xs4all

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Hi All, I thought I post some info regarding the My Arcade Data East Classics that has been out for a while now and for those that don't know, there has been 2 version of this unit. The original version, which allows you to connect an OTG cable into the USB port on the top right of the board, to access the main board, the case needs to be removed. Since the unit is running a cut down custom version of Android 4.4.2, with the OTG cable connected, now you can use a mouse, your in total control and pretty much hack this unit. Now, this bit of information has already been posted and shared in this thread by @zenmechanic HERE, and then @Glen's Retro Show posted a YouTube video in his thread HERE. For those that are not aware, there was a revision version of the My Arcade Data East Classic released, I'm not sure when exactly when this was released but the main board was changed. The top right USB port has been moved to the bottom left of the board and I'm sure there is some other changes as well. With the original version, the USB port on the back of the unit, didn't have the data connections in the USB port connected, so this port was only used to power the unit, that is why you had to open the case to use the USB port on the board if you wanted data access and OTG access. Now with this revision version, the USB port on the back of the unit has the data connections connected, the bad part is, whatever changes they made with this revision version, when you connect a OTG cable, the unit will go into a permanent boot loop until you remove the OTG cable. Same thing happens when try the OTG cable on the main board, boot loop. In saying that, you can STILL hack the unit but using an app called Vysor, what this app does is mirrors the screen from the unit back to your PC, from here you have mouse access and have total control of the unit to do whatever you want, just like the original version. The good thing about this method is that Vysor will enable debugging when it connects to your unit and you don't have to remove the case. Now the only bad point is that OTG does not work, so you wont be able to expand the storage on the device, this is a real bummer if you want to fully load your unit with heaps of games. With little information out on the web about this revision unit other than you can use Vysor to gain access to the unit, I took apart my unit and began to have a play, I found out that you can boot into the recovery mode by holding down the VOL -/+ buttons combinations (I can't remember what it was on the original firmware). I found a thread somewhere on the net that some has made a TWRP recovery image for the AllWinner A23, if I was going to muck around with my unit, I need to somehow create a backup firmware, so I decided to bite the bullet and flash the custom TWRP. This didn't go well, I was able to see boot into the TWRP recovery mode but the screen was all messed up, I think it couldn't handle the 480x272 screen resolution, since it was the recovery that was messed up, I was still able to boot into the unit, so not all was lost, but I still needed a way to backup the firmware. Silly me flashed another recovery image, this time I screwed something up, now the unit boots into black screen, so at this point, I was kicking myself that I bricked my unit After searching the internet, I managed to come across an app called PhoenixUSBPro, this app is the go to app to flash firmware's to the AllWinner boards, this was great news but the biggest problem is that, the My Arcade Data East Classics uses a custom A23 board with little to no information. I knew there was 0% chance of getting a stock image for this unit, so the next best thing was, what if I flash another firmware and see if it boots? Now, the AllWinner A23 chips was used on a lot of tablet devices and you can pretty much find heaps of A23 related firmware's, I downloaded a random firmware and flashed my unit to see if anything would happen, to my surprise I worked but the major issue is that most of these firmware's are catered for resolutions larger than 480x272, so the resolution was too big and the brightness looks like it is jacked up the max settings. With little technical knowledge of anything android related but I assume, settings, drivers, etc.. are modified for different tablets/devices. Out of all the firmware's I flashed on my unit, I think I have tried over 20 firmware's, the 4 main issues I had was either no sound, boot to black screen, all very bright screen and different higher resolution. The only good thing was I was still able to use Vysor to connect to my unit, when I mirror the unit to my PC, everything is fine. Below is the following firmware that I found and using that seemed to get my unit working: PH_Q8h_4.4_v2.0_800x480-auto-121A-20140627 After some more research, I found an app called DragonFace, this app allows you to load up the AllWinner backup firmware image, from here you can pretty much customise the firmware rom before you flash your device. The System Configuration option is what I was looking at since this had ALL the information regarding how the firmware operates, including the screen resolution. I found the FEX Guide HERE, this page explains what each setting does, it's all technical jargon to me, after a lot of trial and error, I began to understand. To change the screen resolution you need to change the [lcd0_para] information, the FEX Guide was a big help since it provides the settings for the 480x272 screen resolution. Created the custom rom and flashed my unit and what do you know, I managed to change the screen resolution to 480x272! That was only half of the story, the DPI settings in the BuildProp file needs to changed to 70, this makes all the icons and text be compatible with the the 480x272 resolution, it's not accurate but the best you can get it on such a smalls screen, DragonFace app will let you edit the BuildProp file. When my unit up and running again, I now have the issue with the controls, only the following controls is working: Vol + Back Start A Using an android app called KeyTest.apk, I was able to find the KEY info for all the buttons that was working and with DragonFace, I used the keyboard mapping settings to add the following info: key 28 5 WAKE_DROPPED key 102 BACK WAKE_DROPPED key 114 VOLUME_DOWN WAKE_DROPPED key 115 VOLUME_UP WAKE_DROPPED key 139 ENTER WAKE_DROPPED Now the rest of the keys don't work and doesn't register anything with the KeyTest android app, so I have ran out of ideas what I need to change to get the rest of the keys working. The ribbon cable from the control board connects to the main board, the ports on the main board, I don't know what this is, to me it looks like maybe the GPIO ports? but there nothing on the board that tells me it is? but they kindly enough to label each pin to tell me what button they belong to. After playing around some more, guess what, I was able to get OTG working, I found out that the [usbc0] in the System Configuration section needs the following changed to: usb_drv_vbus_gpio = port:PH09<1><0><default><0> All the firmware I was testing had this: usb_drv_vbus_gpio = port:power4<1><0><default><0> Since I don't have access to the original firmware of the My Arcade Data East Classics, I'm assuming it has the usb_drv_vbus_gpio = port:power4<1><0><default><0> code, with this code, when I connected a OTG cable, it would go into a boot loop like it originally did straight of the box. So for me simply changing it to = port:PH09<1><0><default><0>, I didn't get a boot loop and when I connected a mouse, it worked straight away, then I used a small 4 port USB hub, I as able to use a mouse and a USB memory stick and the system picked it up with no problems. Now, I did reach out to a couple of people asking if they could somehow backup their original unit so I can try and flash the image back to my revision unit to see if I can get it to work. One of those people is @Glen's Retro Show who I reached out to on his YouTube video and he said he might have something for me I found this backup script HERE that can backup the AllWinner chips, I already tested it with the custom firmware I flashed, it doesn't give me the *.img file that PhoenixUSBPro needs, but the backup that the script creates does contains a file called sys_config.fex, this file is the same file that DragonFace edits that I made all the changes. This file will be super useful for me since it contains all the custom settings for the original and the possibly the revision units. If I can get a hold of this file I can compare with the custom firmware that I created and hopefully get the controls to work, there might be other settings as well like CPU and RAM related settings for this custom A23 board. So if anyone who has the original or revision unit and willing to help me out, that would be much appreciate it! I am so close in getting my revision unit back up and running again with a custom firmware used from another AllWinner A23 tablet device. My apologies for the very long post but I thought I need to get this info out there for research/information purposes as there might be someone that find this info useful. Some pics below: