I've purchased this keyborard from Amazon and it paired flawlessly. It's funny to see the tiny pointer running acros the screen.
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The media keys don't do the required functions for android, but all the other normal keys do well. The touchpad is excesively small (as for my fingers....) for the dimensions of the keyboard but do its work altough sometimes the pointer freezes if the click is repeated quickly.
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It sleeps if not in use, and awakes if I pulse the mouse buttons.
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It has the dimensions of a full keyboard without the numerical pad, replaced by the touch surface, ideal for use the kindle connected by HDMI to the wall TV....
Related
The Gametel controller is now available on Amazon.com. I got mine in the mail today. Here's a quick review.
It came with no battery charge, so I had to plug it in to test it out. I was using a USB cable plugged into my computer. At first it only showed a red light to indicate charging, but then a green light came on shortly afterward. This is supposed to indicate that it's on but not paired. I tried pairing with the device using the Gametel software from the market, but it would not work. Turns out you can't use the controller while it's plugged into a computer. As soon as I unplugged it it turned off, and when I turned it back on it paired fine. I tested it again while plugged in and it still wouldn't connect to the phone. No big deal, but it's a minor hassle. It might work fine when plugged into an outlet. It supposedly has a 9 hour battery life, so just keep it charged and this issue should never bother you.
Despite the One X's huge size it fits fine, even with a TPU case. The TPU case has the added benefit of keeping the controller arm from pressing the down volume button. The software has a feature to disable the volume keys because of this potential issue, but it's nice that I didn't need to use it. It says it can provide volume control using the device itself, but I'm not sure how that would work, since all the physical buttons are mapped to SNES buttons for my purposes. You could always slide the phone a little bit to the left and it wouldn't hit the volume key. The phone would be off center, but it wouldn't be too bad.
The controller acts as a virtual keyboard. As part of the software setup it installs an input method in your keyboard settings. As soon as you launch the software it prompts you to change to its input method, which is handy. Then you can launch your favorite emulator and map the keys is uses to the emulator's buttons.
I initially had problems with the default keys that the controller was emitting. I'm used to an SNES button layout, so I will call the buttons X (top), Y (left), B (bottom), A (right). For some crazy reason the A button was emitting the Android "Back" button by default. This was mappable in Snes9x EX, but pressing it still performed the "Back" action which prompted you to quit the game. The B button was emitting the "DPAD Center", which worked, but was an odd choice. It's even stranger because none of the preset key configs in the Gametel software's Advanced Settings have this setup. If this happens to anyone else, just load the Android Gamepad preset and it will work fine. However, it reverses X & Y and A & B from what I'm used to, so I made my own preset named SNES. That way when I configure Snes9x the purpose of the button matches up with the key being emitted.
As for the controller's buttons and D-pad, they are OK. The buttons are great, but the D-pad makes you move diagonally a little too easily. If anyone is familiar with the Xbox 360 D-pad, it's the same sort of problem, but not as bad. Maybe with more time I'll get used to the feel of exactly where to press to avoid moving diagonally. Part of the problem is the D-pad is circular instead of cross-shaped. It's hard for your thumb to feel exactly where the cardinal directions are. This isn't the entire problem, though, because the 360 controller has clearly raised cardinal directions and it still sucks really bad. Thankfully it's not nearly that bad with this D-pad. Pretty much anything is better than on-screen controls.
That actually looks pretty cool.
I don't game enough to need this and touchscreen controls don't bother me enough, but thanks for the review!
As it turns out, the D-pad is really ****ty. This is most noticeable in games with movement in both directions, like Secret of Mana. Zelda wasn't so bad because you move kind of slow and you can adjust your thumb position if you notice yourself moving diagonally by accident. However, in Secret of Mana you fly across the screen, and moving diagonally by accident for a second can really put you off course. In a game like Super Mario World you don't really notice the problem.
I might have to try an iControlPad. I just really liked the Gametel's single-piece design and spring-loaded arm.
Sixaxis controller app and ps3 controller.. All you'll ever need
Sent from my One X using xda app-developers app
I have one of those Android HDMI TV sticks (A variant of CX-01, to be exact.) running 4.0.4, successfully rooted and hacked up to my liking. There is one thing I would like it to do, which, in my case, is the reason to own it in the first place: I need a very portable presentation device, which I could plug into anything with a HDMI socket and play a presentation. (As a side note, it boots whenever it gets power supplied, so you can use it as a very hidden cheap web server - it's smaller than a Raspberry Pi.)
