Messages

16

Cosmo Communicator - CoDi / CODI update

« on: December 10, 2019, 11:22:30 pm »

everything downloaded for me first try. first attempt to flash failed in like 30 seconds. second attempt worked but probably actually took the full 20 mins it said it might. it does feel more responsive to touch commands.

I'm up to attempt 15, I might actually run out of battery before it works  Dropped 30% trying to flash. It now gets to 100%, but always fails. Anyone know where the file is stored? Maybe it is corrupted, and the flashing program doesn't check the file with a checksum.

17

Cosmo Communicator - CoDi / CODI update

« on: December 10, 2019, 10:17:14 pm »

Just a word of warning - I am up to attempt 10, and at least the progress bar has started this time. The flashing appears *very* flaky. First time, mine got to around 90% then bombed out. Repeated, between 80-90% twice. Tried rebooting, advanced reset cover. 3 times didn't even establish comms and get to the progress bar. Up to 8% now (it is *very* slow) - we'll see if 10 is the charm

If you haven't updated, I would probably wait - once you start to flash, the cover is inoperable until the flashing succeeds. This means that quitting the updater/rebooting/resetting will all result in a completely black, broken cover display. I have probably just been unlucky, and this attempt will work wonderfully, but just so you have been warned - expect the firmware update to fail many times before it (hopefully) works.

I've entered a support request on the new cosmo troubleshooting page, so hopefully we might get some tips and tricks to getting it working more reliably.

PS. as a firmware engineer who flashes devices dozens of times a day, I understand there can be problems, but these seem a bit excessive.

EDIT: Yay - got to 100%, but still no cigar. "Error updating cover display!". Oh well, I should get better battery life now, and my smartwatch will do everything the cover did. Pity.

18

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Camera

« on: December 10, 2019, 08:39:11 pm »

I think that the camera app isn't optimised for the cosmo module. The apple camera app will do all kinds of funky stuff (median filtering of multiple images) to get better photos. A good example is the google pixel - really just an average module, however the software makes it look far better than average. Computational photography is becoming more mainstream. I had a play (and will upload images later), and you can get a lot better quality by tweaking the settings in the open camera app. Now I don't want to do this every time I take a photo, however it illustrates the point that software can have a large effect on quality.

Even on default settings, the photos are quite usable, and infinitely better than the gemini.

19

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Blue LEDs on fingerprint sensor

« on: December 08, 2019, 10:01:56 pm »

I make doubly sure - I turn it off! ?

I just press the silver button, which turns off the cover display and turns the LEDs off.

20

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Bluetooth Watches

« on: December 08, 2019, 09:58:54 pm »

A small hint about placing calls from watch that might save someone else 15 minutes of life:

When I first tried to call from my watch I've got an error that "call audio is turned off" and advising me to turn it on in bluetooth settings. I checked bluetooth setting and there is no option for "Call audio" on cosmo, but there is "Phone calls" and it was turned on already. After some googling and scratching head I tried turning this option off and then on again. That fixed the problem right away, calls can be made from watch.

If you connect/disconnect (ie walk away from the phone) too many times, it appears that you get the "audio" problem. vldmr is correct - this "resets" the bluetooth connection and audio works again. Gotta love android 9

21

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Latest updates on Indiegogo

« on: December 08, 2019, 03:24:06 pm »

Oh good.  It's a superb piece of kit, but I'm hoping for an update on the bugs.  Ideally some Codi power fixes and sorting out the always-on keyboard backlight.

Have you tried  turning off the backlight? Press Fn-shift-b until the keyboard lights go off.

24h is not a battery life I'm used to.  The Gemini went for a whole weekend, the Galaxy Relay S lasted about the same, the Nokia E90, 9500, and 9210 all went about a week between charges.

You were doing well with the gemini getting an entire weekend. I could only do that if I left it alone and used it as a phone only (ie. no playing). A lot of the old nokias used to last a long time. Even moderately new ones like the pureview 808 only used to need charging every 2 days - and it had a tiny battery in comparison with the gemini/cosmo.

