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1 FreeCalypso end user libre phone goals
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2 ======================================
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3
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4 The Mother's primary goal in FreeCalypso is to create (design and build) our
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5 own FreeCalypso libre phone handset (a Libre Dumbphone) that can replace the
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6 proprietary Pirelli DP-L10, retaining the following essential qualities of the
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7 latter:
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8
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9 * a "dumbphone" in the most classic "candybar" form factor with traditional
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10 dial buttons, NOT a smartphone;
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11 * a color LCD of a decent size (Pirelli's is 128x128 pixels, ours will be
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12 176x220 pixels);
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13 * a loudspeaker that works for both hands-free calls and polyphonic ringtone
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14 melodies;
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15 * a USB port that combines charging with a built-in serial interface for
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16 computer interfacing.
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17
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18 A secondary goal is to put together a firmware version that can be flashed into
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19 a surplus Motorola C139 or C140 phone (obscenely cheap hardware) and turn those
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20 originally-proprietary phones into a sort of Libre Dumbphone Lite - functionally
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21 inferior to our own FreeCalypso Libre Dumbphone because Mot C139/140 hardware
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22 is significantly inferior to what I seek to build (no loudspeaker, no USB, much
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23 smaller LCD), but may be attractive to those cheap souls who are unwilling to
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24 pay for higher-quality hardware. (Doing a similar feat with Pirelli DP-L10
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25 hardware - turning it into a Libre Dumbphone by way of aftermarket firmware -
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26 is not practically feasible: the effort to reverse-eng Pirelli's undocumented
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27 hardware to the extent necessary for such a feat would cost at least as much
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28 time and money as designing and building our own Libre Dumbphone hardware,
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29 hence the latter is clearly preferable.)
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30
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31 The primary goal of entirely new FreeCalypso Libre Phone hardware and the
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32 secondary goal of FC on the C139 are not mutually exclusive: because we are a
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33 FLOSS project rather than proprietary sw, we do not artificially restrict what
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34 hardware our fw can run on and what functionality it can provide: while the
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35 primary target for our Libre Dumbphone firmware will always be our own hw,
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36 whatever functionality can work on the more limited Mot C139 hw will work there,
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37 subject to the limitations of the crippled hw platform.
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38
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39 However, in terms of timeline sequentiality, the critical point is that I,
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40 Mychaela Falconia, the Mother of FreeCalypso, am not willing to do any more
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41 work on the UI firmware (for any target) ahead of designing and building the
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42 first prototype of the just-outlined FC Libre Dumbphone hardware: when it comes
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43 to the work that *I* am doing, it has to be hardware first, then UI firmware.
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44
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45 But the FreeCalypso codebase is free for everyone, it is free software which
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46 anyone in the world is free to fork in whatever ways they like, hence for those
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47 who feel (contrary to my own personal stance) that aftermarket Libre Dumbphone
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48 firmware for pre-existing hw platforms like Mot C139 is more important than new
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49 FreeCalypso Libre Dumbphone hardware, the correct solution for those people is
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50 to get over their fear of programming, roll up their sleeves and do some
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51 firmware coding of their own.
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52
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53 What we got from TI in terms of firmware
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54 ========================================
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55
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56 Phone handset firmware, i.e., fw that makes a phone device work as an untethered
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57 phone and not just a serial-cable-controlled pseudo-modem, requires a few
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58 additional layers of functionality beyond AT-command-controlled modem fw:
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59
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60 * The hardware-specific LCD driver, called R2D in TI's TCS211 program;
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61 * The actual phone UI implementation, which the cellular industry calls by the
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62 sexist term "MMI" - TI's implementation consists of two components called BMI
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63 and MFW;
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64 * Battery management (monitoring and charging);
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65 * Fairly complex on/off logic to handle all possible combinations of turn-on,
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66 turn-off, charging while "on", charging while "off", charging completed or
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67 failed but charging power source not unplugged yet.
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68
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69 The bulk of the UI code resides in the BMI and MFW layers, which sit on top of
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70 ACI (Application Control Interface), which is the topmost layer of the
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71 underlying GSM modem firmware stack. We got two different versions of this
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72 MFW+BMI code from TI:
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73
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74 * The version under src/aci2, used together with the original TCS211 versions
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75 of G23M PS and ACI components in the legacy 2092 config, has a very unclear
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76 origin: it came from the internal SVN of an obscure company that made
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77 AT-command-controlled Calypso modems (*not* complete phones with Calypso UI),
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78 those people did not use this code themselves at all (their environment was
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79 not even set up to be able to compile it), and it is totally unclear how they
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80 came to have that code which they did not use. It *might* correspond to the
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81 rest of TCS211 fw which we got from the same source, or it might not.
