Q10 Questions

[Motahed]

Hi All,

Firstly I must just say thank you to Futeko, just got my Q10, very fast delivery and what an awesome bit of kit!  I do have a couple of questions, maybe someone out there can help me. I'll admit it's probably me being a numbnut but I am fairly new to Android.

a) Every time I put the box into standby (mains still connected) the android clock resets to 1/1/2014 (also the front display reverts to timer instead of clock) and will not auto start / correct itself on next startup until I go into network settings select a setting and exit or go into Mediacentre/LAN then it'll set itself correctly

b) I cannot see my 2TB HDD in Windows 7 network which I need to copy files across network to Q10 HDD.  I have Samba service running and I can see the internal share but not the HDD. All internet / networking is working fine apart from this. Network is Gigabit wired, PlusNet Technicolor Thomson router through Netgear switch, fixed IP. Is there a procedure / setting?

Thanks in advance.

[futeko.com]

a. If the box is connected to the internet then it will get the correct time on each boot. In settings-more-date&time, Automatic date & time should be selected.

b. In which app? In the mediacentre app from home screen launcher the drive should appear under LAN-AutoSearch-WINDOWS 7 PC-drive. If it doesn't then it's most likely to be a problem with how the drive is shared in windows 7. I'm not a big expert in Windows 7 but the section titled 'Creating the Share on Windows' here: http://www.howtogeek.com/176471/how-to-share-files-between-windows-and-linux/ looks about right. Windows 7 networking doesn't like sharing folders with anything other than Windows 7 or later so it needs more setup.

[Motahed]

Hi, Thanks for the reply. Sorry if you didn't understand my problems, I'll try to explain a bit more clearly this time...

a) Exactly, that's what it should do but the issue is that the box does not update the time every time it's switched on (from standby) it reverts back to 1/1/2014 and the counter runs on the front panel, even though it's permanently connected to the internet (which is all working fine) and the mains. Automatic date & time is selected. Also, the time servers are set  correctly in my router and work well with all other devices on my network.

b) For instance in Windows Explorer. The problem is definitely not the Windows 7 sharing side of things because that's working fine with the internal storage of the Q10 and other devices. The HDD is visible on the Q10 Mediaplayer/LAN menu and works fine locally but the problem is that I cannot copy files to it from a remote PC because it (the HDD) does not show up in the network,  only the internal storage of the Q10 shows in Windows 7 network share.

If it can't be made visible across a network then that makes the HDD pretty much redundant, for me anyway and that's the function I really needed. I am guessing that it's something to do with the fact that it's not 'mounted' so Samba doesn't know it's there therefore it doesn't show on the network but I have no idea how to get it visible on my network because I don't know much about Linux / Android and I was hoping that a genius guru out there could help me because I'm positive it can be done, I just don't know how.

Regards.

[steved]

Have you tried using a ftp program to connect directly, that's the way I add files to my internal drive

[Motahed]

Steved, thanks for the suggestion, I didn't think of that, I'll look into to whether it's possible, though I don't think it will because at the moment the internal HDD only shows up in Android Mediacentre/Videos (not LAN as I put previously, my mistake) and nowhere else, if it would show in LAN then the problem would be solved. I would have thought it should have shown up in Kodi for instance, in any 'browse for files' or 'add source' menu but it doesn't it's as though it doesn't exist yet I can play files from it perfectly through Mediacentre. I don't know if that's down to the architecture of the Q10 or something else. I feel that if the HDD is only available through Android Mediacentre then it's pretty useless as it has to be preloaded with files before use and/or physically removed every time files need to be added which seems strange to me.

Update: a) The clock issue seems to have cured itself, it's now working perfectly. I think it was possibly due to a time server issue, maybe the server was down for a while as I haven't altered anything with regards to the time & date settings, it just started working by itself.

Regards.

[futeko.com]

Steved, thanks for the suggestion, I didn't think of that, I'll look into to whether it's possible, though I don't think it will because at the moment the internal HDD only shows up in Android Mediacentre/Videos (not LAN as I put previously, my mistake) and nowhere else, if it would show in LAN then the problem would be solved. I would have thought it should have shown up in Kodi for instance, in any 'browse for files' or 'add source' menu but it doesn't it's as though it doesn't exist yet I can play files from it perfectly through Mediacentre. I don't know if that's down to the architecture of the Q10 or something else. I feel that if the HDD is only available through Android Mediacentre then it's pretty useless as it has to be preloaded with files before use and/or physically removed every time files need to be added which seems strange to me.

