Related
Right, I can't see an Issues list for this device yet so I'll start one:
1. A couple of times now, I've left my phone to charge overnight and woke up to an unresponsive device. Power button does nothing, screen is off and only way to get it device back up and running is to poke the soft-reset button OR remove and reinsert the battery.
2. Unresponsive buttons: every now and then the "right" button of the D-Pad does nothing, then suddenly it will start working again, same with the "Back" button though much more infrequent/noticable than the D-Pad issue I've experienced.
I did not expierence the first problem with the charging issue.
To close and app you can use the (arrow pointing left) key but sometimes i have to push it like 3 or 4 times before it respond.
Same with the touchscreen but i fixed that by increasing the touchpad sensitivity with a regedit.
My device has reset a few times while I been reading email or texts.
John
Guys. The whole phone besides the keyboard is touch sensitive. So the whole front keys and touchscreen. Increase sensitivity and it should work fine.
Kraize92 said:
Guys. The whole phone besides the keyboard is touch sensitive. So the whole front keys and touchscreen. Increase sensitivity and it should work fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Erm, I'm sorry but that's not right is it. The D-Pad, Send, End, Home and Back buttons are actual buttons as opposed to touch sensitive.
The zoom wheel is obviously a "touch" area too. The issue I am descriping seems to suggest that the switches might be a bit flakey rather than anything else.
no he is right all the buttons are PRESSURE (he said touch) sensitive..when they unvieled the diamond the ceo of htc demonstrated that the keys are pressure sensitie and even the cameria button can SENSE when your finger is approaching to ready the zoom ..here is the youtube vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTd3SUPSJsMit
pazookie said:
no he is right all the buttons are PRESSURE (he said touch) sensitive..when they unvieled the diamond the ceo of htc demonstrated that the keys are pressure sensitie and even the cameria button can SENSE when your finger is approaching to ready the zoom ..here is the youtube vid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTd3SUPSJsMit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry my bad. WM phones used to be called touch sensitve but in reality they're pressure sensitive. The only touch sensitive phones out currently are the iPhones and the Omni I would say.
Syphon Filter said:
Erm, I'm sorry but that's not right is it. The D-Pad, Send, End, Home and Back buttons are actual buttons as opposed to touch sensitive.
The zoom wheel is obviously a "touch" area too. The issue I am descriping seems to suggest that the switches might be a bit flakey rather than anything else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the were actual buttons they would be capable of being pushed in which it's not possible to do
Issues:
HTC task man doesnt work properly.
Poor reception
Too many startup apps/services put on by htc to provide touch interface (which i hate)
why on eart you use operaloder on phones stratup just to get 2-3 more seconds fast load time for opera.
i think htc just over done this touch crap.
could anoyone access setupfiles on rom so i can use plain wm6.1
Kraize92 said:
If the were actual buttons they would be capable of being pushed in which it's not possible to do
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hang on, you clearly don't own either Touch Pro or a Diamond, the D-Pad, Call, End, Home and Back buttons CAN BE PUSHED IN. They are actual buttons.
Syphon Filter said:
Hang on, you clearly don't own either Touch Pro or a Diamond, the D-Pad, Call, End, Home and Back buttons CAN BE PUSHED IN. They are actual buttons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. I'm sure of it. I have demoed both a touch pro and a diamond. I meant that they CANNOT be pushed in as you can on the kaiser. I know this for a fact and on every video you will see that it is mentioned as a pressure sensitive all around except for the keyboard. I'm sure of that. They are not real buttons. I guess you could push it in if it's just a piece of glass and paper underneath the actual pressure sensitive touchpad, but it wouldn't make it real buttons. I know what I'm talking about Unless HTC suddenly decided to make them real buttons which would kill their profits so I'm assuming that they wouldn't do that either. I demoed it about 2-3 weeks ago.
Syphon Filter said:
Right, I can't see an Issues list for this device yet so I'll start one:
1. A couple of times now, I've left my phone to charge overnight and woke up to an unresponsive device. Power button does nothing, screen is off and only way to get it device back up and running is to poke the soft-reset button OR remove and reinsert the battery.
2. Unresponsive buttons: every now and then the "right" button of the D-Pad does nothing, then suddenly it will start working again, same with the "Back" button though much more infrequent/noticable than the D-Pad issue I've experienced.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1 - Not had that problem - hopefully that'll go after your next hard reset or ROM update - these damn things always have, and always will behave differently for different people, it seems!
