Hacking Your Odyssey: Increasing Speaker And Microphone Volume
By Michael Wong
So it’s been several months now since I bought The Odyssey CVDQ-M56 phone. I’ve been very pleased with it to say the least. Last weekend, I was bored and long story short I started hacking my Odyssey.
THE RESULT: I managed to increase my microphone AND speaker volume.
Read on if you too would like an overall volume increase – but be warned. What we are about to do involves playing around with the phone’s Engineering Mode. Be very careful and only make the changes suggested in this blog post.
Changing other settings may have consequences beyond your worst imaginings. We’re serious we’re talking human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria here.
So lets get to work on improving the sound quality of your phone. (PS to see a larger version of the pictures just click on them and you will see the pictures in high resolution)
1) Getting into Engineering Mode.
From The Odyssey’s touchscreen dial pad, enter the following sequence:
*#3646633#
The moment you enter that last pound symbol (the tic tac toe sign), you will be shown the Engineering Menu.
2) Getting to the specific menu
From the main menu, press the 3rd option labelled AUDIO.
Once you are in the AUDIO menu, press NORMAL MODE.
3) Speaker
To change the speaker volume, from the NORMAL MODE menu, press item #2 SPEECH.
Click on item #7 in the SPEECH menu for the highest volume. The number 192 will be displayed in the middle of the screen. Press the SET button on the upper right side of the screen to save this setting.
You will be ushered back to the SPEECH menu. Now press item #8 labelled 16 LEVEL SETTING.
Change the MAX ANALOG GAIN to 255 instead of what the default level is.
Press OK.
Congratulations! Now you will be able to hear your caller much better.
4) Microphone
To change the microphone volume, from the NORMAL MODE menu, press item #6 MICROPHONE.
Click on item #7 in the MICROPHONE menu for the highest volume. The number 168 will be displayed in the middle of the screen. Press the SET button on the upper right side of the screen to save this setting.
You will be ushered back to the MICROPHONE menu. Press item #8 labelled 16 LEVEL SETTING.
Change the MAX ANALOG GAIN to 255 instead of what the default level is.
Press OK.
Now your caller will be able to hear you much better.
5) Now to have fun
Let’s say you like listening to your music loud. Who doesn’t? Allow me to show you how to increase the maximum volume for playing MP3 files through your Odyssey’s built-in speakers.
From the NORMAL MODE menu, press item #4 MELODY.
Click on item #7 in the MELODY menu for the highest volume. The number 128 will be displayed in the middle of the screen. Press the SET button on the upper right side of the screen to save this setting.
You will be ushered back to the MELODY menu. Press #8 labelled 16 LEVEL SETTING.
Change the MAX ANALOG GAIN to 255 instead of what the default level is.
Now you will be able to play your music LOUD!
To leave Engineering Mode, simply press the red END CALL key as you would do if you want to hang up on a call.
There you go, have fun hacking your Odyssey M56 phone so you can hear your caller better, your caller can hear you better, and you can wake the neighbors with your music.
Don’t forget that you can make some serious irreversible changes to your phone in engineering mode so make sure anything you do in there is done with care and consideration.
If you know of any other phone improving tweaks please leave a comment below and help out your fellow Odyssey owners. Because it’s cool when you can make a great phone even better.
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It also works in the Voyager mobile phone!!
I have an Odyssey, I cant minimize aplications like opera, and eBuddy, a friend of me have an Odyssey too, but on her phone she can minimize Opera mini, eBuddy and all Java programs. why?? can you help me
Thanks bro, this excellent as you know u cant hardly hear the other line on the default setting..hope to see some more hacks..same like you I love this phone!!!
it works. however why cant i stream on youtube? or any other movie’s?… can you help what else would i need to stream videos? specially on you tube..please help thanks!
Hi, I am having the same problem as Gustavo.
Please help!
Also, I would like to know how to put the text messaging and ringer mode on vibration.
What I meant was, installing for instance the dutch language as T9
Dear everyone,
Is there a way to hack the telephone and instal a downloaded T9 dictionary, for instance Dutch language.
I know that there is a dictionary called EZI but that doesn’t quite work the way I want it to.
So how do i Hack my phone and get T9 in Dutch
Hi I have been trying to find a way to change the City “calling from” information which is displayed when I get a call.The phone shows the calls are coming from a Chinese City instead of showing the Uk call info.can I change this so it does not show that it is coming from a Chinese City
Thanks Skoda.
Do you have anything on Thunder Phone? I tried the step here to make the microphone a lot louder but to no avail. please help
Hi again, one other problem is that I can not find my SENT TEXT messages,I’ve looked every whare .Can u help.
Skoda
Do you know how I can force the browser / internet applications to only connect using wifi and not my cell phone service? I cannot tell how it is connecting and I cannot afford a huge phone bill when it should be using available wifi. I just got my Odyssey yesterday and so far I love it! This is the only issue I can find.
Thanks in advance,
Pam
i m touched by ur invention. could u pls tell me how can i increase my headphone volume? my sets model no. is symphony d85….i m getting nice sound but low volume…pls help me.
tryed this To change the microphone volume, it did’nt work on my thunder phone. any other ideas
Skoda, make sure when you are sending a message you select ‘send and save’ option instead of ‘send only’. If you do that then you will be able to find them in the outbox.
Hello!
How to turn “silent mode”?
Without any sounds and vibration.
Is it possible?