There is a problem with this usage, however. The device comes with a 2.4 GHz wireless accelerometer-based mouse with a few buttons, which is it's only input device, connected over USB OTG. (Replacing it with something else would be very much not cost-effective) That mouse is only usable because when it is connected, ICS displays a mouse pointer on screen, otherwise, navigation would be way too cumbersome. I have replaced the stock mouse pointer with a smaller one by replacing the png image in framework-res.apk, and it's good enough. Using Hide Bar, I was able to hide the status bar (the wireless mouse has back and home buttons) so I get the full screen for my presentation.
During the presentation itself, I need an input device to move between individual slides and otherwise trigger execution, buttons on the wireless mouse work, or can be reassigned in various ways. However, I need the mouse pointer to invisible during that, as the motion sensitive wireless mouse would make it move constantly while I'm talking with the mouse in my hand.
There is apparently no way to temporarily disable the accelerometer in the mouse itself, while it has a power button that disables it entirely, it turns off everything, including the buttons, and pressing the buttons enables the mouse again.
This means I need a software means to temporarily hide or disable the mouse pointer. (I can obviously permanently hide it by replacing the pointer with a transparent PNG. That would make it very hard to control the device, because the only button it has to trigger a control actually simulates a left click, so it's out.) Extensive googling failed to provide an answer -- most of the time people who get a mouse pointer they don't want seem to eventually give up and pick a HID device which does not produce it instead. As far as I can see, there can only be two ways to do it:
Somehow get the OS to think it has no mouse HID device, or that it's not moving.
Somehow force the mouse pointer to stick to a corner of the screen and keep it there while it's not needed.
Unfortunately I could find no clear sources on either method. I'm not above some hacking and programming to get it done, but I would appreciate an advice on what to look for.
I setup Daggerfall with mouse set to physical and have tried both relative and absolute and in game mouse look turned on, the problem is that i can only turn about 90 degree from left to right. When the android cursor hits the edge of the screen i can no longer turn. Any suggestions on how to fix this would be much appreciated.
you are not alone...
Babalonis said:
I setup Daggerfall with mouse set to physical and have tried both relative and absolute and in game mouse look turned on, the problem is that i can only turn about 90 degree from left to right. When the android cursor hits the edge of the screen i can no longer turn. Any suggestions on how to fix this would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same issue with my nexus7 and I think that most other devices will have it too... Obviously, this problem isn't specific just for daggerfall - since the android mouse pointer won't leave the screen, you can't turn in any 3D game (or scroll in strategy games... etc.).
To my knowledge, there is no way to disable android mouse pointer and I have read that google forbids apps to disable it too. I use a simple workaround which is to set the mouse pointer speed in android settings to minimum - than the mouse in dosbox moves a lot faster that the android mouse.
It won't solve the problem completely, but it makes the games playable - you still need to be careful not to hit the edge of the screen with android mouse pointer, but you can turn about 720 degrees in one direction before that happends (than you just move the cursor back to the center of the screen and continue playing...)
Unfortunately, I think that the only way to get rid of the android mouse pointer completely is to flash a custom rom which doesn't have mouse support built in at all (but of course than you couldn't use the mouse anymore - except for gaming in dosbox...)
it is ok
karyk said:
I have the same issue with my nexus7 and I think that most other devices will have it too... Obviously, this problem isn't specific just for daggerfall - since the android mouse pointer won't leave the screen, you can't turn in any 3D game (or scroll in strategy games... etc.).
To my knowledge, there is no way to disable android mouse pointer and I have read that google forbids apps to disable it too. I use a simple workaround which is to set the mouse pointer speed in android settings to minimum - than the mouse in dosbox moves a lot faster that the android mouse.
It won't solve the problem completely, but it makes the games playable - you still need to be careful not to hit the edge of the screen with android mouse pointer, but you can turn about 720 degrees in one direction before that happends (than you just move the cursor back to the center of the screen and continue playing...)
Unfortunately, I think that the only way to get rid of the android mouse pointer completely is to flash a custom rom which doesn't have mouse support built in at all (but of course than you couldn't use the mouse anymore - except for gaming in dosbox...)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct in that the Android OS does not expose any API's to disable the Android mouse pointer. This becomes a problem in some games, because the Android mouse pointer will not go past the screen edges, thus disabling scrolling when you are using an external mouse (ie. bluetooth mouse or touchpad on the TF101).
There are four possible work-arounds built into dosbox turbo:
1. Screen Scaling Reduction + Absolute Mouse Mode (w/Hardware mouse):
In the settings menu, try reducing the screen scaling to less than 100% (ie. 90 or 95%). This will leave a small black border around the screen. When dosbox Turbo detects that the Android Mouse pointer has entered this black border, it should then emulate the mouse at the 'edge' of the screen. This special work-around will only work in "absolute" mouse mode, as there is no easy way to emulate such behavior in relative mode.
