7uF0gW3D3OJi5v6sMXQdZsHf1xTvFeTE0LV42DwcYvMJDM424dhZRGCmj7oFc6SQQ0jgK80/s1600/IMAG3067.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe9NjAs83ehW2JiUpHow5q5eVMwb0-dK973stbIqGG4NYo34vkPPIy1TA-dF8ku0B9Xj9T7uF0gW3D3OJi5v6sMXQdZsHf1xTvFeTE0LV42DwcYvMJDM424dhZRGCmj7oFc6SQQ0jgK80/s640/IMAG3067.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Once the screws were in and tested I turned to the wiring. Luckily the connector Vauxhall uses is almost identical to the one used by Ford, so this was just a clip in plug.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJhkcLSICmEqx6yMd01oFbUdGiW7MDSMxSGbYDFQOJC6AoG5CUsTV5dNjW57YihNM0wjQfp7yR1PaFqgMFKz-lIl-Kx48w4lH-dT1XEfr4Y8nHgBwvVLrOhnhvLzl0hONPi8KQ_kWG_SE/s1600/61UpDM5F43L._SX355_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="268" data-original-width="355" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJhkcLSICmEqx6yMd01oFbUdGiW7MDSMxSGbYDFQOJC6AoG5CUsTV5dNjW57YihNM0wjQfp7yR1PaFqgMFKz-lIl-Kx48w4lH-dT1XEfr4Y8nHgBwvVLrOhnhvLzl0hONPi8KQ_kWG_SE/s400/61UpDM5F43L._SX355_.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
The above is similar to what I used, you need the antenna power/can unit for the Vauxhall Corsa. Clipping the main block into the factory car connector was easy, however as I found before, there is NO ignition switched power on this factory connector (It uses the CANBUS car network to control it), therefore the alternative wire I'd put in from elsewhere was needed again. This was a separate wire I put in that provided power from the ignition, and so would control the radio on/off, etc. So I cut the wires that went to the connector and wired these into my ignition. Wired in the power to the antenna amplifier block (the silver can), and added the rear reversing camera connections to it (Already fitted a while ago). Turned the ignition on and it all powered up perfectly! Audio was good, and actually really loud for the car, using only 4/5 volume setting and it was perfect.<br />
<br />
To fit it back in I fastened the two screws in place that holds the radio in, then refitted the silver fascia and then the top clock/plastic. Something else I found, the silver fascia was a difficult fit back in, due to the radio being slightly larger, so potentially this might not fit properly in future, will keep an eye on it and see if it pops back out!<br />
There is also the heater/blower vents at the back which are soft plastic, make sure you check at the back and line them up as they can easily be squashed when you push the fascia back in if it's not fully lined up.<br />
<br />
However, not a bad piece of work and the results are pretty good, even though it sticks out a bit!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaiiRyRpjSBOyL_chixemzIebb5zMVB-Ax8TB9VRUnc7n7y_E7bqQsTfht172mEzv8qvn_XaRf2WtD-TBJlF1FjGHDK2R2B8OI-YJ4Dbbc_4sep1R4ti9BZwYDi6y_1KR0Z44SDokuuuU/s1600/IMAG3105.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaiiRyRpjSBOyL_chixemzIebb5zMVB-Ax8TB9VRUnc7n7y_E7bqQsTfht172mEzv8qvn_XaRf2WtD-TBJlF1FjGHDK2R2B8OI-YJ4Dbbc_4sep1R4ti9BZwYDi6y_1KR0Z44SDokuuuU/s640/IMAG3105.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBU23tvFgZRVccWCY4VHp1-txRg2O4iTYpXz-6wuWvG5SZHHdsfa9TSPXiKr2AoCvjNls5ZszvWhidZ62e_5GCyfwAqZIjzgu8GBI7XaCe-sXhHMv85OfnniQWjyvQuDLHgyOMuBRfoWE/s1600/IMAG3108.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBU23tvFgZRVccWCY4VHp1-txRg2O4iTYpXz-6wuWvG5SZHHdsfa9TSPXiKr2AoCvjNls5ZszvWhidZ62e_5GCyfwAqZIjzgu8GBI7XaCe-sXhHMv85OfnniQWjyvQuDLHgyOMuBRfoWE/s640/IMAG3108.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzZOdbDOQYOtf8UKWiRq9daCvuKwEoe5QLRltADVnrk0A-7SVeSH91fYtegMVjYvTrydE85BCbr15DoWxyH7JsUVKE6Mcw04fdYARDBZ4kNxeopqKdgo6jNKqKQDgilX70fy4MVDdutNE/s1600/IMAG3107.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzZOdbDOQYOtf8UKWiRq9daCvuKwEoe5QLRltADVnrk0A-7SVeSH91fYtegMVjYvTrydE85BCbr15DoWxyH7JsUVKE6Mcw04fdYARDBZ4kNxeopqKdgo6jNKqKQDgilX70fy4MVDdutNE/s640/IMAG3107.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu_v63Feib1xOdzHS0ijk4NSoAAWtFeeMF2rFSX5024_58KkiLNagLJI2LACBSSxDzKi9nyqODZoOhR_u7qRMEgPIE4yImulUJHZbh8oDC6ofvdcyCaoVOgedShXoPa1zKMY7fZob3MSQ/s1600/IMAG3106.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu_v63Feib1xOdzHS0ijk4NSoAAWtFeeMF2rFSX5024_58KkiLNagLJI2LACBSSxDzKi9nyqODZoOhR_u7qRMEgPIE4yImulUJHZbh8oDC6ofvdcyCaoVOgedShXoPa1zKMY7fZob3MSQ/s640/IMAG3106.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-34421598441689394952018-04-24T17:00:00.000+01:002018-04-24T17:00:24.179+01:00Daylight running LEDs (DRL) and indicator signals on ChryslerThis is a short post on fitting daylight running LEDs to my Chrysler Grand Voyager 2.8CRD. This should work with most editions of the GV, I'd expect right up to the newer facelift editions, so right through to 2007/2008 I believe.<br />
<br />
So the first step is ordering the right DRLs, I went for ones that have DRL and indicator function built in, as some information suggests when indicators are on the DRL should switch off to avoid confusion to oncoming drivers, I also like this 'look' where the DRL goes off, the indicator flashes and when indicators are cancelled then the DRL will come back on. This needs units with a little electronics but you can buy these for around £10 easily in the UK. I went for the longer 60cm lights, and went with the light 'bar' type where the LEDs are inside a plastic diffuser to give a more even illumination.<br />
The next job was how to connect into the indicators, I took the headlight unit out (3 flathead screws at the top of the headlight assembly), undid one bolt that holds the plastic facia of the bumper around them for easier access and the headlight comes out. Checking the connector I identified the wire and spliced a wire into it using push/crimp connectors.<br />
That connection goes to the orange wire on the DRL for that side, you then run two other wires, one is ground to either the nearest grounding point, or a post on the battery terminal. The other needs to feed back to an ignition switched live, I went for in the fusebox a small piggy-back fuse splitter and connected this to the cigarette lighter/acc socket fuse. This allows the DRLs to be on whenever the ignition switch is on (Remember the DRLs are very low current draw).<br />
<br />
Fitting them, I had the option of above or below the existing lamp, both are relatively easy, but to squash the led bar in nicely I went for underneath, which gives good results, the light actually shines a little through the existing lens so it partially lights the main light up in duller weather.<br />
<br />
Results were good.<br />
Here you can see the position of the LED tubes underneath the lens.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2FaRlTvo5btHGXQCQuW8mCJJJiRowK3aUvkjVT4UuE_A4U6KCb05M5av9jqL0OXorWGtkpCp_dONZUDcnJfkcVzq5UYyM1puBNU9HKXqFHLXKdzzl9jjaJbMGzRAbKpgDfAUTJhixZWo/s1600/IMAG3076.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2FaRlTvo5btHGXQCQuW8mCJJJiRowK3aUvkjVT4UuE_A4U6KCb05M5av9jqL0OXorWGtkpCp_dONZUDcnJfkcVzq5UYyM1puBNU9HKXqFHLXKdzzl9jjaJbMGzRAbKpgDfAUTJhixZWo/s640/IMAG3076.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
It took a little pushing/pulling to get in the right place, I'm not 100% happy as they're not even over the whole headlight lens but I'm going to fix that by moving them around and possibly using dots of superglue to hold them against the headlight.<br />
<br />
These are pretty bright when on and give off a nice glow:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnXUycIr3grMpvVHJgUFbAY9VKyj0jTwwq1d4gpwsjJb_BLI3ma71Xim0I82qxFhh-6SfHgfCdy6BoOBKGh0z2vx3ykv9_r99jbvxYm93DR8jRn3nC2HB9T6Gp6Ce1ohNuoyoxJ8yRi6I/s1600/IMAG3078.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnXUycIr3grMpvVHJgUFbAY9VKyj0jTwwq1d4gpwsjJb_BLI3ma71Xim0I82qxFhh-6SfHgfCdy6BoOBKGh0z2vx3ykv9_r99jbvxYm93DR8jRn3nC2HB9T6Gp6Ce1ohNuoyoxJ8yRi6I/s640/IMAG3078.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
And when the indicator is on the white DRLs go out and replaced by a flashing (in time with your indicator flash) orange bar:<br />
<br />
(Catching the flash was difficult, here you can see the 'off' part of the sequence, hence it's not as bright as it actually looks!)<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglFPcI1_OYqxSE2xWxfaUdM5z8QMZhbj4lgIff7GoDjq61tLIl8dFpHB3v1IqEF_jUbySQuODdl69dBDdSEjbTFlYcIMzzfLQh9yAyzWwR7koqaE6vBV6qoczFpk86hSooA5vcsTfpyOg/s1600/IMAG3082.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglFPcI1_OYqxSE2xWxfaUdM5z8QMZhbj4lgIff7GoDjq61tLIl8dFpHB3v1IqEF_jUbySQuODdl69dBDdSEjbTFlYcIMzzfLQh9yAyzWwR7koqaE6vBV6qoczFpk86hSooA5vcsTfpyOg/s640/IMAG3082.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHbEvI1vWtmjnfV04a-sWeUUL8bnbxDGsZ-hxAzYcw6LZsRg2TXNzFUQy44U5L337xXUX2gxrV_1kGpuXjwUkJR2Mey9eM3z74xb-n7crABIkKtD0KS-fNvsknki_0t1a3iT7F81_9BKU/s1600/IMAG3084.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHbEvI1vWtmjnfV04a-sWeUUL8bnbxDGsZ-hxAzYcw6LZsRg2TXNzFUQy44U5L337xXUX2gxrV_1kGpuXjwUkJR2Mey9eM3z74xb-n7crABIkKtD0KS-fNvsknki_0t1a3iT7F81_9BKU/s640/IMAG3084.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
All in all for £10 and an hours work it went really well!<br />
<br />Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-6769015278163921272018-04-16T08:41:00.000+01:002018-04-16T08:41:10.982+01:00Letsencrypt Google Chrome and bloggerHere's something new, my blogger site (on my personal domain) now has HTTPS support! This was added by Google, and has been something talked about for years.<br />
<br />
The tricky part from Google's point of view is that this is on my own domain, so adding an HTTPS would normally involve certificate chains, authorisation from the domain owner to validate who you are, etc.<br />
But it works! And looking into it, you can see how. The certificate is from Letsencrypt. This is a novel certification body that are completely free and willing to 'certify everyone', they do basic checks that you own the domain (Uploading a file to the website, changing your DNS records, etc) and then will issue a short-term certificate (A few months) so you need to keep re-certifying.<br />
I've done this a few times on my own servers, and running a script to keep generating the certificate is easy enough.<br />
<br />
So that seems to be how Google and Blogger are doing it, generating Letsencrypt certificates for the customer blog domains. This also gives further weight to letsencrypt knowing that one of the 'big boys' like Google are using them for blogger blog's.<br />
<br />
So enjoy, and use my blog on HTTPS now https://www.thebmwz3.co.uk/<br />
<br />Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-19556776173753708262018-03-21T19:00:00.000+00:002018-03-21T19:00:19.028+00:00Alienwork IK watch reviewHi folks,<br />
This is my review of the Alienwork IK stainless steel watch, if you read below you can also get a discount if you order using my discount code!<br />
The watch comes in great packaging which you can use if you're giving the watch as a present, it's inside a protective plastic pouch and then inside a soft folding wallet, you can see them below:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9K5-KKLt7K9ChfaRxyDHHJoOMRZAXy42TWqnrJEaAw0Hj6maNfSSSCL1RCYoDr8Lr9vUGkmQ3-mDz8ZFE1ADO-syMv9dwWIOieVWoorBB-q7a1clnSF8LWKsf1qZOMuOc3ImZdLatjyw/s1600/IMAG3030.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9K5-KKLt7K9ChfaRxyDHHJoOMRZAXy42TWqnrJEaAw0Hj6maNfSSSCL1RCYoDr8Lr9vUGkmQ3-mDz8ZFE1ADO-syMv9dwWIOieVWoorBB-q7a1clnSF8LWKsf1qZOMuOc3ImZdLatjyw/s640/IMAG3030.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNZDtcWPHkWzHbAA3dEgprvwoMVOFismGRfi0JgW3WuDg9Pp4GQ8awHkyr08IYSlyk6fwIpVBFiRIGBKJEpZP7dwFNVd2AanTPwcAPGWXZUMK54lbKgvOn5CFWWmCF8lm0uKuYjEJorM/s1600/IMAG3031.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkNZDtcWPHkWzHbAA3dEgprvwoMVOFismGRfi0JgW3WuDg9Pp4GQ8awHkyr08IYSlyk6fwIpVBFiRIGBKJEpZP7dwFNVd2AanTPwcAPGWXZUMK54lbKgvOn5CFWWmCF8lm0uKuYjEJorM/s640/IMAG3031.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The watch itself is really well made, and feels 'solid' which probably comes from the fact that it uses a stainless steel casing and watch strap.<br />
I'm not normally somebody who wears a watch, so I don't like something that feels too heavy or restrictive on my wrist (In fact I'm really weird about anything touching my wrists, but that's another blog entry!) so I was a little weary when it arrived and I felt it had a bit of weight to it, and the metal strap.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Vl27ScHDCYIHmixvodCsm4YVaSZgyfIjS8K2_MOPxpBOW3kt_Q0r7W9eZzI_9E8ZeJPc4BOWsldh11Loj2m6qqTsiotHliav8aru7kpBFwynpc9VGbIy6PBl1maTEZzp7iu8zOq7hhk/s1600/IMAG3032.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Vl27ScHDCYIHmixvodCsm4YVaSZgyfIjS8K2_MOPxpBOW3kt_Q0r7W9eZzI_9E8ZeJPc4BOWsldh11Loj2m6qqTsiotHliav8aru7kpBFwynpc9VGbIy6PBl1maTEZzp7iu8zOq7hhk/s640/IMAG3032.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
However, I'm really impressed! I've been wearing it for several days and I've not noticed any discomfort or really found any issue with wearing it. I've adjusted the strap down to my very thin/narrow wrists. The strap adjusts very small, you unclip it and move the adjustment down as far as you want, so if it fits me, it'll fit anyone!<br />
The watch keeps time beautifully and is very stylish, looks good, especially the one I got in all black with the milanese band.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGSRR0rtDTnWos9BEz704G1WWg-ynwqr2A8OkZ23Bl-ep-S_COWfD3k2VaiJ4ZyYzfkZiU2P2wLLA3VspXFdqrqhVlLtjzBgzBYUxEr-pY1i6hn6L4mfh34sCCnxzKLALRt6n7OE0V4sA/s1600/IMAG3035.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGSRR0rtDTnWos9BEz704G1WWg-ynwqr2A8OkZ23Bl-ep-S_COWfD3k2VaiJ4ZyYzfkZiU2P2wLLA3VspXFdqrqhVlLtjzBgzBYUxEr-pY1i6hn6L4mfh34sCCnxzKLALRt6n7OE0V4sA/s640/IMAG3035.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
All in all I'm really impressed with it, and wearing it every day now, which for a non-watch wearer is a huge improvement!<br />
<br />
If you'd like to order one then you can using the Amazon link below:<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01D8KBMUU" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01D8KBMUU</a><br />
And if you use the discount code: L7K45I3S<br />
You can get 50% off the product cost! Which makes it really good value too (RRP around £20)<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
Note: This was a sponsored blog post from Alienwork</div>
Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-65008937232994791972018-03-15T16:30:00.000+00:002018-03-15T16:30:04.416+00:00MightyText for tablets on androidI've been using MightyText for a while now, it's an app you install on your phone and register with, it then sends your SMS to their servers and you can login to your account from your browser and send/receive messages.<br />
It works really well, just does what it's supposed to, and despite that meaning 'they' have a copy of all your text messages, it's a great idea and I use it regularly to type a message from my computer instead of phone screen.<br />
<br />
Therefore when I needed an app for my tablet I went for MightyText for tablets, thinking this is great, an app for the tablet that will work the same, let me send and receive. However, everytime I tried to use it, you couldn't see the messages as the screen was so cluttered:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieDVuxY_fmnFWrEoqRBy_PGdY_LRcdiHW_DLwZGCahM-nNkQwNe4ogAtKOo6BQ67MRKjdsjrYCs1IZgQETk7cMGFfBMbCPEI2GVB6h1Thsjxu1xqXkM5Gw3e312hI3L8xE47vZpb0Cd4M/s1600/mighty1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieDVuxY_fmnFWrEoqRBy_PGdY_LRcdiHW_DLwZGCahM-nNkQwNe4ogAtKOo6BQ67MRKjdsjrYCs1IZgQETk7cMGFfBMbCPEI2GVB6h1Thsjxu1xqXkM5Gw3e312hI3L8xE47vZpb0Cd4M/s640/mighty1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
This is the popup window that appears when a message comes in. The text of the message is missing, it should appear below the time and above the "Type message" prompt, but due to the screen being in landscape orientation it appears like that.<br />
<br />
If you then open MightyText itself you see messages, but again not much room:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4sG_w0k76Zm2SvIRmCAiL84cloBtnGnbUHPjQ6GwhUbVRKE8go8qsu6ptrkpEHq_hPp7gA4VqmOiLToe8biwYhN53qEk1HLyjUXRDbvBcGTLgYhaj5Mn0Iit9R1mP2t5IQ4MUhaGbi2U/s1600/mighty2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4sG_w0k76Zm2SvIRmCAiL84cloBtnGnbUHPjQ6GwhUbVRKE8go8qsu6ptrkpEHq_hPp7gA4VqmOiLToe8biwYhN53qEk1HLyjUXRDbvBcGTLgYhaj5Mn0Iit9R1mP2t5IQ4MUhaGbi2U/s640/mighty2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
You can make the message out this time, but only the first line of it. If you then go to reply the keyboard then squeezes the screen so none of the message is visible.<br />
<br />
This initially just looks like how the dialogues are generated and perhaps the font/text being used. I therefore contacted MightyText about it:<br />
<br />
17/02/18:<br />
<pre wrap=""> Hi, the view on the tablet app causes messages to not be visible due to a
very small message window due to all the other dialogues.
