PRS-505 Page Counter, Read Timer and Pages per Minute

slepp · 01-11-2009, 11:16 PM

** The patched files themselves are in post #11.

Hello everyone, I've been poking around the forums for a little bit now, after receiving a PRS-505 for Christmas. I wrote up a little mod tonight that tracks how many page turns, how long you've spent reading (from first page turn/reset, and up to 2 minutes per page, longer than that and it assumes you weren't reading) and then shows the number of pages you're reading per minute.

I figure it's handy to see how long it might take you to finish the rest of the book, or 'just one more chapter' things when it is already too late to be reading :>

It just adds to the bottom of the page like this:

Page/Total Pages (Read Pages / Time Reading in Minutes / Pages per Minute)

You press and hold the center button/Enter in a book to reset the timers/counters to 0. (I couldn't find any other function that holding the Enter button did in the stock firmwares, so figured it was convenient to use).

I'll put it up here, but I'm not sure how people expect these to be packaged up? Just the main.xml by itself?

ribcookie · 01-12-2009, 12:26 AM

please add auto page turns based on pages per minute, please, please

this is make my ebook experience so good. or give the option where we can change the speed by pressing page up or down while it's going.

slepp · 01-12-2009, 02:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ribcookie

please add auto page turns based on pages per minute, please, please

this is make my ebook experience so good. or give the option where we can change the speed by pressing page up or down while it's going.

Not a bad idea.. Playing with the changes I made, I find I read at a pretty constant (+/- 3 seconds) rate per page, so automatic timed page turns would fit pretty well. But, I'm not sure if the reader supports it, or how a timer would affect battery life. I'll try anyway :>

ribcookie · 01-12-2009, 04:12 AM

i wonder we can use the slide show feature for turning pages or modify it.

slepp · 01-12-2009, 05:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ribcookie

i wonder we can use the slide show feature for turning pages or modify it.

Though I haven't actually seen the 'games' for the PRS, I imagine they have some sort of timing mechanism. There are other events that are time based, like when you hit an invalid button, it shows the little 'can't do this' icon for a second before removing it again, as well as updating the settings screen every minute to show the time.. Lots of indications it could have a timer, but again, haven't tried it :> I've spent time tonight instead on updating and fine tuning the page-per-minute calculations by ignoring short pages and putting statistics into the About screen.

ribcookie · 01-13-2009, 03:46 AM

i look forward to your script especially if u can get auto pages turns to work as an option.

thanks

Tibor · 02-10-2009, 10:45 AM

Where can I download the mod? is it publically available? or is it still in development phase?

slepp · 02-10-2009, 08:07 PM

Yeah, it's ready for public consumption. I've been using it myself, as well as another user, so I think it works pretty good. I'm still not sure how people would like to see it "packaged", though, to apply it to their devices.

ribcookie · 02-10-2009, 11:15 PM

please release it for all of us

along with instructions

slepp · 02-10-2009, 11:19 PM

Heh, ok. I'll do that tonight when I get back home to where the PRS is hiding. Another feature I added which requires an SD card (I felt writing to the internal memory every page turn was bad for the life of the internal flash) is a 'reading log'. It logs the page number and the time it took to read it, for each page of each book you read. I haven't found a use for this yet, other than watching the fact that as I get tired, my reading time per page increases slowly. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to get the title of the book to say what book you were reading.. :>

Anyway, I'll put it up soon. It's a replacement of two of the XML files and then the regular patching stuff by Igorsk is used to put it in place.

slepp · 02-11-2009, 12:20 AM

These are the files needed to apply the changes. Use the flasher by Igorsk to put these onto the PRS-505 itself. It has only been tested with PRS-505 version 1.1.

The file applicationStart.xml has a few modifications, and goes into:

files.505.1.1.00.18040/opt/sony/ebook/application/resources/applicationStart.xml

The main.xml has all the main modifications, and goes into:

files.505.1.1.00.18040/opt/sony/ebook/application/resources/scripts/main.xml

Please edit the main.xml to replace 'YOUR NAME' and 'NUMBER' with the relevant information before flashing your PRS with it, since that is the 'owner info' as filled in from the flasher. You'll find this on line 636 of main.xml. If you forget/skip this step, it won't break anything, it'll just look funny in the About screen.

These XML files include the clock provided by Igorsk's Universal Flasher, and maps the left/right arrows to back/forward page turning as part of that patch.

This patch adds the following button options:

1. Holding the 'center' button down on the arrow pad for a few seconds will reset the current page counter/timers to zero. This is handy when starting reading for the day, or changing books, etc. It does not reset the global count.
2. Pressing 9 in the About screen resets the global counters to 0.

Features you'll find in general:

1. The about screen will track total reading time in minutes, total pages turned, average pages per minute and pages per hour.
2. The bottom bar of the screen while reading will show: page/total_pages (pages_read/time_reading/pages_per_minute/time_to_finish), as in: 31/100 (20/18.2/1.1/62.7) meaning you're on page 31 of 100, you've read 20 pages since counter reset, which took 18.2 minutes, at a rate of 1.1 pages per minute, and it should take about 62.7 minutes to finish reading the entire 100 pages.
3. If there is an SD card inserted, the stats will be kept across USB connections/restarts. It will also create a file called reading.log which has all the page turn times (more details to come on that).

I hope that's enough for everyone to figure out how to get this on there :>

I'm not sure if I can put up a Zip of the entire set needed to flash or not (created by the Universal Flasher), but the link is: http://filebin.ca/gjegmm/sony-flash-v1.zip The files in the zip file are all the files needed to put in the root of the SD card to flash the device.

