Onyx Boox Kepler series

[Hrafn]

It appears that somebody has gotten a bluetooth keyboard to work with their Kepler:


[Hat-tip: blog.the-ebook-reader.com]

[Hrafn]

Hi. I just tried to get onto Google Play to check whether the Kindle app was available for the Kepler, in order to answer farfromrefuge's question. I discovered that it has stopped working. Have any other installers of 1.8.0 had this problem? If so, will the Kepler allow you to downgrade to a previous version using the same method as upgrading?

[sharkcow]

Originally Posted by farfromrefuge

I am very interested by this e-book. I do want an e-book reader and this one looks like a good one.But i also to try some kind of a new use for a e-ink tablet. I want to test it as a map reader while hiking (i develop my own android app), so i do need an android e-ink tablet.

Now i have 2 questions before i commit to this one:
- you can read kindle books with it, right?(i plan on buying the Kindle Unlimited)
- Can someone report on an average battery life?

Thanks a lot for that great forum and all the precious info!

- kindle works fine for me.
- I get more than a month of battery life when reading about one hour average per day and turning the device off in between. Keep in mind that booting takes quite some power. Also, some apps draw a lot more power than others so obviously it will depend on what apps you use.
Concerning the maps: that was also one of my motivations to possess an e-ink device. Keep in mind that screen updates in regular mode take quite some time and sometimes cause the whole screen to blink. This can be very annoying when viewing content that changes a lot (like scrolling maps). However, the A2 mode on this device is very good (grayscale), so that might work better for you.

sharkcow

[sharkcow]

Originally Posted by Hrafn

Hi. I just tried to get onto Google Play to check whether the Kindle app was available for the Kepler, in order to answer farfromrefuge's question. I discovered that it has stopped working. Have any other installers of 1.8.0 had this problem? If so, will the Kepler allow you to downgrade to a previous version using the same method as upgrading?

I just tried something: even if you use the currently installed firmware, you can get the device to re-flash (I'm currently on 1.7.5, just re-flashed 1.7.5), so that strongly suggests you can downgrade.
Concerning 1.8.0, I seem to remember reading somewhere that the very first versions had a problem with play store which was fixed, but the fixed firmware still has version number 1.8.0. So you might consider re-downloading 1.8.0 an re-flashing.

Going 1.8.0 now... worked fine, but play store also not functional

Edit: Rebooted, play store working on 1.8.0!

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by sharkcow

I just tried something: even if you use the currently installed firmware, you can get the device to re-flash (I'm currently on 1.7.5, just re-flashed 1.7.5), so that strongly suggests you can downgrade.
Concerning 1.8.0, I seem to remember reading somewhere that the very first versions had a problem with play store which was fixed, but the fixed firmware still has version number 1.8.0. So you might consider re-downloading 1.8.0 an re-flashing.

Going 1.8.0 now... worked fine, but play store also not functional

Edit: Rebooted, play store working on 1.8.0!

Can you get the Kindle app?

[sharkcow]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Can you get the Kindle app?

Yes, it works although I don't think the page turn animations play well on e-ink; also the physical page turn buttons don't seem to work (neither in volume up/down setting nor the regular one).

[cwright]

Originally Posted by sharkcow

Yes, it works although I don't think the page turn animations play well on e-ink; also the physical page turn buttons don't seem to work (neither in volume up/down setting nor the regular one).

I have had no problems with Play Store and also no problems installing Kindle. Kindle doesn't work very well on any e-ink Android device, in my opinon. The page animation cannot be turned off so the screen flashes in a very annoying way whenever you turn pages. Using the A2 mode in Kindle is much better for page-turning but leaves ghosting on the pages. If this is the only device you can use for Kindle books, it does function, just not in a very smooth or pretty way. The buttons work for page turning if you set Kindle to use volume buttons for page turning and correspondingly set the hardware buttons to be volume buttons while you are in the Kindle app.