I've attached a couple of photos showing both the popup message alert and
the main window.
Please can advise how to fix this display problem?</pre>
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<pre wrap="">And I got a reply from their tech support:</pre>
<pre wrap="">20/02/18:</pre>
<pre wrap="">Sorry to hear that. Just confirming, is your Tablet in landscape mode when you
see this issue?</pre>
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<pre wrap="">Which I confirmed, and I then received this reply:</pre>
<pre wrap="">20/02/18:</pre>
<pre wrap="">Got it, this is currently the expected behavior. We may change this in the future.
</pre>
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<pre wrap="">So that's it, basically they know this, they do it on purpose (Expected behaviour?) and that they aren't really doing anything about it.</pre>
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<pre wrap="">Really disappointing this, so I'm on the lookout for a similar app that will work correctly on my tablet screen.</pre>
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-17365527612246911692018-02-12T20:00:00.000+00:002018-03-19T14:59:23.122+00:00Xtrons 3" Single Din Car RadioThis was something I bought for my wife as a present, to upgrade her car radio. She has a Vauxhall Corsa and wanted similar to mine to play music from an SD-card or USB stick.<br />
I searched and found the XTRONS 3" HD Car Stereo 1 DIN Head Unit Radio MP3 Player USB SD AUX FM + Camera input.<br />
<br />
This looked ideal, single DIN to fit a facia for her car, inputs for USB, SD card and AUX too, FM tuner (No CD but that's generally not a problem) and it had phone buttons too.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Rj6FYB0B9AUG710rBeq5JGvQeBYaPSVr2HKzAmobv-8IFRkzTc8Kk_x0tI-yfFX4ZNR5bT79bqOqk4eKwcLA41Vo70sNy-xPbqafHjF3JN8pHrHlD_0kGQ6aPTQ1mRJoqvefa2-h-Ts/s1600/DL30V_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="776" height="592" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3Rj6FYB0B9AUG710rBeq5JGvQeBYaPSVr2HKzAmobv-8IFRkzTc8Kk_x0tI-yfFX4ZNR5bT79bqOqk4eKwcLA41Vo70sNy-xPbqafHjF3JN8pHrHlD_0kGQ6aPTQ1mRJoqvefa2-h-Ts/s640/DL30V_01.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
It was at a decent price too (Under £80), so I ordered it as a present. It was only when I got to fitting it that the problems began.<br />
<br />
Firstly, no i hadn't noticed the writing along the bottom of this photo stating "Attention: this car stereo doesn't have Bluetooth function", so I'd missed that, my fault, so I was annoyed at myself already!<br />
After powering it up for the first time, I found the first problem. It's so non-intuitive to use. The arrows don't search/scan on FM at all, there are two preset station buttons 1 and 2, there are up to 10 but you have to get to them by cycling through using the arrow buttons.<br />
It also doesn't have RDS, Radio text or anything like that, so whilst tuned into a station you only get the frequency displayed. This also means it won't auto-hop between frequences if you cross regions or anything like that.<br />
<br />
The physical buttons are clicky and rattle in their sockets, which doesn't give a good feel, but it's a nice positive click when you press them which is good for driving. The multi functions of the buttons aren't very intuitive, so you have to work out long-pressing and short pressing do two different actions which isn't always obvious to get into the menu you want.<br />
<br />
The volume button presses in, and a short press allows tone and balance control, a long press gets you into the setup menu.<br />
<br />
I fed a rear camera into it, and selected reverse (I already had the wiring in) and the radio did switch to a video input and muted the audio, but no matter what I did, I constantly had "NO SIGENAL" showing. Yes that was spelt incorrectly! I'm going to investigate further to verify the camera signal input, but it did work (from a dashcam) so I'm not sure if there is something wrong with the head units camera/reverse input signal.<br />
<br />
After tuning to the FM stations I wanted, I stored them into 1 and 2, the signal was good (The antenna conversion kit I used had an inline booster so this probably helped get a really good signal) and the audio was decent quality with a good bit of volume.<br />
The volume adjustment wasn't great, it uses a huge volume scale, so you have to twist the volume knob many turns before you went between very quiet to very loud!<br />
<br />
Going into the setup menu, there was little to configure, date/time, language and audio preferences (balance, fader, equaliser settings) so nothing really needed to tweak in there. You can set brightness and contrast separately though to get the best out of the 3" screen, which was back-lit well and pretty clear.<br />
<br />
Boot up speed was quick, from standby and from completely disconnected, which you'd expect as the unit isn't running any complex operating system, it appears to be running it's own custom firmware from xtrons.<br />
<br />
All in all, I'm pretty disappointed, it was supposed to be an upgrade but I'm sat wondering if due to it's difficult to navigate UI and clunky buttons that it's not really an upgrade at all. I was even contemplating putting the Vauxhall unit back in as I was that unhappy with the results I'd achieved in an afternoon of wiring.<br />
(The Vauxhall wiring is not great, there is no switched +12v from ignition so you have to manually wire into the aux/cigarette lighter socket)<br />
<br />
UPDATE1 - The very next day after installation we went out to the car and was going to show the unit off to my wife for the first time. Turned ignition on, radio powered on and the radio channel I left it on started playing, but the screen was totally white. Several power on and off's and it just wouldn't do anything. So this wasn't a good sign, it appears the screen has given up, with less than 1hr of use!<br />
The next day my wife used the car and the screen came on, so I'm not sure if this is related to temperature or it's got an intermittent fault.<br />
<br />
UPDATE2 - The screen has failed again with a totally white display.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9nd-TTOkuZlrl7v3FksUeLgq83sM5abhY3HbbCvCOb7jt1cQoq6RWfRRezxF1gyCrj65apesYj1xrFh_TBvXmhjJYpcNcZrCDRuPd6vaZAU8KhOtiGCjwDDB1jD-k38y6dA197pwOfjA/s1600/IMAG2930.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9nd-TTOkuZlrl7v3FksUeLgq83sM5abhY3HbbCvCOb7jt1cQoq6RWfRRezxF1gyCrj65apesYj1xrFh_TBvXmhjJYpcNcZrCDRuPd6vaZAU8KhOtiGCjwDDB1jD-k38y6dA197pwOfjA/s640/IMAG2930.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
UPDATE3 - March 2018 - It's a pile of trash! Don't waste your money. The white screen issues continue and more often than not it's a white screen (I think it's related to temperature, cold temperatures) and even when it's not the biggest problem.<br />
You cannot navigate folders/choose songs from folders. The music from SD/USB simply searches the Sd card/USB for all music it can play, and then gives that to you in a huge list. You can skip songs, but without being able to jump, search or choose with any more refinement, that's as good as it gets.<br />
<br />
Avoid at all costs is my advise on this one!Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-55893239265748267802018-02-12T09:48:00.000+00:002018-02-12T09:48:09.240+00:00Chrysler dash bulb replacementsThis is a quick bit of info on how I replaced the bulbs on my Chrysler Grand Voyager 2.8CRD, this may seem odd, but Chrysler in their infinite wisdom decided to solder bulbs straight onto most circuit boards, so panel illumination is handled by this design.<br />
So when the bulbs give up, the panel goes dead and you can't easily replace them, so I've done a few replacements over the years trying to find the best solution and I think I have now found it! Replacing with LEDs is the obvious solution, but getting small and 12v versions was the challenge.<br />
<br />
First, here's the challenge. This is the heated seats, wiper and emergency indicators panel, easily removed from the dashboard with 3 hex screws, then gently unclipping the back of the unit (Keep it flat, the buttons are held in but you need to keep them in the same position to avoid complications when putting back together).<br />
Once open you can see the front of the circuit board as below. You can see one blue panel illumination LED shown, the hazard bulb has been removed, adn the right heated seat I've placed an LED bar/hobby LED bar to give an idea on scale.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipXjsoR3Ov5M148DND0wnM6GLpoMdb34b79Bs4-lD6K7LtBA4oLL2MY_BQ7zjySHfsgJ0oBSqnB1ab92WD8FXpFCCYKV8syAmxT18tFiFbm7JsSSeC_ZGX5LDs9NZW2UHXN_tAh6cH23Y/s1600/IMAG2986.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipXjsoR3Ov5M148DND0wnM6GLpoMdb34b79Bs4-lD6K7LtBA4oLL2MY_BQ7zjySHfsgJ0oBSqnB1ab92WD8FXpFCCYKV8syAmxT18tFiFbm7JsSSeC_ZGX5LDs9NZW2UHXN_tAh6cH23Y/s640/IMAG2986.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
So the problem, remove the old blue bulbs (They're white bulbs with a blue rubber cover over them) and replace, however they are small and not very tall, so a regular LED would be too big, and also these run at 12v so need to have an inline resistor somewhere too.<br />
The LED bar shown is a hobby/train set illumination which at first looked ideal, it had an inline resistor and two LEDs on a flexible circuit, however even this small size was too big to comfortably fit.<br />
<br />
So the second solution was to use SMD LEDs, and I found some in the form of replacement speedo/cluster illumination panels.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRU1aRZgFEu46B5-gJ2XDn2i1YNn7TulhuGTsbBfFOiZRveV9AG3Tw1o__MD8I3D7oD5hMDY7jxhYVpBB5McDT1VB-vVS1CocREE69vhNTxVroxkvRcxkzDGfDKp1g2xVKHHUWrDfOwos/s1600/IMAG2988.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRU1aRZgFEu46B5-gJ2XDn2i1YNn7TulhuGTsbBfFOiZRveV9AG3Tw1o__MD8I3D7oD5hMDY7jxhYVpBB5McDT1VB-vVS1CocREE69vhNTxVroxkvRcxkzDGfDKp1g2xVKHHUWrDfOwos/s640/IMAG2988.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
These come with the base black plastic fitting for your dash, then the green plastic casing topped with a square SMD LED and inline resistor. Gently pulling the package apart we can see this:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGPbZUH6dLubnV0j0QQ93OXKXqU5x8_VouW8X9xu3j63ohhCWRJti_5hh6gdEqR8GQaPJvWi9EhvXkttBZtIoO-eNbiOMmbsnUOMwV0npyy5nmcoHwaxUEgLdJpY_XyBkWuCmMZ1WJDyA/s1600/IMAG2989.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGPbZUH6dLubnV0j0QQ93OXKXqU5x8_VouW8X9xu3j63ohhCWRJti_5hh6gdEqR8GQaPJvWi9EhvXkttBZtIoO-eNbiOMmbsnUOMwV0npyy5nmcoHwaxUEgLdJpY_XyBkWuCmMZ1WJDyA/s640/IMAG2989.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
This was perfect, cutting the legs down to just at the resistor let it sit around the same height as the original bulbs. Cover one leg with heatshrink to avoid any shorts when you push it back together, solder it onto the main board and problem solved!<br />
For reference, when you have the board sat like the top image, positive is on the LEFT, so I wrapped the negative lead in heatshrink and soldered it on, you can see the end result below:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhoLRRKlOj-VwkE_CyCoNcR_FOLE_45uPKtw798oRQMYLUQvTMYwszO5jhuamQGk7X5azQgCeZf5dvV4UOWcWeS8YIQ1vsptHTziwuH09icvZ6bcOZV4axMfuW8md9k-UU_MZzZZ3wvho/s1600/IMAG2990.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhoLRRKlOj-VwkE_CyCoNcR_FOLE_45uPKtw798oRQMYLUQvTMYwszO5jhuamQGk7X5azQgCeZf5dvV4UOWcWeS8YIQ1vsptHTziwuH09icvZ6bcOZV4axMfuW8md9k-UU_MZzZZ3wvho/s640/IMAG2990.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXt5Ig1UoGTjd59dj7Xu2Z50DuluK_Z-A6oLgsdjFEnug6SA-Nd_ZSuLIaSaGbCOPh4nyJfrdxojBsB3CmIENakiUhRbmj31GXRwd9yYx5SNS6Q4QlCiwo7Gl463PSAI5ydQVwADXielk/s1600/IMAG2991.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXt5Ig1UoGTjd59dj7Xu2Z50DuluK_Z-A6oLgsdjFEnug6SA-Nd_ZSuLIaSaGbCOPh4nyJfrdxojBsB3CmIENakiUhRbmj31GXRwd9yYx5SNS6Q4QlCiwo7Gl463PSAI5ydQVwADXielk/s640/IMAG2991.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
These worked great, fit back in no problems and they look super bright. The problem now is that the rest of the dashboard illumination is too dark by comparison!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSDYQJkngOMFgy_8okaYbit2YbrPlneiqRL3MvcEz8vyUFY53N3fl4rDoFh8C7OD33FL4Gfcr1LWbW4im4mvNjwWef2jKpvGAbSd0Je7abLNsGFoF1uxigfYcKMQ8U7VAq_M89U2fhE3Q/s1600/IMAG2993.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSDYQJkngOMFgy_8okaYbit2YbrPlneiqRL3MvcEz8vyUFY53N3fl4rDoFh8C7OD33FL4Gfcr1LWbW4im4mvNjwWef2jKpvGAbSd0Je7abLNsGFoF1uxigfYcKMQ8U7VAq_M89U2fhE3Q/s640/IMAG2993.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgATAQL-ENI3H8uTWNrnQpIX43hipx_q7jVdBZljsmgEi9l5IuOhAws1EO5hdQyXeU4GljVZfi0_ZCJhVA8Lo6nJkmoqDLnRXJcywHOPtMAYBMpOfLKv6CuUmBW7XcaTv3jmCPdofQZ050/s1600/IMAG2992.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgATAQL-ENI3H8uTWNrnQpIX43hipx_q7jVdBZljsmgEi9l5IuOhAws1EO5hdQyXeU4GljVZfi0_ZCJhVA8Lo6nJkmoqDLnRXJcywHOPtMAYBMpOfLKv6CuUmBW7XcaTv3jmCPdofQZ050/s640/IMAG2992.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
NOTE: On the above the one missing indicator was the hazard warning LED, this was due to a mistake when soldering, so I've removed and replaced that one and now it's lit up!<br />
<br />
The parts I used were old, from Amazon but you can probably source similar parts easily.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00NQ6TIEY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_8zlGAbK0ZS683" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00NQ6TIEY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_8zlGAbK0ZS683</a><br />
<br />
There are many similar on ebay which are much smaller (You could use SMD resistors too on the back of the LED package, which would make them much more compact) so hope this helps!<br />
<br />
<br />Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-42639615639581237402018-02-09T14:47:00.002+00:002018-03-19T15:00:43.290+00:00Cheap Fitness BandsI've recently been in the market for a fitness band for myself, at Christmas I bought my wife a fitness band from China and she's been impressed with it. Looking at the accuracy it's never perfect, sleep and active amounts seem to be out but in the main it works, picks up heartrate, etc, so does the job nicely.<br />
All of these fitness bands use BLE which is Bluetooth Low Energy, so they don't have much smarts themselves, they rely on a phone/tablet to sync with and do the main work, but they will store data whilst out of reach and then sync the data back (Seems to be no information on how much/how long it will cope though!).<br />
<br />
<b><u>Xiaomi Miband 2</u></b><br />
So onto the tests and comparisons. Firstly the one I bought my wife was the Xiaomi Miband 2:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1AJDBwrOiq2pnYqlw6HnQA29vwjOKiPUlsAAB3J6tvSjgc-MWmokun9eDPVpA6x_H5wrxY47DnIpilXdMq615eW04dnxKHWoF0X9ojoyiWaJV9pC8qzkep1sE3VxCyh0WVbX3F8xbQJg/s1600/miband2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1AJDBwrOiq2pnYqlw6HnQA29vwjOKiPUlsAAB3J6tvSjgc-MWmokun9eDPVpA6x_H5wrxY47DnIpilXdMq615eW04dnxKHWoF0X9ojoyiWaJV9pC8qzkep1sE3VxCyh0WVbX3F8xbQJg/s320/miband2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
They generally retail around the £30 in the UK (Importing from China you can almost halve that amount, but expect Chinese instructions!). Setting it up is easy, just install the app to your phone - MiFit and let it search and find the band. After that it's pretty much done.<br />