2 - My Back button missed my press once or twice, but I think it's more of a hardware issue than a software issue though (or possibly user error!). I'll tell you now though, hitting the "Right" button on my Diamond was next to impossible. It was extremely stiff, and would eventually register as a press on the "Hang Up" button. Drove me absolutely mental! But I think I was the only Diamond user who had that problem, and my Raphael is fine.
having got one in my hand - they are tactile push bottons - i.e you push them until it clicks before an action happens.
ardsar said:
having got one in my hand - they are tactile push bottons - i.e you push them until it clicks before an action happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then I must be crazy. Since all I have to do is touch the button and a action happens. But my pressure threshold is very high.
Kraize92 said:
No. I'm sure of it. I have demoed both a touch pro and a diamond. I meant that they CANNOT be pushed in as you can on the kaiser. I know this for a fact and on every video you will see that it is mentioned as a pressure sensitive all around except for the keyboard. I'm sure of that. They are not real buttons. I guess you could push it in if it's just a piece of glass and paper underneath the actual pressure sensitive touchpad, but it wouldn't make it real buttons. I know what I'm talking about Unless HTC suddenly decided to make them real buttons which would kill their profits so I'm assuming that they wouldn't do that either. I demoed it about 2-3 weeks ago.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not going to get into an argument over this but the 9 buttons (Home, Back, Call, End, Up, Down, Left, Right and the centre of the D-Pad) on the face of the Diamond and the Touch Pro are buttons which have a tactile feedback, a press will not register until you "feel" the button pressed. The only thing in that area that is a "touch sensitive" thing is the zoom wheel.
Just because the area looks flush does not mean they are not buttons. There's a single piece of material that covers that area but I can assure you there are individual switches under there that provide a tactile feedback. You HAVE to feel that feedback for the button to do anything, simply touching it will have no effect unless you are using the zoom wheel functionality.
If you believe anything else you are wrong.
Kraize92 said:
Then I must be crazy. Since all I have to do is touch the button and a action happens. But my pressure threshold is very high.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. What do you mean "my pressure threshold is very high"? Are you talking about the registry settings?
2. I thought you didnt have a Touch Pro or Diamond?
I said I didn't own one. Doesn't mean I don't have one in hand right now I have family members and friends that work for HTC america and AT&T.
Yeah. Registry settings/Advance Config for diamond
Kraize92 said:
I said I didn't own one. Doesn't mean I don't have one in hand right now I have family members and friends that work for HTC america and AT&T.
Yeah. Registry settings/Advance Config for diamond
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Ok.
Anyway, so you're saying that device you have in your hand right now has no tactile feedback on the front face buttons?
If have insiders at HTC why did you ask for donations so you could get a Touch Pro in the other thread?
Syphon Filter said:
Yes. Ok.
Anyway, so you're saying that device you have in your hand right now has no tactile feedback on the front face buttons?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EDIT: Okay. Maybe I'm mistaken. It's only the d-pad that's pressure sensitive. The buttons are tactile even though they feel as if they are pressure sensitive because I don't push into it like I did with the front face buttons on my kaiser.
ah, you've seen the light. The button DOES push in but the panel is one solid "sheet" that covers all the buttons.
The "wheel" is the only touch sensitive bit. The 5 navigation functions of the d-pad (up down left right select) are all tactile buttons that work off little switches.
Syphon Filter said:
ah, you've seen the light. The button DOES push in but the panel is one solid "sheet" that covers all the buttons.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually. I should show you the light I'm right.
[Link]
Click number 3 and read this caption: "Swipe your finger across the screen to scroll through contracts, zoom, and pan web pages, browse your music library, and more, or press the touch-sensitive buttons to navigate and control your phone."
So concluding to that original fact that I was indeed right
I'm using my old Axim X5 for ebooks mostly and jog dialog used for moving pages up/down is great benefit.
Now I'm planning to buy Touch Pro - does anyone know if is possible to change action for two volume control buttons placed on left side of Touch Pro to use them as up/down keys for browsing ?
Regards
B.
bzdziagwa said:
I'm using my old Axim X5 for ebooks mostly and jog dialog used for moving pages up/down is great benefit.
Now I'm planning to buy Touch Pro - does anyone know if is possible to change action for two volume control buttons placed on left side of Touch Pro to use them as up/down keys for browsing ?
Regards
B.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be great. I miss my TytnII jog wheel badly. Together with more buttons that I programmed for direct access.
