PW2 5.6.5 Jailbreak Without Soldering

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Enor

Anyone want to put together a video of how to do this from start to finish? (Pretty please!)

Some of us utter newbs might benefit from it.

A video showing how to stick two pins through a piece of foam?
You have to be either kidding or trolling.

[Enor]

Like I said, I'm a real newb to all of this. So the answer is neither.

I was actually hoping to see the whole process of jailbreaking the paperwhite in a video. It makes things much more clear for me. There is a lot of information on this site, but a clearly laid out set of instructions on how, from beginning to end, to jailbreak a paperwhite would be very helpful.

I apologize if I cam across as trolling. I'm just slowly trying to understand this stuff.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Enor

Like I said, I'm a real newb to all of this. So the answer is neither.

I was actually hoping to see the whole process of jailbreaking the paperwhite in a video. It makes things much more clear for me. There is a lot of information on this site, but a clearly laid out set of instructions on how, from beginning to end, to jailbreak a paperwhite would be very helpful.

I apologize if I cam across as trolling. I'm just slowly trying to understand this stuff.

We have several, (each slightly different) step-by-step "HowTo" posts here.
A video of someone pushing the keys to spell out the commands would not add any information.

Originally Posted by Enor

Anyone want to put together a video of how to do this from start to finish? (Pretty please!)

Some of us utter newbs might benefit from it.

The only context given in your post was the word: this plus the fact that you posted under this thread title.
What else was a reader supposed to think other than the word "this" referred to the thread title?

= = = = =

Where do these various directions come from?
They come from members who think they would help other readers.

As a practical matter, it is impossible for an experienced person to know what things in a long series of steps would be of significance to a "newbe".
That sort of instructional needs to be done by a "newbe".

Translation:
From within the context of a person's first encounter.

I.E: Once again, "context" is the important part of the author's HowTo.

[Enor]

Originally Posted by knc1

We have several, (each slightly different) step-by-step "HowTo" posts here.
A video of someone pushing the keys to spell out the commands would not add any information.

The only context given in your post was the word: this plus the fact that you posted under this thread title.
What else was a reader supposed to think other than the word "this" referred to the thread title?

= = = = =

Where do these various directions come from?
They come from members who think they would help other readers.

As a practical matter, it is impossible for an experienced person to know what things in a long series of steps would be of significance to a "newbe".
That sort of instructional needs to be done by a "newbe".

Translation:
From within the context of a person's first encounter.

I.E: Once again, "context" is the important part of the author's HowTo.

And once again, I apologize for asking a question that was obviously not clear enough and out of context. If my words have somehow offended you, I apologize and will make better effort at not misspelling words and asking irrelevant questions. Thanks.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Enor

And once again, I apologize for asking a question that was obviously not clear enough and out of context. If my words have somehow offended you, I apologize and will make better effort at not misspelling words and asking irrelevant questions. Thanks.

Try this set of directions:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=267541

It isn't a video, but it does have pictures.

[aholmes5]

The last serial jailbreak I did involved no soldering as well (after 1 botched solder job and 3 successful ones). I just used my usual 3 wires off a floppy ribbon connector (spacing is just right) attached to my 1.8v serial cable. I aligned the 3 stripped wire ends over the TX, RX, Ground pads, put a piece of electrical tape over them. While I typed in the commands with my right hand, I used a flat blade screwdriver in my left to hold firm pressure on the the wires over the contact points. This is a bit tricky but you can tell when there's a problem because you get garage characters on the screen. Since my standard procedure is to flash back to 5.4.0 (I have PW2 2gb models -- DO NOT do this on 4gb models), I can do the two dds over serial then upgrade firmware forward to later versions the non-serial way. This is the fastest method I've used so far and there's no physical changes to the board.

Two tips: clean the pads well and use freshly stripped floppy connector.

Lesson: good old serial interfaces were really robust (and slow). They didn't have to deal with crosstalk and other issues affecting modern high speed interfaces like usb and ethernet. Basically if you can complete the circuit, it works.

[magical]

Originally Posted by knc1

None have been reported as found.

The SoC has five (or six) UARTS on it, the location of the other 4 (or 5) have not been identified either.

Being impatient I have also ripped the pads off of the P800 TX and RX. Finding no trace to follow I have taken the main board off of the plate.

This is the back of the PCB of the PW3:

Oversize image; see thumbnail. - mod

It looks like TM800 and TM801 are alternative solder pads. They are located directly below the original P800 solder pads. I am going to have to pick up some magnet wire to solder it well this time. There many pads on the back of this PCB...

[knc1]

Remember, its a 4 (or more) layer board.
What you see on the back does not have to have anything at all to do with what you see on the front.

[fastf0rward]

DennisH, thank you!

