Clickers, love 'em or hate 'em

[arooni]

For anyone who has the official boox remote does it work with third party apps as page up/down like

Brave
Einkbro
Koreader
Inoreader
Scribd
Nytimes
Blinkist


Many thanks !!

[Renate]

Originally Posted by arooni

For anyone who has the official boox remote does it work with third party apps...

We've not had a report from anyone yet. Earlier in this thread I presumed what keycodes the lower section of the Boox Remoter generates based on what keycodes the Onyx itself supports. I don't know exactly what keycodes the 5 way control on the top does. Could someone check using my UsbMode.apk (in the sig)?

If rooted, you can remap scancodes-keycodes per peripheral under /system/usr/keylayout using the VID/PID (also for Bluetooth devices). You can modify your app too. Also Button Mapper.

[arooni]

Speaking of button mapper I can't get it for the life of me to remap the volume control buttons on my nova air to be page up and page down. Was anyone successful at this ?

Also experimented with tasker without luck

[pazos]

For KOReader you can remap all buttons except for home button (maybe back too, I don't remember). You just need the keycodes posted by Renate in https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...13&postcount=6 and a custom keymap following the instructions in https://github.com/koreader/koreader...customize-keys

The numbers of the left are keycodes. The strings on the right are "known" actions. You can see defaults in https://github.com/koreader/koreader.../event_map.lua.

[Renate]

Here's my latest project, although I'm still fighting with software fine-tuning. This pedal is mostly for guitar playing in the park, something small I can throw in my pack.

The original is an MAudio wired foot pedal. It sells for about $10. I kind of like the metal and the size but you have to make a few mods to use this for Bluetooth.

• I replaced the simple wire contact switch with a microswitch
• Removed the output cable
• Ground down a post and glued in a dual AAA battery holder
• Installed the Bluetooth circuit board
• Ground the nub of the power (formerly polarity) switch down to half its height so that the power wouldn't accidentally get turned on.
• Installed an LED in the back to indicate pairing
• Cut an opening in the top of the pedal for the BluRays to escape
• Replaced the original top tread with a thicker rubber one (because of the new hole)

Except for that, it's the same as stock.

[Nursken]

Thought I would give this a try. Found it here.

[Renate]

That looks like it was designed by Klingons. $40 is a bit pricey.

Please give us a report of the keycodes it generates when it comes in.

[Renate]

So, the next chapter of the saga...

I want to make my own clicker. I ordered some cases, they are the Serpac CA-4-4B (4 button). I was quite pleased when they showed up. They have 4 buttons in a weird Klingon-ish pattern but widely spaced. I think this will be a big improvement on those 5-way switches that are so tiny and it's easy to hit up and right at the same time. This is just the case, I'm working on the PCB.

The software is all working out well. I also retrofited an iRig BlueBoard and I'm quite pleased with it. I don't need to use a translator app to make it work with things and the button backlight is easier to turn on with a press on the outer two buttons (instead of having to go to some app and hit a slider).

Edit: So I did the board design, hit Enter and now the design is at the fab. I hope it gets here soon.

[Renate]

They do make it tough to check the battery on your Bluetooth devices.

Android was late to the game and they initially made checking of the batteries in your Bluetooth headphones years after Apple. They weren't thinking much of keyboards or mice or anything else. In the Android stock Settings you can click on a Bluetooth device and if it's a headset that takes phone calls it will display the battery level. Why can't it be a headphone that you only use for playing music or why not a keyboard? The devil only knows. In the latest Android source it should support everything else but it's not in the 3.1 software on my Poke 3.

There is an app (which I haven't even tried) called BatOn which should work. Why do we even have to have separate apps for what should be in the OS? Ok, so I wrote my own stupid app instead. It works fine for my stuff (i.e. stuff I wrote firmware for) but not for a commercial headset, a keyboard and a clicker. It's not clear if they are simply missing BAS service (the service that reports battery level) or what.

(The TestBed is at 100% because it's running on a power supply.)

[arooni]

Originally Posted by arooni

For anyone who has the official boox remote does it work with third party apps as page up/down like

Brave
Einkbro
Koreader
Inoreader
Scribd
Nytimes
Blinkist


Many thanks !!

Love my new boox remote to go with my nova air. This combined with my lazy person aluminum tablet mount by my bed makes hands free reading a dream.

Luckily enough the remote works with KoReader pretty well! Yay!

However, when trying it say within

eInkBro, it doesn't seem to scroll (come on bro),
Brave it scrolls but no repeater option so you have to tap down directional arrow each time you want to scroll
Inoreader -- same thing; one line per tap, no repeat setting
Nytimes -- a bit better than inoreader but still no repeat setting
I already left feedback via the the settings menu that repeat settings would be nice. But overall, a great device that completes something I've wanted for awhile -- truly remote page turns so my book doesn't shake when it's mounted or on a stand and I want to change the page.

let the lazy reading commence!

PS: ideally i could remap the small arrow key that down is mapped to in certain apps and map it to page down instead.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by arooni

Love my new boox remote...

Could you do me a favor? Could you check what codes it's generating. There is an app called UsbMode.apk (in my signature) that can tell you what codes it's generating. The 5 way buttons remain a mystery. The control ones that do F1-12 codes are speculated earlier in this thread, but you could document which symbol on the remote goes to what.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by arooni

Love my new boox remote...
...but still no repeat setting

Uh-oh, I see what they've done.
A long press (from any source) of PgDn gives you full page refresh!
A long press of PgUp gives you "Menu"!
Mmm, I don't like that.
It also means that your button press works on the release, a bit of a delay.
This is at the system level, before an app gets a chance to see anything.

Edit: Well, that was quick but I still have to try it.
All the goofy code is in /system/framework/framework.jar in android.onyx.util.PhoneWindowHelper
It loads JSON presets in /system/framework/framework-res.apk in res/raw/keypad.json (also bt_keypad.json).

    {
      "keySet": [
        "KEYCODE_PAGE_DOWN"
      ],
      "shortPressAction": "switchByConf",
      "longPressAction": "fullRefreshScreen",
      "repeat": false
    },

[arooni]

Did you still need me to test something?

Would love to make the remote useful outside of the ebook reading apps

[Renate]

So, I've got a fix. There's problems (unknown) round-tripping with ApkTool.
If you are using Magisk, this is safe and fairly easy. If you are modifying /system directly you might want to make a backup of that partition? I dunno. Just warning you.

Also! ADB starts late so you want to boot up normally so you have ADB. Then you can issue the command:

# stop

Which stops the Android subsystem, but you will still have ADB so you can fix whatever you screw up. When you want to try things, type "start".

As I said, the JSON files are in /system/framework/framework-res.apk
Grab a copy and pull it on your desktop.
My Poke3 has:

md5: 9b99400530a31ad55f29bc68fc417fc1
24,578,369 framework-res.apk

There's md5sum on the Onyx and whatever it's called on your desktop.

Use whatever desktop hex editor tools you have to find the ASCII string "keypad", without unzipping the file. There should be six eight occurences of it. Leave the first two alone, change the last four strings. Change #5, #6, #7, #8 (I like changing the "keypad" to a "zeypad" so that I know what I've done.) That's your file. Put it in your Magisk module directory or else replace the original system/framework file.

I really like that now the page goes down when I press the button down, not when I release it. Right now, the auto-repeat is pretty fast. You can see it by holding down a letter in a text editor. If I do a typical "long press" on PgDn now I see that it goes off doing about 10 pages forward. I'll look into tempering that a bit. You could also handle that in your app to not go go on the auto-repeated DOWN but either timer or checking whether the page turning is backed up. Hmm, another project for me...*

Good luck. If you screw up, don't reboot! just stop, fix something, start.

*Edit: I added that idea to my reader. It goes fast, but stops after you let up the button (instead of staggering on for a second or two). I like it!

[arooni]

Do you have the same remote yourself ?


Thanks for the suggestions!

I didn't know Magisk could run on this device. Will magisk root the device ? I thought I needed to unlock the bootloader first ?

It's been awhile since I've messed with it on previous android devices