WM5torage

[Guest vtsakiris]

works like a charm on a qtek s200 (htc prophet)...

Great Work, Thanx

[Guest azunder]

Tried it on my O2 XDA II running WM5.

What exactly am I supposed to see when I plug it in USB? All I'm seeing is an empty drive with 64KB of free space. I'm thinking it doesn't recognize the ramdisk as storage...

[Guest j8888h]

Under version 1.52, the vibration still cannot stop when select #2, even I close the dialog or disconnect the USB storage. The only way to stop the vibrtion is restart the T-mobile MDA. At the second reconnection, error 1f message will always show, unless I manually kill the tmail.exe.

[Guest ampz]

I have been waiting for a piece of software like this. It works very well on my Qtek 8310. Thank you.

However, all the available USB cables are way too long to be practically useful for portable storage applications. A slight adjustment of the cable length was required :-)

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

I just use a retractable sync and charge cable ;)

You can also get adaptor plugs so no cables at all are then needed.

[Guest jShun]

Then don't install new releases, or save an old one before you try a new one, I dont clearly get what it the problem here. Maybe its the numbering scheme. From now on it will be X.YZw:

- first number X - major release, total revamp. Dunno if it will ever happen, maybe with new OS version, hehe :P

- second number Y - significant performance and/or usability changes, UI changes.

- third number Z - minor functionality change, no changes to UI

- fourth letter w (ie 1.48b) - only bugfixes, no other changes. No need to install if you have no problems currently.

Thanks, should have a better idea of which release is more important and more advisable to install.

If they are recieving/sending e-mail in the background, tmail wont exit until it will finish that process.

Really, if you so much dont want to close e-mail window - just dont activate WM5torage until you done with Inbox. Or other way, WM5torage just won't activate, I think that action based on actual latest user indicated intention is better.

Very many of apps around send close requests to Inbox as WM5torage does - they just dont even announce that and you won't even notice it in most cases.

It's ok then, I guess we have different criteria in designing software, ;)

Edited April 18, 2006 by jShun

[Guest Ingvarr]

Under version 1.52, the vibration still cannot stop when select #2, even I close the dialog or disconnect the USB storage. The only way to stop the vibrtion is restart the T-mobile MDA. At the second reconnection, error 1f message will always show, unless I manually kill the tmail.exe.

Is MDA have no official WM5 upgrade?

Maybe its bug in the "unofficial" one hehe ;)

I assume that LED is turning off properly and only Vibration have probs?

I dont think vibration is useful for indication anyway, I just have no means to distinguish vibrator from led programmatically.

Edited April 19, 2006 by Ingvarr

[Guest techdave]

This could be the most useful app for WM5 ever. Thanks so much for creating it, i've been fannying around trying to get that softick version to work on my XDA Mini S when this was here all along. Its gonna come in really handy for work too. Nice!

[Guest toblo]

Hi Ingvarr,

Version 1.52 works like charm to my Eten M600. With previous versions, I'd have to do a reset after using WM5Storage otherwise the device crawls. Great job, Man!

[Guest Travelmate]

OK just tested v1.53 on my QTEK 9000 and here's the result

Read set to #1 --- no effect

Read set to #2 --- vibrate

Write set to #1 --- Power light blink

Write set to #2 --- vibrate

I think the Read set to #1 is not working ;)

[Guest eddieywlee]

the software becomes more and more complete, one bug report, the SD card sometimes cannot be recognize after disconnecting it as UMS drive. Is it something which can fix or it is difficult?

[Guest rayliota]

delete

Edited April 21, 2006 by rayliota

[Guest whitestar]

Thanks Ingvarr for a fantatstic app, installed version 1.53 on my V1240 without any problems.

I'd been meaning to try this for a couple of weeks but never got round to it, then yesterday at work I needed to bring a large file home but had forgotton my usb drive. Downloaded & installed WM5torage, five minutes later the file was on my phone's storage card. ;)

One small request, don't know if it's possible but I'd really like to be able to choose the blue led to show activity rather than the default green one.

