BMW Steering Buttons, XDA2 and serial input codes - MDA II, XDA II, 2060 General

Hi all,
First time post so here goes...
I'm looking at developing a little black box that will translate the button presses on my BMW 3 series (might work for 5 series as well...) and use these to move up and down and make calls from the Speed Dial list.
I'm trying to replicate the operation of the XDA2 's physical buttons. Namely Pressing the Green call key takes you to the phone app. Then using the up and down buttons on the four way then takes to to the speed dial list and then move up and down it. Then the Green call button calls that number. Finally Red to hang up. Also green to answer a call.
My question is: Is it possible to send serial codes to the XDA2 through the serial pins on the connector to mimick the actions of the physical buttons??? Alternatively I could write a new phone app that listens for serial codes and does the same but if it is possible to mimick the buttons life would be a lot simplier... and would not require extra software to be loaded.
Cheers for your help all...
Kev/.

This sounds very exciting indeed. I am rather new to this, but if there is anything I can do to help, let me know
Thanks
Ian

Related

First Time - Hello + a few questions

Hy,
My name is Felipe and this is my first post. I wish the best for everybody here.
I just put my hands on my new XDA II and I have a few questions, if someone could help me with them I will apreciate very much.
1st- Yesterday I had to hardreset my unit, after that I found strange that the camera button does not turn on the XDA2, it still bring the camera function but only when the XDA2 is on. I found that strange because I am almost sure that I was able to bring the camera mode on with the XDA2 off with the press of the camera button. Soo, what is up? Does the camera button had to turn on the unit or it is the only button that does not turn on the unit if pressed?
2nd- I read all the manual and I saw nothing about speach dialler, I can´t belive a fantastic eletronic like this does not have this feature. I would like to confirm and if soo, I would like to know about one or two software to help me on this since I will almost always use the XDA2 on my bag and headset on.
3rd- I found the IR port just too little, I know sometimes size does not matter but have someone used the XDA2 as a remote controler for home eletronics? If it is not good enought could you please tell me if there is a IR emitter as a SD card, since the XDA2 does not have a CF card slot and the to be released backpack will have the cf slot placed in the botton. I heard that the Total Remote is a great solution, does it uses the earphone jack?
4th-I found something strange on my XDA2, on "settings" - "device information" - "call duration" I found that my unit received 1193046hours and 27 minutes of incoming calls. How this happen if the unit was suposed to be new (at least it arrived as new on box with seal, without any sign of used mark? is this any kind of test or bug? Is is possible to reset this number so I can have a real record of it?
5th- I bought a Blue Monkey usb/bluetooth dongle to be used on my desktop. I planed to use it to make the sync between the XDA2 and the descktop. But I found some problems. First I cant get the thing to work, so I ask is that possible to sync both of them with bluetooth? Two I had problems to find the descktop with my XDA2 while I had the Jabra250 instaled on the XDA2, soo can I have two bluetooth units bonded within my XDA2 or I need to chose and install only one?
Lots of questions for a first post.
I thanks in advance for the help.
Felipe
Zzzzzzz
Sorry, I fell asleep before the 2nd paragraph
Re: Zzzzzzz
mrg2003 said:
Sorry, I fell asleep before the 2nd paragraph
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hooo please, go back to sleep, you does not make anythink better.
Felipe
felcas said:
1st- Yesterday I had to hardreset my unit, after that I found strange that the camera button does not turn on the XDA2, it still bring the camera function but only when the XDA2 is on. I found that strange because I am almost sure that I was able to bring the camera mode on with the XDA2 off with the press of the camera button. Soo, what is up? Does the camera button had to turn on the unit or it is the only button that does not turn on the unit if pressed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just found out my device has deeply discharged itself over the course of just two days, so I can't test it right now. I would say it depends on the setting in one of the phone menus which determines whether any button wakes up the device, or whether you need to explicitly turn it on.
2nd- I read all the manual and I saw nothing about speach dialler, I can´t belive a fantastic eletronic like this does not have this feature. I would like to confirm and if soo, I would like to know about one or two software to help me on this since I will almost always use the XDA2 on my bag and headset on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No voice-dial app comes with the device. A number of voice-dial and more general voice command applications exist. "Fonix Voice Dial" and "Microsoft Voice Command" come to mind immediately. Use Google for more details.