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82
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83 * The version under src/ui3, used in our hybrid configs going forward, has a
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84 much clearer origin: we took it from TCS3.2_N5.24_M18_V1.11_M23BTH_PSL1_src
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85 reference firmware for TI's later LoCosto chipset, which was published free
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86 to the world by Peek Inc. as that company was closing shop.
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87
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88 We are now able to build UI-enabled firmware configs using both versions of TI's
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89 MFW+BMI code, and there are no significant differences in the quality of the
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90 phone UI implementation: in both cases it is only a proof of concept, and is
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91 absolutely not ready for driving a real end user phone: the UI code contains
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92 crashing and other killer bugs, the battery management driver officially
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93 endorsed by TI for TCS211 and later programs (LCC for "low cost" unregulated
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94 chargers) is not appropriate for phones that use simple charging circuits and
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95 regulated +5 VDC charging power sources (USB or Motorola's C1xx charging
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96 adapters), and TI's older PWR battery management driver (TI totally removed it
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97 from TCS211, but we pulled it from the older MV100 source fragments) is
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98 bitrotten and just generally broken.
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100 In FreeCalypso we have developed our own battery charging and discharge
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101 monitoring driver (FCHG) that works on Mot C1xx and Pirelli DP-L10 phones in
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102 the "voice pseudo-modem" configuration (see the Voice-pseudo-modem article),
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103 but we still have the problem of the UI, namely, the lack of one that is
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104 practically usable. Because TI were in the business of making and selling
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105 chipsets rather than complete phones, proper phone UI development was something
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106 they left to their customers, and they provided only a very rough proof of
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107 concept implementation.
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108
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109 What we have currently
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110 ======================
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111
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112 If you wish to play with our current work in progress based on TI's PoC UI code,
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113 you have 3 configurations (in the ./configure.sh sense) to choose from:
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114
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115 2092 This is our first UI-enabled configuration; it got its name
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116 because it is a mostly unchanged replica of TI's pdt_2092
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117 configuration in the original TCS211 program. This config uses
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118 the original TCS211 versions of G23M PS (blobs), ACI (source)
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119 and MFW+BMI (source) components. Data services (FAX_AND_DATA
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120 and GPRS) are enabled and cannot be disabled because of G23M PS
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121 blobs.
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122
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123 hybrid-ui This config is the TCS2/TCS3 hybrid counterpart to the above,
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124 using the new full source versions of G23M PS, ACI and MFW+BMI
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125 from the TCS3.2/LoCosto source. FAX_AND_DATA and GPRS are
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126 still enabled.
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127
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128 hybrid-ui-vo Same as hybrid-ui, but with FAX_AND_DATA and GPRS disabled,
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129 resulting in a lighter build.
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130
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131 All 3 of the above configs can be usefully built for 3 hardware targets:
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132 dsample, fcdev3b and c139. The resulting firmware will work as follows:
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133
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134 * If you have a real TI-made D-Sample board with the attached test handset (the
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135 platform that TI's own software engineers used when working on this UI code,
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136 at least before LoCosto), TI's 176x220 pixel color UI will be displayed on
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137 the LCD in the handset part of the kit, just the way TI meant it. However,
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138 because we are missing a piece of code for Clara RF, GSM radio won't work,
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139 and the UI can only be exercised as it would work in the absence of coverage:
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140 one can step through the menus and read SIM phonebook entries and saved
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141 messages, but no calls. See the D-Sample article for the details.
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142
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143 * You can run a UI-enabled firmware build on our FCDEV3B modem board that has
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144 no physical LCD or keypad hardware, and display TI's 176x220 pixel color UI
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145 on a connected external host, sending simulated keypresses from the same -
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146 look in the freecalypso-ui-dev repository for the necessary tools.