Once again thanks for a great app.

[Guest gts]

Not sure what the point of this app is. How is it any different from using ActiveSync and clicking the "Explore" button?

Imagine Microsoft ActiveSync running on Linux ;)

Now imagine the possibility to connect WM5 powered device to your Linux box without WM5torage.

What about using your phone just like a USB flash drive without a need to install or configure anything? ;)

I do the following on my Fedora Core powered box (and it works fine):

# mount /dev/sda1 /media/usbdisk

[Guest gts]

Hello Ingvarr!

I have tried the registry tweak that allows to disable the USB charge feature on my Qtek 8310 device. (Click here for more info about this tweak)

I think it would be a great feature to WM5torage if the charging could be optionally disabled by using some checkbox. If there is no other way - even the prompt for "restart now" could be acceptable.

What do you think? ;)

[Guest Ingvarr]

I think that charging has nothing to do with Mass Storage ;)

I dont intend to make it a sort of Swiss Knife ;) I prefer the way when each program specializes its primary function, that way keeping lean, and making users be able to choose what functions they exactly want from their software, while minimizing the memory used by apps.

This is looks like a job for tweaking util like Tweaks2k.

Or make a cab, or a separate application to control charging.

Dont expect me to do so though, I even never understood the need to disable USB charging :P

Edited April 24, 2006 by Ingvarr

[Guest gts]

I think that charging has nothing to do with Mass Storage :P

I dont intend to make it a sort of Swiss Knife ;) I prefer the way when each program specializes its primary function, that way keeping lean, and making users be able to choose what functions they exactly want from their software, while minimizing the memory used by apps.

This is looks like a job for tweaking util like Tweaks2k.

Or make a cab, or a separate application to control charging.

Dont expect me to do so though, I even never understood the need to disable USB charging ;)

Well, USB charging actually has some connetion with Mass Storage.

See, when I want to share some files using my Mass Storage drive, I have to connect the phone with PC using USB cable. The PC starts to charge the battery immediately after connecting. If I unplug the phone and plug it into another PC then it is another charging cycle of my battery.

In fact - using WM5torage frequently, reduces the battery lifetime because AFAIK every battery has a limited number of charging cycles.

IMHO you would not make WM5torage a kind of Swiss Knife by adding this feature. It would just become more battery-friendly, that's it.

You may ask "Why don't you disable the charging in registry once and forever?"

That's probably because I sometimes do charge the phone via USB. But I almost never need to charge the phone and use the USB Mass Storage device at the same time.

In fact, I still believe that keeping the USB charging enabled by default and disabling it temporary while using WM5torage would be a great idea...

Did I convince you? ;)

[Guest Ingvarr]

Ok, this is completely offtopic, but I will answer just once.

I would disagree with your understanding of "charging cycles" and how they affect Li-Ion battery life.

Li-Ion batteries better to be charged at every opportunity. Its a lot worse to let them deep discharge. Primarly all that affects they wear and tear is how much wattage/time you drawn from them already.

If you keep them on trickle charge (like it by default), they topped fast, and then just kept without load (because all smartphone hardware take current directly from charger). If you try to "minimize cycles", you in fact will place heavier workload strain on battery - because it will deep discharge, and also smartphone hardware will always place a load on it - this usage pattern is a lot heavier-duty.

Thats why this option never was made public in the first case, and most PDAs/phones dont even have this reg setting. If it would really be needed, it would be included as standard app or even easely made into battery driver (yes, there are such thing).

Granted, many people still held beleive, that Li-Ion batteries need to made regular full cycles (as Ni-Cd and Ni-Mh batteries needed). In my opinion, this is prepostorous superstition. Nothing in Li-Ion chemistry can possibly explain the need of it (except need for recalibrating battery controller, and this neither need to be done intentionally nor regularly).