The build of this fitness band is really good, the strap easy to fit and feels secure, and easily fixed. The Miband 2 fits into the strap so it's easily changeable. To charge you remove it from the band and clip it into it's little charger wire, this is probably the worst design feature if I'm being picky as you can lose the charger cable/cradle, and you might not carry it everywhere with you, but this is really minor.<br />
<br />
The screen is OLED and nice and clear, the finger/touch button then cycles through the different screens showing you: Time, Steps/Pedometer, Heart-Rate. When on Heart-Rate it will start the detection, flashing the cursor on screen whilst it calculates and after a few seconds it displays heart rate. Again a downside here is it only samples once seemingly, so it can mis-read.<br />
The unit will also notify you to incoming calls or messages, displaying the number on the screen and vibrating, it doesn't display the message, phonebook of who is calling, so it's more of a notification than being anything more than that.<br />
The app MiFit is clear, yet simplistic. You can also change the settings for the band by switching settings on and off, changing units, etc. Notifications can be set on and off here too so you can disable the TXT, phone, etc if you don't need them. On the main screen you get the steps counter, distance, estimated calories, etc.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5sLfSAPIS6xchhFLQJfJgAkMHEzTzbHlJavyj2tk8-wS7ehcyYWqpL1adUINP4GVrTwgYE3BJSf-8lWxKqjSjJ8OqOIND8RFIJ1jReFB0S5TwebIU6oqtpAI5sNz0EKH-VcxMg2rSboo/s1600/mifit-display.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="990" data-original-width="1600" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5sLfSAPIS6xchhFLQJfJgAkMHEzTzbHlJavyj2tk8-wS7ehcyYWqpL1adUINP4GVrTwgYE3BJSf-8lWxKqjSjJ8OqOIND8RFIJ1jReFB0S5TwebIU6oqtpAI5sNz0EKH-VcxMg2rSboo/s640/mifit-display.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
We took time to go through it and it covers everything you want to view regularly, so in summary it gives you all the basics. It also lets you set (and alert you) to your goals, and map your sleep. We're unsure how accurate the sleep tracker is though with no frame of reference other than anecdotal!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaxoFu0A2utMfK-3VFCn84YM_w7sGi5Apx3m4cE45i4ygkHy-ZZ-RJrq7AJi1ldwe53c4MvkeSy1OVyIDz-BmpfDnmWT3-ej6g7GpjtsBhazEJQ0DbNh4Da91nFqfwMc2peneb-4ZTQhE/s1600/mifit-display2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1526" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaxoFu0A2utMfK-3VFCn84YM_w7sGi5Apx3m4cE45i4ygkHy-ZZ-RJrq7AJi1ldwe53c4MvkeSy1OVyIDz-BmpfDnmWT3-ej6g7GpjtsBhazEJQ0DbNh4Da91nFqfwMc2peneb-4ZTQhE/s640/mifit-display2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Otherwise this is a very capable band, and one part to note is the amazing battery life. This unit lasts at least a week! That's constant wrist wearing, syncing and looking at the screen occasionally.<br />
This is amazing for a gadget these days, lasting this amount of time and really is a superstar feature.<br />
<br />
<b><u>ID115 fitness band</u></b><br />
This is the cheap band that I decided to buy, it's readily available, mine was bought from ebay for around £10. The band itself is much simpler than the above, but the app seems to have a few more features. Firstly the physical appearance:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQgWVtvApTu31jlRh1MViBxcTWnTdcjvBJbHS2-htk-82aG_vouoaS70mvoiyTvJMbFH8XoY-rcjK0zyRH_xDyaoPcCd8C4rPQfxkU52hpJDibGJZ8244coGMx7maak6YbeKFlkbmuOkk/s1600/id115.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQgWVtvApTu31jlRh1MViBxcTWnTdcjvBJbHS2-htk-82aG_vouoaS70mvoiyTvJMbFH8XoY-rcjK0zyRH_xDyaoPcCd8C4rPQfxkU52hpJDibGJZ8244coGMx7maak6YbeKFlkbmuOkk/s320/id115.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The first thing to note is that this is NOT exactly what it looks like! There appears to be a few variations to the casing, button and display. Mine looks very close to the above, but by default the display is vertical not horizontal,<br />
The app you use for this is "DayDay Band" and is again a pseudo-Chinese application, that lets you join the band to your phone, set the band up, setup notifications, etc. By default is shows you your Steps and goals, estimated Calories, etc. Sleep data on Deep, Light and Awake times, and finally your heart rate results and a BEGIN button to do an immediate detection.<br />
In settings you can enable the Lost function, posture reminder, screen time, bright screen and alarm clock. Note that sometimes these settings do crash the application, I'm not sure if this is a buggy application, or means the feature isn't available on my band. A few settings are interesting, firstly the heart beat option where it will do monitoring every 2 hours, which is an improvement on the other application. It also appears to take several samples of your heart rate and averages them out, I assume this is to avoid false readings as much as possible. It also has the ability to export data to Google Fit, although it's a manual export rather than automatic, but again this works as you'd expect.<br />
The app displays the 3 main areas on a large screen, and is easy to follow:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWC0uvjmDhM0Hd3jOh39Ife1mRgmnA3KWAQ7FACoB_7QD8UaplE1IZoVkydm7wx9S_cxXq-5_2h9CwWOzaQdtkH_pcnRZPkZ04PN4UK2N2YR_cPoZQFx3rBy2n75rFAJVSpx9481pYuNQ/s1600/day-day-heart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="506" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWC0uvjmDhM0Hd3jOh39Ife1mRgmnA3KWAQ7FACoB_7QD8UaplE1IZoVkydm7wx9S_cxXq-5_2h9CwWOzaQdtkH_pcnRZPkZ04PN4UK2N2YR_cPoZQFx3rBy2n75rFAJVSpx9481pYuNQ/s320/day-day-heart.png" width="179" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEoulUeabld6GYelo730vYz6xHqe7W9sdRsNmuEfc-qSjYmkpOYOXRu8ppjsrNID-aYDJVC7PPyjggbK22iKQ7Kpj9pw8Kk9L-QkJYzzYY9GIpgZzvC6pK9Y7gl_hT0RkO1Pvw1xxoaAA/s1600/dayday-sleep.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="506" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEoulUeabld6GYelo730vYz6xHqe7W9sdRsNmuEfc-qSjYmkpOYOXRu8ppjsrNID-aYDJVC7PPyjggbK22iKQ7Kpj9pw8Kk9L-QkJYzzYY9GIpgZzvC6pK9Y7gl_hT0RkO1Pvw1xxoaAA/s320/dayday-sleep.png" width="179" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg24y6RqVAFBHlERTmw7WyabxFXVeUNvLb-7TkedeV3sdqXtCF1xU_AimG95HMYM_0uvHKTE-KD6E7KHI7lZ3-H6J6c0wh_fZaQriMqwbpejcSWZpi1eaoYWQAVjX8TMEvuJILZMWJ1XMI/s1600/dayday-steps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="696" data-original-width="392" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg24y6RqVAFBHlERTmw7WyabxFXVeUNvLb-7TkedeV3sdqXtCF1xU_AimG95HMYM_0uvHKTE-KD6E7KHI7lZ3-H6J6c0wh_fZaQriMqwbpejcSWZpi1eaoYWQAVjX8TMEvuJILZMWJ1XMI/s320/dayday-steps.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
<br />
The downsides to this, firstly the band itself, it uses quite a rigid plastic band with a push-fit to secure. I found it quite difficult to fasten onto my very skinny wrists (using the smallest hole setting), but this is more just awkward, and it never seems to sit fully flush which may affect my heart rate values. This is partly because of the plastic tabs that fasten the band onto the strap, these are solid plastic 'ears' and so don't flex, meaning the band has to lay flat along this part until the strap then bends round.<br />
This photo slightly shows the issue:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrE4TvkCDcijVqhEd1qNFx70eiHB7fgfJ_aehXFFCc6gWQF-JE1TA618aZeYny-Cu-u1QkwhpLlhJtZlu8BjERC-6fIBjNwFdF8qqt1xj2OS2tdLh5ZHieXOFxA9SimvF90TwtGeZa7bM/s1600/band-wrist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrE4TvkCDcijVqhEd1qNFx70eiHB7fgfJ_aehXFFCc6gWQF-JE1TA618aZeYny-Cu-u1QkwhpLlhJtZlu8BjERC-6fIBjNwFdF8qqt1xj2OS2tdLh5ZHieXOFxA9SimvF90TwtGeZa7bM/s320/band-wrist.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Each end of the band sticks out slightly. It's worse on my wrist which is thinner than that!<br />
One advantage is the charging method, you unclip the strap and there is a USB connector built into the plastic, which you just plug straight into a USB connector. Whilst it's not a great fit, so you need to align it and make sure it's not knocked, this does allow you to charge wherever you can find a USB socket which is handy.<br />
another disadvantage so far is the battery life. I'm only getting 1-2days out of the band so charging it a lot more than I expected, which of course means I lose data whilst charging.<br />
I think this is because I have the periodic heart rate monitor enabled, which uses battery power, and also that when you move your arm around the display lights up. I've yet to be able to display the display lighting up as whenever you go into this setting the app crashes, I need to investigate this a little further which may help the battery life. Still nowhere near the other units amazing battery life. This is probably the one feature that lets this unit down unfortunately.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmveNFJUFdd1Cf1d_N8aCvcv-3Pj_qMpBVF9K84ulG0a6AipnbWFWDfhMHt5FpE1itOAzUfR-H78HpKBICZPfgsSEGE2TzTEpIoYUITlXU2WhS5CNm5zZ12tfgd61MjrUYL0v_bhEM27k/s1600/ID115-Smart-Band-Bluetooth-Bracelet-Pedometer-Fitness.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmveNFJUFdd1Cf1d_N8aCvcv-3Pj_qMpBVF9K84ulG0a6AipnbWFWDfhMHt5FpE1itOAzUfR-H78HpKBICZPfgsSEGE2TzTEpIoYUITlXU2WhS5CNm5zZ12tfgd61MjrUYL0v_bhEM27k/s400/ID115-Smart-Band-Bluetooth-Bracelet-Pedometer-Fitness.png" width="400" /></a></div>
So all in all they are very capable little units, and at the price they are very well priced.<br />
<br />
UPDATE - March 2018<br />
So after living with the units for a while now, the biggest issue has appeared from the ID115 band. It's battery life. It gives up after just over a day, takes ages to charge and so is becoming less and less useful as time wears on, I feel it's on charge more than it's on my wrist, so for this instance I'd not recommend it for normal use.<br />
<br />Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-20648160930010018712018-02-07T18:30:00.000+00:002018-02-07T18:30:13.753+00:00More on the Hizpo Android car radio/headunitAfter a few months of ownership I thought it was about time to write an update, to give you an idea what I thought, where I was with it and how I've solved a few problems, also some interesting bits I've discovered along the way.<br />
Firstly, my thoughts on it, to me it's a great unit, yes it requires some tweaks that the average user won't be able/willing to do so would I recommend it to end-users, probably not, but for the more seasoned Android/Linux tweaker, I'd say yes definitely worth it. I've found after making a few tweaks the unit performs excellently, plays music from SD without effort, Radio, navigation and I'm starting to increase the functionality I'm using.<br />
<br />
So my current position with the the Hizpo Android (MTCD_XRC sofia3gr) is:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Radio functioning</li>
<li>Startup and shutdown almost instantly as the unit sleeps/wakes at ignition</li>
<li>Very little idle draw due to sleep working well</li>
<li>Music from SD-card working</li>
<li>Navigation using Google Maps working without crashes and navigation audio mutes radio during navigation events, maps notifications, travel times, traffic, etc</li>
<li>Navigation using Waze - slightly slow, GPS seems to drift and audio doesn't mute radio, this appears to be issues with Waze not the head unit</li>
<li>Automatic bluetooth tethering to phone to provide internet access to headunit working</li>
<li>Bluetooth connection to phone working reliably</li>
<li>Reverse camera - switches when in reverse and mutes car radio.</li>
<li>Calls work, however small issue when radio/music is playing and you answer a call, the remote end doesn't hear you, seems the phone doesn't switch to the right bluetooth profile (Not sure if this is phone or head unit problem)</li>
<li>adb over wifi with root working</li>
<li>SU/root access working</li>
<li>Ability to have apps/services run after wake (Newly tested!)</li>
</ul>
<div>
And the problems</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Occasional hang (I think this is related to my car battery going low and working hard at starting the big diesel engine, so it dips power too low and the unit crashes) - It normally automatically reboots after a minute or so and recovers itself</li>
<li>At full/hard reboot (not wake after sleep) needing to set the Kernel OOM settings each time, need to find the right hook to script this</li>
<li>No steering wheel control - This is due to not having the ODB connection, and probably not being able to interface with Chryslers' proprietary protocols.</li>
<li>Small plastic dimple on volume knob - from mould manufacture, just needs slight sandpapering to solve.</li>
<li>Phonecall quality - Several people have mentioned my audio quality isn't great on phone calls, need to check as I've plugged in an external mic and not sure if it's this or the bluetooth stream to the phone</li>
</ul>
<div>
So now onto how I achieved some of my goals!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Apps terminating/closing:</b></div>
<div>
The first being apps terminating themselves. Tracking this down it was due to the Kernel OOM killer, there are various settings you set (by echo'ing them to the /proc filesystem) that control how light/heavy this operates. By default this unit only has 1Gb of RAM so manufacturer has set this to be a bit too protective, killing foreground apps too often. Google maps is a good example, it uses a lot of resources so even when it's the only app running it will get killed. I found using the app "Kernel Adiutor" by Grarak is excellent, lets you tweak the settings easily and the presets are ideal for this. So load it up, grant it root access and then from the menu choose "Low Memory Killer" and for me I choose the preset very_light. Apply on boot doesn't appear to work (I believe it tries to hook into rc.local or similar init.rc but these don't work on this platform), so for now whenever I have a cold/full boot I have to re-apply. This should be easily solved.<br />
<br />
<b>ADB over wifi:</b><br />
This one is a simple one to get right, firstly get your wifi working, I joined the car headunit to</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Automatic bluetooth tethering:</b></div>
<div>
This one I had working manually but I wanted it automatic. So firstly, get it working manually. On your phone go into Settings, bluetooth and firstly make sure you have the devices paired. Once paired go into MORE on your phone and go into "Mobile network sharing", and into "Bluetooth tethering", follow the prompts to set it up and let it enable. With the car head unit, go into bluetooth and you'll see your paired device. Click the gear icon and you can then tick the "Internet" access box. It should tick and stay ticked (If it unticks then it means that your phone isn't accepting the link so go back and check the sharing). If it stays ticked click OK and test, you should be able to access the internet. Now you've got manual working, it's time for automatic! I found the "blueballs.apk" app on xda-developers did the job, this keeps the connection running when your specified bluetooth device is connected. (<a href="https://forum.xda-developers.com/android-auto/mtcd-software-development/bluetooth-settings-launcher-t3504526" target="_blank">https://forum.xda-developers.com/android-auto/mtcd-software-development/bluetooth-settings-launcher-t3504526</a>) Install this on your phone first and set it up, tick the box for your car unit. Then to install it on the head unit follow the guide:</div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "hind" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span></div>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 5px 20px 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<pre class="alt2 " dir="ltr" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 1px inset; color: #454545; height: 194px; margin: 0px; max-width: 700px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; text-align: left; width: 685px;">adb connect <ip address of head unit>