Huib
Lack of buttons makes the upgrade from the Mogul tougher for me. New bugs with the CA mandated bluetooth crap make me want to change, but wanting change for change's sake, without knowing what the change is about is as dumb as voting for Obama because he keeps saying "change". On the old Cheers TV show, Dr. Frasier Crane (later in Frasier) said he could put any idiot up for election, and if he kept saying "change" often enough, he'd get 10% of the vote. The bar folks bet he was wrong. So Frasier got Woody the dumb bartender (played by Woody Harrelson) to run, and he WON the election (to a Boston city council seat)
People never learn. SUBSTANCE MATTERS
herpi said:
That would be great. I miss my TytnII jog wheel badly. Together with more buttons that I programmed for direct access.
Huib
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah the only downside i see coming from a hermes is losing the wheel
but so many plusses so its ok
New Fuze user and new user to WM in general. I like the device, but it's been a bit overwhelming trying to get things together and tweaking it.
My biggest gripe right now is the sensitivity of the 4 way directional pad. Up and down work pretty well, but left and right are tricky to hit and I usually wind up going home, canceling, or going back. It's quite frustrating and I'd much rather use the directional pad than peck on the touchscreen in many situations.
I'm a bit befuddled: is navigation via the directional pad touch sensitive or is it a physical button? Is there anyway to adjust the sensitivities or sensor zones/regions so as not to accidentally hit one of other hardware buttons?
Thanks.
Got the same issue. The up / down navigation works fine, but left and right is just horrible. It would almost be better if you could use the touch sensitive part, rather than having to press the buttons fully down.
yup its a problem on all i think
lbhocky19 said:
yup its a problem on all i think
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, how did this get pass R&D and QA? The lack of responsive and accurate left/right keys is abysmal (makes me unable to use Calendar). I sure hope there will be some remedy ....
Yeah, I agree, the d-pad is sorely lacking. It seems to be getting a little easier as I get accustomed to it, but the d-pad from my 8525 was much better.
I agree 100%. And like vexingv said, this is particularly annoying in the calendar application. The D pad on my 8525 was far easier to use.
And all this time i thought i just kept messing up. I have the same problem also.
calendar is where the problem really does shine
This is the WORST part about this new phone redesign. It's almost as if MARKETING came up with this idea than actual engineers.
I wonder if we can just cut the surface so we get the d-pad left-right back and so it's not shared with other buttons.
Thanks a lot HTC! You now have THREE buttons that do the same thing instead of 2 last time on the Kaiser:
Home goes back to Home
Back (formerly OK), goes back to home anyways
Hangup goes back to Home anyways already!
So hitting left or right you have 66% of it going straight back to HOME.
Then, you take away the scroll-wheel capability and replace it with rocker buttons for volume that only do that and nothing else.
Genius by HTC.
NuShrike said:
This is the WORST part about this new phone redesign. It's almost as if MARKETING came up with this idea than actual engineers.
I wonder if we can just cut the surface so we get the d-pad left-right back and so it's not shared with other buttons.
Thanks a lot HTC! You now have THREE buttons that do the same thing instead of 2 last time on the Kaiser:
Home goes back to Home
Back (formerly OK), goes back to home anyways
Hangup goes back to Home anyways already!
So hitting left or right you have 66% of it going straight back to HOME.
Then, you take away the scroll-wheel capability and replace it with rocker buttons for volume that only do that and nothing else.
Genius by HTC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, the scroll wheel does work, but its ability is to zoom/decrease the text size, which for most intents and purposes is a waste.
For clarification, is the directional rocker currently touch-sensitive or is there a physical button that is being depressed (albeit poorly).
If this keeps up, how about mapping some of the other 4 hardware buttons to provide some L/R functionality?
Okay guys. Here is the weird crazy part. I had the same problem, I just flashed the original stock att rom back (Well, tried to freeze in the middle to return ) but I had the att rom on it, I tried to re-install via the microSD card, and after it went through all the customization, I was so suprised that the left and right were working, it blew me away. I was like, "wdf? Is this the same phone." I have no idea what happened, but they seem more responsive. No tricks. At first I thought it was just me, but I started to use it more and more and it was working much better than before. No idea what fixed it, but I'm a happy camper
Here's some pictures of a guy who dropped it. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2904011&postcount=1
Looks like distinct buttons. We just need to keep the face plate from sharing the presses.
Stock rom here... Moving 'left' seems to work okay but 'right' either hits Call End or Back. And here I thought I was doing something wrong.
