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Anyone know of a micro USB to RS232 Serial adapter?
or for that matter if the Epic can be used in USB Host mode?
My goal, is the be able to use my Epic 4G to run a terminal link to some control boards using ZiLog Z8F processors, I work a job as a field technician on energy management controls. Currently I lug a net book around to flash and terminal into the controls.
If I could do the same without having to drag my net book with the rest of my tools, that would be incredibly awesome for me, I'm always trying to find ways to minimalism the amount of gear I have to carry from my truck to the boiler room.
Thanks
The only thing I have seen that comes close to what you are asking is this thread in the dev section: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=833373
I dont have any information other than the link, but thought I would at least point it out.
Thanks, at least now I know where to ask questions and pick peoples brains!
If you could find the appropriate cord and drive it from your epic.
I used this back in the day (not from a phone) when I lacked a RS232 port on my devices...
I have seen adapters that would likely drop the usb to micro easily enough but.. thats the least of the difficulty
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812999081&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Mac+-+Accessories-_-KEYSPAN-_-12999081
really not sure if it could even make this work from an epic, lacking any readily available drivers though.
thesals said:
Anyone know of a micro USB to RS232 Serial adapter?
or for that matter if the Epic can be used in USB Host mode?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can relax your requirement for USB, then use IOGear RS-232 Bluetooth Serial Adapter (model GBS301). I use this along with the app BlueTerm on the market. Works for all of my RS232 needs.
Greg
http://www.bb-elec.com/
Might be worth a shot. I didn't see anything looking quick, but I know they have lots of different options and if all else fails custom build components as well.
A USB serial adapter won't work with the stock rom (or any custom rom not implementing usb host/otg).
In theory, it's possible to repurpose the usb port's pins as gnd, txd, rxd, and a resistor of specific value that tells the phone to electrically route their signals to pins on the SOC chip with txd & rxd functions at nonstandard voltage levels, but I'm not aware of anyone who's literally gotten it to work on the Epic, yet.
Note that serial via this method has *nothing* to do with usb; it's just temporarily repurposing the pins & connector for serial use.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Hi. I've just recently tried out an app from the market that would let me control emulators and some games with a Wii remote, but it wasn't compatible with my G2x. However, I stumbled upon what is most commonly known as "OTG" cable, but discovered they were worthless for the G2x as of now because 2.3 doesn't have USB hosting.
What I wanted to know is, number one, will the G2x have USB hosting when the official 4.0 update comes out, or is it missing some special hardware needed for that? And number two, is there any risks in just getting a cheap MicroUSB to Female USB cable from a trusted seller? Like, can it damage any internal parts because of different voltages between devices or something like that? Or is the worst thing that can happen is the cable simply not working?
I'd really appreciate an answer on this one, because USB hosting seems to open up a lot of possibilities with our devices.
The short answer as of right now is NO there aren't any common ways to enable USB Host. With that said, can the Tegra2 chip in the G2x support host mode?...yes. Will it require a custom kernel?...yes. So basically your phone needs to be rooted to say the least and a kernel framework to enable and support it. I'm actually looking into this as we speak but it's looking like it'll be a while.
As for the cable... no most generic micro-USB cable won't work as is. The OTG cables have either a 'grounded' 4th pin or a disconnected 4th in some usb host modes. But either way you either need an OTG cable or if you search online you can find several ways to splice and solder back generic USB.
I have been looking for a while, but there doesn't seem to a custom kernel that supports USB Host mode. I already have USB OTG adapter (mini Male to 4 pin USB female) + arduino board etc.. So are there any custom kernels out there?
oOo B0XeR oOo said:
The short answer as of right now is NO there aren't any common ways to enable USB Host. With that said, can the Tegra2 chip in the G2x support host mode?...yes. Will it require a custom kernel?...yes. So basically your phone needs to be rooted to say the least and a kernel framework to enable and support it. I'm actually looking into this as we speak but it's looking like it'll be a while.
As for the cable... no most generic micro-USB cable won't work as is. The OTG cables have either a 'grounded' 4th pin or a disconnected 4th in some usb host modes. But either way you either need an OTG cable or if you search online you can find several ways to splice and solder back generic USB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this^^^
Nothing had really changed on this front, if you want to use Android as an ardi interface, I'd suggest you grab a cheapo phone that supports it out of the box.
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk
I bring you back to life!!!
