Messages

1

Gemini PDA - General Discussion / Re: Questions regarding actual real-world usage

« on: February 16, 2022, 05:30:32 pm »

It's been another year, so I thought for posterity (and in case any one else is interested) I'd answer my own questions now that my Cosmo is my daily driver...

(1) Instant access from sleep - Perfect I love it. I've even disabled the on screen pwd to ensure it's instant access

(2) Does Android o/s or the included note taking app support keyboard macros? - So far I've stuck with the default plannet note app. It's not perfect and I still wish I had macro's but it works well with both the inbuilt h/w keyboard and my Logitech external bluetooth keyboard. I ended up turning the spell check off as I hated it's interruption to my flow, capturing meeting notes 'live' was more important to me than good spelling.

(3) How buggy is the average daily experience? - This one gets a 3/5. It will reload web pages in the default browser after a mini crash (can't think of a better word for it as the browser doesn't crash but it looks like the page does [twiki and owa] and then will reload pages which is very annoying for those web apps that require you to re-login again) and I get a keyboard bug occasionally where the inbuilt h/w keyboard stops responding and I have to reboot

(4) What's real world battery usage like for just a typist / note taker? - Again another 3/5 I daily turn off the radio to preserve battery (WiFi and cell and bluetooth etc.) and I don't use the cell / sim ever. Leaving the radio on can deplete the battery in less than 48 hours even with zero use :-(

(5) Lastly keyboard typing speeds - this one scores highly, I can touch type ok on the inbuilt h/w keyboard but no where near my desktop typing speed. The [e] key hates me and the space bar can circa 10% of the time ignore my key stroke. But pretty good.

In general I love it and worry about having it break or loosing it and I often fear not being able to get another one should Plannet stop producing them   

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Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Keyboard stops working

« on: February 16, 2022, 04:53:00 pm »

All, I'm having a re-occurring bug that I can't work out (1) What's the sequence of events that triggers it and (2) What's the method to stop it from re-occurring.

I'm not sure if this is a h/w bug (unlikely), an Android bug (more likely), or related to a specific app (most likely) hence I've posted in the general forum....

Symptom: Open up Cosmo, h/w keyboard not responding in any app. Workaround: Reboot device by holding down the [esc] key

Clearly the keyboard is working fine as it always works on reboot, it's some sort of software bug but I can't work out if it's happening on wake when I open the clam shell as it only happens once a day (I don't restart my device unless I have too and will leave it on with clam closed for as long as I can).

Suspicions: (1) It's on wake / sleep when I close the clam whilst using a specific app that doesn't cope well, (2) Its related to MS Word (which was running when the bug occurred this morning) (3) It's still searching for my bluetooth keyboard that's at work whilst I'm at home and it's got it's knickers in a twist.... (4) It's related to some other factor I've not yet discovered.

Any one else got this annoying bug and can shed any light?

p.s. I'm running the standard cosmo Android 9 build v22 single o/s boot.

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Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Re: Punctuation on external keyboard

« on: November 18, 2021, 04:41:03 pm »

p.s. If any one is interested I am using a Logitech K480 bluetooth keyboard with a neat wheel on the top left hand corner that allows me to instantly switch between any one of my three devices: my Windows 10 laptop, my iOS device and my Cosmo device. Along with the HDMI adaptor and the HP USB-C travel hub G2 that I have a mouse attached too it makes for a neat functional 'hub' experience for my Cosmo when I'm at my desk.

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Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Re: Punctuation on external keyboard

« on: November 18, 2021, 04:37:23 pm »

Hi @DanielW I am supremely grateful!!!! Thankyou so much for explaining this to me so simply, it worked first time :-)

It's been annoying me for months to the level where I've slowly stopped using any punctuation so I'm glad to be back to using single quotes and tildas to my hearts content!

Thanks once again.

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Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Re: Screen "flickering" in browsers and under load

« on: November 03, 2021, 08:20:37 pm »

Yep I get a few vertical bars on the right hand side of the screen. Was worried about lose cables at first but I don't get it very often and haven't seen it in a while.

6

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Punctuation on external keyboard

« on: November 03, 2021, 08:19:03 pm »

Does anyone know how to type punctuation on an external keyboard?

I tend to use my cosmo throughout the day as a portable device during meetings etc. and at my desk at other times 'docked' with an external keyboard (USB or Bluetooth) and a USB mouse and HDMI video.

I've noticed that I can't type some characters and punctuation on the external keyboard (either the USB or Bluetooth) e.g. single or double quotes, greater or less than symbols, tildas etc.

The above punctuation chars that I type on the external keyboard usually come out as a forward or backslash or as a pipe / bar symbol leading me to reach to my cosmo to type the problem punctuation directly on the cosmo keyboard (very frustrating when typing up large amounts of text).

