Tutorial: Install ClockworkMod (CWM) Recovery on Noir A8

I’ve successfully ported ClockworkMod recovery (CWM) to QMobile Noir A8–now you can enjoy the benefits of having a custom recovery which can make full Nandroid backups i.e backup your ROM and data. It can then be used later to restore your phone to working condition, in case something goes wrong while flashing custom ROMs/kernels.

I had to first extract the stock ROM, recovery and boot partition of QMobile Noir A8. Then, made this particular CWM version 6.0.1.2 from stock Noir A8 recovery and a CWM for V970 MT6577 using Android Kitchen. Thanks to yuweng from XDA-Developers for providing the porting plugin, and bgcngm for V970 recovery!

Although you can backup your Noir A8 ROM using this CWM, for getting the stock ROM .img file, stock recovery etc., I’ll post the procedure later.

Steps To Install ClockWorkMod Recovery On QMobile Noir A8:

Warning: Do not perform the procedure if you have no idea why you’re doing this. Doing something wrong can brick your phone, so please make sure you follow it exactly. If something goes wrong, I will not responsible for it.

Your phone must already be rooted! Check this thread to root your device first.

1) Download this file. Extract all files somewhere, e.g., D:\noir. You will get 3 folders – “MT6577 USB VCOM drivers”, “recovery_files” and “SP_Flash_Tool_v3.1224.01”.

2) Installation of VCOM driver: Even if you have already installed VCOM drivers, install these as well as they’re a must. Run InstallDriver.exe to install. Then, turn off your phone, connect with USB cable and drivers will get installed automatically.

3) Open SP_Flash_Tool folder and run Flash_tool.exe. Click on scatter-loading button, navigate to recovery_files folder which you extracted earlier and select “MT6577_Android_scatter_emmc.txt”. Click OK and ignore if any errors come up.

4) Make sure only recovery is checked! All other entries must be unchecked. Your SP Flash Tool should look something like this:

QMobile Noir A8 clockworkmod recovery
QMobile Noir A8 clockworkmod recovery using SP Flash Tool

5)Turn off your device. Remove the battery and reinsert after few seconds. Do not turn on the device yet.

6)Click the Download button in Smart Phone Flash Tool. Now connect your Noir A8 while still in off state.

7)It will be detected in SP Flash tool, a red bar will progress to 100%. Then it will ask to connect cable in 12 seconds but DO NOT remove the cable or do anything. Just let the timer finish, it will again show progress bar and at the end you will get a small window with green circle.

That means the recovery was successfully flashed ! Congrats, you did the job! 😛

In Case Of Errors When You Press Download & Connect Phone:

If you’re getting errors like BROM DL_ALL failed, then follow this procedure, which will flash recovery to all MTK phones without SP Flash Tool:

  1. Download the script from here and extract.
  2. Three recoveries are pre-included. Rename the one for your phone to recovery.img.
  3. Set phone to USB Debugging mode from developer options and connect to PC, or start it in recovery mode.
  4. Then run the file named flashit.bat.

If any errors occur like phone not detected, your ADB drivers are not installed. So, install MT6577 / MT6575 drivers properly.

Few things:

  • To go in the recovery mode of Noir A8, hold down volume up and power button. Release when the logo appears.
  • For backup, you should have at least 1GB free on SD card. Go to backups/restore and make a backup. You should get the folder clockworkmod on your SD card with 2 sub folders in it, backup and blobs.
  • I have tried the backup and so far, it successfully makes the backup. Haven’t tried the restore functionality yet so please either wait for confirmation OR you can try to test the restore functionality on your own and report here. 🙂
  • UPDATE: Restore works too as per user reports. So, this is a fully functional recovery for Noir A8! 🙂

Geo-target Landing Pages: City or Zip Code Level

No matter if you’re running AdWords/Facebook PPC campaigns, media buys, or using CPV (PPV) marketing–using targeted landing pages is a sure way to shoot up your conversions!

One of the best ways to laser-target your landing pages is to include the visitor’s city name on your landing page. How you do it depends on your creativity. For example, “special deal only for Austin visitors! ;-)”. There are also certain other cases where it helps immensely, e.g., ad approval on AdWords.

