E-mail to blog post software is evil… Forever cached by Google…

If you have a Windows 7 installation (as it should be pre-installed) and with the Window’s Qualcomm driver’s loaded, find the driver log directory.

e.g. C:\ProgramData\QUALCOMM\QDLService2k

There should be two files, Options2kHP.txt and QDLService2kHP.txt.

Open Options2kHP.txt and you should see 3 lines similar to :-

C:\Program Files\Qualcomm\Images\HP\UMTS\AMSS.mbn
C:\Program Files\Qualcomm\Images\HP\UMTS\Apps.mbn
C:\Program Files\Qualcomm\Images\HP\0\UQCN.mbn

Copy these 3 files listed into

/lib/firmware/gobi

The other file is a log file of the firmware loading done by the Windows driver if you’re curious.

The device ID for the firmware loader on the HP 5310m, un2420 module is 0×241d.
The device ID for the modem is 0×251d.
If the firmware is not loaded, you should see the firmware loader device.
If the firmware is loaded correctly, you should only see the modem device.

Short Instructions (Request in comments if you need debugging/testing instructions).

Download, compile and install the updated qcserial driver.qcserial_5Jan10
Download, compile and install the modified gobi_loader.gb2kload_5Jan10
Reboot and pray that network manager now shows your modem

*UDEV ISNT WORKING AT THE MOMENT … WILL FIX SOON … Run in manually like below…*

madox@madox-5310m:~$ lsusb -d 03f0:251d
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 03f0:251d Hewlett-Packard

Blah blah

Gobi Loader manually run and output

madox@madox-5310m:~/projects/gb2kload$ ./gobi_loader /dev/ttyUSB0 /lib/firmware/gobi
QDL protocol server request sent
01 51 43 4f 4d 20 68 69 67 68 20 73 70 65 65 64
20 70 72 6f 74 6f 63 6f 6c 20 68 73 74 00 00 00
00 04 04 30 03 0b
QDL protocol server response received
7e 0d 05 00 00 00 00 04 e4 7e
QDL protocol server request sent (Retry as gobi2000)
01 51 43 4f 4d 20 68 69 67 68 20 73 70 65 65 64
20 70 72 6f 74 6f 63 6f 6c 20 68 73 74 00 00 00
00 05 05 30 07 48
QDL protocol server response received (Retry as gobi2000)
7e 02 51 43 4f 4d 20 68 69 67 68 20 73 70 65 65
64 20 70 72 6f 74 6f 63 6f 6c ff ff ff ff 24 00
17 5c 05 05 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 30 d6 8a 7e
QDL protocol server request sent
25 05 2c 50 a9 00 01 00 00 00 04 00 00 40 97
QDL protocol server response received
7e 26 00 00 01 00 00 00 04 52 65 7e
QDL protocol server request sent
27 00 00 00 00 00 00 2c 50 a9 00 db ae
QDL protocol server sent 1048576 bytes of image
QDL protocol server sent 1048576 bytes of image
QDL protocol server sent 1048576 bytes of image
QDL protocol server sent 1048576 bytes of image
QDL protocol server sent 1048576 bytes of image
QDL protocol server sent 1048576 bytes of image
QDL protocol server sent 1048576 bytes of image
QDL protocol server sent 1048576 bytes of image
QDL protocol server sent 1048576 bytes of image
QDL protocol server sent 1048576 bytes of image
QDL protocol server sent 610348 bytes of image
QDL protocol server response received
7e 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 14 39 7e
QDL protocol server request sent
25 06 2c 60 2f 00 01 00 00 00 04 00 00 81 0e
QDL protocol server response received
7e 26 00 00 01 00 00 00 04 52 65 7e
QDL protocol server request sent
27 00 00 00 00 00 00 2c 60 2f 00 69 f0
QDL protocol server sent 1048576 bytes of image
QDL protocol server sent 1048576 bytes of image
QDL protocol server sent 1007660 bytes of image
QDL protocol server response received
7e 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 14 39 7e
QDL protocol server request sent
25 0d 44 24 00 00 01 00 00 00 04 00 00 50 90
QDL protocol server response received
7e 26 00 00 01 00 00 00 04 52 65 7e
QDL protocol server request sent
27 00 00 00 00 00 00 44 24 00 00 b9 49
QDL protocol server sent 9284 bytes of image
QDL protocol server response received
7e 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 14 39 7e
QDL protocol server request sent
29 bb 4c
Firmware Loading Complete

You might need to kill modem-manager if you’re doing this manually…

sudo pkill modem-manager

Server:        8.8.8.8

Address:    8.8.8.8#53

Non-authoritative answer:

69.69.69.69.in-addr.arpa    name = the-coolest-ip-on-the-net.com.

