Auto-tools/Projects/MobileAutomation/Meetings/2013-01-09

Dial in

 # Vidyo:  tor-spadina
 # Phone:  650-903-0800 or 650-215-1282 x92 Conf# 95589 (US/INTL)
 #         1-800-707-2533 (pin 369) Conf# 95589 (US)
 # IRC:    irc://irc.mozilla.org:6697/#ateam

Problem Definition

• eideticker: g2x exhibits wildly variable behaviour - uptime sometimes reaches a couple weeks, but occasionally it freezes up
  • needs a physical person to reset it
  • historically been bmoss or ctalbert, who have better things to do
  • even still, takes time to get it reset, have to get data missed during that time
• autophone: similar problems. nexus one in particular is quite flakey -- goes down every few days almost like clockwork (goes down hard, frozen, frozen).
  • we reboot each phone every testrun in autophone. sometimes when we reboot the phone it explodes.
  • some phones (e.g. the htc sensation) just don't reboot.
  • some phones need the battery pulled and reinserted before they'll come back up
• we haven't looked that closely into what causes this.
• avoid some problems by cleaning up files before rebooting

Presentation Notes / Discussion

Powering a mobile phone with no battery: http://www.makestuff.eu/wordpress/powering-a-mobile-phone-with-no-battery/ (for older phones with 3-pin batteries, but may be easily adaptable to 4 pins)

• battery pins: most have 4 pins: power pin (3.7-4 V), gnd, thermistor, I2C bus
• powering from AC is only part of problem; need to push a button usually to boot up

"pushing the power button":

• solenoid or air valve
  • would pressing power button be sufficient?
• need a case to hold the phone, something to press the phone, probably a microcontroller to control everything
• use relays that we use for pandas
• need to determine how battery status is determined--we would like to make the phone think it's at 100%, or at least something not critically low
• Custom building a power management chip. Texas Instruments said they don't provide devices that could do power management, but they have chips that could be used to build such a thing:

    I am writing regarding your request for a battery which can be power cycled for your mobile
    phone application. 
 
    I have looked into this and unfortunately Texas Instruments does not offer such devices. 
 
    We are suppliers of the IC's and various  modules which can be used to design a system 
    as you are describing, but  we do not offer end equipments for customers. 
 
    If you are designing this system and need assistance selecting a particular part, I could 
    assist you in doing so.

• Could we run wires between the battery and the phone with a relay? Might be easier than a custom device.

Action Items

• Ted to do preliminary research. He's going to have lunch with a sales guy for an industrial-automation company who may have some ideas about what's possible. Work being tracked in bug 828668