Force the N900 to think the camera is available.
 

Hello

I have a problem that is rather hard to solve (I think).

I dropped my N900 on the ground. The N900 works perfectly, except one small thing. When I slide the little plastic that protects the camera, the N900 doesn't detect that anymore.

Well, that's no problem for taking pictures, when I press the photo-button, the camera app starts. But some programs use that detection (for example: The flashlight app, and the mBarcode app). I can't force them to think the slider is open.

does anybody knows a way to force the N900 to think the slider is open?

Re: Force the N900 to think the camera is available.
 

There is a small magnet by the back near the camera cover. It appears, that it got dislodged when you dropped it. I remember having read a thread here teaching how to fix it (i.e. put another magnet on, to that effect).

Re: Force the N900 to think the camera is available.
 

Thanks for your answer. I'm happy to hear there's a fix!

Re: Force the N900 to think the camera is available.
 

No problem. There are quite a few threads here, I can't remember which one that was. Try this for starters: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=65806

Re: Force the N900 to think the camera is available.
 

You are right that there is a small magnet in the back snapoff back cover - at least one that keeps the kickstand shut. i think there may be another that 'unmounts' the external microSD card so it can be 'hot swapped' without rebooting.

However, no magnet in the cover is used to activate the camera app. It is actiivated by the black/white painted strip on the back of the lens cover inside. There is an optical sensor on the near the camera itself and when it is covered by white, it activates the 'lens cover open' system call. I know for a fact this is the case as I just tried taking the back cover off and covering the sensor with a white sim card. Each time I covered it, my 'lens cover open' app menu comes up. When I remove it, the lens open icon goes away.

Unless the lens cover or black/white strip is missing on yours, I would suggest a further possible hardware issue.

Hope that helps?

Re: Force the N900 to think the camera is available.
 

It is, in part. If the magnet is not holding the relay shut, the sensor is ignored. This is why having the back off doesn't trigger the camera app. So having the magnet missing will indeed affect the camera starting, since it thinks the back is off.

If you have the magnet in place and it's still not registering the slider, then it would be worth checking the lens on that sensor. It may also be that the coloring has worn off on the slider itself. A small bit of nail polish or paint may help with that.

There's a handy app in the devel repository (hardware health checker, or some such) that lets you see the state of most sensors in the N900. I'm pretty sure that includes the camera slide sensor and the magnet.

Good luck!

Re: Force the N900 to think the camera is available.
 

I would like to add, that this sensor detects white/black even in absolute darkness (probably uses something out of visible light wavelength - IR?), and of course mattkawa is right, that no magnet is involved in camera-slide state detection.

I suspect that Your sensor is damaged, and only some kernel hack (enabling sysfs entry?) could allow to "cheat" system. Of course, I can be wrong.

/Estel

// Edit

woody is probably right - magnet doesn't matter in slide open/slide closed detection, yet, it may shut off completely whole check. I have magnet glued for good on appropriate sensor on N900 side, to have possibility of removing cover without disabling microSD (very important, if You use swap on microSD, hah!), so I could just not remember about that.

Re: Force the N900 to think the camera is available.
 

Hmmmm....as I said, with my back cover completely removed, the camera app (or 'lens open app menu') does nothing. However, if I then cover ONLY the camera sensor with something white (still with the back cover removed), the lens menu comes up, the camera activates & the lens cover icon appears. Take the white cover away & all act like I've closed the lens cover, eg. acts correctly.
The above no doubt confirms there is no other activation for the camera (or alternative app) than the white over the camera sensor, does no one agree?

Re: Force the N900 to think the camera is available.
 

Just tested, and confirmed you are right. I'd have sworn I'd tested this earlier and it wasn't operative when the back cover was off. But at least on my system now, it is.

Maybe it was changed in one of the many PR updates? :) I'm on KP50 with CSSU-T, so... not exactly stock any more.

Re: Force the N900 to think the camera is available.
 

Just to confirm, I too am using the latest CSSU firmware as woody.