Onyx Boox Kepler series

[sharkcow]

Originally Posted by cwright

Dictionary works fine for me after installing the dictionaries from Play Store. Kepler doesn't come with any dictionaries preloaded. I'm using ColorDict and have a couple of different dictionaries compatible with ColorDict installed as well as English thesaurus. I've also set the dictionary to ColorDict 3, GoldenDict within OReader. Sometimes dictionary doesn’t load until I tap the screen after selecting "Translate". Seems to be a refresh issue. After the page refreshes though all the dictionaries I've installed display correctly.

My mistake. I overlooked the setting for GoldenDict out the top of the list in the settings. However, when I got my Kepler (with the pre-1.7.5 firmware), the Onyx dictionary was working out of the box, now it isn't anymore... If I start the pre-installed Onyx dictionary app, however, it works - just not out of any reader. But thanks for the tip, GoldenDict is better anyways

[farfromrefuge]

Originally Posted by sharkcow

- kindle works fine for me.
- I get more than a month of battery life when reading about one hour average per day and turning the device off in between. Keep in mind that booting takes quite some power. Also, some apps draw a lot more power than others so obviously it will depend on what apps you use.
Concerning the maps: that was also one of my motivations to possess an e-ink device. Keep in mind that screen updates in regular mode take quite some time and sometimes cause the whole screen to blink. This can be very annoying when viewing content that changes a lot (like scrolling maps). However, the A2 mode on this device is very good (grayscale), so that might work better for you.

sharkcow

Thanks a lot for that detailed answer. It confirms that i might go for this one!
You are right about maps and the refreshing rate.
I want to modify my app for it work better with that kind of device. For example by adding buttons to navigate and not do it by dragging which might feel good with the refreshing rate.
Really thank you for your answer. Such a great community

[cwright]

Originally Posted by Hrafn

Tried that -- could just about see the 'About' icon, but everything beyond that was too faint & overwritten to be legible. I tried installing ADB on my PC, but unfortunately, without USB debugging being already set up on my eReader, it was unable to detect it. I then tried pushing all three buttons once for a few seconds to see if that would force it into 'download mode' and might do any good. At which stage it stopped responding completely. For those that are interested, this is what it now looks like:

(If you look carefully, you can see elements from multiple screens.)

I have put in an inquiry with Onyx, and may have to do a warranty return.

I don't know if you've tried this or if it will work for a device that isn't quite right anymore, but since I lost the "refresh" button I've been using the cover for refreshing the page in apps that aren't so great about refreshing automatically (such as Kindle) - i.e. close the cover so that the Kepler goes to sleep and then reopen and it automatically reloads the same page that I was on, but it's then refreshed. It's about as fast as using the refresh button before.

[cwright]

Originally Posted by sharkcow

My mistake. I overlooked the setting for GoldenDict out the top of the list in the settings. However, when I got my Kepler (with the pre-1.7.5 firmware), the Onyx dictionary was working out of the box, now it isn't anymore... If I start the pre-installed Onyx dictionary app, however, it works - just not out of any reader. But thanks for the tip, GoldenDict is better anyways

Ah. My Onyx dictionary app did not work out of the box (but I had the later firmware). After the latest update, there is an option to install dictionaries to the Onyx dictionary app, which I did, and then it finally worked. But even when the Onyx dictionary worked ok by itself, it never worked in any of the ereader apps. I wish there was a way to uninstall it. Just as I wish there's a way to uninstall some of the apps that came with the Kepler. Oh well!

[Hrafn]

Originally Posted by cwright

I don't know if you've tried this or if it will work for a device that isn't quite right anymore, but since I lost the "refresh" button I've been using the cover for refreshing the page in apps that aren't so great about refreshing automatically (such as Kindle) - i.e. close the cover so that the Kepler goes to sleep and then reopen and it automatically reloads the same page that I was on, but it's then refreshed. It's about as fast as using the refresh button before.

The cover puts the screen into, then out of, sleep mode. However, as this has a fairly dense graphic, and overwrites rather than refreshes, it just makes matters worse.

Last night I got a further response back from Onyx. Based solely on the above pic, they'd jumped to the erroneous conclusion that the screen was damaged. Luckily, I found that my eReader had become responsive again in the interim, and I could provide pictures providing evidence to the contrary.

They show respectively, the screen (i) in sleep mode, (ii) just out of sleep mode & (iii) when first started up. I also was able to present them with a (rather hurried and thus blurred) pic of the initial "BOOX READER" screen showing at full contrast (meaning that neither the screen, nor the most basic OS is damaged).

[Hrafn]

Just got the following instructions from Onyx Boox:

1. to press power button 8 seconds to force a shutdown;
2. to insert TF card with the latest upgrade firmware (please ensure it's proper version);
3. Long press left side page button + power button for 5 seconds, and then release, boot into recovery interface;
4. To use the left side button to choose "apply update from external storage", and press the power button to enter into the "choose a package to install" interface;
5. To use left side button to choose update.zip, and to use power button to enter into upgrade interface, which need 2-3 minutes;
6. After the upgrade completed, it will return to the recovery interface automatically. To use power button to select "reboot system now", enter into reboot and restart the system successfully;

Unfortunately, step 3 only seems to cause the eReader to power on normally (except for a small black rectangle stating "Preparing SD card" in the lower right corner).