In Kodi/XBMC the internal SATA drive should show up as sda1 in 'Videos - Files'. Alternatively, if you go 'Videos - Files - Add Video... - Browse' then the location is 'Root filesystem/mnt/sda/sda1'. The latter location is the true location using Linux/Android directory structure. Where it shows as D or another letter in the HiMedia apps is an attempt to make it appear like Windows to make access easier for those not used to Linux/Android. It's worth exploring the Linux/Android file structure a bit because if you understand it then it makes figuring out where things are is a lot easier. Basically, all drives (SATA or USB) are mounted (located) under root/mnt.

With Samba service enabled (Box settings - More - SAMBA Service - start) on a Q10 I can access the internal drive over a network at smb://android_cab2/._share. So The Q10 is called 'android_cab2' and the SATA drive is mounted as 'share'. I'm browsing the network using a Linux PC but it should be the same using Windows.

[futeko.com]

The drive is also visible on a Windows 8.1 PC. No setting up required, the Q10 is visible as ANDROID_CAB2 computer where the SATA drive can be browsed and as a media device for video and music.

[Motahed]

futeko, thanks for the reply. Yes you're correct, you can browse the HDD 'contents' via Windows but the location is only a directory of what's actually on the HDD not the actual files on the disk,  if I try to copy files to that location (in my case Android_C***/share/sda/sda1) across the network I just get a 'not enough space' message because it's limited to the size of the internal 8Gb storage of the Q10 and not the 2TB HDD I have installed. It seems as though Android mounts that folder (sda/sda1) so it 'believes' the HDD files are local.

Regards.

[Motahed]

[Motahed]

I knew it would be something simple 

Turns out that the software I was using to syncronize my PC with my Q10 HDD was at fault, kind of, personally I blame Android    Freefilesync was throwing up a 'not enough space error' and I was (obviously    ) believing it and pressing cancel and all I had to do was press ignore and the syncing process carried on. The error would happen for every seperate file... a pain in the butt when you have Tb's of data to sync but at least I now know everything is fine and I can find another Sync program or app no problem.

In reality the problem was simply caused by the way Andoid works, I have managed to avoid Android for years and I just got reminded why!

Thanks for all of the comments, a great help. Now, just as long as the box turns on every time... it works... I ain't touching it again. We all say that don't we?         Regards.

[futeko.com]

Glad you got this kind of sorted and sorry for no reply Friday. I had meant to reply saying that I'd talk to HiMedia about it on Monday.

I've discussed it with HiMedia and they will look at altering the way the SAMBA server works so either the correct HDD size is reported or there is no limit. As it stands you are safe to ignore the warnings, as you point out it's a quirk of how the drives are mounted in Android and the implementation of SAMBA.

[berkshirebugsy]

Hi there. I'm looking at purchasing one of the Q10s but want to know if the API for controlling it via the Ethernet port is publicly available?

I want to look at controlling it from a home automation system

Regards

[futeko.com]

Hi there. I'm looking at purchasing one of the Q10s but want to know if the API for controlling it via the Ethernet port is publicly available?

I want to look at controlling it from a home automation system

Regards

It's not publically available. What aspects do you want to control and for what purpose? There's an app for android that gives control via LAN.

[Motahed]

Glad you got this kind of sorted and sorry for no reply Friday. I had meant to reply saying that I'd talk to HiMedia about it on Monday.

I've discussed it with HiMedia and they will look at altering the way the SAMBA server works so either the correct HDD size is reported or there is no limit. As it stands you are safe to ignore the warnings, as you point out it's a quirk of how the drives are mounted in Android and the implementation of SAMBA.

I have to say I felt a little emabarrassed as I should have sussed it out sooner.    I've now had time to play a little more and I am extremely impressed with the box and it's performance. The Q10 comes highly recommended by me for anybody who needs a box with HDD, I'm positive they won't find better.

Thank all you guys for your help, I was so impressed that you managed to reply without a single rolling eyes emoticon! Thanks for that