USB SPI Flasher with PIC18F2455 - now with source and binaries

[hynix]

Yes, but it's useful, I would let it in the xbox.

[maximilian0017]

price: just buy in volume and the prices drop quickly, maby get another cheaper chip in there, presto
But they will probably sell for something like €29,95 unless they come with new and better functionality.

quality: Most of the flashers are built with DIY quality.

support: If the seller gets stuff back they will probably quickly stop selling them with the small profit they make.


Making a profit of someone elses PD work is just wrong, and especially if you ask the orginal designer for support for your own product.

Try to sell something like Open office...

If you do not have the skills to make your own pcb or the common sense to make a testversion before you go into "production", well........
Posts like "you have to clean the flasher with a toothbrush if it does not work" or "i bought a flasher from X and it isn't detected by windows" really isn't that nice to see as the problems are left to the customer.

Personally i dont mind if someone builds their own GOOD QUALITY flashers and does their own support for a reasonable price and contributes things like updates of hard/software. (But then again who am i, the most active contributors were Darkstar, Cory1492 and Sandungas)

And there is another way the people over here can stop people selling these for profit.


I'ts the same with XBR/Xell etc.


If you have 100 consoles lined up for installation of a flasher....not for profit?


Leaving the flashers in the consoles is the best way(Especially after a bricking incident), but most customers will probably want the cheap version without it.

(Edit: made price a little bit lower and realistic..)

[ultra64]

Thanks for the reply.

Making a profit of someone elses PD work is just wrong, and especially if you ask the orginal designer for support for your own product. Try to sell something like Open office...

Of course that's wrong, but only until you use percentage X of the profits to pay the original designers the share they want. If they don't want a share and don't want their product commercialized at all that's their choice and the people who intended to profit from those dev's work should just dump the idea like I did.
Support should come from the seller but if he isn't able to find the problem he can still just exchange the flasher and put the most expensive part, the PIC, on a new flasher and see if it works, and sell it 'again' if it does.

If you do not have the skills to make your own pcb or the common sense to make a testversion before you go into "production", well........
Posts like "you have to clean the flasher with a toothbrush if it does not work" or "i bought a flasher from X and it isn't detected by windows" really isn't that nice to see as the problems are left to the customer.

No question, but there we're talking about quality again. That is (or at least should be) a non-issue for 'mass produced' flashers. Q/C is essential.

Personally i dont mind if someone builds their own GOOD QUALITY flashers and does their own support for a reasonable price and contributes things like updates of hard/software. (But then again who am i, the most active contributors were Darkstar, Cory1492 and Sandungas)

The first part's a no brainer, but the second part is intriguing; the question is how you define 'updates of hard/software' (and of course what the others think...). For example, what if the flashers were produced with clear mentions of your names and this forum on the PCB, and the layout was also posted here? That would at least partly solve the 'credit' issue and include a sort of update to the hardware others could use to make their own. And keep the open saucy character a bit. Basically it'd be like commercial Linux distributions :p

To make this clear again, I don't care if singh007, Xecuter or whoever makes these; I'll just make 2 or 3 for myself since I can't stand those fugly breadboard things anymore.
However the shops will still sell iXtreme'd and XBR'd consoles and the latter maybe with flashers; I think you guys could have made some bucks of this (not like C4E though...) while still keeping it publicly available for those who could use it. And the noobs could have had nice flashers too. Just sayin'.

[maximilian0017]

For example, what if the flashers were produced with clear mentions of your names and this forum on the PCB, and the layout was also posted here? That would at least partly solve the 'credit' issue and include a sort of update to the hardware others could use to make their own. And keep the open saucy character a bit. Basically it'd be like commercial Linux distributions :p

If people give something usefull back to the hacking community it would be better, but the reality is that the tech thread Arakon made for us for actual improvements is never used.

As a guesture of good will i posted some beta stuff over there for people who are interested in making the flasher better than it already is.
Functional tech discussions in the Tech thread and the rest over here please.