Hope this clears out my view on it. Thanks for understanding.

Edited April 24, 2006 by Ingvarr

[Guest gts]

Thank you for the explanation, I clearly understand your point of view.

I have never thought that having a fully charged battery and re-connecting it to the charger every couple of minutes makes no harm. I hope it's so. ;)

BTW you're right, it's off-topic.

I have created a new topic about charging the batteries. Everybody is welcome to post their thoughts about it.

Edited April 24, 2006 by gts

[Guest bnycastro]

I read in PPCThoughts and in xda-dev that Li-Ion batteries need not be discharged, and that it would be better to have it charging as often as possible.

--

For me WM5torage is ok as it is.

[Guest dschurig]

Muchas gracias for this program. It works great on my Apache.

I have one problem. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the program a couple times, and now I have multiple "Accessories" folders in my program window, Accessores(1), Acessories(2) etc, and I can't seem to delete them. Am I a moron?

dav

Edited April 24, 2006 by dschurig

[Guest Ingvarr]

Try to find & delete them under "\windows\start menu" - via file explorer.

[Guest deppjones]

Ok, this is completely offtopic, but I will answer just once.

I would disagree with your understanding of "charging cycles" and how they affect Li-Ion battery life.

Li-Ion batteries better to be charged at every opportunity. Its a lot worse to let them deep discharge. Primarly all that affects they wear and tear is how much wattage/time you drawn from them already.

If you keep them on trickle charge (like it by default), they topped fast, and then just kept without load (because all smartphone hardware take current directly from charger). If you try to "minimize cycles", you in fact will place heavier workload strain on battery - because it will deep discharge, and also smartphone hardware will always place a load on it - this usage pattern is a lot heavier-duty.

Thats why this option never was made public in the first case, and most PDAs/phones dont even have this reg setting. If it would really be needed, it would be included as standard app or even easely made into battery driver (yes, there are such thing).

Granted, many people still held beleive, that Li-Ion batteries need to made regular full cycles (as Ni-Cd and Ni-Mh batteries needed). In my opinion, this is prepostorous superstition. Nothing in Li-Ion chemistry can possibly explain the need of it (except need for recalibrating battery controller, and this neither need to be done intentionally nor regularly).

Hope this clears out my view on it. Thanks for understanding.

That may not be the full truth... ;)

It's true that deep discharge may damage or even destroy a LiIon pack. But normally devices are switched off automatically at a specific current (cut-off current) that lies way above deep discharge (hopefully). So risk is low if you don't switch the device on afterwards without charging. (That may not be true for some Motorola devices since they use power even if current is very low).

What damages LiIon-packs is: Charging cycles - and time. You may count every reconnecting as full charging cycle if it even lasts for a short while and your battery ist on half charge.

But if that is relevant depends on general usage habits, since LiIon batteries degenerate even if they are not used at all. Normally capacity has somewhat halved after about two years in normal condition, not much difference between used or unused batteries.

So, if you charge your phone three times a week or connect it every second day it makes no big difference in life-cycle since thats about the same (with ~500 charging cycles) as normal half-life period...

And it's absolutely true that you don't have to care much for your LiIon Battery after it is correctly formatted during first charging cycles (and even that is no more than just one full charge and discharge til cut-off current - no big voodoo that you often read about).

Conclusion: No problem here with WM5torage if you don't connect it five times a day (who should???).

Yours,

DJ

Edited April 24, 2006 by deppjones

[Guest gts]

I am sorry for starting off-topic discussion here...

Everybody who has something to say (or wants to read) about charging Li-Ion batteries is welcome to the relevant topic.

Click here to open the topic about charging Li-Ion batteries

This topic (right here, the one you're reading now) is exclusively about WM5torage and should not be stuffed with off-topic discussions.

My reply to deppjones post has already been posted in the relevant topic.

Edited April 25, 2006 by gts

[Guest deppjones]

Sorry, found it just a minute ago... ;)

Yours,

DJ