Rikomagic MK802 IIIS Bluetooth - just couple of tips

Just few words about what we are talking about. Without any concrete specifications, this is essentially the core of a decent tablet that was stripped from its most expensive parts - screen, battery, power supply. The price is reasonable and can easily make your dumb TV smarter than most smart TVs around. Together with Logitech K400r keyboard makes it just perfect.






And here are my tips (haven't seen them anywhere else).

1. MK802IIIS Flash Recovery/Upgrade Guide - this is a good start with one exception. On the manufacturer's web page I found newer firmware, so I took that one. Unfortunately, the flashing software starts in Chinese... that was a bit tricky. The manual that is in the .zip file is written in bad English (ok worse than mine). Somehow I managed it. Then, on another web page I saw that the bottom left button changes the language - problem solved (well, language selection is still in Chinese...中文/英文). If you want to avoid this problem, the easiest is to edit the config.ini in the same folder. Change the line "Selected=1" to "Selected=2" and it will change the default language to English.

#选择工具语言:Selected=1(中文);Selected=2(英文)
[Language]
Kinds=2
Selected=2
LangPath=Language\
...

2. Power supply and Belkin USB hub. I am sure you have plenty of mobile phone chargers lying around... A decent one (1A) will do just fine. To use Skype to call (now this is really a smart TV), not to chat only, first you need a microphone! One neat solution is to hook USB camera with microphone - I got Logitech C270 that is reported to work. I hooked the Camera and the receiver via USB hub with external power and everything just worked.

Now for the interesting part. I used Belkin 7-Port Powered Mobile Hub - device labelled F4U018, packaging labelled F5U701. I bought this one, to use it with my Raspberry Pi (RP) but unfortunately it is in the list of problematic hubs. Ironically, one of the problems with the RP is that the hub leaks current back to the host. It turns out that the current that leaks back to the Rikomagic stick, is enough to power the stick and the hub with everything I have hooked - brilliant!