adb push BluetoothTethering.apk /sdcard/
adb shell
$ su
# mount -o remount,rw /system
# mkdir /system/priv-app/BluetoothTethering
# cp /sdcard/BluetoothTethering.apk /system/priv-app/BluetoothTethering/
# chmod 755 /system/priv-app/BluetoothTethering
# chmod 644 /system/priv-app/BluetoothTethering/BluetoothTethering.apk
# sync
# reboot</pre>
</div>
Then the app will autostart and show a bluetooth icon along the top status bar. This worked great for me, and bluetooth tethering worked straight away, after sleep, etc.<br />
<br />
<b>Apps being killed by sleep:</b><br />
This one is a tricky one, when the device goes into sleep (When ignition is turned off) it will terminate most services and apps, sync filesystems so the system can sleep correctly. Unfortunately this causes a problem, as the method it uses to terminate the services will not resume them (The app receives an ondestroy which terminates and doesn't re-spawn). This is a problem for bluetooth background apps, etc, so the solution appears to be with the bluetoothtethering method above, install the app using root privileges to the /system/priv-app/ as these will be restarted automatically. I've not fully tested other applications with this other than the above bluetoothtethering though.<br />
<br />
<b>Discovering how it's all working:</b><br />
Underneath the head unit is a fairly typical android build, so using adb over wifi I poked about and found how it's basic file structure, boot process, etc, works. It is pretty standard Android with very little changed. It's running "toybox" which is a busybox like clone for file and system functions that you can hook into.<br />
<br />
Some additional debugging, shows how the unit functions, watching adb and logging we can see the suspend and wakeup calls:<br />
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 5px 20px 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<pre class="alt2 " dir="ltr" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 1px inset; color: #454545; height: 194px; margin: 0px; max-width: 700px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; text-align: left; width: 685px;">[ 6145.758644] suspend step=12
[ 6145.758723] PM: suspend exit 2018-02-06 19:59:09.947279628 UTC
[ 6145.758787] suspend step=13
[ 6195.758443] PM: suspend entry 2018-02-06 19:59:59.946989170 UTC
[ 6195.758557] suspend step=1
[ 6195.758607] PM: Syncing filesystems ... done.
[ 6195.777951] PM: Preparing system for mem sleep
[ 6195.783221] Freezing user space processes ... (elapsed 0.010 seconds) done.
[ 6195.793560] Freezing remaining freezable tasks ... (elapsed 0.006 seconds) done.
[ 6195.800118] suspend step=2
[ 6195.800173] PM: Entering mem sleep
[ 6195.800225] Suspending console(s) (use no_console_suspend to debug)
[ 6195.805419] rpmb_rpc: rpmb partition suspended
[ 6195.868220] xgold-sdhci e2800000.emmc: Set tap values to mode 0, val = 0x080400f5
[ 6195.870533] PM: Wakeup pending, aborting suspend
[ 6195.870590] active wakeup source: alarm
[ 6195.870663] PM: Some devices failed to suspend, or early wake event detected
[ 6195.993203] xgold-sdhci e2800000.emmc: Set tap values to mode 1, val = 0x08040004
[ 6195.995946] xgold-sdhci e2800000.emmc: Set tap values to mode 5, val = 0x000400b5
[ 6195.996857] rpmb_rpc: rpmb partition resumed
[ 6195.997746] PM: resume of devices complete after 127.017 msecs
</pre>
</div>
<br />
And the normal process listing (With the unit at idle):<br />
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 5px 20px 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<pre class="alt2 " dir="ltr" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 1px inset; color: #454545; height: 194px; margin: 0px; max-width: 700px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; text-align: left; width: 685px;">USER PID PPID VSIZE RSS WCHAN PC NAME
root 1 0 3060 628 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S /init
root 2 0 0 0 kthreadd 00000000 S kthreadd
root 3 2 0 0 smpboot_th 00000000 S ksoftirqd/0
root 5 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/0:0H
root 7 2 0 0 rcu_gp_kth 00000000 S rcu_preempt
root 8 2 0 0 rcu_gp_kth 00000000 S rcu_sched
root 9 2 0 0 rcu_gp_kth 00000000 S rcu_bh
root 10 2 0 0 smpboot_th 00000000 S migration/0
root 12 2 0 0 smpboot_th 00000000 S watchdog/0
root 13 2 0 0 smpboot_th 00000000 S watchdog/1
root 14 2 0 0 smpboot_th 00000000 S migration/1
root 15 2 0 0 smpboot_th 00000000 S ksoftirqd/1
root 17 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/1:0H
root 19 2 0 0 smpboot_th 00000000 S watchdog/2
root 20 2 0 0 smpboot_th 00000000 S migration/2
root 21 2 0 0 smpboot_th 00000000 S ksoftirqd/2
root 23 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/2:0H
root 25 2 0 0 smpboot_th 00000000 S watchdog/3
root 26 2 0 0 smpboot_th 00000000 S migration/3
root 27 2 0 0 smpboot_th 00000000 S ksoftirqd/3
root 29 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/3:0H
root 31 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S khelper
root 32 2 0 0 vdump_thre 00000000 S vdump Thread
root 33 2 0 0 console_th 00000000 S kconsole
root 34 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S writeback
root 35 2 0 0 ksm_scan_t 00000000 S ksmd
root 36 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S bioset
root 37 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S kblockd
root 38 2 0 0 hub_thread 00000000 S khubd
root 54 2 0 0 fmdev_fifo 00000000 S iui_fm
root 55 2 0 0 ion_heap_d 00000000 S system-heap
root 56 2 0 0 mvpipe_dev 00000000 S ion_secvm_handl
root 57 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/303-rk818
root 58 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S rk81x_otg_work
root 59 2 0 0 rev_thread 00000000 D rev_thread
root 60 2 0 0 rockchip_f 00000000 S fb-vsync
root 61 2 0 0 kthread_wo 00000000 S rockchip-fb
root 62 2 0 0 cpufreq_in 00000000 S cfinteractive
root 63 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/320-car-rev
root 64 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/321-car-acc
root 65 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S rk81x-battery-w
root 66 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S car_wq
root 67 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S goodix_wq
root 89 2 0 0 kswapd 00000000 S kswapd0
root 90 2 0 0 fsnotify_m 00000000 S fsnotify_mark
root 91 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S crypto
root 105 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S bl_wq
root 106 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/40-rga
root 107 2 0 0 vnvm_serve 00000000 S vnvm
root 108 2 0 0 mvpipe_dev 00000000 S VUSB_SE_FE_MEX_
root 110 2 0 0 down_inter 00000000 S vsec
root 111 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S idi_error_work_
root 112 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/110-vpu.177
root 113 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/111-vpu.177
root 114 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/38-hevc.178
root 115 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S dwc2
root 116 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S uether
root 117 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S adv_wq
root 119 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S dm_bufio_cache
root 121 2 0 0 mmc_queue_ 00000000 S mmcqd/0
root 122 2 0 0 mmc_queue_ 00000000 S mmcqd/0boot0
root 123 2 0 0 mmc_queue_ 00000000 S mmcqd/0boot1
root 124 2 0 0 mmc_queue_ 00000000 S mmcqd/0rpmb
root 125 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S binder
root 126 2 0 0 intel_adc_ 00000000 S adc-thread
root 128 2 0 0 oct_thread 00000000 S OCT Thread
root 129 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S dvd_wq
root 130 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/108-dsp_int
root 131 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/107-dsp_int
root 132 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/99-dsp_int3
root 133 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S ipv6_addrconf
root 134 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S fuel_gauge.187
root 136 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S deferwq
root 139 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/283-jack_ir
root 140 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/284-button_
root 141 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S f_mtp
root 142 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S setExposure_que
root 143 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S measurement_que
root 144 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S bat_hal-0
root 147 1 2540 288 poll_sched 00000000 S /sbin/ueventd
root 150 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/1:1H
root 151 2 0 0 kjournald2 00000000 S jbd2/mmcblk0p14
root 152 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S ext4-rsv-conver
root 153 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/0:1H
root 154 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/2:1H
root 158 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/3:1H
root 159 2 0 0 kjournald2 00000000 S jbd2/mmcblk0p15
root 160 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S ext4-rsv-conver
root 164 2 0 0 kjournald2 00000000 S jbd2/mmcblk0p13
root 165 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S ext4-rsv-conver
logd 166 1 15360 3644 sigsuspend 00000000 S /system/bin/logd
root 167 1 12664 1416 hrtimer_na 00000000 S /system/bin/vold
root 173 2 0 0 kauditd_th 00000000 S kauditd
root 182 1 2932 268 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S /sbin/healthd
root 183 1 4308 612 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S /system/bin/lmkd
system 184 1 4116 572 binder_thr 00000000 S /system/bin/servicemanager
system 185 1 59340 3680 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S /system/bin/surfaceflinger
root 186 1 2284 8 hrtimer_na 00000000 S /sbin/watchdogd
radio 187 1 5648 560 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S /system/bin/rpcServer
root 193 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S cfg80211
root 194 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/u9:1
shell 196 1 4328 584 n_tty_read f7672b80 S /system/bin/sh
radio 197 1 16668 1080 hrtimer_na 00000000 S /system/bin/rild
radio 198 1 16156 704 hrtimer_na 00000000 S /system/bin/rild
root 199 1 17372 1476 hrtimer_na 00000000 S /system/bin/netd
root 200 1 4936 832 __skb_recv 00000000 S /system/bin/debuggerd
drm 201 1 25160 1192 binder_thr 00000000 S /system/bin/drmserver
media 202 1 138240 10172 binder_thr 00000000 S /system/bin/mediaserver
root 203 1 4216 672 unix_strea 00000000 S /system/bin/installd
keystore 205 1 7692 936 binder_thr 00000000 S /system/bin/keystore
system 206 1 7960 680 binder_thr 00000000 S /system/bin/pluginservice
system 207 1 4276 572 atdev_ioct 00000000 S /system/bin/startIpcsd
radio 208 1 6536 532 fmdev_fifo 00000000 S /system/bin/fmd
gps 209 1 4328 632 sigsuspend 00000000 S /system/bin/sh
root 210 1 827376 28380 poll_sched 00000000 S zygote
system 211 1 7364 844 binder_thr 00000000 S /system/bin/gatekeeperd
root 212 1 4240 716 hrtimer_na 00000000 S /system/xbin/perfprofd
root 214 1 8612 1080 poll_sched 00000000 S /system/vendor/bin/crashlogd
root 216 1 6560 812 devkmsg_re 00000000 S /vendor/bin/log-watch
root 238 1 3876 180 __skb_recv 00000000 S daemonsu:mount:master
gps 253 209 21528 2160 futex_wait 00000000 S /system/bin/lbsd
root 258 1 6196 368 __skb_recv 00000000 S daemonsu:master
radio 279 1 15060 764 hrtimer_na 00000000 S /system/bin/rpc-daemon
root 284 2 0 0 kjournald2 00000000 S jbd2/mmcblk0p5-
root 285 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S ext4-rsv-conver
radio 286 1 8300 740 nvmdev_ioc 00000000 S /system/bin/nvm_useragent
shell 294 1 9360 184 poll_sched f7703b80 S /sbin/adbd
root 338 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/289-gnss_wa
root 340 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/291-gnss_er
root 342 1 4328 632 sigsuspend 00000000 S /system/bin/sh
root 363 342 5572 940 __skb_recv 00000000 S /system/vendor/bin/logcatext
root 422 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/293-wlan_ir
system 558 210 879544 85412 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S system_server
root 707 2 0 0 mvpipe_dev 00000000 S VUSB_SE_FE_LINK
root 708 2 0 0 n_tty_read 00000000 S VUSB_SE_FE_LINK
root 709 2 0 0 msleep 00000000 D VUSB_SE_FE_MODE
root 742 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S vs-2
media_rw 799 167 7900 600 inotify_re 00000000 S /system/bin/sdcard
radio 802 210 697124 33080 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.android.phone
u0_a21 818 210 746476 54508 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.android.systemui
u0_a9 1088 210 669656 22552 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.android.externalstorage
u0_a22 1374 210 958284 23208 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox:interactor
u0_a43 1393 210 707868 41320 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.android.inputmethod.latin
u0_a10 1437 210 859896 77880 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.google.android.gms.persistent
root 1456 1 4328 476 sigsuspend 00000000 S /system/bin/sh
system 1467 210 672660 23476 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S android.microntek.canbus
root 1504 2 0 0 rescuer_th 00000000 S vs-0
root 1514 1456 86168 1972 poll_sched 00000000 S /system/bin/adb-ec
u0_a10 1521 210 691816 29600 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.google.process.gapps
root 1551 1 4328 632 poll_sched 00000000 S /system/bin/sh
u0_a22 1577 210 973232 35336 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox:search
u0_a13 1645 210 702792 44380 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.android.launcher
u0_a10 1674 210 1059600 81412 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.google.android.gms
root 1818 258 6196 176 __skb_recv 00000000 S daemonsu:10087
u0_a60 1858 210 696304 41280 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.microntek.radio
system 1911 210 668872 23420 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.intel.soundprofile
u0_a40 2013 210 670856 21412 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S android.rockchip.update.service
u0_a10 2252 210 788532 24856 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.google.android.gms.ui
u0_a37 2455 210 694508 41236 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.microntek.bluetooth
root 2670 258 7228 176 __skb_recv 00000000 S daemonsu:10092
u0_a10 4729 210 805684 42848 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.google.android.gms:snet
root 6102 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/3:0
root 6439 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/3:1
root 6576 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/u8:3
root 7158 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/2:0
root 7235 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/1:2
root 7289 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/u8:1