NuShrike said:
Here's some pictures of a guy who dropped it. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2904011&postcount=1
Looks like distinct buttons. We just need to keep the face plate from sharing the presses.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seriously! Whose idea was it to make all those buttons into 1 face plate! stupid idiot designer. At least they could've separated the d-pad somehow, maybe a very precise circle.
Yeah with the new excitement with touch interfaces, HTC seemed to have left their minds/brains elsewhere. But judging from the pictures in the linked thread above, it seems like none of the 4 directions have physical buttons.
Count me in on this problem...
For the Calendar I just open the keyboard and use that D-pad on the bottom right.
SOLUTIONS...
I propose someone should create software to do 1 of 2 things:
1) Use the G-sensor to control scrolling. This function would be activated by touching, not pressing/clicking, the center of D-pad. Similar to how you focus the camera. This action would activate the software thus allowing scrolling in all 4 directions by tilting the device.
2) Change the input so we only have to Touch the D-pad (like how we zoom in on pictures/Opera) to move in the desired direction.
So who's up to the challenge of developing some software to make this happen? I will gladly donate $$$ as the D-pad is the ONLY thing I dislike about the Fuze/Touch Pro.
it took me 10 days to realize how to left and right buttons work (sprint).
Hmm...maybe the designers/engineers meant for BOTH hardware buttons on either side to be depressed nearly simultaneously in order to register navigation to either the left or right?
Eg.: Placing the tip of my right thumb parallel with the end the bottom of the phone between the two hardware buttons (farther away from the D-pad than one normally would) such that both buttons depressed, I was able to get much better accuracy navigating to the right. Can get the same response on the left side, but it's not as feasible due to the awkward positioning of the hands/fingers.
I got tired of this problem before so I used G-controller. It works.
[Link]
The buttons are both touch-sensitive and physical buttons. The problem is if your thumb is touching any of the big buttons, it will prefer that over the directional click. Add to that the fact that the area the phone considers to be part of the non-directional buttons is much bigger than what it considers to be the directional buttons and it is a problem.
I wish people would stop following Steve Jobs's design ideas. Fewer buttons does not a better product make.
As i know that touch pro is not only can be touched on the screen but also the hard button area ( home, back, call, hang up buttons)
How can i use that feature
Which software that i need to install or how can i active it
Thank for reading my topic
What do you want exactly? Do you want to remap hardware buttons?
the hardware buttons are enabled by default. you don't have to 'activate' them.
No! My point is how can i use the sensor of hardware button ^^
Well,did you mean to use the capacitive surface of those sensors,not the buttons itself? And what exactly do you want? Please explain.
google for "G-scroll"
TomasNM said:
Well,did you mean to use the capacitive surface of those sensors,not the buttons itself? And what exactly do you want? Please explain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My point is
Instead of pushing down the 4 hard buttons (call, back, home, hang off) i just need to touch it on the surface?
You can buy gscroll (mobilesrc.com), but unless you can get the 1.x series, I'd pass. The 2.x series is buggy as hell, and it seems like development has stopped. There are some free apps you can find around here as well. I'm thinking Dredscroll is one, and there was another app called Butler (I think, lol) that allowed you to use it as a launcher with gestures on the area. Gscroll lets you swipe to scroll (it's good for reading ebooks, when it's working) as well as to launch things, but it has the annoying habit of going on smoking breaks.
As I know HTC testing software,I can say,it could not be a problem to create an app of this kind,but...
- Do we have SDK for it(I didin't searched for it yet)?
- Currently I don't know,how to send keyboard hooks to the system
- I cannot prevent/disable default keyboard hooks
So that means,I am not able to solve your puzzle. Sorry.
That was my honest opinion...
I don't think he's asking about the Vibrant-Scroll Wheel, I think he's talking about the Optical Track, itself.
[As the Home, Back, Answer, & End Call buttons require you to actually PUSH them down.]
You know, the "OK/Enter" button. When you place you finger on it [NOT PRESS IT], by default, it lights up the Bottom Hardware Keys, as well as brightens the screen.
If it's not working for you, I recommend Backing up your Important Information with either SPB Backup or Microsoft MyPhone, and flashing a New ROM. There are certain Drivers that control the Optical Track. What they are, however, is beyond me.
Hello XDA! I'm one of those old school guys who likes physical keyboard on phone. Specially I like qwerty sliders but the bad thing is that they are dying out. (Watch out small screens, you are next!). Of course there is Priv but I think that it is sliding wrong way. So I decided to make my own qwerty slider:
I bought "The Beast" Xiaomi Mi4C and a bluetooth qwerty keyboard case for iPhone 6 (about 20$). First I cut the edges from the case, drilled hole for a speaker and made the camera hole little bit bigger for flash light. Then I just glued phone and case together. Because I cut the edges from the case there was about 1-3mm meeting between case and phone. I filled the cap with Sugru™. It should last for usage and temperature changes (between -50°C to +180°C).
For the software part I rooted my Mi4C and flashed CM13. Then I installed Keyboard Manager. With that app you can change keyboard based on orientation automatically. For landscape I use Minuum Keyboard with Mini Mode because I wanted the 5th number row. In the settings you can make the Minuum Keyboard only 140px (60+80) high. It takes only 13% of your screen space on Mi4C. If you don't want to use Minuum Keyboard you can use Null Input Method. In portait I use Google Keyboard. (Hint: You can transfer your dictionary from other keyboard to Minuum Keyboard).
When you install the Keyboard Manager you need to make this fix:
ne0fhyk said:
If you are unable to launch the app after installation, please follow these steps:
- Look in your sdcard folder for the directory /Android/data/com.ne0fhykLabs.android.utility.kmLauncher/files/
- There should be an apk file there, Keyboardmanager.x.y.apk, where x,y stands for the version number
- Copy that file to /system/app/, and change the permissions to rw-r--r-- (Read/write for owner, read for group, and read for other)
- Reboot your device, and try running the app again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Total dimensions are 139 x 69.6 x 16 mm and weight is 228 g but I have installed tempered glass screen protector. For comparison Motorola Droid 4: 127 x 67.3 x 12.7 mm and 178.9 g. Here is more pictures:
http://imgur.com/a/Pbvpo
Here are some similar projects:
NUU keyboard and Alcatel One Touch Star
Turning Samsung galaxy note 4 (SM-N910F) into a mobile pc
OnePlus X and iPhone 6 qwerty case (finnish)
Xiaomi Note 2 and Galaxy S4 qwerty case (finnish)
Hit thanks if you liked my mod
PS: I already bought another original back cover so I can change back to "normal" phone if I like (not going to happen :silly
I have found one 5 row bluetooth keyboard case. It is for iPhone 5/5s so it is much smaller. Maybe it is possible to mod it to Mi4C or other phone (Xperia Z5 Compact?):
That's great. I've seen these few Bluetooth sliding keyboards and have been wondering if it was possible to mod them to fit other phones, and obviously it is!
Does the sliding mechanism have any kind of sensor that will tell the phone whether the keyboard is open or not? I use an Xperia Pro and often slide the keyboard open to wake the phone, and also force it into landscape mode. I also sometimes deliberately shut the keyboard in order to gain access to the landscape on-screen keyboard for special symbols, and it would be easier if I could keep it in landscape mode to do that rather than switch to portrait.
With the keyboard closed I guess the speaker is a bit muffled?
pelago said:
That's great. I've seen these few Bluetooth sliding keyboards and have been wondering if it was possible to mod them to fit other phones, and obviously it is!
Does the sliding mechanism have any kind of sensor that will tell the phone whether the keyboard is open or not? I use an Xperia Pro and often slide the keyboard open to wake the phone, and also force it into landscape mode. I also sometimes deliberately shut the keyboard in order to gain access to the landscape on-screen keyboard for special symbols, and it would be easier if I could keep it in landscape mode to do that rather than switch to portrait.
With the keyboard closed I guess the speaker is a bit muffled?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The keyboard that I have does not have any sensor that could tell if the keyboard is open or not. However, I believe that it could be pretty easy to implement with NFC. You could just put NFC tag to the keyboard (where?) and the phone would recognize when the keyboard is closed. (I mean that there would be connection in closed position and no-connection in opened position). Mi4C doesn't have NFC so I can't test this. Actually I don't miss that feature at all. I'm pretty happy with double tap. Also you can simply press one button on keyboard and it will wake up the screen.
It is also possible to implement a switcher for keyboard. With Tasker and Secure Settings you can make a toggle which change the keyboard. And if you wanna be really geeky you can control that toggle with gestures using AutomateIt (or maybe Tasker can do this also) and All in one Gestures. So if you use Null Input Method in landscape you can just swipe up to change it to Google Keyboard for example.
For me Minuum Keyboard has every special symbol that I need. Actually only ones that are missing from keyboard are "[" and "]". There are tons of possibilities to tweak with. It is possible to lock phone in landscape with gestures also. You just have to be little bit creative. Of course "native" QWERTY slider is always better but I'm happy with my mod.