[Hrafn]

Originally Posted by sharkcow

I just tried something: even if you use the currently installed firmware, you can get the device to re-flash (I'm currently on 1.7.5, just re-flashed 1.7.5), so that strongly suggests you can downgrade.
Concerning 1.8.0, I seem to remember reading somewhere that the very first versions had a problem with play store which was fixed, but the fixed firmware still has version number 1.8.0. So you might consider re-downloading 1.8.0 an re-flashing.

Tried reflashing back to 1.7.5, and ended up completely borking my eReader. Display is now faint almost-to-the-point of illegibility, and quickly becomes completely illegible because it overwrites rather than refreshing. I am therefore having a great deal of difficulty doing anything. It appears to be software, not hardware thankfully (on reboot, initial Onyx Boox screen appears normal, before a faint 'Kepler loading', or some such, screen).

Can anybody give me any idea how to either:

1. Force an update with only hardware buttons
2. Force an update from my PC
3. Force a screen refresh using hardware buttons (so I can see to navigate) -- I'm coming to think that changing page-forward-long to 'Home' may have been a mistake (you can survive without being able to go immediately to the home screen more than you can without a legible screen)

[sharkcow]

Originally Posted by Hrafn

Tried reflashing back to 1.7.5, and ended up completely borking my eReader. Display is now faint almost-to-the-point of illegibility, and quickly becomes completely illegible because it overwrites rather than refreshing. I am therefore having a great deal of difficulty doing anything. It appears to be software, not hardware thankfully (on reboot, initial Onyx Boox screen appears normal, before a faint 'Kepler loading', or some such, screen).

Can anybody give me any idea how to either:

1. Force an update with only hardware buttons
2. Force an update from my PC
3. Force a screen refresh using hardware buttons (so I can see to navigate) -- I'm coming to think that changing page-forward-long to 'Home' may have been a mistake (you can survive without being able to go immediately to the home screen more than you can without a legible screen)

Oh man, I'm terribly sorry if my suggestion got you to bork your device. I will try to help if I can. Right now I'm playing around with adb to find a solution. Unfortunately, rebooting into recovery via adb (adb reboot recovery) just gives me a completely white screen, so updating via sideload seems blocked. I've also tried various key combinations on boot to get into recovery, but no luck If anybody knows a way to get into recovery on the little brat, please let me know! I'll keep trying to find another way to reflash without screen access...

Edit: any solution I can come up with will likely involve adb. So if you haven't done so, you may as well get it installed and running on your pc.

[sharkcow]

Originally Posted by Hrafn

Tried reflashing back to 1.7.5, and ended up completely borking my eReader. Display is now faint almost-to-the-point of illegibility, and quickly becomes completely illegible because it overwrites rather than refreshing. I am therefore having a great deal of difficulty doing anything. It appears to be software, not hardware thankfully (on reboot, initial Onyx Boox screen appears normal, before a faint 'Kepler loading', or some such, screen).

Can anybody give me any idea how to either:

1. Force an update with only hardware buttons
2. Force an update from my PC
3. Force a screen refresh using hardware buttons (so I can see to navigate) -- I'm coming to think that changing page-forward-long to 'Home' may have been a mistake (you can survive without being able to go immediately to the home screen more than you can without a legible screen)

Without a way to get into recovery, I think your best bet is to try to reflash while navigating blindly. The steps would be:
1. tap "Settings" (second icon from the right in bottom row of home screen)
2. tap "About" (icon in bottom left of settings screen)
3. tap "System Update" (second entry from top in list in rightmost 2/3 of screen)
4. tap "Check update from local storage" (button slightly below half of screen)
5. tap "OK" (button slightly below location before and in right half of screen)

Obviously, you need to have the update.zip on sd. If you need pictures of the process, let me know.

