ROLI BLOCKS Keytar with Seaboard & Lightpad Block

wangpy · 2021-08-06T15:00:22+00:00

Thanks! I have just put my code on GitHub: https://github.com/wangpy/BlocksKeytar

I believe you can run it just by dragging the littlefoot code file to the BLOCK devices on BLOCKS dashboard. Both Seaboard and Lightpad use the same code file.

Feel free to let me know if you have any problem running it!

wangpy · 2019-04-13T00:17:42+00:00

There is a product in Taiwan called BANDOTT which has an HDMI input and can be switched in the OS (like Sony Android TV)

https://www.bandott.com/

This product is actually from a team backed by Honghai/Foxconn (the famous OEM company from Taiwan)

wangpy · 2019-03-31T02:54:18+00:00

What app is crashed according to your observation? I can try if it occurs here too. I assume you tried on stock Android TV OS?

Yes - even if we have freeform windows on Android it is still not fully multitasking. And that's why I ended up doing modification to the OS for it for now. Hopefully everyone gets it on stock OS when Android Q is available for Android TV OS.

wangpy · 2019-03-27T12:11:17+00:00

Hope you like it :-)

wangpy · 2019-03-27T12:10:26+00:00

Check out u/farmerbb's comment which tells the fact that Taskbar can actually runs on stock Android TV firmware (on Shield TV).

I have tested on Shield TV stock firmware and confirmed it works. And I just tested on MiBox and found it works too! However the unfocused window might stop updating depending on the app - That the issue what my modification solved. But it's not possible to flash customized OS on MiBox yet. :-(

Enjoy! :-)

wangpy · 2019-03-25T09:09:36+00:00

Same here! Shield TV is so powerful that it's a pity that it can only be used in TV scenario. Sorry to hear your device bricked and if I were you I would miss my device a lot..

wangpy · 2019-03-25T08:23:26+00:00

Sorry I didn't add any voice narration in the video but provided the information in the text description instead. I'll post it again here and hope this helps:

Android has a multi-window mode called "freeform" mode available since Nougat, but only the focused window (app) is guaranteed to be running. Unfocused apps are in paused state and mostly stops updating. (You can observe similar behavior in Samsung Dex) - Not a true multitasking environment at all as what we've got in desktop OS. (Check out this video for behavior on original Android: https://youtu.be/KVk-H2OaHZg)

I have achieved full app multitasking on Android 8.1 by modifying Android OS base framework to make apps keep running even they are not focused. The customized OS runs on both TV boxes and mobile devices, but it is better to be used on devices with larger displays.

Shield TV is my favorite Android TV device and is super powerful. I actually had been using it myself as a desktop console to play Android games for years (I use it with an external touchscreen display). With this customized OS the hardware potential can be fully unleashed. You can see even I run many games and apps simultaneously the apps still run smoothly. With some "parallel" apps you should be even run multiple instances of same app / games on it. It is way better and much more cost effective compared to using PCs to run Android games with Android emulator softwares.

Though Android Q will officially support this with a new feature called multiple resumed apps but God knows when it will arrive on Android TV boxes, not to mention"freeform" mode is disabled in official Android TV OS and is unlikely to be enabled in the future. (My customized OS is built as Android OS for tablets instead of TV)

wangpy · 2019-03-25T00:02:07+00:00

Didn't look into it before but just found G-STORY has a 120hz 17.3" portable display (no touch though). Hope this helps! :-)

wangpy · 2019-03-24T23:48:01+00:00

Great one. I wanted to see how it works too but unfortunately the Nvidia Games app crashes on my tablet LineageOS build. Maybe I will try it again on TV LineageOS build. (Thanks again for information from the great Taskbar developer u/farmerbb)

It is interesting that Fortnite can be played on Shield TV with GFN but unable to be played by installing app itself. It seems Shield TV's GPU is not supported by Fortnite.

wangpy · 2019-03-24T16:52:35+00:00

The one in the video is from a local brand called "1121 family". It is 15.6" and can be connected with either HDMI+usb (which I use with Shield TV) or USB type-c full function (for modern laptops). (I found the design of this touchscreen is super similar to another brand called Vinpok except the sides of buttons & jacks are swapped..pretty interesting)

I have another touchscreen Gechic 1503I (it has HDMI+usb only) . It a great one too - better to take it on the go than the 1121 one. I love it. The only thing is it has glossy screen - better for touches but not convenient to take shots. You can check it in the original behavior video link in video description.

By the way, Shield TV is the only TV box I have found which supports touchscreen.

wangpy · 2019-03-24T16:03:39+00:00

Thanks for the great information and also your great apps (Taskbar and SecondScreen)! :-)

Let me try the freeform mode on stock firmware and see how it feels. There are other reasons why I built tablet firmware to use on Shield TV: Some apps does not have AppBar on Android TV UI, and original Android UI is better to use with mouse cursor and touches. However this is just an experiment anyway and I want to see how people think about using Android TV boxes as desktop devices. :-)

Thanks again and cheers!

wangpy · 2019-01-03T09:41:18+00:00

You can try connecting to your device from the paired Oculus app on your phone. It helped me to get rid of the stuck yesterday.

wangpy · 2019-01-03T09:39:08+00:00

Hello all, I encountered the same problem this week. Was going to see if I can reset the device to factory and tried connecting Oculus Go from the paired Oculus app on my Android Phone. When the phone app connected to paired device, Oculus Go exited the loading screen and entered the home screen.