root 7298 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/u9:0
u0_a10 7359 210 801780 51212 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.google.android.gms.unstable
root 8029 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/0:2
root 8059 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/u8:2
root 8100 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/2:2
root 8101 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/1:0
root 8149 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/0:0
root 8155 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/2:1
root 8158 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/1:1
root 8177 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/u9:2
root 8188 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/3:2
u0_a8 8294 210 684960 33392 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S android.process.media
root 8341 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/u8:0
root 8342 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/u8:4
root 8343 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/u8:5
root 8345 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/u8:6
root 8377 2 0 0 mmc_queue_ 00000000 S mmcqd/1
bluetooth 8379 210 719896 40080 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.android.bluetooth
wifi 8386 1 8788 3228 poll_sched 00000000 S /system/bin/wpa_supplicant
media_rw 8415 167 8148 2156 inotify_re 00000000 S /system/bin/sdcard
root 8437 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/286-btif_mu
root 8438 2 0 0 irq_thread 00000000 S irq/288-btip_wa
u0_a93 8585 210 701280 38720 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S za.co.henry.hsu.adbwirelessbyhenry
root 8626 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/0:1
u0_a1 8765 210 672964 29124 SyS_epoll_ 00000000 S com.android.providers.calendar
root 8793 2 0 0 worker_thr 00000000 S kworker/1:3
shell 8798 294 4328 1468 sigsuspend f7734b80 S /system/bin/sh
shell 8802 8798 4224 1136 0 f7744b80 R ps
</pre>
</div>
The next task is to identify what is called at boot time. Looking at the root filesystem we can see:<br />
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 5px 20px 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<pre class="alt2 " dir="ltr" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 1px inset; color: #454545; height: 194px; margin: 0px; max-width: 700px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; text-align: left; width: 685px;">-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 1144 Feb 6 20:18 default.prop
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 1477328 Feb 6 20:17 init
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 369 Feb 6 20:17 init.bluetooth.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 346 Feb 6 20:17 init.coredump.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 554 Feb 6 20:17 init.crashlogd.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 686 Feb 6 20:17 init.debug-charging.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 178 Feb 6 20:17 init.debug.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 891 Feb 6 20:17 init.environ.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 300 Feb 6 20:17 init.gnss.normal.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 323 Feb 6 20:17 init.gnss.ptest.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 1790 Feb 6 20:17 init.hct.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 198 Feb 6 20:17 init.kernel.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 207 Feb 6 20:17 init.ksm.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 1477 Feb 6 20:17 init.logs.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 95 Feb 6 20:17 init.log-watch.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 22934 Feb 6 20:17 init.ptest.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 26697 Feb 6 20:17 init.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 1089 Feb 6 20:17 init.recovery.sofiaboard.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 334 Feb 6 20:17 init.sofia3gr_car.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 22899 Feb 6 20:17 init.sofiaboard.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 9977 Feb 6 20:17 init.sofiaboard.usb.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 249 Feb 6 20:17 init.stt_trace.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 1921 Feb 6 20:17 init.trace.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 9283 Feb 6 20:17 init.usb.configfs.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 5339 Feb 6 20:17 init.usb.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 1601 Feb 6 20:17 init.wifi.normal.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 537 Feb 6 20:17 init.wifi.ptest.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 322 Feb 6 20:17 init.zram.rc
-rw-r--r-- 1 browna browna 342 Feb 6 20:17 init.zygote32.rc
</pre>
</div>
(Ignore the user/group there, that's because I transferred these to sdcard and onto my laptop to review). The files of note here:<br />
init - ELF 32-bit LSB executable - This is the main init process<br />
init.rc - This looks like the main setup for the environment, it imports the other rc files first, environments, usb, hardware and then runs through various "on init" and other tasks.<br />
In the init.rc there are stanzas that contain different functions, near the bottom are "service" tasks that appear to call daemons and set their user, group and restart/pid functions. Above that are on property settings which I'm unsure what these function as. There in also an "on boot" stanza, which looks the most useful, this seems to bring up loopback interface, set memory permissions, file and system ownership, etc. In several other sections there are "trigger boot" and similar commands which refer to the different stanzas, so based around this, the last one to be called is the "boot" section.<br />
From Android documentation you can add backgrounded exec calls, so the suggestion is using<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
exec_background [ <seclabel> [ <user> [ <group>\* ] ] ] -- <command> [ <argument>\* ]</blockquote>
Which when added to the boot stanza this should allow you to call your own scripts and commands. My suggestion is to use it like this:<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #454545; font-family: Hind, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 5px 20px 20px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
<pre class="alt2 " dir="ltr" style="background: rgb(249, 249, 249); border: 1px inset; color: #454545; height: 194px; margin: 0px; max-width: 700px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; text-align: left; width: 685px;">on boot
[other on boot entries]
exec_background root root -- /etc/rc.local<seclabel><user><group><argument>
</argument></group></user></seclabel></pre>
</div>
NOTE: This is currently untested!<br />
<br />
Good luck, and I'd love to hear your experiences in the comments.<br />
<br />Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-66601589573192263932018-01-29T15:42:00.002+00:002018-01-29T15:42:27.274+00:00Chrysler Grand Voyager 2.8CRD rear drum backing plateHere's a quick one after a recent panic with my Chrysler Grand Voyager 2.8CRD (This will be the same on all caravan/models up to and around the 2006 facelift change). At the rear the handbrake operates an ancient style drum brake.<br />
The drum brake is adjusted through a small toothed wheel you access from the inside of the backing plate, and often will be seized up or just plain useless, so taking the whole thing apart cleaning it, freeing it and sorting will help you achieve better hand brake operation (And help you pass MOT) however there is something that seems to rust and fail. The backing plate.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWfpJ_l7rHeIAReasM5w-X6yBtKsQHd2fF1FhycplFiVj1XJRht_CEO_a3XzPiNn5EW8oWorIr9oT3hhXTzwhX-skd2okf_-Xnz6pp8VJbxfFhpKBOMObeomwz1v7CGtULsYMIM3_f5MM/s1600/IMAG2886.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWfpJ_l7rHeIAReasM5w-X6yBtKsQHd2fF1FhycplFiVj1XJRht_CEO_a3XzPiNn5EW8oWorIr9oT3hhXTzwhX-skd2okf_-Xnz6pp8VJbxfFhpKBOMObeomwz1v7CGtULsYMIM3_f5MM/s640/IMAG2886.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
On here you can see the two brake pads at either side. These have a pivot point in the middle which is held in by a spring and a pin with a forked end and spade fitting. The idea is you push it on (allen key) against the spring push through a slot and twist to lock it.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMtnYqzJBQPf_Xc9LmFne5xqAlVniAi_MQOnKC6EfMMhgo1bIjkyPrewfLqxxV_EwlxQEpsnQ6si1TkWbH_IDHOjM0eBumFyHDzI3kjj_KHkHctvSrAH27Y6B-gzf6QQH4B4zBCIe8WNU/s1600/IMAG2905.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="905" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMtnYqzJBQPf_Xc9LmFne5xqAlVniAi_MQOnKC6EfMMhgo1bIjkyPrewfLqxxV_EwlxQEpsnQ6si1TkWbH_IDHOjM0eBumFyHDzI3kjj_KHkHctvSrAH27Y6B-gzf6QQH4B4zBCIe8WNU/s640/IMAG2905.jpg" width="362" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
That's the spring and the pin you can see the wide end to the top of the photo that pushes into the backing plate to secure it.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
And now on mine below you'll see the problem:</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg10ocZJAIiOwll_GxeU0JTx-GYmFI7x898u4Vb9TwhiLm8kHGjepnDgh_T7wMl0zfQU_CQvoKNkC_7HgkRMAy5DYwVE29RQRMVcOC10OjFb74AMiEa6ppCEQvISid-G_Qn1uMacS_CHaM/s1600/IMAG2889.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="905" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg10ocZJAIiOwll_GxeU0JTx-GYmFI7x898u4Vb9TwhiLm8kHGjepnDgh_T7wMl0zfQU_CQvoKNkC_7HgkRMAy5DYwVE29RQRMVcOC10OjFb74AMiEa6ppCEQvISid-G_Qn1uMacS_CHaM/s640/IMAG2889.jpg" width="362" /></a></div>
That hole rusts and becomes wider, eventually the pin just pushes straight through and stops holding the brake pad in place, rendering it useless.<br />
<br />
Panic then sets in as you need to replace the whole backing plate, which would be a pain as taking the hub off and all sorts! Replacements are also difficult to find and expensive as it's a whole chunk of metal and depending on what you can find may require the bearing or not. Either way it would be tricky to replace and could be pricey.<br />
Below is one I'd found on ebay:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgzhYqVjZt3ofYW8-dcbEDcM_YLxxQXgJSfuyY5pLRrrI4zq02NvvjRIIvEltb1C5FHIexCBt8C9lmNysFcbF7Kdl03-eF6PftY9v7VISEYfGNyg9_4dMj50ITj3u4FNwVmhyphenhyphenGCjG5eYQ/s1600/s-l1600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgzhYqVjZt3ofYW8-dcbEDcM_YLxxQXgJSfuyY5pLRrrI4zq02NvvjRIIvEltb1C5FHIexCBt8C9lmNysFcbF7Kdl03-eF6PftY9v7VISEYfGNyg9_4dMj50ITj3u4FNwVmhyphenhyphenGCjG5eYQ/s640/s-l1600.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
So what is the solution? Some cars have a similar design but have a slotted washer that goes on the rear of this backing plate to act as the binding point, this seemed ideal as a retro-fit, so a slight modification of it (Flattening it out) and that works great. At the same time using different springs helped as the standard fitting kit for rear brakes has a spring that at fully compressed is only just the right length to let the pin push through, a different compression spring works better allowing the pin to push through further and get a better purchase without as much tension on the spring.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzNNruZnFvyPcLL8t1cCyx0qqWsptZGsWgaY-huv7pyqtCMCv5NZE03l6T7CJn-docwFrb5JMkH-GenJvSPfHw0GCqrp9ZLDAbHPy0cFp2iXYWCSvBLAxoMIQpQmOIySx-wsi9BH3_FuU/s1600/IMAG0312+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="784" data-original-width="588" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzNNruZnFvyPcLL8t1cCyx0qqWsptZGsWgaY-huv7pyqtCMCv5NZE03l6T7CJn-docwFrb5JMkH-GenJvSPfHw0GCqrp9ZLDAbHPy0cFp2iXYWCSvBLAxoMIQpQmOIySx-wsi9BH3_FuU/s400/IMAG0312+%25281%2529.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<br />
This is what we used, unfortunately I don't have a reference for them as they were in my dads pile of bits from other cars and jobs in the past. We flattened them in the vice and they worked great for this!<br />
<br />Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-58632745074648978372018-01-17T11:45:00.000+00:002018-01-17T14:06:40.420+00:00Youtube removing my monetisationThis came out of the blue, I've had an email from Youtube stating they're applying changes to the YouTube partner program. This is a program that Youtube users can sign into and apply banner adverts, etc, to their videos and make a small revenue from that.<br />
<br />
To give you an idea, my videos aren't doing huge numbers of hits, but over the years they've done OK, and every few months I do receive payment from Youtube. It's only around £50 but it's a welcome addition, and a bit of a thank you from all those people watching my HOWTO videos and information, so makes me enthusiastic to make more.<br />
<br />
So now, Youtube has stated:<br />
<br />
"Under the new eligibility requirements announced today, your YouTube channel, Andy Brown, is no longer eligible for monetisation because it does not meet the
new threshold of 4,000 hours of watch time within the past 12 months and 1,000
subscribers. As a result, your channel will lose access to all monetisation
tools and features associated with the YouTube Partner Program on 20 February
2018"<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Which is a little sad. I believe I'm getting the number of hours watching (at times), but unfortunately up until now I've not chased after subscribers really because it's not been important to me. I'm happy that people search and find my videos, repairing cars, dishwashers, washing machines, talking about electronics and generally just whatever I'm working on features.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So now I need to gain subscribers and don't really know how other than pleading with the general public, or anybody that watches my videos to subscribe so I can receive this very small advertising revenue to help pay for the video cameras, tripods, microphones and other kit that I use for making my videos!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And YouTube if you're listening, this is a pretty poor move. The smaller providers are the ones that grow and provide you with good revenue, why cut off the people just starting off? Surely incentivising us small content producers will make us WANT to do more on your platform? I'm seriously looking at alternative distribution platforms now, such as Patreon which is gaining momentum now.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So if you do want to help me along, please do subscribe to my YouTube channel <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/andybrown21">https://www.youtube.com/user/andybrown21</a> and hopefully I can meet their targets!<br />
<br />
Also, support me on Patreon to help me create more videos and content you want! <a href="https://www.patreon.com/andyb2000">https://www.patreon.com/andyb2000</a></div>
Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-36909677113409796332017-12-18T20:41:00.001+00:002017-12-18T20:41:05.753+00:00Chrysler - Audio system, amplifier and head unitsI've finally got round to getting my new Android head unit for the car (Thanks to my wife for my birthday present!) and so this has got me onto figuring out the audio system for my Chrysler Grand Voyager, and boy is it not simple!<br />
