Messages

1

Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker / Battery Charging Problem?

« on: August 05, 2013, 05:53:07 am »

Thanks for your thoughts, ptoki.....

Sounds good then, overall....

A positive update:
My netwalker went sober after some charge-discharge cycles. Now it has about 30-40% of initial battery capacity but does not switch off when unplugged from charger.

I tried to open it and to fiddle a bit with battery but ended up with just looking at it and realizing its too complicated and too expensive to but replacement battery.

Now my netwalker acts as quick look into internet machine and mpd server.

2

Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker / Battery Charging Problem?

« on: October 31, 2012, 07:17:23 pm »

No, I stick to initial ubuntu. It works fine and I dont need to fiddle with it.

There is only one problem with netwalkers OS: video acceleration problems. But mplayer is usable...

3

Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker / Battery Charging Problem?

« on: October 25, 2012, 02:58:17 am »

Deluxe, thanks for suggestion but i think that cells are fine.
Netwalker was running long on batteries till some time ago.
Then was unused and then it started behave oddly.
So I think that cells are fine. But thats just my unprofessional opinion.

The way I thinked out is that I will buy external battery for 12V with charger.
I will plug it other way around so netwalker will be without battery and this new battery will be plugged as main power.
I think thats most safe and unproblematical way.

But first I will try to ask for advice guy which pointed by ArchiMark.
Just to ensure what might failed and how much would it cost to repair it.

Thank You both for constructive suggestions.

4

Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker / Battery Charging Problem?

« on: October 23, 2012, 02:20:25 pm »

Well, I have left walky plugged and couple days later charge led stopped blinking. After unplugging PSU walky switched off instantly.
I guess battery or charging circuit died.

 

I assume that even if I find suitable battery it will be too expensive in comparison to buy some other gadget.

Does any one know any source for information about putting some other type of battery to netwalker?

It would be acceptable to put there even smaller battery but be able to use netwalker without power from socket...

5

Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker / Battery Charging Problem?

« on: October 08, 2012, 04:40:26 pm »

Deluxe, thanks for hint. I will try to fully discharge netwalker. It is alive so it should not to be a problem.

ArchiMark, this unit was yours some time ago

6

Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker / Battery Charging Problem?

« on: October 07, 2012, 04:56:27 pm »

I had netwalker unused for a while. After plugging it to charger and booting it started to behave oddly.

Netwalker works fine but charging led (the one on netwalker) blinks and unit will not charge more than 70%.

When booted from halt witch charger unplugged it shows 10-12%. After just plugging charger and unplugging charge jumps to 70%.

I had left it charging (with blinking) for over 24h but it behaves the same.

Can any one suggest what happened?

I wanted to use it as small home media center for music and internet radio and for email but now I dont know how it will behave.

7

C1000/3x00 Hardware / C1000 - Hw Pb With Touch Screen

« on: October 07, 2011, 01:03:16 pm »

I found a solution accidentally. Just take out the battery, close the battery cover, wait for 5 minutes or more time, then re-install the battery, power on. (Sharp ROM)

But when the system suspended for hours, the touch screen will be disabled. So bad...

This gives me idea that there might be an old electrolytic capacitor in there.
Electrolyte got old or leak and now it is not working proprely.
Soluion: replace it.
Problem: No idea which one it might be.

Second possibility:
There might be a broken path/solder.
Try to investigate it by giving zaurus a bit of heat before restore after some suspend period.
Just put it near raiator or under blanket with you
Or just launch it, put under load and check if touch panel will wake up.

8

Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker / Jaunty Repository Gone?

« on: July 22, 2011, 04:43:35 pm »

I tried to install rrdtools and got some 404 errors.
After checking whats up, I found that on ports.ubuntu.com and on archive.ubuntu.com jaunty repo is missing.
What happened?
Where I can find complete repo for jaunty?

OK. Panicked a bit.
http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ does the trick.

9

Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker / Jaunty Repository Gone?

« on: July 22, 2011, 12:11:51 pm »

I tried to install rrdtools and got some 404 errors.
After checking whats up, I found that on ports.ubuntu.com and on archive.ubuntu.com jaunty repo is missing.
What happened?
Where I can find complete repo for jaunty?

10

Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker / Usb Displaylink Vga Adapter

« on: April 26, 2011, 10:33:49 am »

Works.
I had to compile kernel and xorg module and edit xorg.conf.

Works almost perfectly.
X server launches, sets both displays to work and has :0.0 and :0.1 displays.
Xinerama does not work. Netwalker just freezes.
It needs to restart X server to connect/disconnect adapter.

When plugged I can achieve about 20-70mb/sec transfer to its memory with simple dd command.

I got it from local supplier for about 60$ or 50EUR.
It works under windooze too

If any one interested I can post some commands needed to compile needed modules.

11

Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker / I Recd My Netwalker Pc-t1 (tablet) Today

« on: March 04, 2011, 04:48:11 am »

The computer has become unresponsive a couple times and I had to do a hard shutdown.
Firefox has crashed several times, as in abruptly closing for no apparent reason.
The file manager, and other programs become unresponsive from time to time and have to be force closed.
All in all, it's not an experience I'm used to, or want to continue with.
I think I may just put it up for sale.

