Enabling Java on the Moto Razr v3

• Installing java on the Razr needs some circus tricks.
• Install Motorola Phone Tools from somewhere. It is officially sold but lucky I had an earlier install.
• All transfers to the device are done via the USB modem and some protocol.
• This page said it all http://gomestic.com/consumer-information/how-to-install-java-games-onto-motorola-v3-phones/
• Have to install Jadmaker first and make a jad from the Jar.
• Have to install midway to transfer file to the phone.
• Java app loader has to be enabled on the phone to first initiate the transfer. The Serial Port is obtained from the Advanced tab of the Device Manager.
• After tx the app is auto installed and run.
• The application runs pretty slowly.

Nokia Color LCD parallel port setup

• Nokia color LCD inspiration from this page http://serdisplib.sourceforge.net/ser/nokcol_15g10.html
• Bought a color display at the usual place for 200 INR.
• Ckt similar to the 3310, driven by serial means but requires an additional Led backlight powersource. A variable adaptor set to 6V  provided enough backlight to view the LCD.
• The trickiest part is the Nokia LCD connector (receptacle). The form factor is uSOP, pitch is 0.5mm. Wrecked a few by trying to solder it myself. Many alternatives were considered: getting a PCB made (costs quite a bit), importing a prototyping IC adapter such as the Epboard uSOP to DIP adapter about 6$ + shipping, getting some mobile repair people to rig it up. None of them worked and as usual the local repairmen were no good, most of them chose not to do it even if I would pay them handsomely
• Finally asked the GD Guys. Sparkfun calls anybody who can solder 0.5mm a God and I had the privilege of getting one wire soldered by Nagaraj Nagarkar. Special thanks to the GD folks. Wouldnt have been able to do it without you.
• Serdisp did nothing with the S1D15G10 with testserdisp. The assumption was it was a Nokia 6610.
• Decided to try the N3510 driver. The screen came up with a lesser resolution 97x68.
• Recompiled the n3510 driver with 130x130 and the results are below.
• Weird!  Need to check this further.

Nokia 3310 LCD on a parallel port

Laymanspeak: A Nokia 3310 is lowcost, less than 100 INR. So electronics projects requiring displays frequently use them. How to get such a thing working by making a connection off the parallel port is detailed below.

• Nice screens shots of the Nokia 3310 LCD, as an audio player UI, secondary display  on the web was the actual motivation.
• Main info taken from these :Open source serial display library support for Nokia 3310 and Thermometer using a Nokia 3310 LCD
• Got 1 from the usual place and its difficult to assemble the LCD once it is opened. The pin headers do not sit back easily.
• Used the power circuitry from the Thermometer site. You do not actually need to use 3 data pins to power the LCD like in that example. And as I had to change serdisp code to switch on a pin in the LPT port, just used a USB connector to get 5V. Chk pic. I used 2 diodes (1N4148) to drop the voltage to around 3.9 - 4V.
• Used the wiring diagram from the Serdisp PCD site.  Instead of 1K ohms used 10K.  The Vout pin cap is 4.7uF and the capacitor across Vdd is 100uF. This cap seems to give a stable power source and better contrast.
• Circuit construction is pretty simple. Soldering skill might be needed.
• Downloaded the latest serdisp tarball and compiled straight out on the Fed 11 box.
• Connected the circuit and testserdisp was able to bring up the LCD. Pics attached.
• Also downloaded and compiled GraphLcd . This supports displays supported by serdisp. You can draw pics and get fancy fonts on the LCD. showpic, showtext, convpic: These are tools that convert pics and renders stuff on the LCD.
• In case the LCD does not work, check at the Vout pin. Pin 7.  If the LCD has been initialised properly this should be around 9 V. If for some reason, communication between PC and LCD is not possible this value will be at a 3-4V range.
• LCD details: 84x48 pixels. mono chrome. Works on a serial interface (SCLK and Serial Data-in). Has a D/C (Data or Active Low Command) mode and a Reset pin. The CS has been permanently grounded as in the serdisp case. To check if this display is ok,  a Res has to be issued and then command mode and values of 0x21: to put the LCD in Extended mode and 0xC8 to set the Vop. After this command the Vop actually goes to 9V. Basically gives a clue that the LCD comm is fine.

 Serdisp showing digits on LCD

Serdisp showing Pattern

 Parallel port with USB power

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Pavilion DV 2500 LCD replacement

Laymanspeak: How I changed the broken display screen of my laptop.

• LCD screen broken while travelling in car
• LCD spec: 1200x800, 30 pin LCD connector
• Original part is around 500$ (27k INR)
• Tried sourcing it from the US/UK. Cost is around 12K to 8K. Too high by my standards :)
• Indian website gadgets.in sells it for 6k including shipping. Very proactive seller. Nice to see in an Indian businessman.
• Tried my local contacts and got the original HP part for slightly lesser.
• Opened up the laptop myself, there was a problem with the length of the flourescent tube wire.
• Got it extended/soldered from a professional and fit it myself after covering the LCD backside wit the metallic lining (anti-static?).
• Laptop screen works and  looks as good as ever.

Colorize a Nokia 1110 or a 1112

Laymanspeak: This explains how a Nokia 1110  or a 1112 phone, which is black and white can be easily converted to Colour by changing the LCD.
1600 LCD fitted:
Original LCD:
New UI the phone shows:

Earlier UI:

• Nokia 1110 is a yellow over black phone.
• Read up that the LCD is pin swappable with the Nokia 1600. Got an LCD for some 120Rs in the usual place.
• Changed it and the UI (look and feel) has changed too. Pretty pleased with some color in life. Compare the earlier BW with the 1100 color pics. And make up your mind what you would want.
• Thanks to the phone owner for letting me change it.
• This works on a Nokia  1112 too.
• In both cases the drawback is that the original phone will not be able to show the time when the  screen is locked cos the screen turns completely black. But a click on the phone will show time.

Netgear WGR 614 V6

• For the Lay(wo)man: This "thing" is a wireless device, something that you need to connect devices (computers/phones/etc) wirelessly to each other. It was continuously re-booting. So the info below explains how this was set right and what the problem was.
• Netgear WGR614 V6: Wireless 54 Mbps router borrowed from a friend.
• Symptom: keeps rebooting after a few seconds. Traffic dump shows the Router expects to be given the vxworks image. But after it fails, resets again.
• From the netgear forum found that it could be an issue with the MTU (there is a need to decrease) it.
• Also disabled uPnP.
• This did not help.
• Finally changed the power supply and the Router is holding.
• The Spec of this Router is the following: Processor/chipset: BCM5352 SoC, 1MB Flash, 16MB RAM. Currently, Linux will not run on it cos the images are bigger than 1MB. The Flash needs to be upgraded to atleast 2M before any small WRT image will run on it (dd-WRT). Jtag pins are not exposed so they cant be used. The visible connector inside the box is the Serial port which runs at TTL levels.
• Also have to report the use of a "telnetenable" windows executable, which creates a proprietary packet and sends to the Netgear router and after this lets one log in and check random things using telnet.