Firstly, a standard ISO harness/converter adapter won't work as I've found out before when trying to fit my Bluetooth Parrot phone kit (<a href="http://www.thebmwz3.co.uk/2015/05/chrysler-grand-voyager-sound-system.html" target="_blank">http://www.thebmwz3.co.uk/2015/05/chrysler-grand-voyager-sound-system.html</a> )<br />
<br />
So I'm now starting to look seriously into how to wire in a new head unit, taking the back off the existing head unit I find the usual block of audio wires which are:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Front left (+/-)</li>
<li>Front right (+/-)</li>
<li>Rear left (+/-)</li>
<li>Rear right (+/-)</li>
</ul>
<div>
So I started out by modifying (cutting!) an ISO harness cable, that lets me disconnect one by one the wires and then feed in an alternative audio source. That way I can test each speakers input and feed it to make sure audio works.</div>
<div>
I started by disconnecting the rear left output wires, and NO DIFFERENCE! Rear left still worked. I then did the same to rear right and again nothing happened, rear was still working! Playing with the fader and balance on the radio and it managed to still fade between front and rear, left and right. How odd! So next I cut the front left, and BOTH front and rear went off. Doing the same to right and the same, both front and rear went off.</div>
<div>
I then fed new audio into front left and audio started to come out of the front and rear speakers correctly, doing the same to right showed the same. So this looks like it's ONLY feeding a left and right signal to the amplifier.</div>
<div>
Now I do know this car has an amplifier hidden in the rear panels of the car, so next job was to locate it and see what it was up to!</div>
<div>
Taking apart the rear panels I found the amp tucked away in the right hand side behind the speaker.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiEe3hlKyeL_cP7aPjNPQQTKBFM5hQk55fFoX-6GQYvxWtroOprlXNVFcZ9R2Kbcw8J03z_lL4oaCtdusK2HmW2sDraiEBQZyhQZIdtXaBorAqWxDlUyd90Twn_oxhb_Skv9SNGkj9PQM/s1600/IMAG2724.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiEe3hlKyeL_cP7aPjNPQQTKBFM5hQk55fFoX-6GQYvxWtroOprlXNVFcZ9R2Kbcw8J03z_lL4oaCtdusK2HmW2sDraiEBQZyhQZIdtXaBorAqWxDlUyd90Twn_oxhb_Skv9SNGkj9PQM/s320/IMAG2724.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
As you can see that also identified the speakers as Infinity, which nothing else had pointed to until this moment, so another point is to check the back of the speakers. I couldn't find any official specs for these, but testing I found them to be 2ohm speakers (Which is quite low, and would fit with them being decent/high performance. But bear in mind that means you need a decent amp/head unit to power them).<br />
<br />
You have to take quite a bit of the panels off to get at it, unless you can contort your hand into the panel to get at the fastening nuts (I did this in the end!)</div>
<div>
Here is the amplifier out of the mounts, at the top are two connector blocks.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw2Cus-AfUnC21vmG_irzYOFyXOUs6wCoHtiwrNQDcEiqtYFJiCQ4QPKZrhX3yi60z1Q2n1Lu45gPChS7eTvYQvGa-JQ_EOt76xrEIajo1HacUIxwun1r00spxQcDo3iFzueLrqQugo2Y/s1600/IMAG2721.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw2Cus-AfUnC21vmG_irzYOFyXOUs6wCoHtiwrNQDcEiqtYFJiCQ4QPKZrhX3yi60z1Q2n1Lu45gPChS7eTvYQvGa-JQ_EOt76xrEIajo1HacUIxwun1r00spxQcDo3iFzueLrqQugo2Y/s400/IMAG2721.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmcEmDDVZQyioYpcp0ryY9MMz1nhzZREdb2LoOGsN-O9o-MIstRLsconj8ahZ1sriSbrYnIfOIrvzAW2bZok4RpcfSb-7fFkAcqwlXDu5kTDxFkUhqnT0l1Trmo7yy9f9d1Q6w_PVAvYY/s1600/IMAG2722.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmcEmDDVZQyioYpcp0ryY9MMz1nhzZREdb2LoOGsN-O9o-MIstRLsconj8ahZ1sriSbrYnIfOIrvzAW2bZok4RpcfSb-7fFkAcqwlXDu5kTDxFkUhqnT0l1Trmo7yy9f9d1Q6w_PVAvYY/s640/IMAG2722.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
You can see the two connector blocks (I'd removed one) and at the top right of photo is the connector for the rear right speaker I'd disconnected to get into the hole where the amplifier was.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The connector I've removed (I'll call it the right side connector) contains MOST of the speaker outputs. This car has 8 speakers. Front left (top speaker), front left (bottom speaker), front right (top speaker), front right (bottom speaker), rear left (top), rear left (bottom), rear right (top), rear right (bottom). The more observant of you will spot only 6 speaker pairs on that connector, they continue on the other connector (Chrysler mustn't be able to source connectors with more than a certain number of pins!).</div>
<div>
So by feeding audio into each of these I discovered these directly drive the speakers around the car, and so can send audio to speakers direct, irrespective of if the ignition is on, amp is on, etc, which is good news.</div>
<div>
Now I started to look into the audio from the head unit and by testing and following wires I found 4 wires coming from the head unit, left (+/-) and right (+/-) so that matched my findings that the amp simply got a left and right. So how did it handle fader/balance? The answer was on one of the other mystery wires.</div>
<div>
There were 2 black (Both ground) 2 yellow with red stripe (Both had 12v constantly, irrespective of ignition or radio on or off) and a further two wires. One is white with a purple/violet stripe. This is the interesting wire as it doesn't show a voltage or anything. My suspicion is this is the CANBUS network data wire, and is sending digital data from CANBUS to the amp to interpret. That means the existing head unit will be sending a message into CANBUS (Power amp on, fader volume level, left/right speaker levels, etc) and the amp is then reading and responding to these commands on it's own.</div>
<div>
That means a simple head unit swap isn't going to work, as firstly nothing will be telling the AMP to turn on, secondly even if it was turned on it wouldn't control the fader/balance settings.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
That leaves me with two choices:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Run a wiring loom from the new head unit at the front, round to where the factory amp is, remove the factory amp and wire direct into the speakers. That way the new head unit completely controls the speakers direct and avoids the amp</li>
<li>Replace the factory amp with my own, still just use left and right (So new head unit couldn't control fader between front and rear) but it would be amplified output to the speakers.</li>
</ul>
<div>
At the moment I'm unsure which option to take.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br />
So I've started to document the wiring I've discovered.<br />
Here is the connector at the infinity amp end. As above I'm calling them connector 1 and 2, connector 1 on the left of the photos above mainly contains power and inputs, and connector 2 mainly speaker outputs. So the connector wiring goes like this:<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr><td><b>PIN</b></td><td><b>Connector</b></td><td><b>wiring colour</b></td><td><b>Function/use</b></td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>1</td><td>green/blue stripe</td><td>Front Left top +</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>1</td><td>green/yellow stripe</td><td>Front Left top -</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>1</td><td>grey/blue stripe</td><td>Front Right top +</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>1</td><td>grey/yellow stripe</td><td>Front Right top -</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>1</td><td>yellow/red stripe</td><td>Constant 12v + supply</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>1</td><td>blue/pink stripe</td><td>ignition 12v + supply</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>1</td><td>white/purple stripe</td><td>CANBUS/Data supply</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>1</td><td>green/orange stripe</td><td>From radio left channel +</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>1</td><td>green/blue stripe</td><td>From radio left channel -</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>1</td><td>grey/orange stripe</td><td>From radio right channel +</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>1</td><td>grey/blue stripe</td><td>From radio right channel -</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>2</td><td>black/green stripe</td><td>Front left lower +</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>2</td><td>green</td><td>Front left lower -</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>2</td><td>grey/brown stripe</td><td>Front right lower +</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>2</td><td>grey</td><td>Front right lower -</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>2</td><td>grey/green stripe</td><td>Rear left main +</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>2</td><td>light green</td><td>Rear left main -</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>2</td><td>green/light green stripe</td><td>Rear right main +</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>2</td><td>green/grey stripe</td><td>Rear right main -</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>2</td><td>green/pink stripe</td><td>Rear left upper +</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>2</td><td>green/blue stripe</td><td>Rear left upper -</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>2</td><td>grey/yellow stripe</td><td>Rear right upper +</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>2</td><td>grey/blue stripe</td><td>Rear right upper -</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
And now the head unit wiring:<br />
<br />
<br />
The plug looks like this:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD8VB33aUa0qT0-0UN1gOygzHFcPxKgAPmmnnou5Xez2n7dg77cdFfsF7ok8yl-kIihkRAsHmZVSe4-EhVLvy3M5xaV0u2PESkyJyT1JYZtNc8QlxxJvHdyejj5pvPURk5X5_woSU-ZqU/s1600/blueextc3221_12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="290" data-original-width="600" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD8VB33aUa0qT0-0UN1gOygzHFcPxKgAPmmnnou5Xez2n7dg77cdFfsF7ok8yl-kIihkRAsHmZVSe4-EhVLvy3M5xaV0u2PESkyJyT1JYZtNc8QlxxJvHdyejj5pvPURk5X5_woSU-ZqU/s640/blueextc3221_12.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
So I've documented what I've found:<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr><td><b>PIN</b></td><td><b>Chrysler wire colour</b></td><td><b>ISO/Aftermarket harness colour</b></td><td><b>Aftermarket head-unit colour</b></td><td><b>Function/use</b></td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>green/orange stripe</td><td>n/a</td><td>White</td><td>Front Left +</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>green/blue stripe</td><td>n/a</td><td>White/Black</td><td>Front Left -</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>grey/orange stripe</td><td>n/a</td><td>Grey</td><td>Front Right +</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>grey/blue stripe</td><td>n/a</td><td>Grey/Black</td><td>Front Right -</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>blue/pink stripe</td><td>n/a</td><td>n/a</td><td>Ignition +12v</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>white/purple stripe</td><td>n/a</td><td>n/a</td><td>CANBUS data line</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>orange</td><td>orange</td><td>orange ILL</td><td>Illumination</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>red</td><td>red</td><td>Red Acc-in</td><td>Ignition/switched +12v</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>yellow</td><td>yellow</td><td>Yellow B+</td><td>+12v constant</td></tr>
<tr><td>x</td><td>black</td><td>black</td><td>Brown/Black and Black</td><td>-12v ground constant</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ5OsazAyKu3MS29Rl95KPD_zafdxxFMfGNR0N1EHw_26NwsqCNkvsNDy9KX4k5rZxjsFcKTtCbQT_1rF5ggtGEb_H3mypNEWD2OhwvHImZnsbqFvprCIEnDNnfcWWqon-iEd6HgaGMrs/s1600/IMAG2738.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="905" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ5OsazAyKu3MS29Rl95KPD_zafdxxFMfGNR0N1EHw_26NwsqCNkvsNDy9KX4k5rZxjsFcKTtCbQT_1rF5ggtGEb_H3mypNEWD2OhwvHImZnsbqFvprCIEnDNnfcWWqon-iEd6HgaGMrs/s640/IMAG2738.jpg" width="362" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgayFEPX2tckuoCtU8aBBUvKfc-9l1ml3AdDnP5KCtaQnT1saAVxTcmXA15ITyD-i58LMKCmh-RVNWhLs9y6h6RU6REup2vvVAvvlAxIsIWhWx1-JTPA2NHtSkzVpHi4ergHgF7EO7ig1c/s1600/IMAG2739.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgayFEPX2tckuoCtU8aBBUvKfc-9l1ml3AdDnP5KCtaQnT1saAVxTcmXA15ITyD-i58LMKCmh-RVNWhLs9y6h6RU6REup2vvVAvvlAxIsIWhWx1-JTPA2NHtSkzVpHi4ergHgF7EO7ig1c/s640/IMAG2739.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br /></div>
<div>
A couple of other points, I've noticed quite a few wires with black electricians tape (Not the fabric factory-fit type, but aftermarket, like the stuff I use!) around wires, notably around the factory amp speaker outputs, in the head unit, etc. I've also spotted a RED wire coming out of the head unit that goes off into the front bulkhead. I'm now wondering if this goes off to the fusebox and to the NBS relay. This is apparently the relay that switches the amp on and off (It stands for Name Brand Speakers, i.e. the infinity system) so I'm going to check as my guess is this car has had an alternative system in at some point and the relay was forced on when power was given to the radio (Or ignition) so I'll check that relay out.</div>
<div>
That makes me think replacing the factory amp with aftermarket might be the way to go without having to rewire the entire car.<br />
<br />
<span id="goog_790662879"></span><span id="goog_790662880"></span><br />
This is constantly a work in progress, so hopefully it's useful and I'll keep adding to it as I do more and get further on my path!<br />
<br /></div>
Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-13398562839678779672017-11-24T11:32:00.003+00:002017-11-27T19:48:13.938+00:00Hizpo Android car head unit MTCD_XRC sofia3gr* Update 27/11/17 (See end of page)<br />
<br />
I received this as a present from my wife for my birthday, I'd chosen it and ordered it but it was still my birthday present as I wanted a project and loved the idea of getting an android head unit for the car.<br />
I knew it would be a project as it's not as simple as swapping the ISO (Wiring) harness in my make of Chrysler and making it work, making it fit into the dashboard, etc. But that's in a separate post.<br />
This is all about the head unit itself which is from a company called Hizpo and was from ebay. Pricing was good for an Android 6.0.1 head unit, for around £100 with all the extra cables, inputs, etc.<br />
The unit is double DIN and it's specs are below.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4fZRKXfLe4wAhvbVfi8Zfed7cSyhQwNTjVd3p5WetV3xvxHy3D_hf0JWPnjHkzvEjX37tSroRKlVAmIfi3YQujHr6P1cQWLMSIygBpklQGBMQMQk5-EDLJH8Cft2fo0cjgKI7VdMsRJc/s1600/IMAG2768.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4fZRKXfLe4wAhvbVfi8Zfed7cSyhQwNTjVd3p5WetV3xvxHy3D_hf0JWPnjHkzvEjX37tSroRKlVAmIfi3YQujHr6P1cQWLMSIygBpklQGBMQMQk5-EDLJH8Cft2fo0cjgKI7VdMsRJc/s640/IMAG2768.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow<br />
A-MEDIA AUTO (1024x600)<br />
Baseband: SF3GR_M-26.3<br />
Kernel: 3.14.0+ rocky@hctr930 #55<br />
Build number: sofia3gr_car_64-userdebug<br />
MCU: MTCD_XRC_V2.58_1<br />
Memory: 918MB<br />
<br />
<div>
I knew it wasn't going to be amazing performance as it's only a 1Gb unit, and things have moved on in Android so 1Gb is total minimum. So after getting the unit and using it? It's not bad, except for a few niggles that I'm working on.</div>
