Display units with large tap-insensitive margin

[EvilDragon 164]

While it's not directly related to LineageOS, I thought I might ask here as well, as it might be something that can be added:

You can read more details about my issue here:

Basically, I bought replacement screens from China from multiple vendors. They work fine, but they don't react to touches on the edge of the screen.

I first thought the touchscreen is unresponsive - but that's not it: when I enable the function in the developer mode that shows the coordinates and draws your touches on the screen, I noticed that I can slide to the edge of the screen without any issues and 100% accurate.

So it's only touches that are not being recognized - as soon as you slide there from further in, it works perfectly.

According to some replies in the thread I made above, it seems to be a driver issue (the touchscreen is probably a slightly different model) and that the support team can send instructions how to fix this with a reflash (which also does a factory reset).

I can't think of a reason why this would be necessary for a driver update - but I'm not using stock but LineageOS anyways, so I thought I'd ask here:
@tdm: Are you aware of such a driver change? Maybe this would be something that should be included in the next LineageOS versions as well?
I'll try to find out more about it - but maybe you know about that already or have an idea what this could be :)

[EskeRahn 4,418]

12 minutes ago, EvilDragon said:

So it's only touches that are not being recognized - as soon as you slide there from further in, it works perfectly.

Is this not a deliberate fix for people to avoid unwanted edge interaction? If I do not remember wrong the lineage implementation have a setting for the size of this....

 

Settings►System►Advanced►Touchscreen►Margin

[EvilDragon 164]

1 minute ago, EskeRahn said:

Is this not a deliberate fix for people to avoid unwanted edge interaction? If I do not remember wrong the lineage implementation have a setting for the size of this....

I would be happy if it would be just that 😄

However, the edge is way too far in here. I can't even press the record button on What's App anymore.

With the old screen, I had margin set to the middle setting which was perfect. Here, even on setting 0 it still does not react on about 7 - 8mm at the edge of the screen.

I can make a video to show this.
As soon as I connect an original screen, the issue is gone. So I do know that it's a hardware change in the new screens I have, though they look identical (even the electronic parts and silk on the FPCs are the same).

[VaZso 1,692]

1 hour ago, EvilDragon said:

I'll try to find out more about it - but maybe you know about that already or have an idea what this could be 🙂

I am also curious mostly because I had to replace my display which works well (without touch issues) but it has some missing pixels near one of the corners, so I have ordered another display which I don't know if it will have this issue / different model problem.

I am currently on stock Android, but it is an interesting issue and it is a question why it can not be solved generally by a software update... or if it is only a matter of time...

[tdm 2,321]

1 hour ago, EvilDragon said:

@tdm: Are you aware of such a driver change? Maybe this would be something that should be included in the next LineageOS versions as well?

I'll try to find out more about it - but maybe you know about that already or have an idea what this could be 🙂

 

Sorry I am not familiar with the hardware on this level.  It is possible that the new screen is different in some subtle way.  Or perhaps it is possible you got a defective screen.  I know others have changed screens without any apparent issues.

 

[fxtec-preorder-47xx 39]

I have exactly the same issue. I changed the screen before and everything was fine. Then, after the next drop, I changed the screen again and got the described behavior.

 

(I am thinking about a big rubber protector around the edge to protect the screen from cracking, now that I cannot use touch in the edge anyway. 😉)

Edited November 10, 2020 by fxtec-preorder-47xx

[EskeRahn 4,418]

I know they changed 'something' at a deep level to add a small margin at a very early stage, so I guess what you describe is that newer displays comes with a much wider default tap-insensitive edge (that still allows sliding so not touch insensitive).

I have no idea if this can be changed without wiping everything. But as it seems to follow the hardware I guess it ought to be possible - though I got no idea on the how we can flash individual hardware components.

[EvilDragon 164]

7 hours ago, tdm said:

 

Sorry I am not familiar with the hardware on this level.  It is possible that the new screen is different in some subtle way.  Or perhaps it is possible you got a defective screen.  I know others have changed screens without any apparent issues.