Other than the annoying thing that I couldn’t download it using Firefox or Linux, and that you need to update using Windows and HTC Sync… its awesome.  Even though it’s a Taiwan ChungHwa ROM, there is an English option luckily

In addition to the Sense UI and its wonderful feature set, another interesting but hidden away feature is “Mobile Internet Sharing”, aka tethering!  Azilink is now redundant with this new firmware, and honestly I was getting annoyed with Azilink’s performance and constant dropping out.  On Ubuntu at least, it was ‘plug-and-play’ without any other tricks.  Awesome.

Now I’m not so jealous about all the HTC Hero’s my friends and relatives have…

Photos (pretty boring) after the break.

HTML Can Sniffer

This is probably the most ridiculous way to reverse engineer something to date… a Chumby, an EasySync CAN Sniffer, PHP and JavaScript… but it works.

Instead of designing and building my own daughter-board for the Chumby, I bought an EasySync CAN USB converter which only has one CAN interface [and its not worth buying two].  This means I will have to use the Mazda’s MS-CAN bus only [That's where the fuel/trip computer information is].  Only one problem, I didn’t pay much attention to the MS-CAN bus before and the MS-CAN bus isn’t as interesting as the HS-CAN.

So new mission to find out what else is on the MS-CAN bus now.  Problem is, the nature of the information on the MS-CAN is different to the HS-CAN.  For example, something like Speed on the HS-CAN was pretty easy to decipher from just logging the data then plotting again.  Trying to figure out ‘door open’ for example on the MS-CAN is a lot hard this way.

I needed a tool to help me decipher the secrets of the MS-CAN, and I ended up writing (copy and pasting from old code) a ridiculous combination of PHP scripts for the chumby, a JavaScript/HTML front end.  All done and tested in 2 hours (lots of copy and pasting…) it works quite well.

How it works

• A background PHP script talks to the EasySync converter and reads the CAN messages that is being sent on the bus and makes this available to another data retrieval PHP script via sessions.
• The front end HTML/Javascript combination calls upon the data retrieval PHP, which feeds it XML on the messages for example the CAN Identifer and the timestamp.
• The XML is parsed and is rendered into a table for display, data is refreshed at periodic intervals.
• The Javascript compares the XML values with the already rendered values before updating to detect a change in value.  If there is a change, the background of the ‘byte’ field changes.
• A keypress monitor allows the user to ‘reset’ the changed background colours.
• Code attached below if you want to peek at the mess…

How I used it

Basically sat in the car with the sniffer running and trying various combinations to see which bit/byte changed.  e.g. Run sniffer, open a door, see message ‘433′ byte ‘0′ change colour, write down what changed, reset fields, open another door/do something else.

There were a few useful fields that I found/reconfirmed.  Nothing too interesting though and alot is disappointing.  For example there is information regarding headlight high beam being on, but not just normal headlights.  I suppose that’s because the high beam is displayed on the instrument panel whilst normal headlights doesn’t display/do anything.

Another disappointing thing is that the ‘ass/arse sensor’ (that’s what I call the passenger seat detection gizmo) is only a boolean signal…no pressure sensing in it at all.  Would have been useful if it was an analogue signal, could have been good for the mChumby display – “Warning, the girl on the passenger seat weighs 87kg, do not go on another date”.

I’ll be updating the new information to the Mazda CAN Bus page in the next couple of days… check back then to see what’s new.

Download cansniffer.zip (There’s still a bug with the timestamp I’m too lazy to fix… disclaimer this is hobby/crappy code )

Propeller Hats!

A picture post showing the latest delivery from Shapeways.  Joris just posted guidelines on stainless steel printing so I thought I’ll post some photos to show what tiny detail can be achieved.

Fits quite nicely on the shirt cuff...

Back side of the cuff

Blurry cam of a shirt that obviously needs ironing

I give you MILITARISED BEER CADDIE!

This thing is AWESOME. Felt the joys of being a child again opening a cool present… but seriously with that turret it is not a toy for kids!  It’ll also happily carry two cans of beer around the place for you (only had soft drink to test it with…oops out of beer…).