2. Analog GamePad mouse Emulation (w/Hardware Gamepad)
In DosBox Turbo 2.1.7+ analog sticks on gamepads are automapped to mouse and joystick control. So if you plug a Logitech, XBOX, or other supported gamepad into your TF101, the right stick will control the mouse movement, while the left stick will control the joystick.
3. Virtual On-Screen Mouse Emulation (w/Virtual Joystick)
If you go to the setting Virtual Joystick -> Use Joystick as Mouse, then when you enable to virtual onscreen joystick, it will then control the on screen mouse.
4. Touchscreen Mouse (w/Touchscreen)
The final work-around is to go back to the default touchscreen mouse. Using the above screen scale reduction trick + absolute mode will allow for scrolling in games that work with absolute mouse mode. Relative mouse mode is not affected by the scrolling issue.
I'm having an issue while using DOSBox:
I can't play shooters like BLOOD etc. using the right analog stick of the Samsung Gamepad for Android (GP-EI20) which is connected via Bluetooth to my Galaxy Note 3.
Everything else works but the right analog stick is just not being recognized (simply as if there wouldn't be one).
I'd like to use the right analog stick for mouse strafing but don't know how to solve / configure this.
Any suggestions?
I'm surprised to learn that we must keep our eyes on the tablet while clumsily tapping even when the tablet is connected to a big display.
Instead of plugging a mouse into the touchpad (I guess that's the current workaround), why not turn the tablet into a touchpad when mirroring the display of the tablet on a large screen? With that setup, the tablet display wouldn't actually be mirrored, the big display would look like a desktop computer display with a pointer floating around on it. Also, the virtual touchpad on the tablet could be resizable so that you could simultaneously show a virtual keyboard (neither of which would show on the big display). Or there could be a spot on the tablet display tapped to switch between virtual keyboard and touchpad. Again, neither showing up on the big display.
Let me know if I'm not being clear enough. This has nothing to do with simply mirroring the tablet display to a monitor/TV, I know that can be done through MHL and HDMI stuff. Also, it has nothing to do with using the tablet as a touchpad for another computer. The only components are the tablet and the big display (monitor or TV).
And of course if it's already been done, please let me know.
The simplest of implementations...
The big display would mirror the tablet display. The tablet would show a tiny pointer. How small doesn't matter because you won't be looking at the tablet. The pointer location would correspond to the current pointer location as shown by "developer options" on anAndroid. That pointer would be driven by touch. That should be easy enough, the only difference is that a relative pointer position would be used instead of current finger point position.
Apparently 99% of the programming for this stuff is already done on Android tablets. Probably also on iPads or whatever. It would just need a GUI switch and to make a few tiny adjustments when connected to a monitor.
VoiceScripter said:
I'm surprised to learn that we must keep our eyes on the tablet while clumsily tapping even when the tablet is connected to a big display.
Instead of plugging a mouse into the touchpad (I guess that's the current workaround), why not turn the tablet into a touchpad when mirroring the display of the tablet on a large screen? With that setup, the tablet display wouldn't actually be mirrored, the big display would look like a desktop computer display with a pointer floating around on it. Also, the virtual touchpad on the tablet could be resizable so that you could simultaneously show a virtual keyboard (neither of which would show on the big display). Or there could be a spot on the tablet display tapped to switch between virtual keyboard and touchpad. Again, neither showing up on the big display.
Let me know if I'm not being clear enough. This has nothing to do with simply mirroring the tablet display to a monitor/TV, I know that can be done through MHL and HDMI stuff. Also, it has nothing to do with using the tablet as a touchpad for another computer. The only components are the tablet and the big display (monitor or TV).
And of course if it's already been done, please let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anybody connect their tablet to a large monitor? Enjoy fumbling around on the tablet when you could be using precise pointer control? Think this might help for stuff like browsing?
Anybody?
Pressing the outer buttons (q,p, backspace...) on my keyboard has a noticable delay to the press being recognized. Upon further testing, it seems like the touch latency is reduced along both sides of the screen.
Does anyone else have the same problem?
No, I use my phone with hdmi/usb hub a Bluetooth dongle mouse and keyboard. It works flawless with moonlight.
1. Maybe the battery of your keyboard is empty
2. you are using a dongle without power delivery or low power
3. Your keyboard is one of these christmas led lighting ones which draws 1kw :-D
noname122414 said:
No, I use my phone with hdmi/usb hub a Bluetooth dongle mouse and keyboard. It works flawless with moonlight.
1. Maybe the battery of your keyboard is empty
2. you are using a dongle without power delivery or low power
3. Your keyboard is one of these christmas led lighting ones which draws 1kw :-D
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant the stock built in "keyboard" aka gboard, not a physical keyboard, but thanks anyways.