Would be grateful how to address or where to find resources.

cs

7

Cosmo Communicator - Linux / TWRP in boot 2 partition ( empty_recovery_boot_2 )

« on: July 05, 2020, 10:42:21 pm »

I have also not been able to get twrp to boot. I was planning on making a full backup before modifying stuff.

Did you flashed the TWRP.img using flashtool? I want to backup my Android non-rootet installation before repartitioning the Cosmo.
Which version did actually working and boot up properly, the oesf or the planet c. one?

Hi @SwordfishII and @klampfenfreak did either of you get your TWRP install to work in the end? Like you both I couldn't get it to work and still don't know why as I have stock install and no apps or anything else weird installed yet as the device is only 4 days old. All I want is to install TWRP to back up my device in its stock default install state before major playing.

Unlike @cam1965 I'm not keen to use the custom image provided by Ninji - would rather keep everything Planet Computers stock so they are responsible for fixing in the event of an issue. I used the image from     http://support.planetcom.co.uk/download/co...s-installer.zip

Keen to understand why following the PC process exactly doesn't give me a result, like you I partitioned correctly via the recovery menu and the boot menu happily shows me TWRP as an option but on selection all that happens is it reboots back to the boot menu (with default option selected) which then will load stock standard PC version of Android. Selecting TWRP only repeats the reboot and loop back to the boot menu experience.

There seems no way to actually verify I installed a good TWRP image nor boot it.

I can't help but wonder if I am missing some more steps from my process:

• Upgrade to v22
• Partition
• TWRP installation
• Something else??

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Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / What should I do first?

« on: July 05, 2020, 01:55:56 am »

Well I failed at installing TWRP as well it would seem. Despite creating the boot partitions correctly and installing TWRP into the correct 'EMPTY_RECOVERY_BOOT_2' partition it won't reboot into TWRP (if I select it as an option from the boot menu it simply reboots back to the boot menu in a never ending cycle).

Installing Debian/KDE fails and if you accidentally select 'fast boot' you get stuck at the 'fast boot' loader screen for ever.

HINT: to exit 'fast boot' loader screen and do what looks like a forced power down simply hold down the [esc] key for about 15~20secs till it forcibly shuts down.

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Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / What should I do first?

« on: July 05, 2020, 01:09:11 am »

I'm planning to modify the setup further, but these are the two steps which wipe data.

lol you weren't kidding about 'wipe data' ... I've just re-partitioned and installed TWRP (and failed to install Debian/KDE for some reason) and on reboot into normal mode realised I've lost some of my configuration item settings (though not the codi or cosmo version upgrades I'd performed).

Definitely lost both WiFi and Timezone keyboard settings etc. and on initial reboot I was presented with the standard welcome configuration screen.

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Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / What should I do first?

« on: July 04, 2020, 10:59:58 pm »

I seem to recall thinking New Zealand would be either Japanese or Verizon frequencies.  We're finally to the point of most devices being able to get LTE world-wide (though NZ and JPN are interesting), which means it is time for carriers to start adding new frequencies.

First on my list, go into developer options and set "allow bootloader unlocking".  Then `adb reboot bootloader` then `fastboot flashing unlock`.  Also reboot into recovery and allocate space for Linux.  I'm planning to modify the setup further, but these are the two steps which wipe data.

Hi ehem.

A quick google shows:

Verizon   4G on bands 2, 4, 5, 13 & 66 none of which are in use by Spark (3,28,7 and 40 though not used yet) or Voda NZ (3,1,7,38) - hence my initial panic.

I've come to the conclusion the verizon bands are in addition to the supported bands in my model or that the box sticker was incorrect / irelevant.

I'll have to read up on 'allow bootloader unlocking' as I have no idea what you mean though I'm guessing it has something to do with the dual boot into linux or TWRP etc.

11

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / What should I do first?

« on: July 04, 2020, 10:52:32 pm »

Bought the Samsung 512GB microSDXC UHS-I card EVO Plus brand.

Couldn't work out how to format it on the Cosmo, and wasn't immediately recognised by the 'File Manager' application, but noticed that in the back ground was another app requesting I setup the SD card.

Once I learned that 'Phone' storage encrypts the card I chose 'Portable storage' rather than 'Phone storage'. Apparently the 512GB isn't completely available once formatting you lose about 1/16th (which I guess is because 51GB isn't the same as 1024bytes * 512GB worth)

Worked fine. Then spent ages trying to work out if it's exFat format - which the Planet Computers web site specifically states you need to ensure the card is formatted as [exFat] else you can't use it for TWRP / Linux images for as the Cosmo can't access them in the boot loader (if I understood correctly).

Apparently it formats the large size cards by default in the exFat format though the PDF I was reading cautioned me that other o/s's like linux and mac might not be able to access the exFat format which seems strange if the point of the exFat formatted SD card is to put the Cosmo Linux image on and then boot into Linux (as then I won't be able to access my exFat card I'm guessing).