 

Well, it's not a single screen, it would be a batch of screens. The ones I bought in March worked fine - but the new batch I recently bought has that issue. All of them, so it's not just one that is defective.

Seems like this is a new revision - and the distributor told me it works fine on the Elephone U Pro.

1 hour ago, fxtec-preorder-47xx said:

I have exactly the same issue. I changed the screen before and everything was fine. Then, after the next drop, I changed the screen again and got the described behavior.

 

(I am thinking about a big rubber protector around the edge to protect the screen from cracking, now that I cannot use touch in the edge anyway. 😉)

That seems to confirm that more recent batches have that behaviour. Maybe the screen was updated as it was oversensitive at the edges and that's now on top of the Pro1 own driver code to make it less sensitive.

About dropping: I'm using a slightly modified leather case from Mulbess. fits perfectly, you can pull out and use the keyboard without removing the phone and all, ports as well as the fingerprint reader work fine.

Hasn't cracked since then, and I'm regularly dropping it.

[EvilDragon 164]

1 hour ago, EskeRahn said:

I know they changed 'something' at a deep level to add a small margin at a very early stage, so I guess what you describe is that newer displays comes with a much wider default tap-insensitive edge (that still allows sliding so not touch insensitive).

I have no idea if this can be changed without wiping everything. But as it seems to follow the hardware I guess it ought to be possible - though I got no idea on the how we can flash individual hardware components.

I don't have a problem wiping everything, though it would be weird, as the driver should sit on one of the internal partitions and you should be able to reflash that one without touching the others.

The bigger problem seems to be to find out what's wrong and how to get the fix 🙂

[EskeRahn 4,418]

6 minutes ago, EvilDragon said:

The bigger problem seems to be to find out what's wrong and how to get the fix 🙂

Well it is more like a setting we do not want/like than something strictly wrong. But indeed would be nice with an easy way to change the setting to what we prefer, and the 7-8mm you describe sounds a bit much for my taste too.

[EskeRahn 4,418]

I took the liberty to split this away from the LineageOS thread, as it is hardware-related.

[_DW_ 621]

9 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

I took the liberty to split this away from the LineageOS thread, as it is hardware-related.

sorry I posed in the other one again 😄

[Gigadoc2 54]

9 hours ago, EvilDragon said:

About dropping: I'm using a slightly modified leather case from Mulbess. fits perfectly, you can pull out and use the keyboard without removing the phone and all, ports as well as the fingerprint reader work fine.

Off-topic for this thread, but could you post a bit about your setup in the cases thread? I'd be interested in that setup :)

[EvilDragon 164]

6 hours ago, Gigadoc2 said:

Off-topic for this thread, but could you post a bit about your setup in the cases thread? I'd be interested in that setup 🙂

Sure, unless I forget it, I can do that within the next few days.

[dt.white 51]

@EvilDragon take a look at this comment and the video I uploaded in the comment after it - I think it may be similar to what you say you're experiencing? This was purely a hardware issue with that particular screen replacement - the next one I got was much better.

[EvilDragon 164]

On 11/12/2020 at 7:17 PM, dt.white said:

@EvilDragon take a look at this comment and the video I uploaded in the comment after it - I think it may be similar to what you say you're experiencing? This was purely a hardware issue with that particular screen replacement - the next one I got was much better.

Thanks - the screen was fine. I had 20 of those, so I could test a few 😉

But an update:
A fellow member sent me the instructions and files he received from F(X)Tec - and it worked fine!

And the best thing is:
It's really painless if you have a rooted OS. No debug firmware needed, no reflash, no wiping of data.

Just one single APK, a firmware file and access via adb to change some permissions for the touchscreen driver files.

So if anyone has the same issues: With a rooted OS, it takes 2 minutes to fix it 😄

[VaZso 1,692]

39 minutes ago, EvilDragon said:

Just one single APK, a firmware file and access via adb to change some permissions for the touchscreen driver files.

So, if I understand well, it is really a modified touchscreen driver.

That means they may also include it in newer systems (like when they upgrade to Android 10) and also Lineage OS may use the other driver as well.