3rd- I found the IR port just too little, I know sometimes size does not matter but have someone used the XDA2 as a remote controler for home eletronics? If it is not good enought could you please tell me if there is a IR emitter as a SD card, since the XDA2 does not have a CF card slot and the to be released backpack will have the cf slot placed in the botton. I heard that the Total Remote is a great solution, does it uses the earphone jack?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking of performing an internal modification of the IR-port on mine.
4th-I found something strange on my XDA2, on "settings" - "device information" - "call duration" I found that my unit received 1193046hours and 27 minutes of incoming calls. How this happen if the unit was suposed to be new (at least it arrived as new on box with seal, without any sign of used mark? is this any kind of test or bug? Is is possible to reset this number so I can have a real record of it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That number of hours works out to exactly 0x123456 in hexadecimal, so that is unlikley to be the real number of hours. Funny though... There is at present not yet a tool or method to reset the Hmalaya call timers.
5th- I bought a Blue Monkey usb/bluetooth dongle to be used on my desktop. I planed to use it to make the sync between the XDA2 and the descktop. But I found some problems. First I cant get the thing to work, so I ask is that possible to sync both of them with bluetooth? Two I had problems to find the descktop with my XDA2 while I had the Jabra250 instaled on the XDA2, soo can I have two bluetooth units bonded within my XDA2 or I need to chose and install only one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I played with Bluetooth sync and found it not to be worth it at the moment. You need to hit 'Sync over Bluetooth' on the device, which is annoying, and you need to soft-reset and re-bond frequently. Wait for newer ROMs before actually using this feature.
Lots of questions for a first post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries, I stayed wide awake.... Welcome to XDA-developers...
When I got my xda2 it also said I had millions of hours of outgoing calls, once you make a call however the pointers reset to zero and start counting, so dont worry about it.
felcas said:
Hy,
1st- Yesterday I had to hardreset my unit, after that I found strange that the camera button does not turn on the XDA2, it still bring the camera function but only when the XDA2 is on. I found that strange because I am almost sure that I was able to bring the camera mode on with the XDA2 off with the press of the camera button. Soo, what is up? Does the camera button had to turn on the unit or it is the only button that does not turn on the unit if pressed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Refer "Start - Setting - System - Button Lock"
When it is locked u cannot on camera by pressing camera button when XDA is off
No worries, I stayed wide awake.... Welcome to XDA-developers...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot Peter, that is the kind of help I was looking for
cruisin-thru said:
When I got my xda2 it also said I had millions of hours of outgoing calls, once you make a call however the pointers reset to zero and start counting, so dont worry about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yesterday I was able to use a chip of my girlfriend on my XDA2 and it worked very nice with the only exeption of the GPRS feature that I was not able to make work due to lack of information on my operator.
Anyway after I seen your post I had a look at the counter and unfortunately it did not zeroed but added the time I was using.
I will have to note it and then substract if I want to know on the future.
Anyway I thank you for the response.
Felipe
KCChia said:
felcas said:
Hy,
1st- Yesterday I had to hardreset my unit, after that I found strange that the camera button does not turn on the XDA2, it still bring the camera function but only when the XDA2 is on. I found that strange because I am almost sure that I was able to bring the camera mode on with the XDA2 off with the press of the camera button. Soo, what is up? Does the camera button had to turn on the unit or it is the only button that does not turn on the unit if pressed?
Refer "Start - Setting - System - Button Lock"
When it is locked u cannot on camera by pressing camera button when XDA is off
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hummm, I forgot to tell that I tried to unlock the button but there is no option to lock just one button or unlock it but only all of them or none (with exeption to the power button). If I do lock, then it work as stated on the manual, but the strange is that if I unlock, the camera button continues to be the only one that does not power the XDA2 when it is off. But it work fine if the xda2 is on. I tried to assign diferent role for the camera button to see if it have to do with the assigned functions but it appear that the problem is direct related to the button not to the function.
What I would ask is to you just verify if your xda2 turn on with the camera button. And tell me.
Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

