cx-01

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments on CheapCast Chromecast Emulator for Android (Beta) is Available for Download

CheapCast Chromecast Emulator for Android (Beta) is Available for Download

Yesterday, I wrote developers were working on making any media App and any Android device compatible with Chromecast. Sebastian Mauer has taken care of the latter, by publishing CheapCast (Beta) in Google Play. Several people have been trying it successfully, including in iMito MX1 mini PC. I’ve been less lucky. I’ve tried it by running YouTube App in Zopo ZP900S smartphone (Android 4.0.4) with 4 devices: Tronsmart T428 – “Works” but the video won’t start playing. (Bug reported in Github’s issue tracker) [Update: It now works with the latest version in Google Play]. MK908 – Refused to install anything in Google Play today… (Older Android 4.1 firmware) Wandboard Quad – “Works” but the video won’t start playing. CX-01 – CheapCast will crash when playing video I can’t really play YouTube videos over 360p without buffering here, so the reason the video won’t start in T428 or Wandboard Quad might be […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 39 Comments on How to Create a Custom Android Firmware for CX-01 mini PC

How to Create a Custom Android Firmware for CX-01 mini PC

I’ve written a post about updating the firmware on CX-01 mini PC last week. But, this week I’ve been able to go further since I’ve learned some tools available for Telechips TCC8902/TCC8903 firmware files are also compatible with TCC892X firmware files, and it’s possible to extract the firmware, modify/add files in different partitions and repack all this to burn it with FWDN tool. I’ll explain the different steps in this post, and even if you don’t own CX-01 it could be interesting as some of the commands are common to all Android devices. But first: BIG FAT WARNING!!! Although I believe the steps mentioned in this post are safe, and errors can be recovered by using the CX-01 firmware, CX-01 mini PC is not unbrickable, and if I’m wrong your device will become useless and you won’t be able to fix it. I may also mention some tools (but not show […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments on XBMC for Android With Hardware Video Decoding on Telechips TCC8925 Processor

XBMC for Android With Hardware Video Decoding on Telechips TCC8925 Processor

Taehyun Kim, a developer working for Inisoft (Korea), has been working on video hardware acceleration on Diceplayer for Telechips TCC8925 processor (The one used in CX-01 and Zero Devices Z900) and call this player from XBMC. He has uploaded a video to demo his progress and that’s pretty impressive. You can try it yourself by downloading and installing the following apps: xbmckor-armeabi-v7a-20120821.apk (Korean version). [Update: Kim has also uploaded the English version]. Diceplayer – Free app via Google Play You’ll also need to create a file called playercorefactory.xml in /sdcard/Android/data/org.xbmc.xbmc/files/.xbmc/userdata directory with the following content: <playercorefactory> <players> <player name=”MPC-HC” type=”ExternalPlayer” audio=”false” video=”true”> <filename>com.inisoft.mediaplayer.a</filename> <hidexbmc>true</hidexbmc> </player> </players> <rules action=”prepend”> <rule video=”true” player=”MPC-HC”/> </rules> </playercorefactory> I’ve tried it in Zero Devices Z900. The default language is Korean, but you should manage if you’re familiar with XBMC interface. When you play videos, you lose the usual XBMC interface, as those are played in […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 40 Comments on How to Upgrade Firmware for CX-01 mini PC

How to Upgrade Firmware for CX-01 mini PC

[WARNING: Although these instructions worked with my hardware (CX-01 bought via Pandawill), it appears to break some CX-01 devices (See comments section), so use these instructions with care] Pandawill finally managed to release CX-01 firmware (234 MB) about a week ago. This firmware can be used for devices with 4 or 8 GB flash memory (2 separate directories). You only need to update the firmware if your device has some serious problems, or if CX-01 gets a proper firmware update (we can always dream…). Once you’ve downloaded ROM for android TV CX-01.rar in a Windows PC, extract it and enter ROM for android TV CX-01 directory. You’ll find 1 file and 1 directory: V1.0-4096-8189_en – Directory for 4GB firmware V1.0-8192-8189_en – Directory for 8GB firmware FWDN_8923.zip – Telechips tools to burn the firmware to flash Extract FWDN_8923.zip, go to vtcdrv directory and install the driver corresponding to your operating system. […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 38 Comments on How To Root CX-01 Android mini PC

