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1

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Microphone low gain / muddled voice on GSM phone calls

« on: June 30, 2020, 09:45:02 am »

Hi all!  I got my Cosmo and spent a few days bench-marking it with V19 out of the box.  All seemed okay as I tested the functions and features.  I'm new to smartphones and Android so I did all this in baby-steps.  All was fine so I put my AT&T GSM sim, checked data connect and made a test call.  Everything was good until I checked the message I left myself.  It sounded like I was speaking from the bottom of a well underneath a blanket.  Calls to various people confirmed this.

So, having bought this to expand my skills I've switched to troubleshooting mode.  There are a couple posts here that seem to describe similar behavior so I'll list my setup, observations, and direction things are taking me.  There's another similar thread that was of some help here:         

Other things I noticed that also don't seem to work:
- Phone App>settings>Accessibility>Noise reduction to "off" also doesn't survive reboot.
- Settings>Sound>Advanced>Soundenhancement>BesLoudness setting to "off" doesn't survive a reboot.
- EngineerMode>Telephony>Misc Feature Config  Vibrate on call connect to "off" does nothing
- SIM Toolkit app "not ready or unsupported"

Setups:
- Cosmo partitioned 30/60GB running shipped V19 (Now V22 - same problem) with no encryption or password.  Installed Ninji's TWRP, Rooted Android (with Magisk, Termux & MiXplorer) on the other partitions.  AT&T GSM sim swapped from old dumb phone.
- EngineerMode>Hardware Testing>Audio>Volume>Voice>Receiver - NB Receiver, Receiver_SV, and Headset UL Gains to "252".  NB Sidetone gain at "240". Headset NB UL Gain to "252".  Speaker all bands UL Gain to "252".
- VLC comparison playback between downloaded Comcast viocemails and Recorded files from Cosmo on PC.
   

Observations:
- CODI Sound Recorder is clear and captures background TV noise.  Playback volume at max was still a tad low but much higher quality.
- I can't tell wich microphone is active at any time.  Up, down, open, closed, or speakerphone in both, initiatating a call and voicemail from any of those positions seems to make no difference.
- Call Microphone seems to be missing mid-high frequencies.  Max level in Engineering mode produces a bit of clipped audio from over driving the bass-midrange.  Background audio is completely suppressed.
- EngineeringMode produced minor but observable results, but only the "Receiver" settings helped.  I think they are combined with the earpiece as I can hear my own background noise clearly in call.
- No specific "Mic" setting in EngineerMode?
- Combined with the settings that don't keep on reboot and missing specific mic settings in EngineeringMode, I seem to be running into hard coded parameters.

Attempts at a fix:
- *See https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showto...mp;#entry296273
- Both my Cosmo TWRP, ADB (recovery mode, su, whatever), and rooted Android just lie,lie,lie,lie,lie to me about mounting /dev/block/mmcblk0p35 to /vendor in read/write mode.  I even tried it from the linux side (with Pluma edits) just for kicks.  All changes get wiped on reboot (not remount).  Running e2fsck after edits gives a "modified" warning and manually reverts.  Probably has been going on in the background on all my reboots.

I would like to test some rapid fire changes to the Magic Noise Reduction parameters, and maybe the gain freq parameters while I'm at it.

Any tips would be appreciated.  Meanwhile I'll post updates here on my progress and hopefully knock togeather a proceedure to fix this.

2

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / VoLTE calls

« on: June 30, 2020, 07:02:45 am »

Hi there!  I've been working this issue since my Cosmo arrived.  Although I'm new to Android, I've been doing Linux poorly for many years.  The solution here helps a bit, but seems to be missing the real problem as calls are still muffled (less so now), but I also notice a bit of audio clipping going on.  I suspect we are overdriving the mic pre-amp. I also noticed in the Phone App settings > accessibility > Noise Reduction, disabling it doesn't survive a reboot.

This issue extends to GSM calls also.  It is not a hardware issue as the sound recorder is clear and crisp.

I did an ADB pull of the /vendor folder and poured over all the related files I may be on to a solution.  (Thanks to Zarhan for the idea!)

in /vendor/etc/audio_param/Speech_ParamUnitDesc.xml :

[div class=\'codetop\']CODE[/div][div class=\'codemain\' style=\'height:200px;white-space:pre;overflow:auto\']         
         <Field name="TX NR Switch" array_index="4" bit="0,0"                                        check_list="0,off,1,on"/>
         <Field name="TX NR Quick learning" array_index="4" bit="1,1"                                check_list="0,quick,1,slow"/>
         <Field name="TX NR for high frequency" array_index="4" bit="8,8"                            check_list="0,on,1,off"/>
         <Field name="TX NR suppression strength" array_index="8" bit="6,8"                          check_list="0,23dB,1,20.5dB,2,18dB,3,15.5dB,4,13dB,5,10.5dB,6,8dB,7,off"/>
         <Field name="TX Adaptive gain control" array_index="4" bit="12,13"                          check_list="0,fixed 10 dB,1, fixed 0 dB,2,vary between 10 to 6dB, 3,vary between 10 to 0dB"/>
         <Field name="TX mute 1s" array_index="10" bit="1,1"                                         check_list="0,on,1,off"/>
         <Field name="TX Ambient noise calibration" array_index="8" bit="12,13"                      check_list="0,0dB,1,3dB,2,6dB,3,9dB"/>
         <Field name="TX Handfree Tone Detection" array_index="4" bit="9,9"                          check_list="0,off,1,on"/>
         <Field name="TX expander switch" array_index="3" bit="0,1"                                  check_list="0,off,1,suppress echo,2,suppress stationary noise,3,suppress non-stationary noise"/>
         <Field name="TX expander suppression gain" array_index="3" bit="4,5"                        check_list="0,3dB,1,9dB,2,12dB,3,15dB"/>
         <Field name="TX NR Noise Adaption Rate" array_index="4" bit="10,11"                         check_list="0,722ms,1,209ms,2,62ms,3,32ms"/>[/div]

After I finished chuckling about the code, I've been trying unsuccessfully to flip the high frequency bits.  But I'm pretty sure I'm onto it.  I'll start a new thread to address this and maybe get a fix in place.