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comparison doc/Voice-pseudo-modem @ 50:a62e5bf88434

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first round of documentation
author Mychaela Falconia <falcon@freecalypso.org>
date Sun, 18 Oct 2020 18:08:15 +0000
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49:4e178a0e90f6 50:a62e5bf88434
1 Back when TI's TCS211 fw existed in the traditional world of phone handset and
2 cellular modem manufacturers, there were only two principal classes of target
3 devices for it: handsets and modems. The former have local UI hardware (LCDs
4 and keypads) and run firmware that works with this UI hw, the latter have no
5 such hw and run firmware that expects to be controlled by an external host via
6 AT commands.
7
8 But the peculiar circumstances under which our FreeCalypso family of projects
9 operates give rise to a third possibility: what happens if one were to run
10 non-UI-capable firmware that expects control via AT commands on a hardware
11 target device that was originally designed to be an end user phone handset, in
12 our case either Motorola C1xx or Pirelli DP-L10? The result is what I call a
13 voice pseudo-modem (VPM): the phone's LCD stays dark, the buttons do nothing
14 and the device expects to be controlled via AT commands as if it were a modem
15 like the one in GTA01/02 smartphones, but there is no practically usable way to
16 make use of any data services, only voice and SMS, hence my VPM term.
17
18 It needs to be noted clearly that the VPM hack described in this article is NOT
19 a substitute for proper modem hardware - if your area of interest is Standard
20 Modem functionality (the full set of GSM and GPRS services accessed via AT
21 commands), then you need a proper hardware platform for it, either FCDEV3B or
22 Caramel2. However, support for VPM operation in FreeCalypso exists for the
23 following purposes:
24
25 * On some hw targets the VPM configuration can be an intermediate stepping stone
26 toward potential future UI-enabled firmware - this situation holds on the
27 C139.
28
29 * Being able to run FreeCalypso fw in the VPM configuration on Mot C1xx hw that
30 many people already have and that may still be readily and cheaply available
31 makes our firmware accessible to those who are not able to buy new FreeCalypso
32 hardware.
33
34 * If you have a Pirelli DP-L10 phone (now very rare and hard to get, but were
35 readily available in early 2013 when I started FreeCalypso): while there is
36 unfortunately very little chance of being able to turn it into a practically
37 usable Libre Dumbphone with FreeCalypso (the unwanted extra chips sans docs
38 which we don't know how to power down are a killer), running FreeCalypso fw
39 on the Pirelli in the VPM configuration is so easy and convenient that I do
40 it all the time during development and testing.
41
42 Playing with FreeCalypso VPM on C1xx phones
43 ===========================================
44
45 If a Mot C1xx phone is flashed with a FreeCalypso firmware image in the VPM
46 configuration, it will behave as follows:
47
48 * The LCD will remain dark and the buttons will do nothing no matter what.
49
50 * If you plug in Motorola's charging adapter (it's a regulated 5 VDC power
51 source, but with a non-USB connector) and you had properly installed the
52 charging config file when creating the aftermarket FFS for FreeCalypso, the
53 battery will charge. When you unplug the charging adapter, if there is no
54 host computer running FC host program rvinterf connected to the phone
55 serially, the phone will power off some 15 to 20 s after the charger unplug.
56
57 * If you press the power button while the phone is off, even momentarily, the
58 phone will power on and boot (with nothing on the LCD as usual), but if the
59 headset jack serial port is not connected to a computer running rvinterf, the
60 firmware will execute a power-off after at most 20 s.
61
62 * In order to make the phone-turned-VPM do anything useful, you will need to
63 connect the headset jack serial port to a host computer running FC host tools,
64 run rvinterf to keep the phone alive (keep it from automatically powering
65 off), and use FC host utility fc-shell to issue AT commands to it over the
66 RVTMUX channel managed by rvinterf.
67
68 * The phone will remain on (i.e., the fw won't execute an automatic power-off)
69 for as long as there is either a charging power adapter plugged in or a
70 connected host computer running rvinterf - if there is no charging power,
71 the fw will send periodic keepalive queries to check for the presence of a
72 connected rvinterf process.
73
74 Playing with FreeCalypso VPM on a Pirelli DP-L10
75 ================================================
76
77 There are two ways in which one can play with FC VPM firmware on a Pirelli:
78
79 * FC VPM fw can be flashed into the phone just like on Mot C1xx. To make this
80 approach sensible, you will also need to craft and install a charging config
81 file that will cause our FCHG driver to initiate the charging process
82 automatically when the battery voltage falls below some sensible threshold,
83 without requiring manual charging start via AT@CHG=1. In this case the
84 reflashed phone will behave like C1xx in the previous section, except that
85 the charging power source and the host computer connection are one and the
86 same in the case of Pirelli's USB.
87
88 * The other approach is to keep Pirelli's original fw in the flash, let the
89 phone function normally when not in the middle of a FreeCalypso VPM session,
90 and load our FC VPM fw into RAM via fc-xram, making use of this phone's huge
91 RAM that can hold an entire functional fw image without flashing. This is
92 the Mother's preferred method.