The speaker is not that bad in closed position in my Mi4C. As you can se from the teardown pictures the speaker is located only in the left side of the phone when you look from back. Also the keyboard does not cover the speaker directly so there is a air cap between speaker and keyboard. You can test this by placing your thumb directly to the speaker and then test again and leave this time a 5mm cap between finger and speaker.
Flash-A-Holic said:
The keyboard that I have does not have any sensor that could tell if the keyboard is open or not. However, I believe that could be pretty easy to implement with NFC. You could just put NFC tag to the keyboard (where?) and the phone would recognize when the keyboard is closed. (I mean that there would be connection in closed position and no-connection in opened position). Mi4C doesn't have NFC so I can't test this. Actually I don't miss that feature at all. I'm pretty happy with double tap. Also you can simply press one button on keyboard and it will wake up the screen.
It is also possible to implement a switcher for keyboard. With Tasker and Secure Settings you can make a toggle which change the keyboard. And if you wanna be really geeky you can control that toggle with gestures using AutomateIt (or maybe Tasker can do this also) and All in one Gestures. So if you use Null Input Method in landscape you can just swipe up to change it to Google Keyboard for example.
For me Minuum Keyboard has every special symbol that I need. Actually only ones that are missing from keyboard are "[" and "]". There are tons of possibilities to tweak with. It possible to lock phone in landscape with gestures also. You just have to bi little bit creative. Of course "native" QWERTY slider is always better but I'm happy with my mod.
The speaker is not that bad in closed position in my Mi4C. As you can se from the teardown pictures the speaker is located only in the left side of the phone when you look from back. Also the keyboard does not cover the speaker directly so there is a air cap between speaker and keyboard. You can test this by placing your thumb directly to speaker and then test again leaving and 5mm cap between finger and speaker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For my similar project you've already seen, I've used tasker to automate the phone unlock and horizontal rotation when the NUU keyboard slides out and so connects to BT.
On NUU keuboard there isn't nothing that inform the phone that the keyboard is closed, other than the BT disconnection timeout.
So i made a number of conditions to get practical the exit from the qwerty mode.
The phone turned in vertical, if the screen went in standby, if the phone was oriented verctically, and if a physical button was long pushed.
With tasker I had also the automated soft keyboard switch, because the SW keyboard I wanted to use with the vertical keyboard wasn't physical keyboard friendly. So I used two different sw keyboards that switched automatically depending if the phone was landscape or portrait mode.
The landscape keyboard could be the simple null keyboard, if you don't care about the spell checking function.
How's the weight distribution with this combination? With "native" qwerty phones, like Xperia Pro, and Nokia N900, the weight is mostly in the lower half (the keyboard half), with the top half only being the screen itself. This means that the bit you hold and type on is the heavier one.
With your project, is the top (screen/phone) half heavier than the keyboard, and if so, does that mean it feels top heavy if you're holding it by the keyboard only, and feel like it might topple to the ground?
How's the battery life on the keyboard? It would be annoying to have to charge it every day like the phone itself.
Which exact keyboard did you use? Did you take any pics of the making process, to turn it into a sort of tutorial?
EDIT: Have you done this, or seen it done by others, on different model phones?
pelago said:
How's the weight distribution with this combination? With "native" qwerty phones, like Xperia Pro, and Nokia N900, the weight is mostly in the lower half (the keyboard half), with the top half only being the screen itself. This means that the bit you hold and type on is the heavier one.
With your project, is the top (screen/phone) half heavier than the keyboard, and if so, does that mean it feels top heavy if you're holding it by the keyboard only, and feel like it might topple to the ground?
How's the battery life on the keyboard? It would be annoying to have to charge it every day like the phone itself.
Which exact keyboard did you use? Did you take any pics of the making process, to turn it into a sort of tutorial?
EDIT: Have you done this, or seen it done by others, on different model phones?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't measured the weight yet but I will do that later today and add it to the first post. The weight is 228g. For me it is pretty light weigh compared to the size. (Xiaomi Mi 4C itself weights 132g). The weight distribution is pretty stable. I mean if I open the keyboard and leave the phone to the table it will stay steady. I can even push the screen part and it will go back where it was. It doesn't feel that it is going to flip when I'm holding it. Of course there is more weight in the screen part but it is pretty stable.