<div>
The biggest problem is that there is a task killer somewhere in the stock ROM that seems to kill any app it deems as using too much resources. That means using Google Maps (which is a big memory hog) gets killed randomly, or other apps do whilst maps is running (e.g. music playing can get stopped whilst navigating). This is the biggest annoyance I've found so far.</div>
<div>
So I'm now determined to get all the niggles fixed, so onto how to get around it!</div>
<div>
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>ADB over wifi</li>
</ul>
<div>
The first bit is to get into ADB and the shell of the unit, this seemed tricky at first. You can't get to developer options by tapping the build multiple times as the ROM developer has removed that option, so in this case you have a few different ways of doing it. Firstly there is a menu "Factory settings" in the main android settings menu. Tapping on it you get a password box. This password box accepts different passwords for different settings.</div>
<div>
126 goes into head unit specific settings</div>
<div>
adbon enables ADB</div>
<div>
3368 i've not yet tested.</div>
<div>
I'm unsure if the adbon alone worked, so I also installed a terminal application and at the terminal put in the setting for adb over IP:</div>
<div>
</div>
<br />
<pre class="default prettyprint prettyprinted" style="background-color: #eff0f1; border: 0px; color: #393318; font-family: Consolas, Menlo, Monaco, "Lucida Console", "Liberation Mono", "DejaVu Sans Mono", "Bitstream Vera Sans Mono", "Courier New", monospace, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; max-height: 600px; overflow: auto; padding: 5px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto; word-wrap: normal;"><code style="border: 0px; font-family: Consolas, Menlo, Monaco, "Lucida Console", "Liberation Mono", "DejaVu Sans Mono", "Bitstream Vera Sans Mono", "Courier New", monospace, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit;"><span class="pln" style="border: 0px; color: #303336; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">setprop persist</span><span class="pun" style="border: 0px; color: #303336; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><span class="pln" style="border: 0px; color: #303336; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">adb</span><span class="pun" style="border: 0px; color: #303336; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><span class="pln" style="border: 0px; color: #303336; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">tcp</span><span class="pun" style="border: 0px; color: #303336; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><span class="pln" style="border: 0px; color: #303336; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">port </span><span class="lit" style="border: 0px; color: #7d2727; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5555</span></code></pre>
I then went to reboot. After reboot, I connected my laptop and the head unit to a wifi access point and then ran adb connect 192.168.x.x (being the IP the head unit picked from DHCP). If you're not sure what IP it is, install "ADB wireless (no root) by Henry", that will show you your IP and also try to enable adb over tcp too, so quite handy. Doing that, I got a shell (adb shell).</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Rebooting</li>
</ul>
<div>
This isn't as obvious as it first seems! Turning the ignition off runs a 'shutdown' event on the head unit, but in reality it's going into a deep sleep (with processes killed) mode. So it doesn't do a full reboot on power on (This is GOOD as it stops it taking ages when you turn your car on). So pressing and holding the volume knob, that did the same put it into sleep.</div>
</div>
<div>
I found that if you press the recessed RESET (with a pen or similar point) that causes a reboot of the device.<br />
Some people with different MCU versions (mine came with 2.58_1) report their shutdown and wake-up are buggy and have problems. I can confirm my MCU version here appears to sleep and wake-up really well. Initial boot time is a few minutes (from total battery off), then when you turn the ignition off the unit displays "Shutting down" and goes into a deep sleep. Switching ignition back on and the unit is back running withing 10 seconds and will resume the last music action, normally playing from where you left off.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Root/Su/Sudo</li>
</ul>
<div>
After getting a shell, I tried to get root with su, sudo, etc, and as usual it wasn't already installed. Therefore we need to root it. I'm going to use SuperSU as there are a few methods and scripts out there to do the install. One method is using <a href="https://hvdwolf.github.io/Joying-RootAssistant/rooting.html">https://hvdwolf.github.io/Joying-RootAssistant/rooting.html</a> which is a modified version of what I'll be doing.<br />
I can confirm I've got root using the simple method using the file "SuperSU-Joying-Intel-v2.82SR1-patch2.zip". Use the script and adb over wifi and this works great, root confirmed.</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Developer options/tools</li>
</ul>
<div>
This used to be in the play store as "Spare Parts" but it's since changed it's name, and how to get to the developer options in our modified ROM? It doesn't appear to be available from any menus or able to be enabled. However it is there, you just need to be able to load it! So I installed "Developer Options from uDroid". That creates a link and clicking it will load the developer options screen. Checking through this didn't yield anything that would help me, and in fact I made things worse by causing apps to suspend as soon as they lost activity/focus, but there are various settings in there should you need them!<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Recovery menu (for rom flashing, etc)</li>
</ul>
<div>
To get to a recovery menu for these units:</div>
<br />
<div>
* Press reset button and hold until you see the button lights blinking (10 secs approx.)</div>
<div>
* Release and press again until you see the lollipop logo</div>
<div>
* Release and wait to the recovery menu.</div>
<div>
Once into recovery, use the reset button for:</div>
<div>
* Move along the options (short press)</div>
<div>
* Select an option (long press)</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Custom ROM</li>
</ul>
<div>
This one has currently eluded me, I cannot find a custom/alternative ROM for these Intel Sofia units, which unfortunately may mean I need to 'cook' my own, which isn't something I've done in a lot of years now! (Going back to the google g1/HTC Dream phone)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<ul>
<li>Bluetooth to phone</li>
</ul>
<div>
This was easily setup, go into normal android bluetooth settings menu, pair with phone, allow for calls, phonebook, etc. So I can then click on the "Bluetooth" button on the home-screen/widget and it will show my dialler screen, load contacts, search contacts, etc. Dialling and using it as handsfree worked great, call quality was reasonable. I've since plugged in an external MIC which has improved the audio quality further.</div>
<div>
One problem I keep finding though, is that when the unit goes into standby it seems to switch off bluetooth. I've since installed an app "Bluetooth Auto Connect" by "UniqTec" that keeps enabling it and forcing the connection to my phone. This seems to have solved the problem. However no matter how much I select for PAN (Networking) it doesn't seem to enable this. If I go into Settings > Bluetooth and click the cog beside my phone pairing, the "Use internet access" is always unticked and I have to tick it, this then lets the head unit use my phone for it's internet connection. (As an addition on my phone I've installed "Blue Car Tethering" which keeps the tethering enabled on my phone connection ready to accept the connection from the car.</div>
<ul>
<li>Text/SMS alerts</li>
</ul>
<div>
This is one I'm really looking to solve. My phone is paired via bluetooth to the head unit when driving, so I've got handsfree calling, the head unit also uses my phone for internet via bluetooth PAN. However I've not yet found a good way of getting text messages read out to me by the head unit when they arrive. Firstly you need to 'push' the messages to the head unit. I'm currently trying "Tablet SMS 4 Phone" by estang, but the problem is when the head unit goes into shutdown/sleep it kills all background tasks and won't reload them when it powers back on!<br />
<br />
I'm continuing to find out more and figure out these bugs, so I'll keep updating this post when I get more!<br />
For now, here are some images of the unit itself:<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh27t6uPHC5LF9HzyRiiaYTxLC8nX_cNyOhFcowbM9ELvOcL_bVEvAOTCo60XrBI9n7JPqQNrbdKeyVQBV3yyKJWC_0ZohQKHBuNARnYHtA62axeMeCxqwTN96kPvWiRolZiNaiyueCeY/s1600/IMAG2736.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="905" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh27t6uPHC5LF9HzyRiiaYTxLC8nX_cNyOhFcowbM9ELvOcL_bVEvAOTCo60XrBI9n7JPqQNrbdKeyVQBV3yyKJWC_0ZohQKHBuNARnYHtA62axeMeCxqwTN96kPvWiRolZiNaiyueCeY/s640/IMAG2736.jpg" width="362" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLozKxOKKfJslTCZj32z5ec-klvrPCGiNxzqUqRUeqx4ykHgqDYrRs-7cMha0NkwxpDxcisWB9lf5-SsPB1ed6n3DG_-loTobk6ii66CAb19WXHkPaHxM3NbW8ukmJLTXLA7fUhfQdDx4/s1600/IMAG2735.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLozKxOKKfJslTCZj32z5ec-klvrPCGiNxzqUqRUeqx4ykHgqDYrRs-7cMha0NkwxpDxcisWB9lf5-SsPB1ed6n3DG_-loTobk6ii66CAb19WXHkPaHxM3NbW8ukmJLTXLA7fUhfQdDx4/s640/IMAG2735.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH0Lr4awXT01ntNNz7hGNTIGGLzr4suqBitaNWCGb5QQJLPrIF3LBFfGUw-Glvo5K8AKaVo_WaGSpy9n46g1Muxa-yaPokbaERqw9w4SCwCuXeOi7V_gZiptn9CgJxjjUi-YLm8TrdYEg/s1600/IMAG2734.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH0Lr4awXT01ntNNz7hGNTIGGLzr4suqBitaNWCGb5QQJLPrIF3LBFfGUw-Glvo5K8AKaVo_WaGSpy9n46g1Muxa-yaPokbaERqw9w4SCwCuXeOi7V_gZiptn9CgJxjjUi-YLm8TrdYEg/s640/IMAG2734.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix1ftifyrZKyJQoQmv1R6VnpR8O42a7ypJZUNbBwxhKjXhOHoDKVsR9Ynjm7gTa4ga8UlUc7uR3v0uhcHdw_gH_WlJ7rhD5yruDH-h7VCmCRhNqCHdrWTnOdB0_Hns1Gcf5G7zp7CJFhg/s1600/IMAG2756.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix1ftifyrZKyJQoQmv1R6VnpR8O42a7ypJZUNbBwxhKjXhOHoDKVsR9Ynjm7gTa4ga8UlUc7uR3v0uhcHdw_gH_WlJ7rhD5yruDH-h7VCmCRhNqCHdrWTnOdB0_Hns1Gcf5G7zp7CJFhg/s640/IMAG2756.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiPbL13qXmjawfjZeMA1yUsB-bJ8vaTMt-tp9qbZ1ePEuig-9sujEmZ5USQadHQnfNfmle1SajgMgs8vU5z1jNhBGwC-b40mCCHpg4zcKgS9QZ-gLdGMMoThGlMbaHq_nBBDVLXXeSLbg/s1600/IMAG2768.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiPbL13qXmjawfjZeMA1yUsB-bJ8vaTMt-tp9qbZ1ePEuig-9sujEmZ5USQadHQnfNfmle1SajgMgs8vU5z1jNhBGwC-b40mCCHpg4zcKgS9QZ-gLdGMMoThGlMbaHq_nBBDVLXXeSLbg/s640/IMAG2768.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAisIQ5EkzxIokgNhSt8443btoi1Opab7BsV-uzv1rHpA0W-Ux8OIJBYQENcJLucANPbH6ifXkZJSP-VnO6htryKrqnzLnF6oJGNbpHyAlx_ZFQRoQ79Awk5Scm9JzLG7RrDGL-_hUHNY/s1600/IMAG2769.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAisIQ5EkzxIokgNhSt8443btoi1Opab7BsV-uzv1rHpA0W-Ux8OIJBYQENcJLucANPbH6ifXkZJSP-VnO6htryKrqnzLnF6oJGNbpHyAlx_ZFQRoQ79Awk5Scm9JzLG7RrDGL-_hUHNY/s640/IMAG2769.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnB4fzqdBt-qIlA9l-qUWdAhugC-KnaW7wEf8MCDb3GqxIFjck9xJbqFa1fK20ISrzntXu9mz6S52K3zFank5mqCL2UIBLK3qfgpRRiVn6QibqAZp7-q0oG6fGV4j648_12ZFtYGHT_5Q/s1600/IMAG2770.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnB4fzqdBt-qIlA9l-qUWdAhugC-KnaW7wEf8MCDb3GqxIFjck9xJbqFa1fK20ISrzntXu9mz6S52K3zFank5mqCL2UIBLK3qfgpRRiVn6QibqAZp7-q0oG6fGV4j648_12ZFtYGHT_5Q/s640/IMAG2770.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
* Update 27/11/17<br />
So I've continued to investigate, and by watching adb logging whilst carrying different actions, I've come to the conclusion that ART (The newer equivalent of DALVIK) is doing the application killing. In this case I suspect the default has been set as a little too aggressive and is killing application intents at too high a memory level.<br />
The idea is that the kernel has a built-in application killer that will trigger based on several key triggers. These can be seen/set using the /sys/ filesystem:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
cat /sys/module/lowmemorykiller/parameters/minfree </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
2350,4700,7050,9400,11750,14100</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div>
So this shows the different current settings I'm testing.</div>
<div>
<div>
x1, x2, x3, x4, x5, x6, where each (x) is a memory threshold and </div>
<div>
x1 represents Foreground Applications, x2 Visible Applications, </div>
<div>
x3 Secondary Server, x4 Hidden Applications, </div>
<div>
x5 Content Providers and x6 Empty Applications</div>
</div>
<div>
This is in memory pages, so to get actual values the formula is [(M*1024)/4=MP].</div>
<div>
Where M is the value in Mb and MP is the memory page values.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So far, this has stopped maps from killing and switching between this and music it seems to have solved the issue. Whether this causes a total system failure due to letting memory get too low remains to be seen.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-87727771530032791022017-11-15T10:53:00.002+00:002017-11-15T10:53:31.472+00:00Car fuse splitters - warning!I needed to add an extra item to one of my car fuses recently, this was to power my daylight running LEDs (DRLs) and so I found the easiest option was to wire into the ACC fused function in the fusebox. In my car it's in the bonnet to the side so exactly where I need it.<br />
<br />
A colleague recommended a nifty fuse splitter that he'd used previously. You take the existing fuse (mini spade fuse on mine) and replaced it with the splitter, which contains two fuses (the original and new one) and a flying lead with crimp connector on. Ideal for this sort of job! (Just be careful not to overload the fuse outlet as the fuse holders were only rated for the original, so an original 20amp if you use 2x20amp and it pulls all 20amp each of them the fuse socket will carry 40amp so may be too much for the wiring, etc!).<br />
So I searched ebay and found what I wanted:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPtZ6efHhO76I2Dcusg7Vm8jtWWdE34S9biw3sRxT1ybq30SzQ8sMJ1crfDXbHzCFL2LGNnQnVUbI-q31N7XkCxeq_iOqbpq4dnizJcxz9fum0_1f1rOZJcjFabro0NXHx8Rd7Fq9YXrQ/s1600/fuses-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="1600" height="532" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPtZ6efHhO76I2Dcusg7Vm8jtWWdE34S9biw3sRxT1ybq30SzQ8sMJ1crfDXbHzCFL2LGNnQnVUbI-q31N7XkCxeq_iOqbpq4dnizJcxz9fum0_1f1rOZJcjFabro0NXHx8Rd7Fq9YXrQ/s640/fuses-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
As you can see these are nifty little units, plug them in and add your new fuse. They do go at an angle so it may be tricky to fit in place depending on the size of fuse holder, whats around it, etc, but that should work great.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately my cheap-ness then cut in and I started looking for cheaper than £4.49 for 4.<br />