using the green and red button in wm2005

maybe you can find a way to map the green and red phone button to the two soft keys we now have a the button of the screen,
i always push those buttons, it makes me think i'm using a phone,
forgetting it's a touch screen
recall somebody saying that those 2 buttons was hardwired to the gsm part of the phone and that CE had no control over them
but i guess he could have been wrong since they are locked by button lock
but then if the phone does ring they can make you pick up the phone without typing in your password
Red and green buttons are not hardwired to GSM module.
They are usual hardware buttons processec by system in a specific way.
While working on AEKMap I was able to unbind these buttons from WinCE. And I think that may write simple app to "unbind" them. But what the reason for this application?
1. not all of the programs will detect this key because it is out of "conventional" range
2. How you will answer phone calls without green button?
Hi AE,
Is there any way that you could release the source showing how your unmapped the phone buttons, or at least give us a few hints?
It really is an art that you have mastered, something that very few people have been able to do (outdside of the OS development labs, and we never see those results)!
There are nothing special in this application.
Just calls to
UnregisterHotKey(), UnregisterFunc1 and RegisterHotKey() - if you just need hint The only hint is UnregisterFunc1 - but it is also described in number of places (just ask Google) Hope, this will work in WM2005 also.
I suggest to do it another way. Today I "downgrade" my BlueAngel to Andes And now I should count my HW buttons again :shock: Lets wait some days - and probably I'll make some solution specially for Himalaya/Andes, taking into account your "red/green wishes" At least it will work on WM2003, but I see no problems for Magneto also.
I will post report in this topic: http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=115430
P.S.: Please try to run program attached here to check if it hooks red and green buttons and let me know the results. You will need to soft-reset your device to restore normal HW buttons functionality
Unhooking the red and green buttons would definitely be useful for us with a Magician, since it has very few hardware buttons. You could still answer a phone call by clicking Answer when the dialog appears.
AE said:
P.S.: Please try to run program attached here to check if it hooks red and green buttons and let me know the results. You will need to soft-reset your device to restore normal HW buttons functionality
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it works, here is screen (first two are red and green buttons)
Welcome to http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=21339

voice dial

Hi to all just like to ask how do i make voice dial calls when the xda executive flip cover is closed i tried andd it did not work
you need to have at least one entry in Voice speed dial, and should not have the buttons locked. (which is a bit dangerous since there are a lt of buttons to be pressed inadvertedly..)
Alternatively, use the BT headset call/end button to launch the voice speed dial. Obviously BT needs to be on (blue LED flashing)
Hi lutz
I thought the same but even with the buttons not locked it doesn't work on mine. Still keep having to open the lid an inch or so :x
Can anyone confirm if it should definately work with the buttons enabled (start, settings, buttons, lock, do not lock buttons)

Universal Dial pad

Hi guys, just wondering if any of you guys can help me.
On my old MDA III when the dial pad is on screen you can access the call history by simply pushing right or up on the D-Pad and you can access the speed dial by pressing left or down.
I always used to use this fuction in the car as i don't need to even look at the phone while im pressing it.
But Now i have a universal and it doesn't seem to respond to the d-pad when on the dial pad screen.
Is there any way of switching this fuction on, either through registry or even a program??
Would also like to have this settung back. Had ut on my ipaq 6515 and was great for one hand operation while driving.

Call Pickup: Call pickup while phone is in my pocket. How to prevent?