22

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / support page / reporting Web Site

« on: December 04, 2019, 08:01:46 pm »

- battery drain: some users (me included) report a battery drain while using the cosmo normally (without battery saving, and with wifi, localization, outer screen on, mobile data etc.); in my test, if I am using the cosmo in usual cases (installing apps, browsing the web, fetching and pushing emails, working through ssh, listening to mp3 etc.), I am out of battery after 6 hours; in comparison my huawei p30 pro lasts 10 hours under the same usage conditions;

That is pretty bad. I had to wait at a hospital for someone the other day and I was browsing pretty much the whole time (about 5 hours). I also installed a few astronomy apps (skysafari - all x hundred MBs), made and took a few calls (mainly to say we are done), and I was still around 60-65%. There is definitely something wrong with yours. I was browsing on LTE, with wifi enabled, same with bluetooth (for my watch). Usual email notifications - pretty much the same as you. My display is set to 47% (because I couldn't get exactly 50% with the slider  ), and sound is off (I'm in a hospital....).

- peripherals not fully working: for me it is the front mic which will be muted when the case is closed (I can not place calls without opening the shell), for others this is the jack which does not output sound correctly (in both cases, probably a switch issue), some have experienced sticky keys, random behaviour as if the TAB key have been constantly pressed, some incorrect key assignments (shift+key output sometimes 2 signs);

Silly question - have you tried the cosmo in both orientations? I tend to talk so that the camera is at the top, and the buttons at the bottom (ie. the orientation of the external screen). I noticed that the other way was a lot quieter - probably no rotation detection. Haven't tried the audio jack, I use bluetooth headphones, or my watch if I don't use the speakers.

- outer screen: screen freezing sometimes, screen slow, icons have to be activated by pressing them bottom left (calibration issue), image distortion on the outer screen when you want to take a picture or make a video, image rendering on the outer screen very slow;

Ok. here we agree, except the freezing. The external screen is slow, and the calibration is a little off. The video update is slow, but better than not having it. No corruption/distortion in mine though. I don't mind the calibration issue - I'm used to it. Probably be weird when they fix it - I'll hit the wrong spot....

- power-on: sometimes it does not power-on when you press the silver button at the top -- in my test, I have to press the silver button, then I have to open the case, press the ESC key, press the silver button again; when it does not work, I have to plug in the power supply in the USB-C and renew the procedure in order to start the cosmo.

I was under the impression that you had to turn power on with the escape key. I use the silver button to turn off the cover display. I've turned off/on restarted a few times with no issues. Maybe I am lucky and have a good unit.

These are the major pitfalls at the moment. But this said, we have to do with a complex hardware, and it is not sure that all these issues are related to the cosmo -- some can also be related to Android 9. This has to be sorted out by the team at PC which should deliver firmware updates and patches for Android 9 on the cosmo. In my case, the inability to place calls without opening the case makes that I can not use the cosmo as my daily driver at the moment. So it remains mostly in its box until the issues have been addressed. It is very sad, because I see the potential of the cosmo and can imagine how it could be nicely integrated into my workflow.

Ok. I understand now what people are reporting. I happen to have none of the above, with the exception of the mis-calibrated external cover. My keys are near perfect - never miss a keystroke, even the ones I don't mean to press, but do  It has been my daily driver since I got it - replacing my gemini. All my issues so far have really been with android 9 (power saving, rotation etc). I also tend to work around problems, sometimes without even thinking about it, so I may well ignore/be unaware of some problems that I just work around. I'll keep an eye on it. WRT the battery though, I am definitely seeing better performance. Significantly in fact. It is much better than the gemini was, and an easy day of hard use, or 2 days of moderate use.

23

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / support page / reporting Web Site

« on: December 03, 2019, 08:00:11 pm »

(Consider: the major problems with the Cosmo, as with the Gemini, look like they are software problems, or at least can be fixed in software.  Which is good, because those things can be fixed by a firmware updates.  Hardware problems would be much worse!)

I've been using the cosmo as my daily driver for a couple of weeks now, and was wondering what are the major problems? The only issue I had was I had to disable DuraSpeed so android 9 didn't put apps to sleep (eg my watch plugin). Everything else works as expected - maybe my expectations are different. What are the "major problems" people are referring to excactly? This is a serious question, not a flippant religious debate starter.....

24

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Benchmarks

« on: December 03, 2019, 07:17:55 pm »

For fun, I benchmarked the cosmo using Geekbench V5. It isn't too shabby. The gemini (on geekbench 5) gets
Single core: 190
Multi: 900

My cosmo gets:
Single: 303
Multi: 1411

From the browser, this puts the cosmo around par with the Galaxy S8 - a 2 year old premium phone, or the google pixel 3a which is a modern mid-level phone. The Mali chip gets an OpenCL mark of 1259, which puts in on par with a galaxy S7 - or in another context 1.2 times faster than a core i3. Not bad for a mid-range chip, and quite a bit faster than the gemini.