 

[Spegs21]

I've been trying to get this thing working on and off for a month or so and not luck yet. I have flashed the pic with the bootloader (with WinPIC800 following suandungas' post #630 on page #32 ; changing oscillator to 12MHz) and was able to flash the hex via pdfsusb. The problem is I get FlashConfig:766A98DA when a console is not connected and when one is connected. I build the flasher with sandungas' Mini Diagram (v0.3).

12MHz, 18pF Crystal
C1 and C2: 22pF
C4: .220 uF
Everything else is standard.

This is the second one I've built with the same result. I looked through this thread for hours to no avail, so any help would be appriciated.

[maximilian0017]

thats a good one...

1. Looks like the jumper isnt connected to ground(1st time programming you wont need it so thats why it worked)
2. Could the crystal be a 12.093/2MHZ  instead of a 12Mhz?, could cause these problems...., 12Mhz crystals are used in lots of USB devices like USB PCI cards/hubs etc, maby you can "Borrow" one to try.
3. Really do not get these U.S. color codes, please check with an Ohm Meter if you are not 100% sure.
4. Measure all connections of pin 21-27 for shorts/opens.
5. Try a bigger cap on the 5v lead.

Why did you leave pin2 like this?

[dvbm]

got also a quick question to clarify something from sandungas diagram, should C3 (vdd) and C4 (vusb) caps be polarized ?
my basic electronic knowledge tells me that they should be and are present to filter the power supply, if so, can i use electrolytic (1 to 4.7u) caps instead of tantalum ?

- edit -
looks like it works fine with regular ceramic caps, my board problem was from rb5 not being wired to ground for i didn't wire the jtag pins yet..

Another quick remark that may have been mentioned earlier, is that when you flash picflash.hex with pdfusb it seems you don't need to worry about your xtal config. I noticed the picflash.hex has a 12MHz xtal setup but my board is using a 8MHz so i tried to change picflash.hex flags to set it to 8MHz and then pdfusb gives a warning message when loading the hex and fails to flash the pic, so i tried with the unmodified 12MHz hex and it was flashed ok and recognized as MemoryAccess device.
You still have to flash you bootloader with the proper xtal flag to get it to work.
I haven't tested my flasher yet so i'll see if it really works or not, otherwise i'll try to see how you can fix the picflash.hex oscillator flag..

[maximilian0017]

Is there no one that wants to test the 2 new bootloaders and the Phyton script?

I haven't tested my flasher yet so i'll see if it really works or not, otherwise i'll try to see how you can fix the picflash.hex oscillator flag..

Just changing the bootloader should be enough.

[Dream]

If your usb reader is dumping bad blocks --> replace C 100nf whit new C 100nf.

[vSaAmTp]

Can somebody add in the binaries code for a status LED? Like the Status LED in the Wii Chips.

Partlist Reichelt:
With Pic 18F2550-I/SP
With PIC 18F2455-I/SP

Pictures for the Partlist:

[hynix]

I made an easier layout with Lochmaster, it's for a flasher with an crystal oscillator, the size is 48mm x 48mm, these are 19x19 holes:





                 

[boonrider]

I solved my own problem (which was previously posted here) - Make sure RC2 is pulled high to 5V!

If you don't, it results in your device occasionally being detected for the main program and always for the bootloader.

That does lead me to a question, why does the software check if that pin is high? How does that help?

[WhoCaresUk]

Just a little help if possible. Built the flasher programmed it etc.
I get good flash config, reads fine no errors. But can not get matches on the nand dumps and i mean no where near.
Nandcompare is showing like 934 bad blocks.

Any ideas on what the problem could be i am not getting any errors just getting very very bad dumps

Any help gratefully recieved

[WhoCaresUk]

No worries sorted, usb wires were shorting. Redone connections an insulated better working like a dream. Many many thanks all

Do the original "Gods" not have a wish list or such for giving thanks gonna save me many many hours this. I know we all do it for the love not the money but the freebies are just a perk

[Spegs21]

thats a good one...

