[E3-hacking] About connecting to the serial on the E3

[Nick Griffin]

On your site..
“In order to talk to the E2, you need the appropriate cable. Irritatingly, while the E2 has a serial port, it runs at TTL line levels not RS232 levels. This means that if you're going to connect it to a PC, you need a line level converter”

So I can use a CPC 2102 USB to TTL serial converter because its a line level converter… 😊 and its RX line is 3.3 volt, this can’t take 5 volts because it could blow the UART0…?

Spanner..

From: David Given<mailto:dg at cowlark.com>
Sent: ‎Wednesday‎, ‎3‎ ‎April‎ ‎2019 ‎18‎:‎52
To: Discussion of the Amstrad E3 emailer hardware/software<mailto:e3-hacking at earth.li>

I've got a tool which speaks the PBL protocol and will let you read and write the flash: http://cowlark.com/amstrad/<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http://cowlark.com/amstrad/&data=02%7c01%7c%7c0ff5e97479d549450d8208d6b85d225c%7c84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7c1%7c0%7c636899107478251836&sdata=1rV57mYpj1Hs38RqCM3fqnEhqzLh5F3vWhwQWqW9AuM%3D&reserved=0>

It's also got details of the serial pinout.

On Wed, 3 Apr 2019 at 19:07 Nick Griffin <span1922 at live.com<mailto:span1922 at live.com>> wrote:
As far as I know when you connect this to serial you don’t get a console, like if you connect TheC64 Mini to Putty using a CPC 2102 USB to TTL serial convertor, you can log on with your root user and password so you can add files, change games and edit files and that ,TheC64 Mini uses Uboot to boot up with not PBL so it must be the PBL that's stopping the console coming up so if we could hack the PBL (Primary Boot Loader) and keep the firmware on the NAND so its still boots up with Amstrad E3 logo and that, we need to see the system files and see what can be changed. PBL is on the NOR Flash and the Kernel and System is on the NAND Flash. I don’t know anything about PBL so we need someone who does.it<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http://does.it&data=02%7c01%7c%7c0ff5e97479d549450d8208d6b85d225c%7c84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7c1%7c0%7c636899107478261846&sdata=cKbkujL//PuqTj5W5Dtacrb2GoLLKmqXMA81FjPrIDE%3D&reserved=0> all most works the same as TheC64 Mini,(Its a small Commodore 64, Mini Console, its here.. https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/THEC64Mini<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https://www.c64-wiki.com/wiki/THEC64Mini&data=02%7c01%7c%7c0ff5e97479d549450d8208d6b85d225c%7c84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7c1%7c0%7c636899107478271851&sdata=bd45fNPeGF/ASugX1AaQYewd6OIAxHko0Z9iDRsRAbI%3D&reserved=0>)  The mini has 2 partitions, One for Uboot and other for the Kernel and System. but only has one chip, NAND Flash, its made by Toshiba too.. 😊. Amstrad E3 has 2 chips NOR and NAND Flash. and is using a different Boot loader.

Oh.. Can I use my CPC 2102 USB to TTL serial converter to connect to the serial on the E3..? this is a pic of it here.. https://sc02.alicdn.com/kf/HTB11eb9PFXXXXcLaXXXq6xXFXXXd/CP2102-USB-2-0-to-TTL-UART.jpg_350x350.jpg<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https://sc02.alicdn.com/kf/HTB11eb9PFXXXXcLaXXXq6xXFXXXd/CP2102-USB-2-0-to-TTL-UART.jpg_350x350.jpg&data=02%7c01%7c%7c0ff5e97479d549450d8208d6b85d225c%7c84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7c1%7c0%7c636899107478281862&sdata=P8EsfPfMK3uzbtWcuKbOcwf1gTPEVk3IFhNWzhTzLIk%3D&reserved=0> I have used it on my TheC64 Mini and my Gotek Drive.

Spanner..
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