Creative use for a networkless HD300?

[hemicuda]

well, the port on the switch didn't light up either so it may be more than just a missing bit or two.
my green led is on solid from the time i plug it in til i unplug it.

[KJake]

This is awesome. I have a dead port on a HD300 and can be a tester if needed for that model. I am using a USB wireless-N dongle right now, but would prefer to use Ethernet.

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by KJake

This is awesome. I have a dead port on a HD300 and can be a tester if needed for that model. I am using a USB wireless-N dongle right now, but would prefer to use Ethernet.

This is where we stand at the moment.

The HD200 works whereas the HD300 doesn't and the main reason is, I believe, a modification done by Sage people on the network strack in the attempt to optimize the HD300 network performances which breaks the usage of the stack from "standard" devices as I receive an exception error from there and always at the same point. The prove of that is I can make the driver working with the very same Linux version used on the HD300 compiled for x86 machine.

Regarding units with broken ethernet controller, my method will allow you to upgrade to wired Gigabit ethernet, providing you have a way to telnet into the unit like using a Wireless dongle for instance.

For people not having a Wireless dongle to telnet, I tried the "blind" method which consists of using a standard USB keyboard which, despite being recognized and mounted by the system, doesn't allow you to login into the unit as any Linux box would be, however I'll contact someone I know at Sage about a possible solution for this, if any.

I'm sure that people at Sage used to login into the unit via a simple serial interface at least via headers on the board. I'm an embedded software engineer myself and this is by far the standard and basic procedure.

I'm pretty sure it will not work as it looks like the support has not been added in the kernel, but can I please ask to anyone willing to help and with a fairly standard USB to serial adapter to try and see whether is possible to telnet into the unit, just in case?

Thanks
Eddy

[drewg]

Originally Posted by routerunner

I'm pretty sure it will not work as it looks like the support has not been added in the kernel, but can I please ask to anyone willing to help and with a fairly standard USB to serial adapter to try and see whether is possible to telnet into the unit, just in case?

I plugged in an PL2303 USB/Serial dongle into my (working) HD300 and it does not appear to be recognized as a serial interface.

Have you looked for a TTL serial header on the board? Or even solder points for a TTL header? Since my HD300 works, I'm not inclined to open it up. But the WDTV Live Plus (which is a nearly identical board, and which is cheaply replaceable) has such a header, which allowed me to get serial access to it.

Drew

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by drewg

I plugged in an PL2303 USB/Serial dongle into my (working) HD300 and it does not appear to be recognized as a serial interface.

Many thanks Drew, unfortunately now we know

Have you looked for a TTL serial header on the board? Or even solder points for a TTL header? Since my HD300 works, I'm not inclined to open it up. But the WDTV Live Plus (which is a nearly identical board, and which is cheaply replaceable) has such a header, which allowed me to get serial access to it.

I'm in the same boat like you, I have working HD300s (touching wood) and not willing to open it...however I think hemicuda opened one of his HD200 already, maybe he spotted some TTL headers? I wonder whether he could send me a picture

Eddy

[eric3a]

I opened both my networkless HD200 and HD300s. Wanted to check if the ethernet was integrated (most likely) or was a separate module I could replace. Eternal optimist!
Answer: fully integrated.

Want pics of the inside?
Eric

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by eric3a

Want pics of the inside?

Well, if is not much trouble, yes please. Maybe we can resurrect your HD200 for good

Eddy

[eric3a]

Easy enough!

Pics of the HD200 and HD300's insides here.

Let me know if you need more info.
Eric

[BobbyDing]

I wonder what the chances are for acquiring just the NIC chip and just replacing it? I know one or two people who are pretty good at replacing surface mount components.

Bobby

[drewg]

Originally Posted by eric3a

Easy enough!

Pics of the HD200 and HD300's insides here.

Let me know if you need more info.
Eric

On the HD200, maybe the connector you focus on in photo 7 is serial. On the HD300, the j7 connector (near the bottom, right edge of the last photo) looks promising, as these connectors are generally 4 leads. You generally need 3 (RX, TX, Gnd), and I've seen the number of connectors vary. I can't tell from the pictures, but sometimes rather than a header, there are just a few holes or solder points in the board. Look closely with a magnifying glass for rx, tx, gnd labels near the promising headers.

If it is dead anyway, I'd try plugging in a serial / ttl cable and trying a variety of settings when you power it on. I'd try 115200,8,n,1 and 9600,8,n,1 first.
If you screw up something, there is a real chance you can fry something, so I'd use an old PC I didn't care about.

FWIW, the serial/ttl dongle I used to get serial access to my WDTV is
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006JKNWLE

Drew

[eric3a]

Can't find any reference to Rx, Tx or Grnd so far, but will keep looking.

That LFE8505E AELTA chip would be nice to replace!