BTW: when I reflash 1.8.0, the screen during the update process also looks weird (almost empty except for remnants of the little progress bar), but the update goes through and afterwards all is well. So I guess something has been messed up concerning the screen when updates are performed out of 1.8.0.

all the best for 2017! (hopefully with a functioning Kepler again...

sharkcow

[Hrafn]

Originally Posted by sharkcow

Without a way to get into recovery, I think your best bet is to try to reflash while navigating blindly. The steps would be:
1. tap "Settings" (second icon from the right in bottom row of home screen)
2. tap "About" (icon in bottom left of settings screen)
3. tap "System Update" (second entry from top in list in rightmost 2/3 of screen)
4. tap "Check update from local storage" (button slightly below half of screen)
5. tap "OK" (button slightly below location before and in right half of screen)

Obviously, you need to have the update.zip on sd. If you need pictures of the process, let me know.

Tried that -- could just about see the 'About' icon, but everything beyond that was too faint & overwritten to be legible. I tried installing ADB on my PC, but unfortunately, without USB debugging being already set up on my eReader, it was unable to detect it. I then tried pushing all three buttons once for a few seconds to see if that would force it into 'download mode' and might do any good. At which stage it stopped responding completely. For those that are interested, this is what it now looks like:

(If you look carefully, you can see elements from multiple screens.)

I have put in an inquiry with Onyx, and may have to do a warranty return.

[sharkcow]

Originally Posted by Hrafn

Tried that -- could just about see the 'About' icon, but everything beyond that was too faint & overwritten to be legible. I tried installing ADB on my PC, but unfortunately, without USB debugging being already set up on my eReader, it was unable to detect it. I then tried pushing all three buttons once for a few seconds to see if that would force it into 'download mode' and might do any good. At which stage it stopped responding completely. For those that are interested, this is what it now looks like:

(If you look carefully, you can see elements from multiple screens.)

I have put in an inquiry with Onyx, and may have to do a warranty return.

Freaky screen...
Yes, I had come as far as figuring out the command for the update via adb when realizing that you would have to turn on usb debugging before and getting there would require at least as many blind taps as trying the update directly...
So did you not tap the correct positions or did the update run but not fix the problem?

As far as button combinations on boot go, I've found:
Holding the "next" button while booting gets you into fastboot mode (screen showing "Boox reader"). Nice if you want to flash custom recoveries but I'm afraid we're not that far on the Kepler - if anybody feels adventurous enough to try one of the rooting methods for other Onyx devices, I'd be extremely interested, but I won't do it
Holding the "previous" button and letting go at the right moment gets the Kepler into a state where neither adb nor fastboot works, again showing "Boox reader"; otherwise the device just boots normally.
Holding both buttons on boot, the device doesn't even start up

[sharkcow]

I've got a new problem on firmware 1.8.0: I can't get any dictionaries to work. The message is always "Dictionary not found", no matter what dictionary app I set in Oreader; I even tried installing the QuickDic app and some dictionaries additionally, but to no avail.
Can anyone on 1.8.0 please confirm?

thanks,

sharkcow

[Hrafn]

Originally Posted by sharkcow

So did you not tap the correct positions or did the update run but not fix the problem?

Most of the time I was lucky if I could see box-outlines and maybe a word or two of text per screen, even before things started getting overwritten. So I was generally pretty much shooting blind (and you must remember that the About and Update screens are ones I haven't looked at often -- so don't remember them at all clearly). Also, I suspect the touchscreen responsiveness may also have been affected. I never actually got to a re-update.

[cwright]

Originally Posted by sharkcow

I've got a new problem on firmware 1.8.0: I can't get any dictionaries to work. The message is always "Dictionary not found", no matter what dictionary app I set in Oreader; I even tried installing the QuickDic app and some dictionaries additionally, but to no avail.
Can anyone on 1.8.0 please confirm?

thanks,

sharkcow

Dictionary works fine for me after installing the dictionaries from Play Store. Kepler doesn't come with any dictionaries preloaded. I'm using ColorDict and have a couple of different dictionaries compatible with ColorDict installed as well as English thesaurus. I've also set the dictionary to ColorDict 3, GoldenDict within OReader. Sometimes dictionary doesn’t load until I tap the screen after selecting "Translate". Seems to be a refresh issue. After the page refreshes though all the dictionaries I've installed display correctly.