The battery life of the keyboard is very good. I don't even know how long it will last. I have been charging the keyboard once a week. For phone I got 4h SOT in one charge with bluetooth always on. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures during the process. However, here is one picture when I was testing this combination with double-sided tape. Back then there was nasty cap between case and phone. I filled that cap with Sugru™. I don't know if anyone else has done this kind of mod excluding The Solutor. Althought I have found this: Turning Samsung galaxy note 4 (SM-N910F) into a mobile pc
I believe that I bought this one: Mini Bluetooth V3.0 Ultra-thin Wireless Slide-Out Keyboard case cover for iPhone 6 (4.7). I bought it from different seller from ebay and it was cheaper but the name is same (V3.0).
The Solutor said:
For my similar project you've already seen, I've used tasker to automate the phone unlock and horizontal rotation when the NUU keyboard slides out and so connects to BT.
On NUU keuboard there isn't nothing that inform the phone that the keyboard is closed, other than the BT disconnection timeout.
So i made a number of conditions to get practical the exit from the qwerty mode.
The phone turned in vertical, if the screen went in standby, if the phone was oriented verctically, and if a physical button was long pushed.
With tasker I had also the automated soft keyboard switch, because the SW keyboard I wanted to use with the vertical keyboard wasn't physical keyboard friendly. So I used two different sw keyboards that switched automatically depending if the phone was landscape or portrait mode.
The landscape keyboard could be the simple null keyboard, if you don't care about the spell checking function.
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Actually you were an inspiration for me, thank you . I will check what Tasker can do for me. For now I think that bluetooth timeout method is too slow. I think that double tab is much faster and easier.
Flash-A-Holic said:
Actually you were an inspiration for me, thank you .
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Thanks
I will check what Tasker can do for me. For now I think that bluetooth timeout method is too slow.
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Well, I wrote too quickly, and I wanted to be brief just beacause I don't want to hijiak other's threads.
Anyway, the BT timeout didn't require tasker at all. It's just an internal timeout of the NUU keyboard.
What tasker did in that scenario, was the exit contition:
Enter condition ---> the keyboard slides out and connects to BT. Tasker rotates the screen, switches the keyboard, unlocks the phone (if needed) and so on.
On BT timeout (which is managed by the keyboard)--- tasker reverted the above actions.
Additionally I made a number of other conditions to force the exit task.
The phone is hold vertically for a second or so, the screen is turned off (because the power button was pushed, or because the phone turned it off), a physical button was long pushed, and maybe others that I don't remember.
Obviously there only your fantasy is the limit. You can choose a gesture, a tap combination, a shake action...
Whatever tasker and its plugins are able to manage...
Want to make me one? How much do you want?
Supovitz said:
Want to make me one? How much do you want?
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Maybe it is better that you make it by yourself. I believe that shipping cost etc. would cost too much for you.
Flash-A-Holic said:
First I cut the edges from the case, drilled hole for a speaker and made the camera hole little bit bigger for flash light. Then I just glued phone and case together. Because I cut the edges from the case there was about 1-3mm meeting between case and phone. I filled the cap with Sugru™.
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I was wondering about the reason for cutting off the edges and then filling the gap with Sugru. I don't have the parts yet, but I assume the problem is that the phone is slightly too large to sit within the keyboard case edges as manufactured?
It would be great if there was a way to simply remove the phone from the keyboard case just by pulling the phone out, as you can do with the iPhone 6 the case is designed for. Would there be any way to modify the case to make that possible?
Also, is the back of the keyboard case less slippery than the original Mi 4C back cover?
pelago said:
I was wondering about the reason for cutting off the edges and then filling the gap with Sugru. I don't have the parts yet, but I assume the problem is that the phone is slightly too large to sit within the keyboard case edges as manufactured?
It would be great if there was a way to simply remove the phone from the keyboard case just by pulling the phone out, as you can do with the iPhone 6 the case is designed for. Would there be any way to modify the case to make that possible?
Also, is the back of the keyboard case less slippery than the original Mi 4C back cover?
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Yes Mi4C doesn't fit to the iPhone case properly. If you want removable keyboard case then you can buy a cover case for Mi4C. Then just glue the cover case and keyboard case together. You can also pull out the whole sliding mechanism like this (not my modification):
There is pretty good grip in the keyboard case. Much less slippery than Mi4C.
Thanks.
Looking around, I've found someone doing something similar. A few years old, but may be useful for some ideas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cu6UCobKyY
I've just bought one of those sliding keyboards for iPhone 6. It looks a little different to your one - mine looks like:
Specifically, mine has a sliding power switch on the left, a Bluetooth sync button above that, the space bar is only two normal letters width rather than three, it has an extra "clover" button on the right of the space bar, the labelling is different on some keys to the left, and the keys in general look flatter than yours.