Anyway, does this modified touch screen driver backwards compatible with "old" displays?
That would be mandatory for the above.

Also, do these instructions break SafetyNet or such things in (stock) Android?

[EvilDragon 164]

Just now, VaZso said:

So, if I understand well, it is really a modified touchscreen driver.

That means they may also include it in newer systems (like when they upgrade to Android 10) and also Lineage OS may use the other driver as well.

Anyway, does this modified touch screen driver backwards compatible with "old" displays?
That would be mandatory for the above.

Also, do these instructions break SafetyNet or such things in (stock) Android?

I'm not sure if it's for newer systems, as the driver is dated from 2019. Maybe it was too sensitive for the screens they got while it works fine with the ones that have a bit more insensitive edges?

I don't have an older display here so I can't test right now if it still works. It probably works but might react even more to edge taps than the current one.
Probably not a problem if you're using LineageOS or AICP, as there you can set you own margin, but that's just my guess.

I'm not using stock, but I don't think it will break SafetyNet. To me it sounds like it's installed inside the touchscreen driver firmware - it's not related to any OS.
Because once the firmware has been flashed, you can install or reinstall any OS and the driver won't change.

[VaZso 1,692]

9 minutes ago, EvilDragon said:

To me it sounds like it's installed inside the touchscreen driver firmware - it's not related to any OS.
Because once the firmware has been flashed, you can install or reinstall any OS and the driver won't change.

So that should be part of the initial flash image(s) which they shared here in a place which is not OS related.

If it is only about sensitivity and there is no other information can be obtained from the display, then a general solution (which work with all of these displays) is not easy.

Maybe this was one of the reasons they starting to use another display (manufacturer?) in the past.

[mee 1]

 

2 hours ago, EvilDragon said:

Thanks - the screen was fine. I had 20 of those, so I could test a few 😉

But an update:
A fellow member sent me the instructions and files he received from F(X)Tec - and it worked fine!

And the best thing is:
It's really painless if you have a rooted OS. No debug firmware needed, no reflash, no wiping of data.

Just one single APK, a firmware file and access via adb to change some permissions for the touchscreen driver files.

So if anyone has the same issues: With a rooted OS, it takes 2 minutes to fix it 😄

That would be exactly what I need!
I'm actually on rooted LineageOS, mind to share the driver and the instruction?

Thanks in advantage!

[_DW_ 621]

On 11/14/2020 at 11:27 AM, EvilDragon said:

Thanks - the screen was fine. I had 20 of those, so I could test a few 😉

But an update:
A fellow member sent me the instructions and files he received from F(X)Tec - and it worked fine!

Thats good news it is just driver related! 

Just a question why did you get 20 screens I can understand having a spare but 20 seems a little much 😄 

[PokeParadox 60]

3 hours ago, _DW_ said:

Thats good news it is just driver related! 

Just a question why did you get 20 screens I can understand having a spare but 20 seems a little much 😄 

Well it's @EvilDragon !

It makes more sense if you know who he is! :D

[EvilDragon 164]

Yep, I'm a retailer and will offer replacement screens and repairs ;D

[_DW_ 621]

6 hours ago, EvilDragon said:

Yep, I'm a retailer and will offer replacement screens and repairs ;D

Well that makes a lot more sense then! 🙂 guess now this niggle sorted your service will be able to start soon.

[theidiotyouyellat 1]

On 11/14/2020 at 6:27 AM, EvilDragon said:

Thanks - the screen was fine. I had 20 of those, so I could test a few 😉

But an update:
A fellow member sent me the instructions and files he received from F(X)Tec - and it worked fine!

And the best thing is:
It's really painless if you have a rooted OS. No debug firmware needed, no reflash, no wiping of data.

Just one single APK, a firmware file and access via adb to change some permissions for the touchscreen driver files.

So if anyone has the same issues: With a rooted OS, it takes 2 minutes to fix it 😄

Do you still have the apk? I recently replaced my display and can no long tap buutons near the edge of the screen. I joined the forum after seeing this comment and not hearing back from support for 2 weeks.