25

Cosmo Communicator - General Discussion / Poor battery life

« on: November 29, 2019, 12:38:25 am »

I've had the cosmo for about 2 weeks now, and I'm easily getting a day out of it. Off the charger (left side) at 6am, back from work around 6pm, lots of use during the evening (it is still a new toy  ), and I am around 30-40%. I connect a smart watch, so I have disabled Duraspeed, and routinely turn off the cover (and LEDs) with the silver button when I close the cosmo. The display pops back when something happens (eg sms, email etc). Not had any battery issues. I will say that I completely charged it before turning on for the first time - and this must be the first time I have ever done this.....

It is 3:30pm here, and the battery is currently 70%, I have made a few phone calls, visited many web pages and read email/sms. So, 9.5 hours for 30% is about 3% per hour. Not all that bad. I have 4G data turned on, I'm connected to the corporate wifi, and my watch is connected via bluetooth.

If you are having battery problems, have you checkout out the battery settings? It can show a graph of the battery usage, and what apps have used the most etc. Oh, My screen is at about 50% brightness.

26

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Bluetooth Watches

« on: November 27, 2019, 05:04:34 pm »

I have started turning off the cover display when I close the cosmo. Just press the silver button and the cover display turns off. It will turn back on when a call or message comes in. With new device usage (ie still playing a lot), I am still left with 30-40% battery at the end of my day. Cosmo is off the charger at 6am, and back on around 11pm.

27

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Speakers

« on: November 27, 2019, 05:09:34 am »

When the Gemini first came out, it had mono speakers - not through design. They were loud, but tinny. I thought the cosmo would be similar, however I did a few tests today, and was very pleasantly surprissed. The speakers are most definitely stereo, they are loud, and less tinny than gemini. I still wouldn't put them in the same boat as say a good bluetooth speaker, but they are quite usable. Stereo separation is excellent, and there is plenty of volume to play with.

I played oxygene at full volume and was actually amazed at the quality and quantity of sound eminating from the little beast. I haven't installed an equaliser yet, but I would guess you could sacrifice a bit of volume for better sound.  I would be interested in hearing what other people think of the sound. There are some good audiophile sound tracks on youtube, but if you have a decent bitrate mp3, I would think that would be better.

28

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Is the LEDison useful to Cosmo Communicator owners?

« on: November 25, 2019, 10:25:58 pm »

Hi All,

I see the Planet Computers LEDison app installed on the Cosmo Communicator. It seems to be an app best suited for the Gemini PDA because it does not have the front display panel. I am curious to know if the LEDIson is useful for Cosmo Communicator owners and any information that could explain how to best use this utility on the Cosmo.

Cheers!

To a greater degree, I guess the front screen sort of makes ledison superfluous. You could argue that from a distance, you can see the LEDs better than read the small screen I suppose. I haven't enabled/configured ledison and don't really miss it.

29

Cosmo Communicator - Hardware / Front Display Panel (small tip)

« on: November 25, 2019, 10:22:12 pm »

That is good to know. My experience seems to be a bit different from yours. If I touch anywhere other than the 7PM on the circular icon, it won't launch. The issue is most noticeable with the phone icon.
Cheers!

I didn't even notice this, but having a play, the 7pm button touch works on mine too. If I press the middle of the camera icon, nothing happens (I must have been lucky the one and only time I tried it when I first got the cosmo). At 7pm, every touch is recognised and immediately works. Nice catch!

30

Cosmo Communicator - Android / Odd Behavior Thread

« on: November 25, 2019, 06:40:40 pm »

Built-in camera app is terrible.  Very basic controls, really bad JPEG compression.  On the plus side the camera is actually quite good if you use e.g. OpenCamera.  Only issue there is that RAW doesn't seem to work but 90%+ JPEG quality gives good results.  I came from a Samsung S8+ and that phone (indeed, most devices) apply color-popping filters when they take pics, so if you want your pics to come out like other devices, you'll have to do the same.  OpenCamera works really well on the Cosmo though.

Totally agree. I made OpenCamera my default camera. It works much better. It is somewhat fiddly if you want anything but the defaults, but takes good photos, and has lots of options once you enable API2. I prefer the more natural photos - it is easier to work with the original rather than a "popped" image.