Still don't know how to reformat the card from Android if I want to do so manually nor do I know how to prove what format the card is in so I'll just have to assume I've got it right.

Time will tell...

12

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / What should I do first?

« on: July 04, 2020, 09:14:08 pm »

Discovered Planet Computers responded to a question regarding max microSD card size supported in the comments of How To Youtube video #3.... going to go out and buy one for myself:

"So far we have tested 512GB microSD, but we believe that 1TB will also work. We have tested SanDisk Ultra 512 GB microSDXC Memory Card + SD Adapter with A1 App Performance Up to 100 MB/s, Class 10, U1"

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Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / What should I do first?

« on: July 04, 2020, 08:57:13 pm »

Well this is fast becoming a log of what I've done to date, hopefully will be useful to someone out there.

Anyways I haven't screwed it up yet :-)

I made the decision to turn off the Codi display for now as I haven't moved to using the Cosmo as my primary phone (still carrying the iPhone SE) so I figured I might as well save on battery life (my use case is primarily to use my Cosmo as a note taker and project management tool).

Next I changed the screen width mode so I could get more screen real estate and increased the screen resolution which meant the size of the icons and text reduced quite a bit (and very nice looking indeed) -

[Fn][Del] to enter the config settings menu, {System}{Advanced}{About phone} and tap on the 'Build number' entry seven (7) times to get Android to enter developer mode (seems scary but you can make the screen change and then disable immediately afterwards) and then when you go back a menu to the 'System' menu you get a new menu entry the 'Developer options' menu, navigate to the 'Drawing' section and then select 'Smallest width' and change the value (I chose 600).

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Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / What should I do first?

« on: July 03, 2020, 08:58:40 pm »

Note at this stage I still haven't put a password into the thing nor logged onto my Google account yet (wanted to get the upgrade past the dreaded OTA hacked thing first as I was on v19).

Going to learn how to use and install TWRP and create a backup image before I properly commit to installing a bunch of stuff on it so I always have a clean image to come back to in case I stuff up.

15

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / What should I do first?

« on: July 03, 2020, 08:52:35 pm »

Well, I'm kinda answering my own question, so far I've done the following:

- Purchased a cover for it before getting my new unit so it doesn't get damaged (For NZ users I found a cheapo leatherette cover perfect size and fit at YoYoSo)
- Fully charged it before using
- Freaked out cos my unit came with a US plug (despite me selecting UK plug) - Solved by using with another USB adapter but finally realised I could just bend the US plug pins to the NZ socket angled pin shap as it's multi voltage and multi cycle and a switching power supply unit - works perfectly)
- Learned how to create a WiFi network connection (hint the WiFi setup for a new network is  under network and internet and you don't have to manually type your config in there is a way to get it to 'find available' networks though it's not obvious how and I can't recall what I did to get it to do the search thingy (cos at first it doesn't do anything but sit there with no available networks listing etc. like on other devices) (n.b. There is a WiFi setup icon on the far right of the dock menu which probably auto searches but you can't find the icon on the dock without swiping to the left to see more hidden doc icons)
- Discovered you can drag left on the pop up dock menu bar to see more icons
- Freaked out some more as the box says 'Verizon version' yet I didn't select that option when placing my contribution - turns out it's irrelevant and works nicely on Voda NZ with 4G speed downloads of 20 Mbs+ where I am
- Purchased a Bamboo stylus (first gen) works wonderfully as a mouse alternative
- Re Watched Official Planet How To video #10 to learn the short cuts which conveniently teaches the basics of Android switching and killing apps and resizing windows and return to the desktop etc. (I'm an iOS user from way back this is my first Android device)
- Discovered my keyboard light isn't broken but simply turned all the way dimmed down
- Learned how to open up the config settings options app by function-Del key (the little cog item)
- Learned how to find out which version my device is (hint the 'about this phone' menu item which is hidden under the advanced option (which expands the list) of the system menu item)
- Performed successful update to v22 by doing the 'wireless update' thingy also under the system menu (hint plug your device into the mains power during an update you don't want to run out of battery and fubar your machine)
- Learned to swipe up from bottom of screen to see full list of all installed apps and do an app search so that I can find the flaming Cover Display Assistant app
- Thought I successfully updated the Cover Display thingy to v 1.1.1.14 when in fact I was required to press 'Flash Now'
- Got a dreaded 'Flashing Error' when attempting to flash Codi
- Pressed repeatedly on 'Flash Now' till I realised that the machine was just "thinking" and eventually the progress bar did its thing (despite the 'Flash Now' button remaining in that state don't push it repeatedly just be patient and it will happen lol)

That's it for now... plenty for a newbie to learn