1. Looks like the jumper isnt connected to ground(1st time programming you wont need it so thats why it worked)
2. Could the crystal be a 12.093/2MHZ  instead of a 12Mhz?, could cause these problems...., 12Mhz crystals are used in lots of USB devices like USB PCI cards/hubs etc, maby you can "Borrow" one to try.
3. Really do not get these U.S. color codes, please check with an Ohm Meter if you are not 100% sure.
4. Measure all connections of pin 21-27 for shorts/opens.
5. Try a bigger cap on the 5v lead.

Why did you leave pin2 like this?

Thanks for the help! I noticed the jumper shortly after I posted but it was already programmed so thats why I didn't catch it. I lifted pin two to route 5v through that pad. The colors were just the colors of the usb wires.Turns out my only issue was programming the PIC wrong. See I set all the settings as shown in suandungas' post #630 on page #32 which were wrong. No worries though. I really appreciate all the inforrmation people give here. I over thought it a bit instead of just changing the oscillator value.

[max19]

Hello,
I'm new here and i need your's help if possible, Sory about my poor english it's not mine primitive language.

I made a usb spi flasher with pic18f2550 like

Find it http://dev360.wikia.com/wiki/USB_Nand_SPI_Flasher#What.27s_this_.3F

And i use PICFLASH_v3b_plus2/PicXBoot.hex file using with ready to use usb pic programer. Then i made pic flasher unit as shown in the diagram. My problem is when i connect the pic flasher to pc via usb nothing happen. The pc cant see the usb pic flasher.

 

Yes my solders are very bad.  

İ don't understand what's wrong with the flasher.  
Please help me.
Thanks.

[maximilian0017]

I'm new here and i need your's help if possible, Sory about my poor english it's not mine primitive language.

Please take a look at Spegs21 post a few posts earlyer, thats the way you should use the kind of PCB you have, the way it looks now i "cannot make heads or tails of it".

On the USB connector did you solder the white and the blue wire togheter?!?, and those arent really standard USB wire colors, make sure you use a normal USB cable.

[cool_recep]

Hi guys. I have just bought this programmer:


Brenner8: http://sprut.de/electronic/pic/projekte/brenner8/index.htm (German)

It has 18F2550 on it...anyway..I got another 18F2550 for reading or writing the nand, and all the other stuff to build the board...

the program for this device is this:


US-Burn software: http://sprut.de/electronic/soft/usburn/usburn.htm

So, how am I going to proceed now? I know that I will program the 18F2550 but with which HEX file with PICFLASH_v3b_plus2.zip (?) and software (Self US-Buırn software?) of course? And after that I am going to build the flasher right?

-Since I have the programmer, I don't need PICFLASH.hex
-I will program the 18F2550 with PicXBoot.hex
-Then I will solder it to board according to darkstar's sceheme

Thanks for helping me out on this cartok

Thank you for helping this n00b

[max19]

Thanks for your help maximilian0017,

I change my usb cable and it works. When i connect it to the  pc see it as, lib usb (memory access) device.

I used Autohacker v2.1 for jtag. Everyting is fine but in the write section i got en error.



Is it a problem to work properly?

Edit: I'm desolder all cables and 2 diodes. Open the consol and get E79 1rrod 1033 error code any idea?

Thanks.

 

[maximilian0017]

Edit: I'm desolder all cables and 2 diodes. Open the consol and get E79 1rrod 1033 error code any idea?

Hmm, E79 can mean that the JTAG part isn't working (the 2 diodes and the wire), you can chek this by starting the Xell that is contained in the XBR image.

E79 can also mean that your Nand has a bad block that needs to be relocated, but the error you have in your printscreen is different.

Would personally take a look at the wiring between the flasher and the Xbox, keep it short and make sure your ground wire is think enough.
Then i would use Nandpro without autohacker to see if it also gives that cryptic error message or just a 2XX error because you have a block that needs to be relocated.

The Search function is your friend, use it.