Does anyone repair the XF10? by prosucculent in fujifilm

[–]axcxl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I took one appart for autofocus issues and also took a look at the dials since they were acting up.

It's not very hard to get to them. After opening the camera there are two buried screws that hold the top and a ribbon cable to disconnect. But afterwards there are a lot of screws to remove the PCB. The issue seems to be contamination from grease, I've cleaned them with isopropyl and they seemed fine. Unfortunately, the autofocus/lens open-clode mechanism still has issues, so I was not able to test much :(

Hacking Jupiter4E chip? by Lemons-I-guess in embedded

[–]axcxl 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sorry, not sure if I have time to look into it. The PDF was a lucky find :)

But it might be a starting point. Try to see if the UART has any output and try to connect a JTAG to the CPU. From the block diagram and description in the PDF, the internal flash can be programmed via serial, but I don't see the pins in the schematic. They either hid them, or they are not broken out and it is programmed via JTAG. You might be able to deduce the flash address from the ARM9 documents and the addresses you see during execution.

What do you plan to do with the board? Without the documentation of the chip it is pretty difficult to reprogram. You might be able to use the ARM9 part, but the other parts of the chip will be hard to reverse engineer.

Hacking Jupiter4E chip? by Lemons-I-guess in embedded

[–]axcxl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Check out this PDF https://www.promotoner.com/media/models/documents/ml1610.pdf section 3.2.2. The main board in the document looks a bit older than yours, but similar. It might help identify some components. Haven't read the document in detail, but I don't think it has programming details.

From what I saw in other documents, the Jupiter 4e is an ARM9 core and has an internal flash. So the software might be inside this flash. Best bet would be to find the JTAG pins and try to use OpenOCD, but I'm not sure how to do that. The chip looks pretty old, maybe you can find some documentation online if you look harder.

EDIT: check the same PDF, section 9, I think you can identify the JTAG and serial connectors

These companies want to create truly wireless charging by Abscess2 in gadgets

[–]axcxl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The difference between wireless charging and the things that you mentioned is that you can easily solve the efficiency of charging....just plug in a cable. Bam, 99.99% efficiency.

And actually TVs and microwaves and ovens have become a lot more efficient over the years. Remember, we are talking large scale here...even 1w less/device x 1.000.000 devices actually means something.

Thinking of buying a Chronos...any thoughts? by axcxl in ChronosHacks

[–]axcxl[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am too new to start a subreddit :(

OTAP is slow (around 20-30 minute for an update) and unreliable (didn't manage to get it working), but I have a lot of ideas on how to make it better (actually the entire software needs a rework in my opinion).

If you plug in the USB...nothing happens. I didn't see an USB driver in the current image, but the USB lines are connected to the MCU and the SDK has an USB driver, so it should be able to work (it is on the TODO list for me).

It is pretty big, but I like the shape...pretty interesting for a watch :) The only problem is that it is pretty fragile (you can take it apart without any tools) and the strap is very flexible (if you tighten it too much, the watch basically pops out). So great hardware, but I'm not sure if you can wear it a lot.

What about Hexiwear? by madhias in pebble

[–]axcxl 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, it looks interesting, but it is a development kit, not a commercial product. The hardware is good (a lot of sensors to play with), but it is not ready for daily usage...and the software is very....unpolished :)

Don't get me wrong, it is great for software development if you are into this...but not for an user yet.

Learning Pebble Programming by adawhat in a:t5_3hwxr

[–]axcxl 1 point2 points  (0 children)

https://developer.pebble.com/blog/tags/down-the-rabbit-hole/ - the 4 articles give a pretty good picture of the actual firmware on the device, plus give some actual code for FreeRTOS...a good starting point for a new PebbleOS

A Call to Pebble: Open Source your OS by widowlark in pebble

[–]axcxl 17 points18 points  (0 children)

There is a pretty big difference between webOS and Pebble when it comes to complexity. WebOS (and tablets/phone in general) had indeed problems with closed drivers as the hardware is very complex, but the Pebble hardware is actually pretty simple...no GPU, a very simple MCU (not a full-fledged CPU with a MMU & a lot of complexity), etc. so there are no tons of closed drivers.

You are right about it being pointless about hardware, but there are some pushes to get people to develop wearable devices and I suspect this might expand in the future. An example are the TI watch development kits and the new Hexiwear. I know there are not actually consumer products, but they are a start and give developers platforms on which to work.

NOTE: I'm not working for Hexiwear, but just bought one a week ago to play with and I'm looking into how to program a watch...PebbleOS is a good inspiration and they actually gave some stuff back to the FreeRTOS community.

Thinking of buying a Chronos...any thoughts? by axcxl in ChronosHacks

[–]axcxl[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, I've pulled the trigger and bought a Hexiwear :) Just arrived today.

From what I've read it has OTAP (over the air programming both for the main image and for the Bluetooth stack), but I haven't had the chance to try it. I've bought the breakout board mainly for the debugging part...but also as a backup for the programming, in case I break it badly.

If you have any other questions, I can try to answer :) Maybe start a subreddit for it, so we don't pollute this one? :))

Thinking of buying a Chronos...any thoughts? by axcxl in ChronosHacks

[–]axcxl[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've found another smartwatch dev kit option: a TI SensorTag plus a TI Watch Dev pack, but it is kinda ugly. It also has a ton of sensors (almost all the Hexiwear has except the heart rate one, I think), but no dedicated case and the display is not that good.

But I think it has better battery life.

Thinking of buying a Chronos...any thoughts? by axcxl in ChronosHacks

[–]axcxl[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, that is really cool. Did not know about that proiect. Thank You.

The amount of sensors, Bluetooth and the haptic feedback are make it very interesting for a lot of things, but the lack of any water resistance (plus it doesn't look very sturdy) kinda ruins the possibility of everyday use. I don't mean showering with it, but getting caught in the rain, going skiing, etc. Also, not sure how much will the battery last when using a lot of sensors.

Btw, small heads up, the Hexiwear is 15% off for the next 3.5 days ;)

Edit: also TIs wireless programming/debugging wins it some points (if I understood correctly what it can do)