[Android Stick & Console AllWinner based Computers] skezza:
Introduction

When it comes to Android TV sticks, I'm a bit of a seasoned veteran. I still own a Uhost1 and was the first person in the UK to own a Uhost2 (in fact, the fourth in the entire world) thanks to some connections I had to Smallart, the company behind that device. I really do believe that these little devices have the potential to be something a tad special, if done right of course. That brings me onto this little device:

The Transpeed MK809V, also known as the CX939. Let's be honest, the numbering/naming is completely irrelevant nowadays, because there are different versions of the same named device, which all contain different chipsets and functionality. I was able to get this one in the 11/11 AliExpress sale for just £15 (http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/7084183665.html?orderId=70864234952489)

Specification

CPU: Quad-Core RK3128

Android: 4.4.2 (yet the ROM says 4.4.4?)

GPU: Embedded 3D GPU Mali 400, High frequency 500Mhz, Support OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0

RAM: 1GB

NAND: 8GB

Photos

[IMG="Transpeed MK809V"]http://g02.a.alicdn.com/kf/UT88f8WXAlbXXagOFbXq.jpg?size=65008&height=563&width=1000&hash=fd6566afaf80c5f072dfbacef49e8e3c[/IMG]

[IMG="Transpeed MK809V"]http://g02.a.alicdn.com/kf/UT8ZOhYXCJXXXagOFbXO.jpg?size=54069&height=563&width=1000&hash=912669cca380ce06e8d29734a763938b[/IMG]

[IMG="Transpeed"]http://g03.a.alicdn.com/kf/UT8mdBYXudaXXagOFbXc.jpg?size=48194&height=563&width=1000&hash=0f039fa16c57ef3ccd51f445d30269a0[/IMG]

In The Box

Transpeed Android TV Stick

2A USB Wall Charger, UK Plug (yes, that's right a UK plug)

Female to Male HDMI Extension Cable

Micro USB Cable

OTG USB Cable

Instruction Manual

There's probably £5 worth of cables and bits and bobs in the box, bringing the actual cost of the dongle down to about £10-£11. Crazy.

First Impressions

The device is about the size of a Chromecast v1. It doesn't weigh much at all, I'd have no problem sticking this directly into a HDMI port (but I'll use the extension just to be safe). There is a red slide bar on top of the device with absolutely no explanation of what it actually does. The instructions are borderline unreadable, so they're not much use. On the bottom of the device is a sort of vent and what looks like a pin hole in one of the corners. There is a full size USB port, and two mini USB Ports respectively. It is not clear exactly which is the power source. There is a pin hole next to one of the sockets on the side, so I've assumed this is most likely the power source.

The device boots pretty quick actually, for a cheap device. The interface is slick and smooth, buttery as they say. It's running some sort of Lollipop launcher (not sure if it's Now Launcher), which feels smooth but the app switcher takes me back a year or two (horizontal slide thing). It comes with Kodi and Show Box pre-installed along with a few other apps and Google Play Services. The firmware is very AOSP with almost nothing in the way of customized launchers etc.

There are a few little issues I've noticed, the AOSP keyboard seems to sometimes double play the sound when you click a key. It has a really tough time coping with my IR remote, I think this is to do with the Rockchip issue I speak about below. Still, the plan is to install Droidmote.

Connectivity

The one thing that often lets these little devices down, is the Wi-Fi, but so far, the Wi-Fi on this has been very very solid. I've not done a speed test yet, but I will when I get chance.

I was also pleasantly surprised to see Bluetooth with a fully functioning stack which includes file transfer, I tried this and it works well.

Disassembly

Taking this device apart is probably as easy as you could hope for. There are 8 clips spread evenly around the device. Pop the top ones nearest the HDMI port (either side) first and then work your way down and it falls apart. These clips do break pretty easy so I imagine a few of these will be held together with tape soon enough.

BE CAREFUL, the WiFi antenna is soldered directly onto the motherboard and is stuck onto the casing.

So interestingly, the red slide bar does absolutely nothing. It's not connected to anything, and it's certainly not doing anything, which is a shame considering what you'll read about the pin hole later.