This PHP script performs IP to city and IP to zip code lookups using MaxMind GeoLiteCity database, which is about 95%+ accurate.

STEPS:

  1. Download this file. Click on File->Download or just press CTRL+S.
  2. Extract it. You should get three files; geoipcity.inc, geoipregionvars.php and index.php.
  3. Upload them to your web host. Place them either in the root directory (like example.com) or in a sub-directory like example.com/landigpage/.
  4. Download this file. You should get GeoLiteCity.dat file after extracting.
  5. Upload this file to the same directory where you uploaded the previous three files.
  6. Open index.php file in your file manager. You can edit it according to your needs, I have given hints inside this file.

You can modify index.php to do the following tasks:

  • Display visitor’s city name or postal/zip code. Embed the code in your landing page with rest of the HTML code.
  • Redirect based on city
  • Redirect based on postal or zip code

If you want redirection for more cities, just add them in the script. Comment below if you need any help! 🙂

DIY: Mini UPS for DSL Modem and WiFi Routers

Load shedding and power outages: For those who can’t live without their computers and internet for any or no reason, this situation can be a nightmare.

This is a rough, simple and not a sophisticated solution, but works in keeping your devices powered on! It can power not only DSL/WiFi routers, but also any other appliance that can work at 9V or 12V. Keep the internet alive, and use it on your laptop or cell phone, 24×7!

I use it to power my DSL router and a TP-Link WiFi router. PTCL DSL router’s ratings are 12VDC 500mA, TP-Link’s 9VDC 700mA.

That’s why I’ve taken two outputs.

Circuit Diagram – DIY UPS for DSL Modem/WiFi Router:

UPS for DSL Modem/WiFi Router
Click to Enlarge

Parts:

  • One 12V 7AH lead acid battery.
  • One 16 or 18V laptop charger, max 2-2.5A current to charge the battery.
  • Five 1N5404 diodes.
  • One LM338T linear voltage regulator with a heatsink.
  • One 0.1uF ceramic capacitor.
  • One 1uF electrolytic capacitor (note the polarity of capacitor).
  • Two resistors. R1 = 2.6kOhm, R2= 250 Ohms.

Things that you need to note:

  • Make sure you check the specs of your appliances, in this case, router/modem first.
  • If you are only using a single router, just remove the respective part from circuit diagram. E.g., if you are using a 12V router, you don’t need those 4 diodes and 9V output jack.
  • You need to attach a DC pin to the outputs of the circuit. The same pin that is connected to your adapters, which go into your modem. Now, you don’t need that adapter. Just buy the same pin from market.
  • You can give input from a laptop charger of 16V to 18V. Keep in mind the current rating of the charger, as higher current ratings can damage the battery quite quickly. Even 2A current is too much for a battery of 7AH. It should be around 700mA, but that will also cause slow charging.
  • You must also attach a heatsink with LM338T IC. It gets extremely hot during operation!

I used a veroboard to build the circuit. You can use either that (will have to solder things), or use a breadboard.

Breadboard Simulator

In the pursuit of finding a virtual breadboard, I found this extremely useful breadboard simulator, which you can use to implement circuits of your choice, and it lets you see how the actual circuit will look like.

That is, you make the connections on a breadboard, and it will show you its circuit diagram and how all the components are connected – very handy because you can get confused at times while connecting components on the board and can’t figure out what part is in series, in parallel or is it even connected or not!

The software is called Fritzing. Download it from HERE

The PSpice circuit simulation software can be downloaded from: HERE

Projection of Lines and Planes – Engineering Drawing Presentations

    • Engineering Drawing and Graphics
  • Projection Of Planes – Inclined to one plane, inclined to both the planes
  • Projection of Lines – inclined to one plane, inclined to both the planes

These topics can be confusing for many engineering students who are taking the engineering drawing course. Key to understanding these concepts is to VISUALIZE them. I know visualization of such things is not very easy, as I too have gone through this. It was very confusing for me, and it still is! But once you manage to visualize them, it becomes somewhat easy to solve any problem given to you.

These presentations / power point slides will help immensely in visualizing and grasping the concepts involved.

These presentations include:

Projection of planes
&
Projection of lines.

Enjoy!

Click here to download the slides