[E3-hacking] Initial version of pblq

[Chic Thomson]

david
  many thanks from a lurker. i live behind an academic firewall that
is very picky about letting emails go to lists, but i am thoroughly
enjoying trying to replicate all that you guys are up to on my E2.

Just another thought on the Max232 stuff that's been going about. I
bought a microchip flash pic starter kit

   http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/endecaSearch/partDetail.jsp?SKU=4390787&N=401

mostly cos i was interested in the groovy USB interface/12v power
supply, however a third of the board, over to the right in the webpage
above, is a snap off region that contains no components but is setup
for any 14pin chip plus a complete MAX232 lay out. This might be a
solution for anyone who is more comfortable populating a PCB than
hacking veroboard (and you get a PIC development kit thrown in too!)

Chic


On Wed, 16 Mar 2005 22:23:28 +0000, David Given <dg@cowlark.com> wrote:

> Here it is --- it's only 6kB, so I've attached it, and I'm only doing
> that because this is a low subscription list.
>
> Features:
>
>       * Lots of complex handshaking code; on startup, if PBL is running,
>         it'll connect to that, otherwise it'll wait for you to power
>         cycle the device.
>       * After handshaking, it changes the baud rate for faster
>         transfers.
>       * Command-line interface, easily scriptable.
>       * 100 Bps download speed at 115200 baud!
>
> It currently only supports three commands; ping, checksum and read.
> write (0500) is next on my list; do we know how to change the NAND flash
> yet? Is that 0E00?
>
> BTW, there's a typo in the PBL spec --- the documentation for 0900 is
> specifying that the baud rate should be passed in big-endian; it's
> actually little-endian.
>
> How to build:
>
> 	./configure
> 	make
>
> How to use on the E2:
>
> 	./pblq read outputfile.img 0x80000000 0x10000
>
> ...and on the E3 (untested):
>
> 	./pblq -s 115200 read outputfile.img 0x80000000 0x10000
>
> Let me know if it works, is useful, or is broken. (Tip: -v is helpful.)
>
> ...
>
> Right. I now have a copy of the PBL flash image. Looking at it with a
> hex editor, I notice immediately that my serial number seems to be in it
> at 0xFF20. Can anyone confirm this? This would imply that each version
> of PBL is unique. My MD5 is:
>
> 08f841b5a4c14052bcd94b25e1363120  pbl-flash.img
>
> (That's the version read out of flash, as above, not the version in
> RAM.)
>
> I also notice that trying to read the contents of the NAND flash at
> 0x80010000, using the byte-at-a-time checksum technique, makes PBL very
> unhappy. At one point I ended up with a file full of Qs; mostly PBL acts
> oddly which makes pblq die with protocol errors. Any suggestions?
>



-- 
=============================================
Chic Thomson
ICT Manager
Head of Computing
Ayr College           t :=    (44)1292-293585
Dam Park              f :=    (44)1292-263889
Ayr                   e := chic@ayrcoll.ac.uk
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I dont purport to represent the views of Ayr
College on anything very much, and in general
Ayr College doesn't represent my views on very
much either.
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