Aussie readers -Dick Smith Electronics cheap TFT ereader $29.98

[wilfred]

/.

[metalphreak]

Sweet. I've always wanted one for reading datasheets and stuff from, but couldn't really justify the $100 or so even for the cheap tablets.


Does it play video out of the box? (MP4 etc) or did you use the skytex firmware?

[metalphreak]

So I tried to update mine using the firmware on the MiGear website. Massive fail. Tool doesn't recognize it after switching to update mode. Drivers have to be force installed and still didn't work. Ended up using the OEM flash tool, wrote the image (including the boot file).... FAIL. Bricked.

Turns out the newer ones have a different RockChip cpu (RK2738). So how did I recover both of them?

When you first put it into update mode, you'll either have to force install the standard RK28USB drivers, or edit them to match the devices different USB VID/PID.

Then in the settings.ini for the RK28BatchUpgrade.exe tool change the following section to this:
[DEVICE_ID]
VID=0x2207
PID=0x273A

Then it will properly detect it as a device in upgrade mode. DO NOT flash the MiGear firmware img file. It does not work. Use this: http://www.2shared.com/file/kwyAnRpZ/Ebook-2738img.html

It's essentially the generic OEM version of the same software. It's V1.05. I have no idea if it still works with DRM ebook files. Defaults to chinese language but the menu to change back to english isn't hard to find

So, why did I try to update in the first place?
* PIC18F2550 PDF data sheet wouldn't open (others seemed fine, even 500+ pages)
* My x264 mp4 tv shows wouldn't play

After update, PIC18F2550 datasheet opens fine TV shows still do not play. XVID files seems to work quite nicely though.

If you brick it, you need to open it up. 'Unknown Device' + no blue led + no screen = bricked. Look at this pic: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wf4zSKIDxOc/TtznFQSVzYI/AAAAAAAAA80/NmTM851OmqQ/w532-h399-k/20111204_180215.jpg

See the samsung chip on the left. You need to short out the 5th and 6th pins from the top right. Keep them shorted, insert the USB cable, and then press the power button. You can now unshort the pins. It should boot straight into firmware recovery mode. Then follow steps above. If you get boot download fail error, reboot your PC first before trying again

[metalphreak]

Haha Dave did a teardown tuesday on this. I wonder if he read this thread beforehand?

[mikeselectricstuff]

I'm sure the $30 was a clear-out price, but there are plenty of these on Ebay UK for about £38 shipped. If someone could hack some user-programmability they could be quite fun.

Would be interesting to measure the power draw to see if their claimed battery life is plausible.

[metalphreak]

Apparently there's a leaked SDK for the RK2738 chip around. You can open up the .img file linked in my previous post and see what's inside. There's a compiled arm file and a few files for hardware drivers, languages and whatnot. Well beyond my experience in terms of hacking anything.

[Psi]

Apparently there's a leaked SDK for the RK2738 chip around.

Probably why they chose to use it in the product

[metalphreak]

For $30, I found it perfectly acceptable for PDF datasheets and crap like that. I have no interest in using it as an ebook reader. It also plays Divx/XViD files fine although it is very picky about h264 stuff.

FYI, it does actually have volume control. The arrow "left/right" keys are vol up and down since you hold it horizontally. The page up/down keys on the side (top?) also do volume.

Would be nice if the skytec firmware worked on it, since its apparently much better. Now I know how to un-brick it no matter what happens, I might experiment some more

Oh and to turn it on/off, you have to hold down the power button for a ridiculously long time. ~5 seconds or so... Plugging it in via USB turns it on, won't let you use the thing until its fully charged. Why? I have no idea.


So, the skytex firmware from the site has older files inside the image (codecs are newer on the firmware linked above!), but the main application is exactly the same. The only difference is the somewhat nicer more colourful skin. Not worth the effort unless you know a lot about ARM coding (in that case, BASE.KRW is where everything is, and there's some documentation on the net about its structure).

[TradieTrev]

Very Noice!

It's say's still available in a close by suburb in North Brisbane, thought these puppies would of sold out ages ago.

Shall hopefully score one by tomorrow arvo! Pretty sure no-one can complain with that price

EDIT: All gone in Queensland! Thought I got lucky there