hello xda community
i'm very new to the blackstone and this is my first post here. so please bear with me if i'm asking very basic questions here.
my problem:
i carry my blackstone in my pocket all the time. and many people told me throughout the last days that they called me and that i picked up the call by accident.
since i work at customer sites mostly my phone is muted. so people call me and somehow i pickup the calls while the phone is in my pocket.
i always turn of the screen and i have the automatic lock (password protection) enabled. still when the incoming call screen comes up it looks like it is possible that calls are being picked up.
i know there is the slide which has to be moved to the left in order to pickup calls.
i have tried myself by calling my from my home phone and touching the screen and the buttons at random. and indeed the calls are being picked up. i was not able to find out how this is happening ... but it does.
so is there any setting i can change or any additional piece of software i can install to make sure calls are only answered when i want?
possible a reg key i need to change?
any help is very much appreciated
cheers
This isn't just a problem with the Blackstone; every WM phone I have had does this. I have found that a good locking program handles this quie well. I personally like S2U2 by A_C, but there are many others available. You can look in the apps forum, or check the development & hacking forum from the main menu.
The other thing to check is that you have all your notifcations set properly. I set all of mine to vibrate only. Many of them turn on the screen by default. Unfortunately this won't fix the problem on its' own though.
mwelch16 ... thank you very much for the reply
i will give it a try and see how it works for me.
so that means first of all i will have to slide that iphone type of lock and then take the call by using the regular slider?
is there any other way (without) an additional piece of software to handle this? cause after all there is the build in slider ... but somehow it's not working as it is supposed to. any enhancement to that?
thanks again
Is there a way how to disable the CALL PICKUP button which is on the left? so the first of the four buttons?
I think it's because it getting pressed while my phone is in the pocket.
thanks a lot
I use Pocket Shield - it's not free (free to try though) but it's worked well for me
tibor78 said:
mwelch16 ... thank you very much for the reply
i will give it a try and see how it works for me.
so that means first of all i will have to slide that iphone type of lock and then take the call by using the regular slider?
is there any other way (without) an additional piece of software to handle this? cause after all there is the build in slider ... but somehow it's not working as it is supposed to. any enhancement to that?
thanks again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, S2U2 will unlock itself for a phone call and then lock the phone again after the call. So no need to slide to unlock and then answer your phone. It has a bunch of different settings, and yes I believe it locks the hard buttons.
thanks folks for the replies
i found all the settings i was looking for in the S2U2 options. so i'm good right now.
thanks again
You're probably answering the call by pressing the "phone" button (the very left of the four buttons on the bottom). You can either use those buttons to answer/hang up, or the on screen slider.
I've used AE Button Plus to disable the 'Answer' and 'End' hardware keys and re-mapped them to turn wifi and bluetooth off and on. This way there is no chance of hanging up on a call by mistake since you need to use the slide to answer on screen.
Similar but opposite problem
I'm having a problem along the same lines. If I get a call when the phone is in my pocket and answer it on my bluetooth headset, when the call ends the phone then rings someone else, usually the same person who is at the top of my contacts list. Not only is this damned annoying for me, it's getting a bit tedious for the person getting the unwanted calls.
Is there any way to get the phone to immediately lock as soon as a call terminates to prevent this happening? I'm assuming that once the call ends and it returns to the default contact/dial pad screen, the merest brush against the screen will be enough to start a new call.
I'm beginning to think I should have stuck with my iPhone
CreepinJesus said:
You're probably answering the call by pressing the "phone" button (the very left of the four buttons on the bottom). You can either use those buttons to answer/hang up, or the on screen slider.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've the exact same problem, 3/4 of the incoming calls rejected when I get the phone out of my pocket due to End button accidentally pressed.
What did they thought when they implement the slide to answer ????
The purpose of the slide to answer is to avoid such accident, but why the hell did they keep the Answer / End buttons active ????? total non sense to me.
Will check if this AE Button + app can solve this annoying behaviour.
has anyone tried Lockmelite?
It may help - haven't used it myself though.
x 2 for PocketShield. It uses the light sensor in your phone to prevent the touchscreen from activating when the device is inside, say, a pouch, or in your pocket.
I'm using evaluation version 2.6.2.10, which as I understand it, has full functionality, except that every now and then, randomly (and IMO infrequently enough to not be annoying) before unlocking it displays a 10 second message saying that you're using an evaluation version. Note that this *never* happens during an incoming phone call. Good stuff.
Hi,
Try TouchLockPro :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=444215
Now it handle light unlock in any cases, that as solved all my issues (pocket, in cas BT,...) and fulfill all my requirements.
BR
Pocket Shield doing perfect job for me
I use AE Buttons Plus to disable the "Answer" & "End" virtual buttons. Then I used iconsoft Phonext to handle all my calling functionalities. When a call comes in, Phonext display a lock screen which you have to slide before it presents you with all the options like answer, decline, silence etc.
This way, I never accidentally pickup a call or dial a number.

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