nickel remote control via web browser (under KSM 8)

[tshering]

This might not be the most useful thing, but maybe some people are interested in playing with it. Or some parts of it may serve as an inspiration for similar projects. Currently this works out of the box only for Touch C, and Glo; maybe also on some Touch A and B. For the other devices you have to find out whether it works.

This is the idea. You see in the web browser of your pc (or what ever) an image of your Kobo reader. You click on a certain point of the image, and the reader reacts as if you touch its screen on that very position.

Be aware that this package is only for test purposes. Properly, the files should go to the system partition. However, they will be installed on the user partition, so that you have easier access. You must therefore take care that you do not connect your device as an usb storage to your pc while the nickel remote control is active!

Installation: extract the KoboRoot.tgz from the uploaded archive and install it as usual.

How to use (with usbNet):

(on the Kobo)

• (KSM home) usb > usbnet toggle.sh
• (KSM home) user scripts > tests > rmc nickel start.sh
• start nickel, open a book

(in the browser of your pc)

• navigate to http://192.168.2.101:8085/rmcnickel.html (you should see something like on rmc_nickel_01.png)
• press the button "Refresh" (you should see something like on rmc_nickel_02.png)
• click into the book where you would normally touch the screen of the Kobo
• the screen of the Kobo should react accordingly, the image of the book in the browser remains unchanged
• you can update the image of the book by clicking the button "Refresh." You will want to do this if you have to click on an exact position, for instance when you want to navigate through the settings or similar, cf. rmc_nickel_03.png

Do not click very close to the border of the image, since the reader will not react to such clicks.


If you have finished playing around:
(on the Kobo)

• user scripts > tests > rmc nickel stop.sh

If you want to do it with wifi, first make sure that nickel will not switch on wifi the next time you start nickel. Then switch on wifi in KSM (if nickel does not know that wifi is on, it will not kill it [Edit: Since FW 4.0.7523, this does not work any longer. nickel cuts the wifi connection and freezes.]). The rest is the same as above. Of course you have to insert your wifi-ip, instead of the usbnet-ip, e.g. http://10.0.0.3:8085/rmcnickel.html. You can see your wifi-ip by selecting:

• (KSM home) wifi > show wifi ip.sh

If you want to try this on another model:
Follow the instructions from above. See whether the device reacts at all when you click the image. Try different locations and watch the screen (of the Kobo). If there is no reaction at all, give it up for the moment. If there is some reaction, but the location is wrong (for instance, you click the image somewhere in the top left corner, but the device reacts as if you touched the top right corner), you can try something:
The image in the browser is treated as if the origin of the coordinates (x=0, y=0) were in the left top corner. On the Touch C (and of the Glo), however, the origin (x=0, y=0) of the screen coordinates is in the right top corner, therefore the x and y values have to be mapped accordingly. The script does this already.
As for the other devices, I do not know where the origin is located. You have to find it out yourself. If you have a guess you can try it by giving the origin as an argument to the url, e.g., http://192.168.2.101:8085/rmcnickel.html?origin=TL. Possible values for origin are: TR, TL, BR, BL. They stand for "top right," "top left," "bottom right," "bottom left." If this results in success, please post the value in this thread together with the values for xmax and ymax (which you can find on the page in the web browser).

Now back to Touch C, and Glo. You can use the remote control also for KSM. However, there the image is rotated to the left (see x_rmc_ksm_01.png), and you have to set another origin (http://192.168.2.101:8085/rmcnickel.html?origin=TL). It works also for PbChess/CoolReader. It does not work (or does not properly work) for Koreader.

[NiLuJe]

And if you see black bars on the (top or bottom of) screenshots, PM me with one of said screenshots and the name of your Kobo model, so I can fix fbgrab .

I expect to see something like that on the Aura, for instance.