elly6d ago
Power button on this phone feels pretty nice 

I got annoyed because buttons on this phone have terrible quality and don't register presses when case is off.

While poking the board with oscilloscope to find UART I found a testpad that was shorting to ground when I pressed the power button, so here we go.

Also found that shorting two pins around the battery connector makes phone boot with only USB attached (both testpads had same voltage with battery connected and USB cable plugged in) so I can attach a MCU to toggle power on/off and turn phone on/off by setting pins high or low, I should have some octocouplers in parts drawer.

Sadly still no UART, I *really* don't want to deploy a Windows VM just to use some Chinese software to get schematics for this but it should be much easier to find it now.

Someone sent me memory dump from that software and it looks like it opens a tunnel to China (geoblock), authenticates over HTTP with cookie and downloads PDFs from "http://down.dzkj16888.com/down/51/pdf/$VENDOR/$MODEL/$FILE.pdf". I probably could pwn it and archive all pdfs they host on that server but I don't have enough spoons 
Show threadMoses Izumi5d ago
@elly
Speaking of keyswitches: how did your plan to install a keyboard on the xiaomi-pyxis by repurposing the internal interfaces go?

(the fact that tech moguls will make a device strong enough to BTFO a decade-old laptop, only to cripple it by having a finger touchscreen as the only interface...)
Show threadelly5d ago
@moses_izumi I probably will do this to motorola-vicky instead, because it has a completely plastic chassis (so I can 3D-print new casing) and I can steal I2C lines and power needed for keyboard controller relatively easily.

Biggest challenge would be:
1. Inability to afford a 3D printer
2. Figuring out how keyboard mechanisms worked in HTC TyTn II for example and replicating it
Show threadKinsey5d ago
@elly what's the best way to help sponsor a 3D printer for you so you can do more cool stuff?
Show threadelly3d ago
@opticron hmm, my friends convinced me to open GitHub sponsorships/Ko-Fi some time ago, but I just felt... weird asking for donations? I always feel like I'm not doing enough to warrant it... but on the other hand there are people who ask for donations by doing nothing but reading articles on YouTube so  

If people would be willing to chip-in for a 3D-printer, I would certainly appreciate it:
- https://ko-fi.com//ellyqw
- https://github.com/sponsors/ellyq

I have quite a few projects sitting in "projects drawer" because I don't have access to one. I can always ask a friend to 3D-print something and ship it my way, but it's not really a feasible strategy for prototyping...
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Show threadpoma buzz buzz 🐝19h ago
@elly do you have one in mind? I always use the hackspace ones because they can be so finicky sometimes getting the printer to work goes from sidequest to main focus :<
Show threadelly
@pomagarnet Prusa would probably be the best option, but unfortunately it is expensive as heck.
I had access to MK3S (I think?) at work when I lived in Bochum, it was an absolute workhorse that worked no matter what... but it was also maintained by group of coworkers so that might've been it.

You just loaded the webpage, uploaded the file, clicked print and off you went. You had to check on initial print after ~15 minutes to make sure it stuck to the bed properly (and wash it in the sink with dishsoap after using, that was the protocol) and that was... mosty it?

On the other hand, someone asked me to help them fix their Ender 3 and... yeah, I can see why some people spend more time fixing their printers than using them.

I just ordered a Bambu A1, friends weren't happy about it because company is scummy but if it pisses me off, I will hack the heck out of it (I'm shocked and have no words to thank @opticron, thank you!) and it should arrive next month (currently out-of-stock in all local-ish stores)
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