I recently acquired a Kindle Paperwhite 2 demo model, and felt reluctant to start soldering the serial connection with my clunky soldering iron. I was able to replicate your experience . I flashed my PW2 demo model to a regular PW2 model using the 5.4.0 main image.. A fun experience altogether!

[palbeda]

I tried the suggested option to use cardboard and pins, but it did not work reliable. So now I have another simple and soldering free option.
1) I use two short thin single core wire-wrap wires to connect RX and TX (about 4-6 inch long).
2) I strip them about 1/10th of an inch, maybe even less
3) I glue these in place with a hot glue pistol, just (barely) touching the contacts
4) I use conductive glue to make the actual connection (http://www.ebay.com/itm/WIRE-GLUE-El...-/290695765305)
DO NOT USE TOO MUCH GLUE
5) I connect the ground terminal on a easy accessible location on the board
6) I use a 1.5V AAA battery for powering the converter: the less wires you connect to the Kindle, the better

Hope this helps. I forgot to take pictures, next time I will make a photograph.

Peter

[palbeda]

OK, Some more instructions as I tried it again (with succes!!) and made some pictures.

What I did is before connecting the wire, put some solder there so the wire is pre-tinned.
Then, apply a very small bit of conductive glue on the bottom part of one end of the wire using a match. I decided NOT to dip the wire end in the glue, as I feared the glue would run between the two contacts (RX and TX) if too much glue is applied.

Then I carefully put one wire before the other in place and then mechanically fix the wire by wire with a drop of hot plastic glue. The conductive glue is mechanically not very strong, but once the wire is fixed with plastic glue, the small bit of glue makes a perfect connection, without applying any heat or mechanical stress to the extreemly small and fragile RX and TX contacts.

Maybe this sounds complicated, in fact it is not only easy and fool proof, it is a lot safer as soldering as the contacts on the printed circuit board are VERY thin and easily let go if you apply a small bit of strain to the soldered wire or if you use a bit too much heat.

The result is a very good connection which is hard to tell apart from one that is soldered with hardly any risk.

Oversize image changed to attachment. - mod

[dom123dom]

Loving this site and the wealth of info available, hoping it will help me beat the big corporate...

After a very rude and unhelpful conversation with Amazon, I'm going to attempt to unbrick my Kindle Paperwhite 2 (2013) Wifi 4Gb model myself. It's borked after a firmware update.

After reading the site a lot, I tried to buy one of the recommended Jim.sh USB boards but Amazon won't deliver to Australia. I found a video showing how to turn a 3.3v/5v board into a 1.8v board here.

So I have purchased a 3.3v/5v USB to serial board with FTDI232 chip and ordered a 1.8v LDO (awaiting delivery). I have also purchased a 10W soldering iron, solder, helping hands with magnifier.

Then I found this thread, with the solder free method which looks much more appealing as I have never soldered such a tiny connection before.

Couple of questions from a noob...on the TTL-232RG-VREG1V8-WE cable which I plan to buy from here what is the preferred way to connect the bare wires to the wire with the crocodile clip on it in the photos here? Could you show a pic of the whole cable pls? I assume I could use any method to connect these, like a connector block or bullet joints like a car radio uses maybe?

One other question...if I use the usb to serial board i bought, do the RX and TX pins have a voltage on them? Do they also need to be set to 1.8v?

[dom123dom]

I'm learning more as i experiment, so I will update here when I overcome things...I found my multimeter, plugged the USB to serial board into my computer and notice voltages as follows on the pins:

RX = 2.9v
TX = 3.3v

I'm not sure why these are different, I was expecting 3.3v on both pins.

If I set the jumper to 5v there is a similar slightly lower voltage on the RX pin. I'm expecting the voltages to drop on all pins once I have the LDO in place.

I have decided not to order the cable for now since I have almost all the parts, but I will probably still use the sewing pin technique to connect to the kindle.

[gustavonow]

Good method! I'll be sure to try it. But I don't understand, the "official" serial jailbreak method says you're supposed to solder 4 wires, this one only requires 3 (Rx, Tx and Gnd), can I really not use the V wire? it would be really helpful.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by gustavonow

Good method! I'll be sure to try it. But I don't understand, the "official" serial jailbreak method says you're supposed to solder 4 wires, this one only requires 3 (Rx, Tx and Gnd), can I really not use the V wire? it would be really helpful.

Impossible to answer, since you included neither the part number nor the data sheet on the converter you are using.


Duh...
Compare the converter used in the 3 wire situations with the converter used in the 4 wire situations.
Dah, dah - not the same converter are they (or if the same part, then not optioned the same)?


Hint:
If you knew enough about what you are doing to mix and match different parts with different descriptions - -
Then you would not need anyone's written directions, you would just do it and do it correctly.
If instead you have to look up "how to" instructions, then for the same reasons you really really should follow them exactly.