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147
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148 * When a UI-enabled firmware config is built for the C139 target, the UI config
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149 (Bourne shell variable UI_CONFIG in our configuration and Makefile generation
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150 system) is switched from TI's D-Sample UI (176x220 pix color,
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151 UI_CONFIG=bigcolor) to their older C-Sample UI: 84x48 pix black & white,
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152 UI_CONFIG=84x48. This 84x48 pix B&W C-Sample UI is then displayed on the
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153 96x64 pixel physical LCD on the C139 phone.
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154
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155 If you are interested in the Mot C139 hardware target and you are interested in
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156 turning our current state of affairs into something that would allow you to use
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157 your C139 as a practically usable libre phone with FreeCalypso, the Mother
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158 strongly recommends that you use the hybrid-ui-vo configuration as your starting
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159 point; working on the old src/aci2 UI code that is slated for retirement because
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160 it is coupled to a G23M PS version that exists only as binary blobs would be a
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161 total waste. If you try to use our current hybrid-ui-vo firmware on the C139
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162 as a practical phone, the following problems will be the ones that hit you most
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163 immediately, and therefore would need to be fixed first:
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164
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165 * The FCHG driver included in the fw build does monitor the battery state of
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166 charge as it discharges, and you can query it with the standard AT+CBC command
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167 using the AT-over-RVTMUX channel on the headset jack serial port, but it is
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168 not connected to the UI, hence the battery icon on the screen shows no useful
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169 info. Thus with an end user hat on, you would have no way of knowing if your
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170 battery is full or almost empty and about to die any second or anywhere in
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171 between.
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172
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173 * The firmware similarly supports battery charging, but once again there is
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174 absolutely no indication in the UI as to the state of the charging process as
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175 in progress, completion or errors. Instead you can only observe this
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176 charging process by watching the debug trace output emitted on the headset
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177 jack serial port.
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178
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179 * Every standard commercial end user phone implements a special mode of
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180 operation that is activated if the user plugs in the charging power source
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181 while the phone is off: the phone firmware boots just enough to manage the
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182 battery charging process (the LCD shows nothing but this charging process),
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183 but does not boot all the way to "full on" operation (SIM bring-up and
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184 network search) until and unless some designated button is pressed to request
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185 such full boot. The proof-of-concept code we got from TI does not implement
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186 this special "charging boot" mode; instead if you connect the charging power
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187 source to a fully-off phone, the result will be a full boot just as if you
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188 pressed the red power-on button. This lack of the expected "charging boot"
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189 mode is bad, as one really needs a "charge while off" mode in order to
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190 properly recover from a fully discharged battery.
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191
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192 * Every standard commercial end user phone implements some timer logic for the
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193 power-on button, such that if the phone is fully off, the power button needs
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194 to be pressed not just momentarily, but held down for some time in order to
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195 make the phone turn on and boot. This logic provides necessary protection
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196 from accidental turn-ons: if you are in some place where your phone needs to
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197 be off and you have turned it off, you don't want it booting back up on its
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198 own because the button got pressed momentarily from the phone being in your
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199 pocket or purse. This logic is currently missing.
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200
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201 * The LCD on Mot C139 phones is already small, only 96x64 pixels, but with the
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202 current firmware using the UI which TI originally created for their C-Sample
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203 and earlier development boards, the usable area is reduced even further to
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204 only 84x48 pixels. Likewise the physical LCD is color, but the UI is only
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205 black&white because the UI code "thinks" it's running on a C-Sample board
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206 which only had a black&white LCD. Massively reworking the UI code to make
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207 use of the full 96x64 pixel LCD real estate, along with some colors, ought to
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208 be essential before this UI can really become fit for end user operation.
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209
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210 Some of these just-listed killer bugs are specific to the C139 target, while
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211 others will still be there when we have our own HSMBP with a 176x220 pix color
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212 LCD like on the D-Sample. Those bugs which are not C139-specific will be fixed
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213 in the process of making our own FreeCalypso Libre Dumbphone based on our own
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214 hardware, and by virtue of the common code the fixes will benefit the C139
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215 target as well. In the case of C139-specific bugs, i.e., those specific to the
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216 tiny screen size or to the weird (not TI-canonical) way in which the power
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217 button is wired on C1xx phones, it is not currently known whether or not I
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218 (Mychaela aka The Mother) will ever be willing to invest significant work into
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219 these C139-specific issues. Thus the message is loud and clear: those who
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220 desire FreeCalypso as aftermarket libre phone fw for Mot C139 or other non-FC
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221 hardware need to roll up their sleeves and start learning the code.
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