Dont give up yet.
First: Did you installed flash plugin for firefox? Try to disable it. It eats a lot of cpu.
Next: While device seems to froze try to switch to terminal with running top (you must open it as soon as you log in and leave it running). And check what process is eating your cpu.

Explanation:
At least in my netwalker there are some mandb, apt, and similar update processes launched by cron. And sometimes they eat a lot of cpu.
I removed them from my crondirectories or moved them to less frequent execution.

For now just find which process hogs your cpu in that problematical moments...

And try to mount some swap. even 100MB will help...

12

Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker / I Recd My Netwalker Pc-t1 (tablet) Today

« on: March 01, 2011, 11:54:38 am »

That won't run indeed, maybe XFCE is a option?

That depends.
I noted that people using such devices as palms, smartphones, tablets want to have almost all of the features they use right there immediately.
So lots of widgets on desktop, plugins in trays, programs in background, launchers in panels.

When I decided to change WM I got through multiple tries.
I tried xfce - nice one but after equipping it in all those network applets, system monitors, quick notes, taskbar it became as heavy as standard lxde.
I tried WMaker. Harder to equip it with needed gizmos and took more screen to just be there. No mention about not complete menu with applications.
I tried one of minimalistic WM-s (blackbox or similar) - no gizmos but lots of work wolud be needed to have all of that functionality under keybindings.

After all I ended up with standard lxde. Two panels 16-24 pixels wide (not sure about exact size right now) one for menu, launchers, applets and one for task switcher and desktop switcher.
Im not very satisfied because this eats quite big chunk of the screen (which is not nice when using gimp or qcad/kicad) but it is acceptable.

The biggest difference is to have a bit of swap and disabling all of that crap in background (pulseaudio, sendmail, some of applets)

13

Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker / I Recd My Netwalker Pc-t1 (tablet) Today

« on: February 28, 2011, 11:20:33 am »

Strange.
I have pentagram cerberus wifi AP and it is throttled to minimum (about 10mW). Normally netwalker gets 100% signal through 2-3 thick stone walls (walls - 40cm total distance - about 7meters).
Problem with keyboard absence is obvious. I will probably never buy a tablet (standard oldfashioned styllistic, compaq t1000 or modern one ipad, galaxy tab) because of lack of keyboard.

I can agree with slowness of netwalker ubuntu.
But in this field is a bit to tweak.
-close all unneded gizmos (system monitors, sendmails, httpds, ftpds, smbd)
-get rid of pulseaudio.
-remove most of panel plugins
-create a bit of swap, not much 256-512meg is enough. This will allow to move unused stuff (mostly used only during startup and shutdown  )to card and leave more place for buffers.
-do not open too much tabs in firefox.
-close unneeded applications
-get iqnotes and tomboy notes
-change default terminal to something lighter.
-use mpd and ncmpc for playing music.
-install some lightweight browsers (midori, epiphany or other) and use them.
-use xbindkeys (see my post about zaurus configuration for that), or built in gnome -something to command your device by single keys.

I am not suggesting change of default WM. Others have a lot smaller usability for "palmish" device. And tho make them as functional as default is quite workeater.

14

Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker / Usb Ethernet Dongle - New Version

« on: February 11, 2011, 06:01:39 pm »

How do you know if you are getting one with the correct chipset?
Most online retailers don't show the specs in that depth of detail, and the local big box associates don't know which way is up.

I may try to find one if I ever receive the NetWalker PC-T1 that I ordered.

First check name and box. From there go to manufacturer page and download drivers. Check them for linux one and see which module is there.
So for example:
chipset name is adm851x then module is pegasus
chipset name asix module is asix

beware of chipsets sr9600 dm9600 and they comarades: dm9601 and similar.

If you can then save yourself a problem and go to local electronics mall (media markt, saturn in europe, radioshack and similar in USA) and look for those, If it is possible open the box and on the bottom of dongle you can see chip. In most cases there is a sticker but it can be safely peeled of.

I can tel that gembird dongles are made with adm and asix chipsets.

Thanks for taking the time to compile all that information, I appreciate it.
GeekStuff4U cancelled my order for the NetWalker PC-T1 claiming it is out of stock, so I don't know if I'll be getting one now.
Their price was half of what Conics wants, and I don't think it's worth that much.
It's hard to say what I might do.

Regards, Doug

If you ever get any linux mobile device then that information is still useful.
I tried to use that davicom dongle on my laptop and it was behaving similarly as on netwalker.

I know that netwalker is pretty expensive but if you cant find any other nifty device then go for it.  
I dont regret that

15

Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker / Usb Ethernet Dongle - New Version

« on: February 11, 2011, 07:37:53 am »

How do you know if you are getting one with the correct chipset?
Most online retailers don't show the specs in that depth of detail, and the local big box associates don't know which way is up.

I may try to find one if I ever receive the NetWalker PC-T1 that I ordered.

First check name and box. From there go to manufacturer page and download drivers. Check them for linux one and see which module is there.
So for example:
chipset name is adm851x then module is pegasus
chipset name asix module is asix

beware of chipsets sr9600 dm9600 and they comarades: dm9601 and similar.

If you can then save yourself a problem and go to local electronics mall (media markt, saturn in europe, radioshack and similar in USA) and look for those, If it is possible open the box and on the bottom of dongle you can see chip. In most cases there is a sticker but it can be safely peeled of.

I can tel that gembird dongles are made with adm and asix chipsets.