I'm still hoping Eddy will come through with a "blind" procedure.
Eric

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by drewg

On the HD200, maybe the connector you focus on in photo 7 is serial. On the HD300, the j7 connector (near the bottom, right edge of the last photo) looks promising, as these connectors are generally 4 leads. You generally need 3 (RX, TX, Gnd), and I've seen the number of connectors vary. I can't tell from the pictures, but sometimes rather than a header, there are just a few holes or solder points in the board. Look closely with a magnifying glass for rx, tx, gnd labels near the promising headers.

Drew, from your reply I take that the inside of the WD-TV is very different from the HD300?

However, I agree with you, the J7 header on both platforms are really promising, as they look like exactly as I would expect for an embedded system.

@eric3a: wait before trying to fry the board/s as we are very close indeed. I'm going to ask help to my contact at Sage to see whether he can help me with the pin-out. Please stand by.

Eddy

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by eric3a

Can't find any reference to Rx, Tx or Grnd so far, but will keep looking.

That LFE8505E AELTA chip would be nice to replace!

I'm still hoping Eddy will come through with a "blind" procedure.
Eric

Unfortunately the blind procedure wont work as you need getty listening to the USB/serial which it doesn't I'm afraid, so the ONLY possibility is to get the on board serial connected...

Eddy

[eric3a]

Oh well. Bummer.

Thanks for trying though. Seems that it'd be a good idea for anyone with a working HD200 to load the USB/ethernet driver on now in case the network adapter fries.

I"ll investigate the serial board connection more.
Eric

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by eric3a

Seems that it'd be a good idea for anyone with a working HD200 to load the USB/ethernet driver on now in case the network adapter fries.

I think I need to clarify this. You cannot easily copy the drivers in the flash file system of the HD200, different story the HD300 which has an exposed rewritable flash file system mounted already, but in both cases you cannot load the drivers in the kernel at boot time as you need to modify one file that gets executed at runtime which unfortunately cannot be modified unless issuing a new firmware upgrade which only Sage can do.

So, this mechanism needs to be executed every time you hard power cycle the extender, but once loaded it will stay in RAM for normal soft power off/on operation.

Eddy

[eric3a]

OK. I dug in my box of computer parts and found a J7 header with a serial port at the end. I can then connect it to my serial to USB cable.
So basically I have the hardware to go from the board's male pins to a computer's USB port.

Now what?

The board has 5 male pins. Not differentiated.
The female side of the plug has a red side (marking ground I suppose). There are 9 female holes in the plug. 5 +4. The 5 are spaced just fine to align with the male pins on the board, but no idea which way I should connect. Maybe I should measure voltages somewhere?
The 4 cannot be connected.

I added pics to the picasa link above to show the current hardware setup.

Needless to say whilst I am not afraid to fry my box, I'd rather prefer not to if possible!

Thanks
Eric

[routerunner]

Originally Posted by eric3a

OK. I dug in my box of computer parts and found a J7 header with a serial port at the end. I can then connect it to my serial to USB cable.

By convention the red marked pin is the PIN 1 and according to the pictures it should be connected to the J7 on the motherboard aligned by the white triangle, however I sent an help request to my contact at Sage already and hopefully he will advise on how to proceed.

Also, I must add that a J7 (JTAG Header) connector is normally used to flash...

Eddy

[eric3a]

, I'd try plugging in a serial / ttl cable and trying a variety of settings when you power it on. I'd try 115200,8,n,1 and 9600,8,n,1 first.
If you screw up something, there is a real chance you can fry something, so I'd use an old PC I didn't care about.

So I was feeling adventurous and I connected the serial cable as per Eddy's "red to triangle" logic on an old computer running XP.
The puter sees the connection as COM5, but PuTTY doesn't seem to do anything when trying either options (115200 or 9600) on COM5.

At least nothing seems to have visibly fried. Either end.

Any ideas?
Eric

[eric3a]

Progress! (???)
I had to change the XP driver's settings to match what I use in PuTTY.

Using PuTTY on COM5, 9600 or 115200 I get a black "DOS" type window that opens with a green cursor top left.

And that's when I have no idea what to do next... Doesn't seem to take any keyboard input, but then I have no clue what I'm supposed to see!

... Hmmm. On troubleshooting it seems that even when not connected to the HD200's board, I still get the same screen from PuTTY from the serial USB interface.....

Oh well. Still nothing burnt yet.
Eric

[drewg]

Originally Posted by routerunner

Drew, from your reply I take that the inside of the WD-TV is very different from the HD300?

The HD300 is much cleaner, and has its USB ports in different places, etc. I think its PCB is larger than the WDTV.

The WDTV a socketed 4 pin connector in the front left corner (viewing status lights as "front" and HDMI/ether ports as "back"). It actually has a second, smaller, 4 pin connector closer to the CPU. I've never tried that, since the guide I read directed me to the one in the corner.

Drew