Dropad A8 aka Haipad M7,
Is a 7" Android internet tablet based on the Samsung 1GHz S5PV210 CPU (core seems to be S3C2440) with capacitive touchscreen (rumored to be just two point multi-touch, chipset is Pixcir), 512MB RAM and an internal 4GB SD card for the system. It is rumored that there are variations of that device without on board NAND flash - mine (nils) has 128MB NAND.
Contents
Specifications
- Internal OS Card
- 4GB Class 4 Micro SD Card
- Processor
- NAND Flash (2GB) - for bootloader, kernel and base rootfs
Model # Decoder (Broken Down)
Model: K9
Small Class: F (SLC Normal)
Density: 2G
Technology: 0 (Normal x8)
Organization: 8 (x8)
VCC: U (2.7V~3.6V)
Mode: 0 (Normal)
Generation: B (3rd)
Package: P (TSOP1 (Lead-Free))
Temp: C (Commercial)
Bad Block: B (Include Bad Block)
Pre-Program: 0 (None)
- RAM
Model # Decoder (Broken Down)
Model: K4T
Density: 1G
Bit Org: 16 (x16)
Banks: 4 (8 Banks)
Interface: Q (SSTL_18, 1.8V)
Generation: E (E-die)
Package: H (FBGA (Lead-Free & Halogen-Free))
Temp Power: C (Commerical Temp, Normal Power)
Speed: F7 (DDR2-800 (400Mhz@CL=6, TRCD=6, TRP=6))
- Wireless
- It seems that at least all the Dropad tablet share the same WLAN MAC address! So by deafult one can not operate two tablets in the same network, pretty bad. Need to find out how to change the MAC.
- Battery
PTI-01002250JL282S1P0000000-RPL555075P
2250 mAh
7.4V
KA15
Dual Cell Battery Pack
- Touchscreen
- FT5406, I2C 0x38
- Audio Codec
- GPIO assignment
- Power Button : GPH0[1]
- Menu Button : GPH3[4]
- Back Button : GPH0[4]
- Home Button : GPH3[5]
- FT5406_Power: GPH2[3]
- FT5406_Wake: GPH2[1]
- FT5406_Int (falling edge active): GPH1[0]
- Connectors
- USB OTG
- USB Host
- Mini HDMI
- 3,5mmm Audio Jack
- 9V Power
- UART serial (inside the device)
Strip down of the device by Mr.Taselhof slatedroid-thread
Linux Kernel
- Add frequency scaling to save power
Kernel Tree MID Linux 3.0 by Namko https://github.com/namko/MID-Kernel-3.0
A really open kernel source tree by Asure GIT: https://github.com/Asure/Dropad-kernel-2.6.35.7.git
kboek is also hacking on similar platforms, GIT here: https://github.com/kboek/android-urbetter.git
Once kernel.org is up again this could also be of interest: http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=kernel/samsung.git;a=tree
Official (but not complete) kernel source http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/31287-official-sources-and-soft-for-firmware-from-urbetter/
Hardware Mods
- Adding volume control hardware buttons: connect button from Pin 16 of the SOM to GND and Pin 17 to GND
- Higher speaker-output volume - replacing a resistor with 10kOhm or adding 20kOHM in parallel (resulting in 10kOHM in total) increases volume
- Better speaker-output quality (not yet tested) - change decoupling capacitor against higher capacity (e.g. 10µF)
WiFi antenna position on some revisions is pretty bad - changing position can help. Update [nils]: I tried several with no much change. To avoid inteference I now placed almost in the middle of the battery which seems to be quite OK but it is a little too thick now.
Retro-fitting the missing USB hub chip - internal USB devices can not be added since a USB HUB chip is not fitted on the PCB but the solder pads are there. It should be possible to re-fit that chip and get internal + external USB host ports. The missing chip is a FE1.1s, datasheet here. Update [nils]: I will get samples this week
- There is a solder pad labeled with motor. There are reports of people who connected a vibration motor but it seems not to work with all revisions ([nils] does not work)
- The internal SD card can be exchanged with a bigger one (up to 32GB depending on the used ROM)
Software Mods
Simple Mods by app
Remapping of the hardware buttons and disabling home-button from wareup the pad - ButtonRemapper allows to disable keys from waking up the tablet. It also allows to remap buttons, i.e. Menue and Back can be mapped to volume up / down. zMooth is a nice replacement for a physical button (more information can be found here )
- Changing the density of the screen, i.e. LCD Density changer app or modify /system/buildprop. The lower the density value (dpi) the smaller the icons will get. The density specifies the pixel-points on the display per physical inch. For achieving the physical size of an icon on a high res display more pixels are needed.
- Block advertising with addfree
More advanced modes
Change nearly every UI element with the Ultimate online theme kitchen i.e. battery status in percent
Firmware
Here are some roms for the dropad. Until an open-source kernel is available these roms are limited by the stock kernel
Evolution Rom: Based on the stock firmware, overclocked, UI rendered in GPU, root access slatedroid-thread
Cyanogen for dropad: Based on Cyanogen mod but uses the stock dropad kernel slatedroid-thread
A list of modified and stock firmware links link
Development
Backup / Restore of the internal SD / Nand http://www.slatedroid.com/topic/25289-procedure-for-dumping-existing-rom/
Accessories
Things that might be useful:
- You can use an iPad screen protector and cut it to fit the Dropad
- On eBay you can find a bunch of nice 7" cases with built-in USB keyboard (like the picture at the top of this page)
- Most UMTS / 3G / LTE USB sticks are working with the Dropad
- Some USB Ethernet devices work with the Dropad
- USB mice and keyboards work with the Dropad
- Most USB Bluetooth dongles work with the Dropad (including DBT-122)
- PL-2303 -based GPS dongles work (including Globalsat ND-100S)
Suggested apps
Here we collect apps that a useful for tablets and / or special tablet versions of apps.
Please don't flood this with not tablet related apps.
Market Apps
Apps you can find in the market AND that have tablet related features
plume - Its a nice twitter app with a very nice tablet landscape view
Not Market Apps
Apps you can't find in the market AND that have tablet related features
Buttonremaper - Remap the hardware buttons to other actions
Hacked Apps
Apps that are modified to fit the needs of a tablet user (don't post links to cracked / illegal apps)
This is a patched Skype Version to allow video calls on not official supported devices xda-thread