Let me know if the patches work for anyone :>

Tibor · 02-11-2009, 09:13 AM

Is it there any way to make it prscustomize compatible. After flash the files, I have loose the font and spanish translations.

any idea?

slepp · 02-12-2009, 03:20 AM

I'll work on that.. I'm not sure I can get it to fit into that, btu I can show you what to change in the files it creates.

Tibor · 02-12-2009, 03:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slepp

I'll work on that.. I'm not sure I can get it to fit into that, btu I can show you what to change in the files it creates.

Great!!!

I really like this mod. Very usuable. In any case I would prefer this one to spanish translations and font sizes.

Only one more suggestion I think does not need many efford: It would be preferable if the decimal part of timers was in the range 0 to 60 seconds and not in the range of 0 to 99 parts of minutes.

Best regards,
FS

slepp · 02-12-2009, 03:42 AM

Hey Tibor, thanks for the report :> I'm really glad it worked out. As for the minute count, I did the decimal minutes for the reason that it takes slightly less space on average, but I can see the use of being minutes:seconds instead. I can put that in a future update.

I'm really considering dropping the 'time left to read' value, since it isn't really that useful.. Either it's a huge number, like 600 minutes left, or so small you already know it'll only take 10 minutes to read 10 pages.. What do you think?

01-12-2009, 12:26 AM	#2
ribcookie Member Posts: 13 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: palm clie sl10, sony prs505, itouch, sony prs700, prs505, prsT1	can u mod it so the page will change by itself based on pages per minute please add auto page turns based on pages per minute, please, please this is make my ebook experience so good. or give the option where we can change the speed by pressing page up or down while it's going.

01-12-2009, 04:12 AM	#4
ribcookie Member Posts: 13 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: palm clie sl10, sony prs505, itouch, sony prs700, prs505, prsT1	the reader supports slide shows i wonder we can use the slide show feature for turning pages or modify it.

02-10-2009, 11:15 PM	#9
ribcookie Member Posts: 13 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: palm clie sl10, sony prs505, itouch, sony prs700, prs505, prsT1	i would like the script too please release it for all of us along with instructions

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01-11-2009, 11:16 PM	#1
slepp Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Edmonton, AB Device: Sony PRS-505	PRS-505 Page Counter, Read Timer and Pages per Minute The patched files themselves are in post #11*. Hello everyone, I've been poking around the forums for a little bit now, after receiving a PRS-505 for Christmas. I wrote up a little mod tonight that tracks how many page turns, how long you've spent reading (from first page turn/reset, and up to 2 minutes per page, longer than that and it assumes you weren't reading) and then shows the number of pages you're reading per minute. I figure it's handy to see how long it might take you to finish the rest of the book, or 'just one more chapter' things when it is already too late to be reading :> It just adds to the bottom of the page like this: Page/Total Pages (Read Pages / Time Reading in Minutes / Pages per Minute) You press and hold the center button/Enter in a book to reset the timers/counters to 0. (I couldn't find any other function that holding the Enter button did in the stock firmwares, so figured it was convenient to use). I'll put it up here, but I'm not sure how people expect these to be packaged up? Just the main.xml by itself? Attached Thumbnails Last edited by slepp; 02-11-2009 at 12:22 AM. Reason: Added reference to post #11 for files.*

01-13-2009, 03:46 AM	#6
ribcookie Member Posts: 13 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: palm clie sl10, sony prs505, itouch, sony prs700, prs505, prsT1	i look forward to your script especially if u can get auto pages turns to work as an option. thanks

02-10-2009, 10:45 AM	#7
Tibor Enthusiast Posts: 44 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Sony PRS-505	Where can I download the mod? is it publically available? or is it still in development phase?

02-10-2009, 08:07 PM	#8
slepp Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Edmonton, AB Device: Sony PRS-505	Yeah, it's ready for public consumption. I've been using it myself, as well as another user, so I think it works pretty good. I'm still not sure how people would like to see it "packaged", though, to apply it to their devices.

02-10-2009, 11:19 PM	#10
slepp Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Edmonton, AB Device: Sony PRS-505	Heh, ok. I'll do that tonight when I get back home to where the PRS is hiding. Another feature I added which requires an SD card (I felt writing to the internal memory every page turn was bad for the life of the internal flash) is a 'reading log'. It logs the page number and the time it took to read it, for each page of each book you read. I haven't found a use for this yet, other than watching the fact that as I get tired, my reading time per page increases slowly. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to get the title of the book to say what book you were reading.. :> Anyway, I'll put it up soon. It's a replacement of two of the XML files and then the regular patching stuff by Igorsk is used to put it in place.

02-11-2009, 09:13 AM	#12
Tibor Enthusiast Posts: 44 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Sony PRS-505	Is it there any way to make it prscustomize compatible. After flash the files, I have loose the font and spanish translations. any idea?

02-12-2009, 03:20 AM	#13
slepp Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Edmonton, AB Device: Sony PRS-505	I'll work on that.. I'm not sure I can get it to fit into that, btu I can show you what to change in the files it creates.

02-12-2009, 03:42 AM	#15
slepp Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Edmonton, AB Device: Sony PRS-505	Hey Tibor, thanks for the report :> I'm really glad it worked out. As for the minute count, I did the decimal minutes for the reason that it takes slightly less space on average, but I can see the use of being minutes:seconds instead. I can put that in a future update. I'm really considering dropping the 'time left to read' value, since it isn't really that useful.. Either it's a huge number, like 600 minutes left, or so small you already know it'll only take 10 minutes to read 10 pages.. What do you think?

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