libera/#neo900/ Saturday, 2019-04-27

claponthi everyone!08:57
atkDamn17:01
atkI think some of the balls on the BGA chip on my N900 have cracked.17:01
atkI'm getting those infamous sim card issues.17:01
atkI guess it's time to find an old dried up pen and cut the spring into some pressure thingimajigs.17:01
DocScrutinizer05I wonder if there's a way to check what really defect17:04
DocScrutinizer05at least SIM contacts should show some electrical properties different from dangling wire17:05
DocScrutinizer05but there are so many more BGA ball connections on modem17:05
DocScrutinizer05first you might check if modem still responsive at all17:06
DocScrutinizer05pnatd might help17:06
DocScrutinizer05if you can talk to modem, you cpuld query quite a few status-related infos17:06
DocScrutinizer05like generic access to SIM, available networks (antenna / generic RF frontend)17:07
atkIt works when I reboot the phone17:09
atkbut I dropped my phone on a hard floor about a week ago and now it just stops working randomly until a reboot17:09
DocScrutinizer05hmmmm17:09
DocScrutinizer05not good17:10
atkyeah, I'm pretty annoyed about the drop, it worked perfectly well before then.17:10
DocScrutinizer05maybe first of all check signal quality to verify the mere antenna thingie has cobtact to the PCB17:11
atkhow would I check the signal quality? When it works I get 5 bars.17:12
DocScrutinizer05it's a C-spring that sits on a copper (gold?) pad for years. collecting dirt and oxides around the contact point. Now a hard impact could minimally relocate the C-spring contact point, right into the dirt zone17:12
atkhmm17:13
atkMight be, the phone I took this motherboard out of literally looked like someone had shoved it up a car exhaust pipe for a week17:13
Joerg-Neo900no tracking17:22
Joerg-Neo900no iinsurance17:22
Joerg-Neo900oops17:22
Joerg-Neo900please first try pnatd something like "ATI"17:27
Joerg-Neo900the AT-interpreter in BB5 and pnatd is pathetic, but a few useful data bits are available for sure17:28
atkATI just gives "Nokia"17:32
atklol17:32
Joerg-Neo900https://i.imgur.com/Phpr47G.png17:32
atksame on my screen17:33
Joerg-Neo900so the modem is up and running and the comm lines to OMAP are working17:34
atkhmm17:34
Joerg-Neo900https://radekp.github.io/qtmoko/api/atcommands.html17:35
Joerg-Neo900haha radekp/openmoko  how funny I didn't even see17:35
Joerg-Neo900at+cfun?17:36
Joerg-Neo900+CFUN: 117:36
Joerg-Neo900at+cfun=?17:37
Joerg-Neo900+CFUN: (0,1,4),(0,1)17:37
Joerg-Neo900=?  is "what are the allowed parameters?"   ? is "what is current state?"17:38
Joerg-Neo900+CFUN is current state of modem17:38
Joerg-Neo900related e.g. to airplane mode etc17:38
Joerg-Neo900AT+CSQSignal quality17:39
Joerg-Neo900ERROR on N90017:39
Joerg-Neo900what a crippled AT interface17:39
atkhmm17:40
atkon mine at+csq gives: +CSQ: 99,9917:40
Joerg-Neo900ed17:40
Joerg-Neo900what the17:40
Joerg-Neo900Oh I see, no "?" needed17:40
Joerg-Neo900+CSQ: 15,9917:41
atkhmm17:41
atkso 99 probably means the worst signal quality possible?17:41
Joerg-Neo90099 is prolly same as "no signal"17:41
Joerg-Neo900yes17:41
atkI'll open it up and look at the aerial thing17:41
Joerg-Neo900:nod:17:42
Joerg-Neo900check SIM maybe17:42
Joerg-Neo900moment please17:42
Joerg-Neo900AT+CIMI17:43
Joerg-Neo90026207491001409517:43
atkI get an error17:45
Joerg-Neo900https://www.sierrawireless.com/resources/documents/support/2130617_supported_at_command_reference-v2.4.pdf17:49
Joerg-Neo900error means you're not logged in to network17:49
Joerg-Neo900this command queries IMSI17:49
Joerg-Neo900AT+CNUM   my own number17:51
atkalright, which contact is the one for the antenna?17:52
Joerg-Neo900there's a "contacts" whitepaper n resources IIRC17:52
Joerg-Neo900http://neo900.org/stuff/werner/springs/17:54
Joerg-Neo900P703/4/517:55
Joerg-Neo900atk: you found it?17:56
atkyeah17:57
atkI found the 3 contacts17:57
atkjust scraped at them with a precision screwdriver, we'll see what happens17:57
atkthey were all quite dirty17:57
Joerg-Neo900check the pads in antenna plastic blob, they often look really terrible17:57
Joerg-Neo900ought to be gold plated and shiny17:58
* Joerg-Neo900 suddenly got an idea of the real reason the manufs opted for watertight smartphones: suddenly no more problems with dirt inside device, at all18:00
atkLooks promising, I got network time on the boot screen.18:02
atkWell, I have a network connection again18:02
atkI'll use it for a day and see if it breaks again.18:02
Joerg-Neo900:-D18:02
sixwheeledbeastcheck battery  antennas and sim tray are not damaged or loose from the drop18:34
atkthe sim tray is as loose/tight as it has ever been18:48
atksame with battery18:48
atkbut yeah, the antenna contacts seemed a bit dirty18:48
atkand this phone has been in use for like 4 years now18:49
atkand probably 1 to 3 years by the original owner?18:49
atkmaybe more18:49
atkactually, when I got it, it looked like the original owner had installed a new kernel so maybe he was a power user18:49
rEv9Joerg-Neo900: you should update the webpage/topic with what you said on http://maemo.cloud-7.de/irclogs/freenode/_neo900/_neo900.2019-04-15.log.html  -- that you're looking for someone to work on the proto_v2 layout. maybe someone else can help out ?19:45
rEv9I miss using my N900 :D19:46
Joerg-Neo900rEv9: sorry, the time was faster than Neo900 evolution. The project isn't really plausible anymore. Too many roadblocks that can't get overcome, unless we would find a sponsor for STEP219:55
Joerg-Neo900even if we could finalize layout for proto_v2, we have no more funds to build it, and even if we coould build it, we couldn't find enough mech-kits (display, case etc) to produce the number of devices needed to break-even on production cost19:57
Joerg-Neo900too many prospect customers thought they better wait until we're shipping before they place an order19:58
Joerg-Neo900now it's too late, the opportunities dwindled19:59
rEv9Joerg-Neo900: I understand :/20:16
Joerg-Neo900it's a pity. Sorry for not having better news20:46
sixwheeledbeastOpen source alternative to GPS seems interesting https://www.open-electronics.org/aweigh-the-open-source-alternative-to-gps/22:40

Generated by irclog2html.py 2.17.0 by Marius Gedminas - find it at https://mg.pov.lt/irclog2html/!