It was originally purchased to be taken apart… but I don’t think I’ll have the heart take this beautiful thing apart.  Maybe just the turret can be dismantled…its probably too dangerous on anyway

PS : Not in anyway affiliated with the manufacturer or trying to sell any…

PPS : This is a 1 minute post just bragging about this wonderful toy…

PPPS : Somewhere a Roboraptor photo sneaked into the gallery below…oops…

Photos…

Videos…

Transform!  (Or Transmutation in Chinglish…there’s a transmutation button on the controller…makes me feel like an alchemist)

Firing test…

Just some whiizing around the dining room…

Load test with some cans…

Summary :-

• Massive Hall crowded with too many people, it wasn’t like any ‘expo’ I’ve been to, there is absolutely no personal space at all with everybody effectively pushing and shoving each another to get anywhere.  Obviously everyone was looking for a bargain.
• Lots of computer stalls but it the prices didn’t look like ‘bargains’ to me and I come from Australia, the land of overpriced goods and ripoffs.  Most of the stalls were dealing with USB memory sticks and various other forms of flash memory.  The festival was very much a consumer affair with very little representation companies targetting industry and business markets.
• A few gadgets were to be found :-
  • Energizer has teamed up with Xpal to bring LiPoly external batteries to charger your netbooks and notebooks.  I got fooled by the deceptive advertising of 8000mAh…forgot to check the voltage that was rated at…5V…  8000mAh @ 5V battery for $970HKD.  Still a pretty good gadget.
  • Also on the battery front were Sanyo’s Eneloop of batteries and accessories.  I grabbed myself a mobile battery charger that takes 2AA eneloops to provide 5V USB power to devices…recharges off USB too…and a whole bunch of eneloop batteries
  • Solar cells and battery replacements by “China Legends” who didn’t even have business cards on the day so I’m adding it here as a bookmark for myself.
• Way too many stall bimbos who are on the majority ugly with way too much make up on but not enough to hide the fact they’re ugly.  OK maybe they were ugly but it really felt wrong, there was even a centre stage dedicated to handing out awards to these stall bimbos rather than providing any useful or interesting information.
• To match the way too many bimbos there was an even larger amount of guys with DSLRs crowding around taking photos.  What is the obsession?  Why would you need more than one photo?  They weren’t even pretty! [Ok I guesstimate around 30% to be actually good looking so I exaggerate...but still].  It was so ridiculous that I saw a stall I was interested in, walked over but couldn’t even approach the warez because all these 200mm lenses were swinging all over threatening to decapitate my  head if I ventured too near.  Isn’t the idea of stall bimbos to attract sales by drawing attention?  At a expo so jammed pack with people, these bimbos and horny camera freaks prevent sales.  It was rather amusing actually because I never thought I’ll ever say “Excuse me, you’re in my way” to a line of 3 scantily dressed women just to look at some Sennheiser headphones.

Ah…I used to think Stall bimbos at car shows and stuff were a good perve – walk by, admire the car with a bit of extra good looking bonus.  But at a computer fair with too many nerds with DSLRs, it was all just so wrong.

/Rant over, off to the airport

Oh I forgot to hit publish

Disclaimer on video/photo quality – camera battery was flat so all photos/videos taken with HTC Magic phone…so might be utter crap…(Actually photos turned out ok…video is a bit dodgy).

What a collection

The order is meant to be 2347293742934 pairs of propellers from Shapeways but a number were missing from the parcel.  I suspect it is mainly my fault for modelling everything in mirrored pairs (more than 1 body in each model), that and the fact the pieces are so tiny means the printer operator couldn’t find the bits

The small 10 mm props are for the Schnellboot, and the long cylindrical bits are shaft couplers from the motor to the shaft.  Haven’t played with them much but I can say they’re TINY and the detail is wonderful.  Some props have the shaft area cleaned while others still had lots of plastic powder stuck inside.

WS&F Prop + Cream Robust + WS&F Mini Props!

The larger 4 blade props are intended for fitting onto the bilge pumps that came off the MFC to try to see if I can give the pump a bit more ‘ooomph”.  You can really tell the difference in detail between the WS&F material vs the Cream Robust.  I’ve used the Cream Robust before but never with this little ‘overlap’ or support material and you can really pick up the layers and gaps in the print on the prop.

Snug little fit, perfect modelling on the part of someone...

Looks kind of like a flower...

You can see a few gaps in the material...

And what would this be without the almost obligatory ‘bathtub test’?

Ooook that’s just a total blur mess isn’t it? Video on the HTC Magic sucks!  Oh well, it worked rather well while submerged under water but anywhere near the surface it threw water everything … but that’s to be expected.