I had some private mail with a Spanish guy who works at some technical service with access to lots of PDA motherboards, many of them are Dell ones.
We can ask him for whatever, the only limitation he cannot take the motherboards outside his work bench.
He told me that it seems to be more differences between X50 and X51 series besides some IC removed. For example he assures that serial port is not functional at X50V.
If that was right maybe it could happens similar thing with USB HOST port, because Bigbob is experiencing with an X50V (I believe).
I just ask him if he can test all USB port lines reported by Bigbob at some X51V motherboard and check if they go to somewhere else.
I would not listen to that guy - the serial port IS fully functional on the X50 series, including the X50v.
The USB host port was NEVER brought out to any thing other than a couple of test pads for use during the board test phase in manufacturing. In other words, the X50 family DOES NOT HAVE a USB HOST interface to the outside world.
Of course, I've been hacking stuff for many years, so now MY X50v has a USB HOST port - it's just non-functional at this point
In order for this guy to test those lines, he will have to destroy any boards he uses.
As for the differences between the X51 and X50 boards - there are many differences, which I mentioned a while back. The interface circuits for the flash memory are different along with the power backup design. Even the WiFi area was tweaked a little.
I'm that spanish guy, I don't mind to destroy some motherboards 'cause, this mainboards are not useful for us. They've damaged parts (but they're functional).
About the serial port: The cables whose are selling Dell for serial port connections are not valid for X50V, so this serial port if it's functional in x50/v it doesn't work like the one in x51v....
Any other questions are welcomed... but please, don't dude about me.
When I have time, I'll try to make some photos about the visible differences in the mainboards.
I'm that spanish guy, I don't mind to destroy some motherboards 'cause, this mainboards are not useful for us. They've damaged parts (but they're functional).
About the serial port: The cables whose are selling Dell for serial port connections are not valid for X50V, so this serial port if it's functional in x50/v it doesn't work like the one in x51v....
Any other questions are welcomed... but please, don't dude about me.
When I have time, I'll try to make some photos about the visible differences in the mainboards.
Best regards.
Save yourself some time - there are plenty of internal photos already on this site.
So, you're saying that the serial cable that works on an X51 will not work on an X50? That's interesting, as both units have LVTTL serial I/O lines (they run at 3v) at the sync connector.
Are you sure that the X50 you're trying the serial cable on is at ROM version A05? If it is not, that could be the problem. The earlier ROM versions did not turn on +3v at the sync connector to power the serial cables.
If you would like to spend some time and figure out the function of all the PCB edge connector pins, great! I've already discovered a number of pin functions. Check out my posts in this thread. You definitately need to remove the CPU and the two Xilinx CPLD chips without damaging the solder pads if you are going to try tracing the USB and other pins. You may want to see what is connected to USB port 2 and port 3 pins from the CPU.
I'll only spend my time if I can help you for anything...and I'd need some help and instructions from you. If you have all that you need... perfect!
About the serial port: I've not tried to update ROM versions in X50's but if you tested it.. the problem must be that.
Best regards.
Originally Posted by bigbop
Save yourself some time - there are plenty of internal photos already on this site.
So, you're saying that the serial cable that works on an X51 will not work on an X50? That's interesting, as both units have LVTTL serial I/O lines (they run at 3v) at the sync connector.
Are you sure that the X50 you're trying the serial cable on is at ROM version A05? If it is not, that could be the problem. The earlier ROM versions did not turn on +3v at the sync connector to power the serial cables.
If you would like to spend some time and figure out the function of all the PCB edge connector pins, great! I've already discovered a number of pin functions. Check out my posts in this thread. You definitately need to remove the CPU and the two Xilinx CPLD chips without damaging the solder pads if you are going to try tracing the USB and other pins. You may want to see what is connected to USB port 2 and port 3 pins from the CPU.
Well. I think I've found yet another piece of the puzzle.
It appears that I need to remove the two 15K ohm resistors that are soldered to the PCB inside the CPU shield area as the USB spec only has them on the client side, not the host. That could be why I'm not seeing anything work.
Well. I think I've found yet another piece of the puzzle.
It appears that I need to remove the two 15K ohm resistors that are soldered to the PCB inside the CPU shield area as the USB spec only has them on the client side, not the host. That could be why I'm not seeing anything work.
The STF203 Host port filter chip spec is here: http://www.semtech.com/products/prod...157,C159,P1540
I was incorrectly looking at the STF201 chip, which is the port filter for the client device.
Stay tuned.......
The 15K ohm resistors need to be left installed. I thought they were on the client (device) side but they are actually inside the host.
I may have other problems though - I applied 5v to the data lines which connect directly to the CPU chip. I don't know if I killed the inputs as they are limited to 3.3v and the manual states the inputs are not 5v tolerant
The actual input circuit should be something like this:
The CPU would be connected to the pins on the left side.
This circuit is also missing transient protection which could be accomplished by placing a couple of 5v zeners on the data lines.
Bigbop, are you more or less confirmed your axim inputs are dead due to the incident?
Are you still working on the usb?
if not, need to trouble you to give us the full details from scratch, how to approach the usb. There are alot of details, testing, other stuff on this thread of 19 pages. But I felt it is quite confusing to follow through.
It would be great to have a new thread, have these full details (photos of point of connection), a nice writeup for dummies like us, etc.
Hopefully after reading, we dare to venture into the unchartted waters like you.
Maybe afarre can feel couragerous enough to continue this quest!
Last but not least, thank you from all of us, for your dedicated time and effort in trying so hard to get us the usb host working for the axim!
I'm not giving up just yet but I'm swamped at work right now.
My problem here is that I've put out requests for help with some software utils to test this and no one is responding. That means I have to ramp up my very rusty s/w skills for Windoze - hey, I'm a Unix guy.
Speaking of Unix, I'm seriously thinking of going with a suggestion by someone in this thread to install Linux. That's something I already use in my Sharp Zaurus PDA. That is also one of the reasons that I've been trying to reverse engineer all the pinouts along the side of the main PCB as they have the JTAG interfaces (yup - more than one on this baby)
If my suspicions are correct, this board will be similar to the HTC-built LOOX 720 as I've mentioned a while back in this thread.
bigbop.. I can understand your frustration..and sad to hear that.
I only have some hardware soldering skills, nothing industrial.
I heard the window mobile technical guys are found at xda developer www.xda-developers.com
maybe you can do a search or drop a request there. they could have what you wanted (register analyser right?) and even to share.
bigbop.. I can understand your frustration..and sad to hear that.
I only have some hardware soldering skills, nothing industrial.
I heard the window mobile technical guys are found at xda developer www.xda-developers.com
maybe you can do a search or drop a request there. they could have what you wanted (register analyser right?) and even to share.
Been there. Even started a thread requesting assistance and pointing back to this thread - nada.
This basically means that all further work on this will be r e a l l y s l o w w w as I have other priorities at this point.
having stopped using my axim completely in favor of my HTC wizard, I check this forum DAILY to see if there is any progress in this thread. I also would really appreciate any new news about the development. I understand that you guys have lives and might be busy, but without a "hey, still here, too busy to work on it" or something every few days, it seems like this has just dropped off the todo list.
Thank you all for your efforts and please do what you can to continue the project.
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