Rockchip board, very similar to the FireFly FirePrime.

Soldering is a tad iffy on the Wi-Fi antenna.

Underside of the board.

Rear vent case.

Scratch on a chip, plus the poxy recovery button is also damaged slightly. Read why further down.

Disassembly also reveals the pin hole on the back leads to absolutely nothing, which might be misleading for some. Do not stick your pin in there as you'll simply scratch your circuit board.

Rooting

Rooting this device took all of about 2 minutes. Although SuperSu detects root, it is unable to install its own root binaries. However, KingRoot (http://www.kingroot.net) has absolutely no problem and roots it in under 2 minutes. I will probably replace the KingRoot binaries with SuperSu binaries, but for the moment, this will do.

Recovery/Flashing

WARNING: Please read the Problems/Issues section regarding the pin hole.

To access the recovery (which from the factory is just a standard Android 'no command' recovery) press pin hole while plugging in power from wall socket, keep hold until you see Android Recovery on your TV/Monitor.

To access RK flashing mode, you MUST install the drivers first using the DriverAssist tool. I will include all of this stuff as attachments to this post. Once the drivers are installed, press the pin while plugging into your computer, Rockchip class devices should appear. You can now flash using BatchTool or AndroidTool.

Problems/Issues

- Build quality. While the device itself runs nicely and works okay, the build quality leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion. I suppose you pay for what you get. The case doesn't fit quite as well as other TV sticks, but I'm willing to turn a blind eye.

- Pin hole. What I'm not willing to turn a blind eye to is this disasterous implementation. On the Uhost (and Uhost2), Smallart simply put a small case button above the little SMD switch, easy as pie to use. This device simply has a pin hole on the case, and you're required to put a pin through. The problem is the circuit board doesn't sit perfectly inside the case (most of these cases are universal anyway), therefore you'll often find yourself poking around inside this little device desperately trying to find the switch. Luckily, I don't think there's anything you can really damage, however looking at my photos above, you can see where I actually scratched the top of a chip and also chipped the switch as well. I now only operate that switch after disassembling the device, although at a push, you could use a small screwdriver designed for mobile phones as these are usually small enough to get through the hole but bigger than a pin. Why didn't they just use that slide? It would have been so easy to implement a switch.

- Droidmote. Rockchip have this thing about messing up the input to Android, this means Droidmote doesn't really work properly without some changes. However, the issue is that changing the lib file in my case caused a soft brick. It's possible to fix this in external keyboard helper, but will need to do some investigation on this.

- USB. The USB implementation is a bit iffy for some reason. It has no problem with my IR remote and also had no issues with a USB keyboard, however I plugged a USB mouse in and actually soft bricked the device. I had to flash the firmware to fix this.

Firmware/ROMs

Stock Firmware -

4.4.2 (labelled as 4.4.4) - https://mega.nz/#!C45iTKKQ!bQaow8xVpjKb1nYZbIe_mQx1R8B574Ikt1kZA9J44VU

Mods

TODO

Development

It's rare that any kind of development can take off for these devices, but this little thing shares the same chip and hardware as a very popular dev board called the Firefly FirePrime (http://wiki.t-firefly.com/index.php/FirePrime/en). Not only does this board share almost identical hardware, they have uploaded the source for a 5.1 Lollipop build. Now, I've compiled this but I'm yet to flash it yet. I am wary about going ahead and flashing before I do some research into exactly what is going to happen. However I may flash the kernel.img, resource.img and system.img as a test to see if I can get anything to happen. I imagine to begin with, it'll be completely broken, but there's no reason that with some effort I can't make this work.

Status:

CWM - In Progress

Lollipop - Alpha (http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=64253545&postcount=4)

Working: Audio, Video (needs further testing), USB, SD Card, Reboot

Broken: WiFi, Bluetooth, HDMI Mode, HDMI Scaling, Sleep, Shutdown, Others?

CyanogenMod(?) - In Progress

Hopefully others with this device can talk about it and share their experiences.