It change ALL the parameters on the Audio options. The speaker, the microphone, the mp3… ALL. And after change it, you can’t change another time, because every parameter have his number, and when you have it all numbers change for the same.
Be careful, this is good, but 255 is too.
Michael: I have 2 SIMS installed in my Odyssey. I want to vibrate and ring alert on incoming calls. I have been able to do so for SIM1, but SIM2 will only ring, not vibrate. When using profile, how do I set the vibrate & ring option for each of the 2 SIMs?
I bought an Odyssey based on 2 SIMS, onboard answering machine, bluetooth and price. The other stuff doesn’t matter, but the User Manual is useless, so I am grateful for this Blog. But can you tell me how to set different User Profiles for each SIM. For instance, how to set “meeting” and “general” incoming call settings different for each SIM or the same. Seems to me that you should be able to go into “Profile” menu for SIM1 and SIM2 separately – how do you do this?
Hi,is 255 the max that the gain can be set to or can we enter a higher No say 300 or 500,or would this damage or confuse the thing?
Has anyone found a way to get Youtube working?
Looking at all the postings, I didn’t see an answer on how to force using wifi in stead of default phone provider (on my Thunder).
Also I’m looking for answer on how to adjust (in hack mode) speech OR melody OR microphone individually. Changing micropone to 255 will also change melody to 255, which is not really what I want to do to my ears…;-)
Hope to hear from somebody.
Greetz, Rob
Another question.
getjar.com is a great site for java apps. Does anyone know which type of phone to choose as equivalent for the Thunder?
Thanks.
Greetz, Rob
Tnx for this tip.
I have changed the numbers as mentioned above….
However, I was looking for a way to change the setting using the headphone…. this was way way to low.
So I used the same procedure to change the “Headset” mode in “Audio”.
255 is a really big improvement …. it is actually relieving to hear some music.
The only question left now is if this number 255 can be increased?
I can now listen to the music but would prefer some more volume.
hope to hear from you soon.
Can I just like double the figure (310)?
Hi
ur info has helped me.
But sound is coming blureed
so,
can u please mail me the default option of the volume (like level 1, level2… level 6 and max gain and step)
Wat is this step wat should we keep it
and also wat is the side tone
when i am incresing the max gain for any one of them like microfone. the max gain is increased for all of them (meloday, speech etc)
even “step” toooooo
what this step meanse actually
Hi there
Just got this phone!
I have been trying to find a way to put everything on silent (no vibration, no noise for any event) but I cant seem to be able to do it. I went into profile/customize and I can put everything on silent except for the ringtone, there is no “silent” option for the ring tone. Does anyone know how to do this please?
Dear Naomi,
Thanks for the contact.
You need to find the ‘profiles’ icon (it may be on the next screen from the main one so just pull across the icons with your finger). Go into this and select the ‘silent’ profile.
This will make everything silent.
If you still have difficulties please email: support@chinavasion.com.
Hope this helps!
Hi Adrian,
Thanks for your comment..It seems my phone missed out on the “silent” profile. The profiles I have available are general, meeting, outdoor, indoor, headset and bluetooth. A “silent” profile would have been what I was looking for.
Is there any other way to make the phone silent?
Thanks
Hey guys,
I followed the exact process above for increasing volume, because I make a lot of phone calls and although I can hear the person on the other end of the phone, they have not been able to hear me. However, after doing everything above, people on the other end still cannot hear me at all so I cant make phone calls. I think this may be a fault with the actual microphone on my phone, does anyone know what else it could be?
Would like to try whatever I can before having to send it back to China for repair!! Its a bit sad because its a great phone
Thanks
By the way, I have gone through all the settings on my phone and made sure every parameter is at full volume.
Dear Naomi,
I’m sorry about these difficulties – I was mistaken, the ‘silent’ mode of the Odyssey phone is in fact ‘meeting.’ This will disable the ringing, but not vibrate. It definitely makes no sound upon being called in this mode.
As for your issue about the phone’s volume, please could you send a ticket to: support@chinavasion.com and we will assist you further within one working day.
I hope this helps, please ask if there is anything else we can help with.
Chinavasion Marketing.
i would like know. if i could use this phone for internet with my cell phone provider. not wifi?
Hi Javier,
Yes, it’s possible to use the Odyssey with WAP through your cellphone provider instead of WiFi, but you will have to pay for using WAP.
Just ask them for help in setting it up if you’re not sure, but it is a pretty straightforward process.
Thanks!
hello adrian
i tried to get them to do it. by talking to them on the phone. but they need to know were to go on the phone for them to set it up. can you help me.
Hi Javier,
I have passed your enquiry on to Customer Support for further technical support, please stand by for their reply.
Thanks!
Hey i was just wondering if there is any way to use custom SMS tones instead of the ones that the odyssey comes with?
Hi, thank you for this fix on the volume-my 62 year old ears were having trouble hearing incoming calls, now all’s great! The only problem I have with this great little phone is the batteries only last a day – any answers for this??
Hi Angie,
The battery life can be affected by a number of factors, such as use, if they were charged properly etc.
I would try fully discharging and charging them a couple of times (but really it’s best to do this when first getting the phone).
If problems persist you can order additional ones.
You can check information about batteries here: http://support.chinavasion.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=224
Hope this helps!
I love my phone, now that I can hear with it your fix, but I would like to extend the time it takes to answer incoming calls before it goes to answer machine. thanks