What should the hold switch hold?

[MrConfusion]

Title says it all:

My Pandora seems to operate exactly the same on hold and without.

When lid is closed, no light in the display, I open the device:

Shoulder buttons do nothing, display stays off.

Nub does nothing, display stays off.

Any key in the keyboard activates the Pandora instantly, powerled turns brighter, display turns on.

Whether hold is on or off makes no difference in behaviour.

Not sure why you'd need hold when the lid protects the keyboard, shoulder buttons won't do anything anyways and the nubs, even if they were to misreport movement, don't activate anything either?

Or is this simply not quite the way it was supposed to be?

I noticed, while charging, that the Pandora had switched on by itself. This while being on hold. But it's probably not related.

(

Despite my battery readout problems the unit seems to charge just fine and most importantly, safely... I've left it charging "under surveillance" (close to my bed for a couple of nights and the system definitely seems to "know what it's doing" and when to cut off power to prevent overcharging. I seem to get a reliable mAh readout from the battery, but nothing else. So it seems that is enough data for charging reliably.

)

 

[WizardStan]

The hold button is not actually fully implemented. It triggers stuff in the OS, but software needs to be told what to do with the triggers, and currently I think there's only a music player or two that pay any attention to it. It's something that went in as a free feature and no one ever really used it.

I noticed, while charging, that the Pandora had switched on by itself.

Unrelated, just coincidence. You're not the first person to notice this but it happens so rarely that there's simply been no way to debug the behaviour. It's just too weird.

 

[comradekingu]

How about it maps L and R into volume up and down, then Hold L for previous track and hold R for skip track. Like a function key. Hold functionality is from android, try it with your lockscreen on if you have a physical volume button.

Would be nice for media player use in the pocket.

 

[matzesu]

For Volume Up and Down, whe allready have a Physikal Vollume Wheel,

But yes, aktually, the Hold buttons is pretty useless..

But maybe in future OS Versions, it can be use at Hold Switch...

 

[dgame]

https://www.youtube.com/embed/FDCoQqdXCfw?feature=oembed

 

[comradekingu]

Ah, totally forgot. Just the skip track then.

 

[MrConfusion]

 It's something that went in as a free feature and no one ever really used it.

OK, this was what I kind of suspected already .

comradekingu: Yeah, if a player supported the shoulder buttons for prev/next, then implementing the hold switch would fit in the picture nicely. I didn't even think of that, though, because I never considered using the Pandora as a pocketable music player, it seems a bit too big for that when compared with the dedicated mp3 players available... then again those are too small for me these days it's a game of high accurasy and eagle eyes to jump to a track... .

 

[HelenF]

I've not seen a hold switch. Where is it?

 

[TrashyMG]

It's just sliding the power switch all the way left.

It usually locks the keyboard / shoulder buttons from doing anything when switched in "hold" mode.. not sure if it's been disabled or not since I last used it.

 

[ZXDunny]

I noticed, while charging, that the Pandora had switched on by itself.

Unrelated, just coincidence. You're not the first person to notice this but it happens so rarely that there's simply been no way to debug the behaviour. It's just too weird.

I thought that was well known about? As soon as you plug in the charger, the Pandora will boot up. It's always been that way; we've no "low power" charging mode to be used if the system has been shut down, so it goes straight for the full boot.

At least, mine has always done that.

D.

 

[WizardStan]

I thought that was well known about? As soon as you plug in the charger, the Pandora will boot up. It's always been that way; we've no "low power" charging mode to be used if the system has been shut down, so it goes straight for the full boot.

I assumed he meant where it's just sitting on the desk and then randomly the screen will just turn on, sometimes hours after it's been plugged in, but your interpretation could be correct. I may have misunderstood.

 

[MrConfusion]

I thought that was well known about? As soon as you plug in the charger, the Pandora will boot up. It's always been that way; we've no "low power" charging mode to be used if the system has been shut down, so it goes straight for the full boot.

I assumed he meant where it's just sitting on the desk and then randomly the screen will just turn on, sometimes hours after it's been plugged in, but your interpretation could be correct. I may have misunderstood.

No, you understood exactly right:

The Pandora was connected to a charger some time during the evening.

Used it for a while before calling it a day, checked mAh, not full. Closed the lid, placed it on the nightstand, powerlight went dim, display went off, wlan light turned off.

Then I wake up in the middle of the night and notice there's light shining from between the base and the lid, WLAN led is on, powerled is bright - Pandora has "woken from sleep" by itself.

Maybe I should have said that originally: "woke from sleep", instead of "switched on".

If it keeps doing this repeatedly when my unit is fixed, I might take a look at this myself, assuming it can be traced by rigorously tracing the OS. It is a little bit annoying to me. But it might be after the fix this happens less often.

Why would it? Well, somewhat unrelated, an update to my current situation:

I now have a very strong theory about what's wrong with the battery indicator and knobs (yes, both knobs, since also the left knob hangs completely occasionally too, it's just more random, I'm also pretty sure the right knob would respond every now and then, if I just tested more often):

I got no pullup resistor for clockline in the i2c bus!

I assume that might make things a bit messy for all three of these... and also might introduce "noise" that could be interpreted as a user? Well, maybe not, I've looked at the Pandora PCB for a while now and every time I magnify it I'm still basically struck with awe. We've sure come a long way from the Amiga days... incredible...

I scavenged a replacement resistor from an old DVD drive. I actually have an old SonyEricsson mobile phone that would happily donate a SMC LED too, but I don't know what specs I need and what specs I got, whereas the resistor is easier in this respect.

However, since the unit is still under warranty, I'm not going to try fixing it until I get word from ED that such a deep DIY hacking attempt is OK as far as he's concerned... for all I know that resistor could also have been pulled out for a reason... but since I'm currently playing Cadaver on UAE and don't really need the nubs for that I don't need to rush the man overly much .

(Cadaver is pretty good, actually... I own the game but never even played it too much, because of a shiny new PC and Wing Commander both of which basically made me neglect my poor Amiga for a considerable time :-(... I don't think she ever forgave... )