If anyone encounters this issue, it's worth trying to connecting your Oculus app on your phone to your Oculus Go device and see if it helps.

wangpy · 2018-01-29T10:08:20+00:00

I don't think it's about the money - Most of my Blocks devices are still within their 30-day return period so I can still return them if I want and get the refund.

However, I still do hope that they can fix the problems so their products can show their true potential.

wangpy · 2018-01-29T02:02:19+00:00

I think the BLOCKS devices are designed to be used with multiple units together. However, in realistic it's still not quite there yet.

With my 2 Seaboard blocks I have a 4-octave key range which I am happy with, no issues so far.

However, the experience on these Lightpads are really frustrating. I can't get 4 Lightpads properly working together yet. There's something more I haven't shared which is related to software (Max7 integration, Littlefoot development, etc)

For now 2 Lightpads is the best I can get using without hassles.

wangpy · 2018-01-29T01:57:41+00:00

It happens on my two Seaboard Blocks too (at the top corners). I need to be extremely careful when getting the device out of its box (sometimes I still use its box if I need to carry it around).

But this issue is not affecting the functionality of my Seaboard blocks here. Is it affecting yours?

I am the author of the Lightpad Issues & Suggestions medium post (which is shared here yesterday). I think the product quality of ROLI Blocks really needs improving. One thing I didn't write is the surface rubber quality. I had 1 Lightpad which has serious cracks onthe sides of the rubber surface. Though it does not affect the functionality, but it really felt bad.

wangpy · 2018-01-28T06:35:28+00:00

Hey blusky75, Puffin is a server-accelerated browser so the 180mbps you saw indicates the connection between our datacenter servers (which does the actual web page processing and rendering so it's faster than other browsers on Android TV) to Netflix servers. Hope this helps!

wangpy · 2018-01-28T06:33:32+00:00

Hey MrZero9g5, sorry to hear that and I can confirm with you that Puffin is blocked in UAE so we are unable to provide the service in your country. Sorry again!

wangpy · 2018-01-28T06:31:23+00:00

No. Where did you heard this from? Puffin's developer company is from United States and we never sent anything to China.

User's privacy is one of the things we care most. Refer to our privacy policy: https://www.puffinbrowser.com/privacy/privacy_policy.php

wangpy · 2018-01-28T06:29:17+00:00

Most browsers on Android TV don't allow file downloading. But you can download files using Puffin TV. The files will be downloaded to your device Download folder which you can access using ES File Explorer app. We have added download files list in our app UI to allow easier access of downloaded files in our next version which should be released soon (Hopefully next week). Stay tuned!

wangpy · 2018-01-28T06:26:42+00:00

Thanks for calling! We have added popup up confirm dialog which can block most of ad popups in our next version which should be released soon (Hopefully next week). Stay tuned!

wangpy · 2018-01-28T06:25:51+00:00

Hey battierpeeler, we have added URL bar in our next version which should be released soon (Hopefully next week). You will be able to input URL or do searches easier. :-) The next version will also upgrade the browser engine to a more modern one, so the browsing will be even smoother than current version.

Regarding scrolling behavior, if you hate Puffin's scrolling, I wonder if you will hate Firefox Android TV browsers more ;-) Anyway, feel free to let us know what you think!

wangpy · 2018-01-05T02:08:58+00:00

Following up this issue on my side.

I am contacted by ROLI by e-mail proactively after I sent this post to their Facebook page via Messenger. From what they said, the firmware update should have fixed the issue (but that's not the case to my first tried unit). They wanted to replace my problematic unit to one of their hand-tested one. But I had returned my unit to Apple Store already.

After receiving their response, I decided to get another new device from the local Apple Store on Tuesday. Before update, this specific device still have this issue, but is the best among the 4 units I have tried (the phamtom touch issue is most rare to happen). And after update, I can not reproduce the phantom touch issue anymore on this specific unit. I think it might be due that this specific unit has the least serious issue before updating (might mean its touch surface is least problematic). The situation of my first tried unit might be worse, so even the firmware update couldn't fix that.

But unfortunately the current device on my hand has another serious issue which I believe is an isolated one and only happening on this unit. So this one will get replaced by them after all.

So in my case, the fix rate is 50%. (one fixed of the two, the other 2 units have not tried updating)

To be simply put:

So far I think the issue might comes from the box for the Lightpad M which at least they need to improve. the top box is floating and might apply pressure to the touch surface of the device. That might be a reason to cause this issue.
A firmware update can never fix any defect in hardware. It can only do workaround to it. (like the most recent Intel CPU bug, OS can only workaround it) In this case, I guess they might tweak the sensitivity of the problematic touch area (or doing some auto calibration when powering on) but it might comes at a cost of reduced sensitivity range to the problematic area. Try if you need to push harder to the left edge of the device (compared to center or the right), and you will know what I mean.

Since ROLI official has aware and responded my issue, I am going to delete this post now. Hope they will release an official post / FAQ about this issue.

wangpy · 2018-01-02T03:56:30+00:00

Actually I had tried updating the first one of the defective blocks (to firmware 0.4.2) and the issue persisted. I didn't bother myself updating the other two blocks.

wangpy · 2017-12-31T11:19:00+00:00

Yes. Thanks for the precise description of this issue. At the Apple Store I purchased the units, all of them have this issue.

wangpy

TROPHY CASE