FW: New developer - Trying to add Kyocera K433L support

My name is Peter Akemann and I am just getting started trying to add support
to BitPim for the Kyocera K433L (K9) phone.

I apologize in advance to Roger for sending him a duplicate of this
introduction.  I was having trouble getting on to the mailing list earlier.
So here's my situation:

I am a programmer, until recently of video games, but this is my first
project in Python and my first serious project trying to interact with a
cel-phone.  I am working in Windows XP.

As of now, I have downloaded the source of v0.7.27 with CVS, as well as the
other setup you recommend for getting started, and I am playing around with
the LG-VX6000 module to see how well it interacts with my K433L phone.  It
seems like the easiest way to proceed will be to find the module which works
best with the phone already and modify it until it works properly.

At this point, I am able to read the file system of the phone, and I can
save/hexdump some of the files, while others give me CRC checksum errors.
Writing back modified files has produced strange results:  Some files appear
to write back correctly, but the phone handset itself does not acknowledge
the changes (e.g. modifying the text in the UI of one of the game
applications).  Others create odd behavior on the phone (e.g. Modifying the
name of a phonebook entry caused the phone to reset all phonebook entries.
Others do not work at all.

I am using WinPython, which seems pretty good, though I am having a few
issues with it

So this is my starting point.  I would love to be in touch with others
working through similar issues, and with the experienced developers who can
provide guidance and insight.

Sumamrizing the above, I'd like to put the following questions to anyone who
may have insight on them:


General
1. The K433L phone has a special version of the Kyocera Firmware made for
Virgin Mobile, called NJ1000.  Is it reasonable to expect that the Kyocera
K433L can be made to work with BitPim? 
2. I want to start by taking the LGVX6000 module (which seems to work
somewhat) and modifying it to work with the K433L.  Is this the recommended
approach? 
3. Are there any forms of encryption of security that would prevent me from
being able to read or write to the device? 
4. Why would the phone reset it's contact list after it I modified it with
BitPim (in the most trivial way - I changed the name of a contact without
altering the number of characters in the name)

Project
1. How do I turn on the debug self.log information?  This looks like it will
be very useful to see what's going on. 
2. After I've run the project once, it very often will not run a second time
without crashing in an error having something to do with "Wallpaper".  I
have to kill the WInPython process with Task Manager

WinPython
1. How do I set breakpoints in modules that run in separate threads from the
main app, such as com_brew.py? 
2. I keep getting stuck in some mode in the editor where ctrl-keys and
function keys are inserting weird text into the edit window, rather than
performing their usual shortcut functions.  Any idea how this happens and
how to turn it off? 
3. I am using print to look at debug info while running, but the output
seems to buffer only shows up in the "Interactive Window" in WinPython when
certain events happen in the program.  E.g. Hexdump.  How can I get debug
prints to show up immediately?

If anyone has any words of advice or direction, or answers to the above
questions, please let me know.

Thanks,
-Peter




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