Recent Posts

91

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« Last post by cam1965 on April 09, 2025, 12:29:53 pm »

Yes, the bms was removed from the replacement cameron sino  battery. I soldered the BMS from the original astro battery onto the replacement battery

Ok, thanks for confirming. I guess once you remove some of the covers you can see all three terminals (or four?) and then can solder the Astro BMS in there.

With that in mind, I'll wait for the Astro battery to degrade a bit more before (e.g. where it no longer holds even a half-a-day charge), meaning that the battery replacement is mandatory to keep the device usable as a daily driver, in case I break things.

OK. Good luck. Only another link ( But for gemini and cosmo ). In this case it is not necessary to remove the BMS from the replacement battery. Check the polarity befory connecting. https://electronicsera.eu/2024/01/04/planetbatteries/ . I have changed my battery in gemini for this Hsabat battery ( https://pt.aliexpress.com/item/1005007976621754.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.295fcaa4HQTq2Y&gatewayAdapt=glo2bra ) . The battery cable must be twisted to put the battery in place.

92

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« Last post by Zarhan on April 09, 2025, 09:54:29 am »

Yes, the bms was removed from the replacement cameron sino  battery. I soldered the BMS from the original astro battery onto the replacement battery

Ok, thanks for confirming. I guess once you remove some of the covers you can see all three terminals (or four?) and then can solder the Astro BMS in there.

With that in mind, I'll wait for the Astro battery to degrade a bit more before (e.g. where it no longer holds even a half-a-day charge), meaning that the battery replacement is mandatory to keep the device usable as a daily driver, in case I break things.

93

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« Last post by cam1965 on April 09, 2025, 09:05:12 am »

Ok, found a video of a phone that uses the same type of battery that your replacement - natively. So looks like, that "single" connector actually has all the terminals required in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD1Lw9CI4vc

Astro probably does not use same connector (or does it?!), so opening up the battery is most likely needed. But I'll hold off opening the phone until the Astro battery performance has really gone down enough to make it unusable as a daily driver...

Yes, the bms was removed from the replacement cameron sino  battery. I soldered the BMS from the original astro battery onto the replacement battery

94

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« Last post by cam1965 on April 09, 2025, 08:57:50 am »

...I just got the battery. Cam, do you know if the installer had to open up the battery pack to get this installed? I'm confused about the fact that there is only that one external connector on the battery. Or is that a temp sensor or something?

It's visible in your video too, but looks like the texts of the battery are a bit...crumpled? Just wondering if the battery pack's has to be opened (carefully) to get direct access to the terminals (and for replacing the BMS).

Hi Zarhan.
The BMS is from the original battery. It was soldered onto  the replacement battery. I didn´t use the BMS from the replacement cameron battery.

95

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« Last post by Zarhan on April 08, 2025, 01:37:34 am »

Ok, found a video of a phone that uses the same type of battery that your replacement - natively. So looks like, that "single" connector actually has all the terminals required in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD1Lw9CI4vc

Astro probably does not use same connector (or does it?!), so opening up the battery is most likely needed. But I'll hold off opening the phone until the Astro battery performance has really gone down enough to make it unusable as a daily driver...

96

Zaurus - Void Linux support / Re: Void Linux Packages

« Last post by glu on April 06, 2025, 02:50:56 pm »

Hi,

I am running Kernel 4.19.0 from build-008 and I have a question regarding power management. It seems that (compared to NetBSD but also older kernels from e.g. Cacko) the power management code has issues when I use it with USB Wi-Fi dongle. It very often reads low/critical battery voltage (probably due to a short term peak power draw from the dongle) and forces standby - while not turning on offline charging mode. So once in standby, device can't be charged because charger hasn't been put to offline mode.

The problem also appears in the kexecboot 3.x kernel. This usually manifests itself so that when device reaches kexecboots, the power management code reads low battery and forces it into standby - while again not enabling offline charging. Once in this mode, devices can be woken up for a second, only to go back into standby again.

Has anyone noticed this too? Did the power management code for zaurus get any updates in the 5.x kernels?

97

Astro Slide - Hardware / Re: changed my battery now with video

« Last post by Zarhan on April 04, 2025, 11:25:50 am »

...I just got the battery. Cam, do you know if the installer had to open up the battery pack to get this installed? I'm confused about the fact that there is only that one external connector on the battery. Or is that a temp sensor or something?

It's visible in your video too, but looks like the texts of the battery are a bit...crumpled? Just wondering if the battery pack's has to be opened (carefully) to get direct access to the terminals (and for replacing the BMS).

98

Zaurus - Other distros support / Re: NetBSD 10.0 on Zaurus C3200

« Last post by MaBo on April 01, 2025, 02:37:33 pm »

YES, the install starts . I had an old 256 MB (yes, MegaByte) SD card. Maybe the 4GB was too large.

Now, all kinds of questions pop up:
- Shall I indeed wipe the entire HDD and use it for netBSD 
- What if I want to go back (but to what then),
- etc. etc.

I find wiping the HDD a bit scary. But there is no way to use >1GB SD cards in the maintenance kernel (https://wiki.netbsd.org/users/jun/zaurus/). That is not enough to install netBSD ánd contain the install files.

I just gave it a go, with default options. It did gave a lot of errors in wiping the HDD.   
Yet another new phase in "playing with my zaurus".

Maarten

99

Zaurus - Other distros support / Re: NetBSD 10.0 on Zaurus C3200

« Last post by MaBo on March 31, 2025, 02:46:14 pm »

After a bit of figuring, it worked. I used the instructions on https://blog.spiralofhope.com/48354/zaurus-sl-c1000-emergency-console-boot.html:

• Make sure the Zaurus isn't plugged into AC power.
• Remove the battery
• Switch battery switch to "on" position, but leave battery door open
• Hold the D+B keys pressed, while inserting the battery
• Then release D+B keys

After some seconds, you see a Japanese SHARP boot screen and shortly after a login prompt.

Once you see the boot screen it is ok to:

(these steps will not reset your Zaurus)

• insert the power cable
• turn the battery switch to the "off" position
• put the battery cover on
• turn the battery switch to the "on" position

Now, strange enough, the contents of the SD card are not shown. It only shows the folders Documents, which doesn´t exist on the SD card...

Well, playing on,

Maarten

100

Zaurus - Other distros support / Re: NetBSD 10.0 on Zaurus C3200

« Last post by MaBo on March 31, 2025, 09:49:39 am »

Thanks and yea I tried that. Seems not to work, or I'm not dexterous enough.
I managed to get into the Japanese menu via D+N (or was it D+M). That is of no help for this.

I might install cacko (or cacko lite) into NAND and then run it from there. Unless anyone has a good suggestion.


Maarten