I haven't tried modding it yet, but I'm a bit put off by the power switch, as I would rather not have to switch the keyboard off and on manually. Does your keyboard have a power switch on it too, somewhere else?
I know that beggars can't be choosers, but having tried this keyboard for a while (in conjunction with a Nexus 7 (2013), as I don't actually have a Mi 4C yet), there are some aspects of it which aren't perfect.
For a start, the keys are quite clicky, much more so than my Xperia Pro or Nokia N900, making it noisier to use whenever there is someone else around.
I would like there to be a Ctrl key - I've been trying to use External Keyboard Helper to map keys, and the ideal one looks like the two clover keys, but I can't seem to map those. When I press those keys I get a big animated white border around the entire screen - is that Google Now? I don't know, as I don't use that.
There is also an annoying few seconds delay after pressing a key to wake up the keyboard and the device responding. With my previous phones with intergrated keyboards, they respond straight away. This is presumably just because of Bluetooth and nothing can really be done about that.
The five-row Boxwave keyboard buddy you mention in the second post looks interesting, but I can't seem to find it (or any generic branded clones) on ebay unfortunately.
pelago said:
I would like there to be a Ctrl key - I've been trying to use External Keyboard Helper to map keys, and the ideal one looks like the two clover keys, but I can't seem to map those. When I press those keys I get a big animated white border around the entire screen - is that Google Now? I don't know, as I don't use that.
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It's been a while since I did that phone, but, assuming you're rooted you should be able to adjust the keylayout to your lickings
https://source.android.com/devices/input/key-layout-files.html
There is also an annoying few seconds delay after pressing a key to wake up the keyboard and the device responding.
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I assume that depends on the keyboard used. my NUU keyboard did connect when sliding out, not when the first key was pressed.
Taking account there was a small delay since the connection, because tasker had to wakeup and unlock the phone (if locked and/or sleeping) and to force the horizontal orientation (and optionally to swap the SW keyboard with something mechanical friendly like swiftkey or touchpal), I had no perceivable delay on the first key pressed.
P.S. Guys please resize a bit such huge images before posting them.
They break the forum layout using the classic skin (the yellow one)
The Solutor said:
It's been a while since I did that phone, but, assuming you're rooted you should be able to adjust the keylayout to your lickings
https://source.android.com/devices/input/key-layout-files.html
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That's a good pointer, I'll look into that. It would be good to remap the keys without using External Keyboard Helper.
The Solutor said:
I assume that depends on the keyboard used. my NUU keyboard did connect when sliding out, not when the first key was pressed.
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Unfortunately the keyboard I was trying doesn't seem to have any kind of sensor that would know when the keyboard was slid out or not.
I followed Flash-A-Holic's great example and built a cover for Huawei P8 Lite.
Here's the process:
http://symbioosi.blogspot.fi/2016/11/how-to-physical-keyboard-for-huawei-p8.html
Scorpizoid said:
I followed Flash-A-Holic's great example and built a cover for Huawei P8 Lite.
Here's the process:
http://symbioosi.blogspot.fi/2016/11/how-to-physical-keyboard-for-huawei-p8.html
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Did you just apply a back case from another casing to the bluetooth keyboard of a slider case?
Super happy to have found this thread. I'm using my Motorola Droid 4, but it's lost its GPS antenna, and I'm really tempted to jump at this Moto G4 Plus... Just held it in-store at Best Buy, and it feels massive, something I wouldn't type on with just one hand holding it. I just want landscape QWERTY keyboard functionality!
Scorpizoid said:
I followed Flash-A-Holic's great example and built a cover for Huawei P8 Lite.
Here's the process:
http://symbioosi.blogspot.fi/2016/11/how-to-physical-keyboard-for-huawei-p8.html
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Click to collapse
After being disappointed by Blackberry's attempts at a physical keyboard, I'm back to strongly considering this approach. Your blog post is a great inspiration for finally upgrading my Motorola Photon Q LTE to something that can run something more than Android 4.1.2...
What's the most powerful android phone in roughly the right form-factor for this keyboard case? I see you're ripping off the iPhone case part and attaching a proper case for the Huawei, and I'd do similar, but I'd want the whole thing to be vaguely the right shape. Like, attaching this keyboard to a Pixel XL would just be silly, but there aren't that many android phones around the size of the iPhone 6/7.