Tag Archives: O2 Joggler

MQTT Joggler

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Spurred on by the success of getting Mosquitto working on a Raspberry Pi, I recently had a play with MQTT on the Joggler. The O2 Joggler is still a great device for hacking and I currently have SqeezePlay OS running on it.

The reason I wanted to try and get MQTT on the Joggler was to make use of its light sensor, and publish light levels over MQTT. It all turned out to be pretty simple since most of the work has already been done by other people!

First thing to do was read the light sensor and get that working with an MQTT client. I had to skip some of Andy’s instructions and just built the client code rather than attempting to get doxygen working. Once I’d mashed up the light sensor code and publish example I could compile the worlds most pointless MQTT publisher:

gcc -Wall publightsensor.c -L../bin/linux_ia32 -I../src -lmqttv3c -lpthread -o publightsensor

Next it was time to check the results. This too was quick and easy thanks to the MQTT sandbox server, which has a handy HTTP bridge. And the final result… was a completely unscientific and slightly dingy light level 4! Now I’ll be able to turn on a lamp using an unreliable RF controlled socket and see whether it worked or not!

Update: the code really is all in the existing examples but I’ve created a Github Gist in case it’s any help: mqttjogglermashup.c (11 February 2013)

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More Joggler upgrades

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For an old defunct product, the O2 Joggler continues to surprise. If you still have one and have been neglecting it at all recently, there are a few potential upgrades around at the moment:

  • There was nothing actually wrong with the original O2 software, except that it was just a little… limited. The refresh of PnP to PnP Mk II should give the built in software a much needed boost.
  • Perhaps more surprisingly O2 are releasing an update themselves! It’s good to see that O2 are tidying up loose ends before deserting the Joggler completely. I’m interested to see just what the update will do, so my Joggler is back to running the original software for now. In case you’ve done a little too much hacking, there’s a reflashing tool which might help ahead of the April 30th update.
  • For me, the most promising Joggler hack is still the Android image, and even this is getting an upgrade. It’s not quite done yet but even so the Ice Cream Sandwich port looks like it was made for the Joggler!

And people are still hacking, so these probably won’t be the last upgrades!

Update: well the deO2ification update finally arrived on my Joggler and despite thinking I knew what to expect, I was really disappointed by one thing that vanished with the update. I was expecting the radio app to go, but I’m actually going to miss the O2 clock! If you’re more interested in replacing the radio, I can definitely recommend the SqueezePlay OS. It really works well on the Joggler and is probably the most straightforward replacement to the newly updated stock OS. The only slight problem is that I haven’t managed to get it to play any of the BBC channels so far. (18 May 2012)

New Joggler Apps!

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Not technically new apps for the Joggler and as I’m not expecting to see any of those again, I cheated: all these apps run very well on the Joggler… after installing Android! I think my quest to find a better alternative to the stock Joggler software is finally at an end.

There are still a few apps left to find a replacement for but I didn’t use these ones much anyway: O2 Calendar, Video, Games, YouTube and Messages (SMS). Here’s what I do have working so far:

Clock

I’m still looking for something to use as a standby screen but, if all else fails, I can write my own now. I like the retro clock widget for a date display on the home screen though.

Photos

Perhaps not the obvious choice for showing photos. I quite like the RealPlayer app, unfortunately it doesn’t play music from my media server, so for now it’s only there for photos.

Music

It doesn’t seem to want to display album art, and the Joggler doesn’t do wma files, but this is definitely an improvement over the Joggler’s standard music player!

News

Works reasonably well on the Joggler’s screen and has feeds for pretty much anything.

Sports News

Added a whole page of news for Jo’s team!

Weather

At a glance weather. All weather forecasts are a work of fiction anyway aren’t they?!

Traffic

The Google map traffic layer is a definite improvement on the Joggler’s original traffic map.

Tools

I have to say, the Button Savior app was a genius suggestion; no more getting stuck in full screen apps!

App Shop

Android Market has that pretty well covered, although the AndAppStore also works, so another massive win over the Joggler’s selection.

Internet Radio

It’s pretty basic but, with a local radio added from Global Streaming, AndroRadio does a solid job. I’m leaning towards Resco Radio at the moment though since the UI is a bit nicer, plus it has a volume control which is very handy without any hardware controls.

Google Maps

Yes!

Probably the best addition to the Joggler is having a working web browser, so for loads more stuff there’s no need for an app. I can check bus times with www.mytraveline.mobi, and look up trains on www.nationalrail.co.uk for starters. Definitely the best value gadget I have!

Enjoy Android on O2’s Joggler in 3 easy steps

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A few people have asked after my last Joggler post, so here’s how to unlock the potential of your dusty Joggler…

Step 1 – Prepare a USB stick

Follow the instructions at the top of the Android Prebuild Image page of the Joggler Wiki. I used the simple option, writing the empty partition .img file from Christian with the Image Writer for Microsoft Windows tool.

Step 2 – Download Android image

There are a few Android images around, but you can now download the best image I’ve found so far from Mijuu’s Porting Life blog.

Step 3 – Enjoy

Just unzip the image to the Android partition, boot up* and enjoy.

* I still haven’t made it to the Hursley Chinese lessons so I did have to switch to English. This is easier with the latest image which has a language option in grub.cfg – change it from LANG=zh to LANG=en before booting. To change the keyboard, long-press the text entry field and change the input type.

Step 3a – Get the market working

To get the most out of Android on the Joggler you’ll definitely want to install a few apps. Thanks to Angelo, it’s easy to get the Market working; the latest instructions are on the Joggler Wiki.

And finally, a few links which may be of use:

Updated: updated steps for latest version, Mijuu Release 1.2.3/Android 2.2.2. (22 June 2011)

Update: James Pearce has been doing some great work on creating a pre-loaded image to make it easier to get Android up and running on a Joggler. I haven’t tried the tweaked images but they seem well worth a look to avoid headaches coaxing the Market in to life using the vanilla image. (11 August 2011)

Update: the 1.2.3 release from Mijuu is probably still the best version of Android I’ve found for the Joggler, but there have been a few updates since I originally wrote this post. (3 April 2012)