Aura HD Serial terminal program for use on Kobo?

[Markismus]

Nice! I'll whether I can get it to work with picocom, instead of cutecom: I didn't get the login prompt! Only know it from telnet over WiFi or USBNet.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by very_rude_Turnip

I am in the process of dd copying my sdcard so that I have a backup. I can also then inspect the filesystem.

If you are prepared to do a factory reset and then take a backup, I'm sure davidfor would be interested in adding the image to his collection of images.

[Markismus]

Okay, I concur that the CH341 are crappy.
I connected an USB2DB9 cable to a DB9-to-TTL and got garbage, too. Then I reconnected the CH340 module which now registered at ttyUSB1, because ttyUSB0 was still used by the cable and voilà: I got a login prompt.

Really crappy way to get it working. And probably not terribly reproducable. Earlier the connection kept sending Carriage returns or line feeds, effectively drowning the login in garbage info.

Still this does allow me to change the system to enable dropbear and such to work over USBnet. So now I have a board that has WiFi and an microUSB and a microSD card. What could I build with?

@very_rude_Turnip Could you give me a link to a _good_ pl2303 or FTDI?

NEXT: Getting a connection to my cracked Kobo Aura: see whether the PCB was undamaged and the system is still working.

EDIT: No discernable life in the Kobo Aura PCB. The light stays on for a few seconds after pulling the power switch, but there is no reaction to the reset button nor any joy from the serial headers:

# sudo picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSB0
picocom v2.2

port is        : /dev/ttyUSB0
flowcontrol    : none
baudrate is    : 115200
parity is      : none
databits are   : 8
stopbits are   : 1
escape is      : C-a
local echo is  : no
noinit is      : no
noreset is     : no
nolock is      : no
send_cmd is    : sz -vv
receive_cmd is : rz -vv -E
imap is        : 
omap is        : 
emap is        : crcrlf,delbs,

Type [C-a] [C-h] to see available commands

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Thanks for using picocom

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by PeterT

If you are prepared to do a factory reset and then take a backup, I'm sure davidfor would be interested in adding the image to his collection of images.

I got one last week. I have to remember to check if the serial number has been removed.

[very_rude_Turnip]

Originally Posted by Markismus

@very_rude_Turnip Could you give me a link to a _good_ pl2303 or FTDI?

This is one of those devices where quality can matter. I buy a lot of my tinkering stuff from Aliexpress too, but it might be hard to find a non-clone device there. You might want to pay a little more and get one off a more reputable retailer which serves your country.

Alternatively, just buy both an FTDI and a pl2303 and pray one of them works each time! Even a clone/fake FTDI or pl2303 is going to be better than a real ch341 -- they are notoriously bad.

Here's one that looks good. Reviews say the chip is authentic, but I don't trust Aliexpress reviews at all.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free...645814447.html



It's not like these are very expensive. Buy two or three from different brands/factories and hope at least one works!

[Markismus]

I went with the identical code printed on the chip as your example and hope for the best. It isn't the price---it's the 2 to 3 week delay in delivery that makes it 'expensive'.

[Markismus]

@very_rude_Turnip Slightly OT, but anyways: I am tinkering with a robot vacuum cleaner: VC-A320. It has a weak battery pack, which I am reconditioning and it has a ten pin header on its PCB, which got me thinking: JTAG. Of course I don't know anything about that, nor do I know anything about their quality.

Now if you do know which JTAG would be good to try, e.g. this one or this one, it would save me something like the serial CH341 hassle.

[very_rude_Turnip]

Originally Posted by Markismus

@very_rude_Turnip Slightly OT, but anyways: I am tinkering with a robot vacuum cleaner: VC-A320. It has a weak battery pack, which I am reconditioning and it has a ten pin header on its PCB, which got me thinking: JTAG. Of course I don't know anything about that, nor do I know anything about their quality.

Now if you do know which JTAG would be good to try, e.g. this one or this one, it would save me something like the serial CH341 hassle.

Very OT

The important part of doing JTAG work is really the software. You need a software suite to debug the system you want to work on.

On the open source side, there is OpenOCD, but it's pretty raw and you really need to be a pro to use it.

Segger has a nice cheap EDU version of their JLink adapater and it has some nice software. That's what I think I would recommend if you are new to JTAG:

https://www.segger.com/jlink-debug-probes.html

Make sure the SoC you want to talk to is actually supported too:
https://www.segger.com/jlink_supported_devices.html

Xilinx also has some good adapters and software, but they good units are not cheap.

Those adapters you linked to seem to be specific to Atmega chips. Are you sure that's what you need? I have no experience with this particular type.