How To Root CX-01 Android mini PC

CX-01 is a cool low cost Android mini PC (as low as $40), but unlike many other Chinese Android device it is not rooted. Here are the instructions to root it: Download Unlock Root http://www.unlockroot.com/. NB: The download link does not appear to work right now, but the filename is unlockroot23.exe, so here are some alternative untested download links. Find Unlockroot\driver\android_winusb.inf in the directory where you install Unlockroot Open the file in a text editor, and add the following lines: For Win 7 (64-bit): [Google.NTamd64] 64-bit] ;TCC8920 %SingleAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\Vid_18D1&Pid_DEED&MI_01 %CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\Vid_18D1&Pid_DEED&Rev_0231&MI_01 For WinXP (32-bit): [Google.NTx86] ;TCC8920 %SingleAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\Vid_18D1&Pid_DEED&MI_01 %CompositeAdbInterface% = USB_Install, USB\Vid_18D1&Pid_DEED&Rev_0231&MI_01 Connect CX-01 to your PC via USB, it should then detect your new device. If it doesn’t simply press “fn” key on CX-01 TV Stick. Select the driver that you edited in Unlockroot\driver\android_winusb.inf Once the driver is installed, run unlockroot Press ROOT, then […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 46 Comments on $40 CX-01 mini PC Unboxing and Review

$40 CX-01 mini PC Unboxing and Review

I’ve just received the CX-01 Mini Android PC I ordered 3 weeks ago on Pandawill website using Togetho.ru group buy coupon and paid $41.89 as I selected “Singapore Post” shipping option. Today, I’ll post some unboxing pictures and provide a review of this tiny and cheap device. I received the device in the box below. The device characteristics are listed on the back on the package. Telechips TCC8925 does not support 1 GHz (max 833 MHz), and I’m unable to play some of the video container format listed, but more on that later. You’ll just find the TV Stick and a microUSB to USB cable to power the device in the package. Now let’s connect it to the TV. The device can plug neatly into on the HDMI port of my HDTV (Samsung LA328450), and it’s powered by the TV’s “USB service” port. $40 is a low price to turn a […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments on Building the Linux Kernel 3.0.8 For Telechips TCC8925 mini PCs (CX-01, Z900, TizzBird N1…)

Building the Linux Kernel 3.0.8 For Telechips TCC8925 mini PCs (CX-01, Z900, TizzBird N1…)

Yesterday, we got Linux kernel 3.0.8 source code from Telechips, as well as some files related to Android 4.0 (Webkit + OMX). Today, I’ve had a look at the kernel source code and found a few very interesting things. First let’s get the code from github:

Good news! The code for the latest Telechips TCC892X is present in arch/arm/mach-tcc892x, and there is support for 3 types of boards: board-m805_892x – TCC8923 M805 board board-tcc8920 – TCC8920 evaluation board board-tcc8920st – TCC8920 STB evaluation board TCC8920 STB evaluation board appears to be relevant to products such as Diyomate A6, but if it’s also used for TCC8925 HDMI Dongle such as CX-01 mini PC, Zero Devices Z900 or ValuePlus TizzBird N1. Now let’s have a look at the default config directory for arm (arch/arm/configs):

Nice! tcc8925st_dongle_defconfig and tcc8925st_donglehs_defconfig look particularly interesting! A quick comparison shows that the only difference is […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on Android Transporter Enables WiFi Display Mirroring (similar to Miracast) of Android Devices

Android Transporter Enables WiFi Display Mirroring (similar to Miracast) of Android Devices

E.S.R.Labs is a German embedded software company mainly working for the automotive industry. But this time, they’ve started to work for the consumer market with Android Transformer, a software solution that can mirror an Android display to another Android device display via Wi-Fi in a similar fashion to what WiFi Miracast will do. Eventually, the company plan to make Android Transporter compatible with Wi-Fi Miracast, but in the meantime they rolled out their own solution by taking advantage of H.264 hardware encoders and decoders on Galaxy Nexus S and the Raspberry Pi. If they use standard APIs, I assume any hardware running Android that with H.264 hardware encode/decode should support their platform. I hope it will be work on (or be ported to) CX-01 mini PC which can be bought as low as $40 inc. shipping. It would make an even cheaper hardware than the Raspberry Pi (Up to 33% […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC