Paperwhite 2nd Gen

[caleb72]

Wow - you guys are talking about it so easily, but I feel like I've peeked behind the curtain - and I'm impressed.

I would be far too terrified to open my Kindle. Probably a good sign that I'm not an electrical engineer. Whether a jailbreak comes or not - I still appreciate the effort being made.

[Akirainblack]

What level of soldering skills are necessary?
3 Pins, of non surface mount?
If so... I'm tempted to try and make myself 2nd (assuming my PW2 arrives before someone else beats me to it) if people are willing to help me through the process?
Any takers? (Mine should arrive by the 9th)
Whilst I know it shouldn't make much difference, mine will be an UK PW2

[knc1]

Originally Posted by npoland

That makes it sound worth it. Maybe a nice note to lab126 on the inside.

It seems worth it just to see what happens...

Too bad they designed out the microphone.
Might have rigged it to listen to their comments.

- - - - -

Yeah, I watch too much Person of Interest

[knc1]

The Mini-Kloud clerk has been busy -
Check:
kpw2/Freescale/00_INDEX.txt,
kpw2/Freescale/AN4581.pdf (not publicly re-distributable),
kpw2/Freescale/Sources/00_ReadMe.txt

- - - -

Why make a public forum announcement of things happening in a private, limited access, Kloud?

Because not all of the key developers here have direct access (because they don't want it, not because we are hiding anything).

Why "private, limited access" in the first place?
Because the current efforts span more that 4 different countries, each with their own I.P. laws and practices.

This Mini-Cloud is the electronic equivalent of everyone working in the same development "office".
I.E: Only the "employees on the project" have direct access.

Because we don't want to run a training center for lab126 members.
Sorry lab126 folks, we are out of the "you should do it this way" business here.

[npoland]

Originally Posted by Akirainblack

What level of soldering skills are necessary?
3 Pins, of non surface mount?
If so... I'm tempted to try and make myself 2nd (assuming my PW2 arrives before someone else beats me to it) if people are willing to help me through the process?
Any takers? (Mine should arrive by the 9th)
Whilst I know it shouldn't make much difference, mine will be an UK PW2

It is three surface mount pads. If you have magnet wire, a decent soldering iron, and a 1.8v logic level serial adapter then it is pretty easy. You might be able to get away with no soldering and just press the wires down on the pads (this would give you a sketchy connection), but I wouldn't recommend it.

So if you want to do it I can help you through it

[Akirainblack]

Excellent, thank you npoland, I shall now have to give it some serious consideration.
How precise would my soldering skills need to be?
I have to admit I'm a tad rusty atm.

How hard was stripping it down, how far apart do you have to take it before you get access to the serial connectors and was there anything covering the serial connectors?
I've stripped down a Kindle keyboard without too much trouble.

[knc1]

Or - if you have a RadioShack (or similar) nearby -
Get insulated 30ga wire sold as "Wirewrap Wire".
Comes in colors, easier to keep track of which of the signal leads are what.

[npoland]

Wirewrap wire would work too. I strongly suggest whatever wire you use you tape it to the board as to prevent the pads from tearing up. There are 'backup' pads (testpoints that are connected to the serial pads), but they are on the underside of the mainboard. For dissasembly you need to remove the front panel and unscrew the screen from the rear panel. The serial port is accessible once you unscrew it.

As long as you know how to solder it should be pretty easy. Do you have a proper serial adapter?

[Akirainblack]

Not yet, I have also been putting off getting a decent Soldering station as up until now I couldn't justify it as I don't do enough soldering. This is giving me the excuse to get one. Was going to have a look at maplin or radio spares' websites for the serial adaptor (I'm UK based), though not 100% certain exactly what I need, I'd then also need a serial to USB adaptor as I don't have a PC with a serial port anymore.

I know I've seen one linked in the past, but as with true tradition, I can't for the life of me find it at the moment.

[npoland]

For a serial adapter... TTL-232RG-VREG1V8-WE
Farnell link:
http://uk.farnell.com/ftdi/ttl-232rg...2RG-VREG1V8-WE

For a soldering station that is up to you

[Akirainblack]

Excellent, thanks npoland, pity that's out of stock until the 18th
At least I now know what I'm looking for or where I can get it.

Right, everything ordered. Fingers crossed it should all be here for around the day my Kindle arrives

Living where I do.. There is no local radio shack... The closest we have is a local Spar, which is nothing like a radio shack

[knc1]

People have asked me:
"How do you even get started when faced with a blob of bits?"

Answer #1: You do a lot of guessing, and hope to get lucky.


Answer #2: Very similar to answer #1, only you get a jump start by: RTFM.

First known point: The SoC is a **machine** until it gets hold of some external program code, it operates in a known, fixed, manner.

Second known point: Which machine? npoland provided that information among his first posts.
The Freescale i.MX6 series of application processors.

Third known point: Freescale wants their product used (or at least purchased) by people building things electronic.
So they publish documentation on the device.
(Links provided earlier in this thread.)

At the end of its internal start-up procedure, the SoC expects to load an image of executable code.
Not just any image, but one that fits a specific layout/format model.

A pictorial quote from one of the Freescale manuals:


The three Freescale SoC specific fields also have a defined layout.

The IVT:

typedef struct
{
    uint32_t        header;
    uint32_t        *entry;
    uint32_t        reserved1;
    uint32_t        *dcd;
    boot_data_t  *boot_data;
    uint32_t        *self;
    uint32_t        *csf;
    uint32_t        reserved2;
} image_vector_table_t;

The manual provides details of what is placed in those fields and how they are used.
But you can see how the names match those pointers in the picture entering from the right side.

The Boot Data type is also defined:

typedef struct
{
    uint32_t    *start;
    uint32_t    length;
    uint32_t    plugin_flag;
} boot_data_t;

Details of which are also provided in the manual.

The DCD (Device Configuration Data) is just a simple list of register addresses and register contents used to further configure the SoC hardware.

Then it is just a matter of finding that set of structures in the binary blob.
Aided in this case by knowing that the 'machine' at this point is a very simple one and that the 'image data' will be some flavor of U-Boot.

Now, loop back to Answer #1, continue.

Note 1: The same structure above is also used by the i.Mx50 series of processors, we have done that one several times before.

Note 2: The CSF pointer points to the certificate and signing data in the secure-boot format. That block is appended after the "image data" block shown above.

Note 3: If this structure was built using the Freescale tools, or just by following Freescale's directions (to use: objcopy) the padding is bytes of 0xFF (I.E: Erased flash).

[npoland]

http://boundarydevices.com/i-mx6-kernel-l3-0-35_4-0-0/

Here is the freescale source for the same linux version that the pw2 runs. I'll throw it on the kloud too...

I don't know if this is really useful...

[knc1]

The i.MX6 support in the Buildroot, build system has been bumped to the 3.0.35_4.1.0 Freescale release.

Our resource collection at kpw2/Freescale/Sources has been updated to include the release 4.1.0 Freescale kernel and u-boot sources.

[twobob]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to knc1 again.

Gah.

Nice piccies.