[bsnick]

Did you try releasing the keeping the power button but not the page button? A lot of tablets require that you hold two buttons, then release only one button. Usually it's the power button that you release while you keep holding the other button until recovery turns on. Not sure if that's the case with the Kepler, though.

BTW, your screen reminds me of some abstract art. Maybe you'll spark a new genre: eink art

[Hrafn]

Originally Posted by bsnick

Did you try releasing the keeping the power button but not the page button? A lot of tablets require that you hold two buttons, then release only one button. Usually it's the power button that you release while you keep holding the other button until recovery turns on. Not sure if that's the case with the Kepler, though.

Have now tried that, no difference, but did lead me to find this FAQ for the M96: https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Boox_M96

The results of following their instructions for the various debug modes are:

Recovery: normal-mode boot, LED stays blue.
Fastboot: hangs on "BOOX READER" screen, no LED activity (but allows a manual reboot shortly after).
Download: becomes completely unresponsive for several hours, no LED activity.

This leads to the strong suspicion that the debug modes are not working properly on this device.

[Hrafn]

Further response from Onyx:

You can try to root the device, please download and unzip the file and tool from this link http://oa.o-in.me:9002/f/92cc614ff5/

Attached is the instruction, please refer to it. If the device can not be recovery, please arrange to send it back to our following address...

(I'm attaching their instructions, in case anybody wants to root theirs -- use at your own risk, o'course.)

As previously mentioned, 'Download' mode isn't working, so I'm returning my eReader to them.

ADDENDUM: the above link is no longer working.

[WithACee]

I was able to root using the method described for a few other Onyx devices in other threads. I used the Towelroot V1.

[sharkcow]

Originally Posted by Hrafn

Further response from Onyx:

(I'm attaching their instructions, in case anybody wants to root theirs -- use at your own risk, o'course.)

As previously mentioned, 'Download' mode isn't working, so I'm returning my eReader to them.

WOW! I'm flabbergasted - what you got there is some sort of internal development tool!
I have tried to start it up and I think you should try again, too:
All you have to do is turn off the device & connect it to your PC. Then hold both page turn buttons and press power for three seconds. Note: you won't see any change on the ereader screen, but the device should show up on your PC's USB connections as something like "Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. SE Blank MEGREZ". Then you should be able to use their tool, whatever it does exactly. Obviously, I haven't pressed "Start" in the tool since I'm afraid it might wipe my data. You might as well try though before you send it in. I'm not even sure whether this is a rooting tool, but thanks to WithACee we now also know how to root the little critter ourselves, which I will definitely try soon as well

For all it's worth: with this kind of low-level access to the device I'm now completely happy, so your bricking mishap helped at least one person So thank you so much for sharing the files!

And of course, please let us know how this works for you...

sharkcow

Edit: haven't even begun to understand all you can do with that tool, but here you can find the official documentation:
http://www.nxp.com/assets/documents/...LMFGTOOLUG.pdf

Edit2: if you want to know what the start-button in the tool does, take a look at ucl2.xml. From a first look and since this is the manufacturing tool for the device, I conclude that it will re-flash the device, i.e. do a complete factory reset and format all partitions, so you _will_ lose your data. If the device doesn't work afterwards, your hardware is broken. I don't see that this tool roots the devices, though.

[Hrafn]

As I stated earlier, 'Download' mode (and in fact all three debug modes) aren't working on my eReader. If I hold the power button down for the instructed 3 sec, it just boots into 'normal' mode, if I hold it down for longer, it becomes non-responsive for hours/days, but does not present as an 'HID compliant device' when connected to a PC.

Given this, and the fact that (more than a day after my previous attempt) my eReader was still unresponsive, I sent it back to Onyx Boox yesterday.

Given the sequence of events (1st flash: slight problem (Google Play doesn't work); 2nd flash: severe screen problems; all further attempts to get it into any debug mode to further reflash giving idiosyncratic results), I'm beginning to suspect that there is some flaw (hardware or software) affecting this particular device's low-level functionality, with reflashing attempts causing the problem to 'snowball'.

[iacchi]

It might also be a problem of the 1.8 release. I flashed it on my boox max and it introduced some interesting features, but also started giving me some problems with some apps (blank or black screens where there should be text).

[Hrafn]

Originally Posted by iacchi

It might also be a problem of the 1.8 release. I flashed it on my boox max and it introduced some interesting features, but also started giving me some problems with some apps (blank or black screens where there should be text).

May I suggest you report these problems to Onyx Boox (sales@onyx-international.com). The more information they hqave, the more likely we are to have these problems solved (also the more likely they are to view problems as 'their problem' not 'customers screwing up').

[iacchi]

I'll do it, although considering the fact that it's a 3rd party Android app I don't know if they'll care about it.

Incidentally (and sorry for the OT/spam), if someone would like to provide some advice: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh....php?p=3458093