I found some for £3.79 for 4 and with faster delivery, so I duly ordered them. However when they arrived, I think I found why they were cheaper!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiiB5BgD1qEw3bJTIt0P7AgT7Pkr0MnZLlLCPkyEVuZym0CqMM9PlPoOp1onFXGsNOdg4PBh36jDJqCC2GVl93bz7XurnJ1Sj24Mg8Ov1StSEDH9-VMrTxYR4EEz9Sttm6hHH0ksE2JU8/s1600/IMAG2757.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="1600" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiiB5BgD1qEw3bJTIt0P7AgT7Pkr0MnZLlLCPkyEVuZym0CqMM9PlPoOp1onFXGsNOdg4PBh36jDJqCC2GVl93bz7XurnJ1Sj24Mg8Ov1StSEDH9-VMrTxYR4EEz9Sttm6hHH0ksE2JU8/s640/IMAG2757.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The fuse pins themselves have additional plastic around them, almost to the full depth of the pins, so these won't push into a regular mini fuse holder. In addition the fuse sockets on the device itself also have poor connectors and don't hold the fuses properly in place, not securely enough for them not to rattle out during normal driving.<br />
You can see on the photo above the black plastic tab that extends down to the full length of the pins, rendering these useless!<br />
I tried to cut away at this plastic to make them useful, but this ended up with the whole thing exploding and the pins not being secured, so in the end I've given up for now.<br />
<br />
Will buy the better ones at some point and do this job again properly!<br />
BTW naming and shaming the dodgy ones the ebay item id is 122558391093.<br />
<br />
NOTE: To be fair, now I've looked at the pictures of the ebay sale item they do show this plastic lip, so the photos are accurate!Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4542336944240448847.post-67416510676681708542017-09-22T17:30:00.000+01:002017-11-06T12:11:26.131+00:00Burton Menswear - A farcical organisation!This just has to be written down in order to understand the frustrations as a customer I've been through trying to order a suit!<br />
I needed a good suit/tux for a black tie event I'm attending on Saturday 23rd. So, me being a little last minute (I'll admit to this bit!) I ordered what I wanted on Sunday the 17th.<br />
<br />
So I placed the order online at burton.co.uk at 18:19 and got email confirmation. I selected and PAID for next day delivery, which as it was a Sunday, it would be Tuesday 19th when it would arrive.<br />
Tuesday 19th it arrived, I took it home and tried it, it was the wrong size. So next day I thought I'd go into the nearest Burton store to exchange it, hopefully getting it off the peg and swapped there and then.<br />
Wednesday 20th went into local Burton store and looked for the outfit, of course they didn't have the right sizes in store. Assistant said that we can order online for next day, so she brought the suits up and found the right sizes, type and everything on her iPad. She then carried out the return/refund and went to pay for the new order. However, the card readers on the iPad were currently not working, so she couldn't simply refund me and then charge me again on my card. So she had to use a gift card, charge it with the refunded amount, get it authorised then pay for the new order via their online (staff) ordering process. This seemed to work (Only took 1hr in total!) and she was very apologetic that it was a hassle. I thought fine, it'll arrive tomorrow and all ok. I gave my email for the order confirmation.<br />
In an hour I got an email through confirming my instore order and delivery to me (at work), for Thursday the 26th! (A week later) Again something has gone wrong.<br />
I got straight on the phone (2pm 20/09) to their support, sat for 45 minutes waiting (long hold times) and spoke to somebody about the issue. They said yes they must have chosen the wrong delivery option, very sorry, and will need to cancel it, refund and I can then re-order it again myself.<br />
However, it was a gift card, so they can't refund to me, they have to refund to another gift voucher, which I can then use. They were going to credit it with the full amount+next day delivery to be sure, and I would receive the gift voucher within 1hr. OK fine, so left it there and waited. And waited. And waited. Now admittedly I should have rang back after 1hr passed, several passed and still no voucher. OK I'll leave it until the morning.<br />
Thursday 21st, still no gift voucher, so back on the phone (25 minute wait this time) and they said that gift vouchers take 12-24hrs to come through, couldn't have got it in the hour as last advisor said. However, they went and spoke to the right person who found the voucher request and said they would do it for me to come through. They said, definitely 1hr, if not ring back and be doubly sure! They were true to word this time, the voucher came through within 30 minutes. Great, I can now go on and order again!<br />
So I order the items again online, choosing fastest next day, expedited delivery, product was down to low stock so was getting worried, but order went through. Order confirmation came through and confirmed delivery Friday 22nd. I get an order dispatch note late on 21st evening, all looks good and tracking data will appear tomorrow.<br />
Friday 22nd I click the tracking link to Yodel, and it states "21/09/17 23:35 Your parcel is at our sort centre (Wednesbury)" as the last update. Hmm, I'd have expected it to be at local sorting office by now (Which as it happens is nearby where I work, so I know it's not a far delivery!)<br />
I then go on e-chat with Yodel to get a more concise update. Here is the chat (After i've given security info, delivery address, etc):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
YODEL: Thank you. I will just be a few moments looking into this for you.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
ME: no problem. Thank you</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
YODEL: Looking at your tracking, this parcel is currently in the sort centre. At this point in the delivery process we are unable to confirm the delivery date. I would expect the tracking to update within the next 24-48 hours. If</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
there have been no further scans within this time, please come back to us and we can advise you further. You can also track your parcel at yodel.co.uk</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
ME: the parcel is due for delivery today so it can't update in 24-48hrs? This was a timed/paid for Friday delivery</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
YODEL: I'm sorry to say this parcel will not be delivered today. Its still in transit</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Now it's not specifically Yodel's problem, although they have failed to deliver on their paid for service, but that's an issue between Burton and Yodel.<br />
So again I ring Burton, again 30 minute waiting time and get through to Ricky Russell on Burton support who sounds like a trainee, as he has to put me on hold almost after every statement or question! He states that it's dispatched and according to the courier will arrive today. I explain the above chat and he says, ah, so unfortunately we can't do anything for 24-48hrs. Which is of course no use at all! So I then ask the order be cancelled as I'll go and get something myself from another shop that I can find (hopefully!), but this is problematic. The order has dispatched, so they can't cancel it now, I'd have to return it.<br />
Finally we agreed that I would refuse delivery, when they got the delivery back they could then refund it. TO THE GIFT CARD, so I then stated that I never bought a gift card, this was their own do-ing but apparently they have to refund to the gift card. I then would need to contact and complain and get the gift card refunded to my bank account. How well this goes remains to be seen, but for now I'm down the money spent to Burton, plus I'm now going to have to go and buy it again myself.<br />
<br />
All in all this has been a terrible experience with Burton, online and in-store, and unfortunately means I'll never be using them online or store again after this farce of an order.<br />
I'd like to know if anyone has had other experiences, I will of course me adding my review to as many online review portals as I can to express my displeasure.<br />
<br />
Oh and to top it all off, I had a rant on twitter @'ing Burton, whose twitter account replied to me later on saying to DM them should I wish them to look in further, only to find that they have not followed me, therefore I cannot DM them!<br />
<br />
UPDATE 25/09:<br />
I've had an email from "Arcadia group customer service" who own Burton, and they advised:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<pre wrap="">Dear Customer,
Regarding your recent online order.
Thank you for shopping with us.
Unfortunately, Yodel have advised there has been a slight delay with your parcel
and you may not receive it in the timescale requested however, we will aim to
deliver your parcel as soon as possible.
As your order will not be received on the requested date, if you have paid for
delivery this will be refunded and credited to your original method of payment
and will take up to 5 working days, dependent on your bank processing times.
If you do not receive this refund within the timeframe advised please contact
your bank for further assistance.
Unfortunately, we are unable to make any amendments to the delays above.
Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.
Should you have any further concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me by
replying to this email address.
Kind regards,
Lauren
Arcadia Group Customer Care</pre>
</blockquote>
Which isn't a great way of explaining how they've messed up with this. I've replied back to continue and push them to cancel and get the money returned to me.<br />
<br />
UPDATE 02/10:<br />
I've had an email from Arcadia customer service again advising:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I would firstly like to thank you for your patience in awaiting our
reply.
<br />
<br />
I am sorry to hear that you have not yet received your refund on your
recent order.
<br />
<br />
After looking into this further, I can see that this has now been
received by
<br />
our warehouse team and I have therefore processed the refund today.
<br />
<br />
An amount of £85.00 has been refunded to both the Gift Card and the
Paypal
<br />
account on the order. With £63.20 to the Gift Card ending ***8330 and the
<br />
further £21.80 to the Paypal account. Please be advised these funds
can take up
<br />
to 5 working days to show in your account. If you are unable to locate
the funds
<br />
in your Paypal account, please contact them directly.
<br />
<br />
If you no longer have your Gift Card, please reply to my email and I
would be
<br />
happy to arrange a replacement.
<br />
<br />
I hope that this now resolves your query and I apologise again for the
delay.</blockquote>
<br />
I reply the next day to this confirming that it was their gift card and that I wish the full refund in cash to my account/paypal as that was my original purchase method. That reply was sent by me on 03/10.<br />
No reply as of 06/10 so I send a reply for an update.<br />
No reply as of 12/10 so I send another reply (I've now removed the # reply number in the subject, knowing this will generate a new ticket in their system so another set of eyes then can take a look)<br />
(I got an automated reply with a new reference number so will see what that reply shows)<br />
<br />
Update:<br />
17/10 - I got a reply from Arcadia Group Customer Service and it said:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<pre wrap="">Dear Mr/Mrs Andy
Your query is very important to us and we know you are waiting.
We are experiencing a high volume of contacts, however we are working to respond
to your email as soon as we can.
Thank you for your patience.</pre>
</blockquote>
Excellent, thank you! So more waiting.<br />
18/10 - I then get anothe email from them:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<pre wrap="">Thank you for your email received 12 October 2017.
I am sorry to hear about the problem you are facing.
Having looked in to your matter further I can see that the funds from your
Gift-Card have been moved to your PayPal account and the funds are of £69.15.
So can you wait up to 5 working days to allow the funds to go back in to your
account but if you do not receive these funds with in this timeframe please
contact your bank for further information.
I apologise for any inconvenience that we may have caused.
If there is anything further I can help with, please do not hesitate to contact
me by replying to this email address.</pre>
</blockquote>
OK, that looked hopefully, they've sent it back to my PayPal so wait 5 days to check and see what's going on.<br />
On 23/10 I then get an email from Burton (Not Arcadia) which is just comical, so I'm pasting it here:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<pre wrap="">Dear Andy,
Good news! We’ve now dispatched your order. Your order number is: 351845086
<b class="moz-txt-star"><span class="moz-txt-tag">*</span>Delivery Type:* Standard Delivery
<b class="moz-txt-star"><span class="moz-txt-tag">*</span>Delivery Address: <b class="moz-txt-star"><span class="moz-txt-tag">*</span>**** (My address was here) *****
<b class="moz-txt-star"><span class="moz-txt-tag">*</span>Scheduled Shipping Date:* Tuesday 26 September 2017</b></b></b></b></pre>
</blockquote>
Huh? The email date/time was 23/10/17 13:01 but the times and dates in the email were old. Was this their system trying to make everything right and sort my refund, or deliver, or something! I checked and nothing new got delivered!<br />
<br />
By the 29/10 I still didn't see the refund in paypal and there was nothing pending according to Paypal so I again replied to Arcadia support saying that it still hasn't and to get back to me on what is going on, YET AGAIN!<br />
<br />
29/10 3:11pm - I get a phonecall from Arcadia support, not long after my email reply (Quite good actually) who then explained that they CANNOT refund using the PayPal system due to the way the system works (probably as it's not the original order) and that they can refund to my Burton giftcard and that had taken place and to use that card. I again explained that I did not HAVE this card and that it was useless, they'd failed their part of the deal so I wanted my bank crediting with this. He said he'd have to go away and speak to a manager as he didn't understand why the system wasn't letting him do this.<br />
<br />
29/10 3:14pm - Another phonecall, from the same guy who again stated they cannot refund to PayPal as the money wasn't from there it was from a giftcard and that they couldn't refund it, so at that point I said you have to return my money as at the moment I'd class this as fraudulently taking my money, he said that I'd need to speak to his manager. After a few minutes I spoke to his manager who'd already reviewed my account and stated he can put me through to accounts who will refund me manually to a VISA card of my choice. RESULT! He transferred me and they did exactly that.<br />
Whilst they were taking my card details I heard the recognisable beep of a streamline credit-card terminal beeping as he put the digits in, etc, so this makes me think they don't often do this! After processing I even heard the printer fire up and print out what I remember (long time ago since I did this!) as the REFUND process. Sure enough within a couple of days the order was refunded straight to my VISA bank account. Yay!<br />
<br />
<br />
Just a quick reminder:<br />
<b>My event was on 23/09</b><br />
<b>My order was placed online on 17/09</b><br />
<b>My final refund was 29/10</b><br />
<b><br /></b>Andy Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02606411327841038008noreply@blogger.com1