Any update on this? Seems ICS/JB roms are out now... any strides in getting OTG to work? I'm looking to make a G2x into a dedicated TV gamer unit to replace my MK808 and forgot about OTG for my air mouse. I have a Bluetooth mouse to get me by but the airmouse was awesome.
I guess I can look for a Bluetooth airmouse as a last resort.
player911 said:
I bring you back to life!!!
Any update on this? Seems ICS/JB roms are out now... any strides in getting OTG to work? I'm looking to make a G2x into a dedicated TV gamer unit to replace my MK808 and forgot about OTG for my air mouse. I have a Bluetooth mouse to get me by but the airmouse was awesome.
I guess I can look for a Bluetooth airmouse as a last resort.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No OTG happiness for the G2X with any ROM and/or Kernel. There is a board from Sparkfun which provides an interface that enables a non-OTG phone to work like one for interfacing to Arduino, etc.
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10748?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=19967110&postcount=8
As the title says, I want to charge my Nexus 9 while using a keyboard/mouse and other peripherals that I would have connected to the Nexus 9 through a USB hub. I know it is not always possible to charge through the hub, so I was thinking about something like a 'micro USB splitter" that expands the micro-USB port into 2 micro-USB ports: one for the charger that comes with the Nexus 9, and the second port for a OTG cable/usb hub/etc. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
I did read this post here for the Nexus 7 but not sure if the same is true for the Nexus 9.or if any additional options existed for the 9. Ultimately, I guess I'm wondering if it is unrealistic to expect to find something that charges the device at the same time as using a hub/OTG cable without too much modding or hassle? My device is rooted and I've flashed some mods and tweaked some things on previous devices I've had, but am by no means an expert so I would hope to keep the hacking/modding for something like this to a minimum, if possible. Plus, there's an outside chance I may return the Nexus 9 in the next week so I wouldn't want to get too crazy until I knew for sure I'd be keeping it.
I understand that a specific kernel with certain capabilities may be needed, but I'm unsure how to find out which kernel would work and if it would be compatible with stock ROM or CM12 (when it comes out). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Even if it's a pipe dream, I'd at least know not to continue to waste my time looking for a solution that doesn't exist
I tried this one a few days ago but it did not work: https://sites.google.com/site/sonicboomworld/my-projects/otg-and-charging
Maybe it's possible with the right resistor value.
Edit:
Mod for Nexus 7 - needs kernel support:
https://mehrvarz.github.io/usb-host-mode-power-management-nexus7/
Thanks for the reply - is this kernel still being supported by the dev and is it confirmed working on Nexus 9?
I don't know as i do not own a Nexus 7.
But even if he still supports this kernel it would not help much for the Nexus 9:
A kernel is very hardware specific and the OTG changing issues is even more hardware specific.
There is absolutely no chance that you can simply use the N7 kernel on the N9.
One of the amazing kernel developers (who owns a N9) here at XDA would have to look at it.
Generally I think for "OTG + charging" to work the USB chipset on the device has to support it and/or you have to find out how you could trick the device into enabling this mode (with a certain resistor on the USB connector and/or with a kernel modification).
The bad thing is that no device seems to support the official "USB Accessory Charger Adapter" specification. (see section "OTG micro plugs" here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_On-The-Go for details)
Just to give you more information, there was a nexus 7 kernel by flar2 called ElementalX which had OTG + charging support. He is working on ElementalX for Nexus 9 as well, and he said he may or may not add support for it. If you and maybe others are interested, I'm sure that it will get added upon request.
MWFD said:
As the title says, I want to charge my Nexus 9 while using a keyboard/mouse and other peripherals that I would have connected to the Nexus 9 through a USB hub. I know it is not always possible to charge through the hub, so I was thinking about something like a 'micro USB splitter" that expands the micro-USB port into 2 micro-USB ports: one for the charger that comes with the Nexus 9, and the second port for a OTG cable/usb hub/etc. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
I did read this post here for the Nexus 7 but not sure if the same is true for the Nexus 9.or if any additional options existed for the 9. Ultimately, I guess I'm wondering if it is unrealistic to expect to find something that charges the device at the same time as using a hub/OTG cable without too much modding or hassle? My device is rooted and I've flashed some mods and tweaked some things on previous devices I've had, but am by no means an expert so I would hope to keep the hacking/modding for something like this to a minimum, if possible. Plus, there's an outside chance I may return the Nexus 9 in the next week so I wouldn't want to get too crazy until I knew for sure I'd be keeping it.
I understand that a specific kernel with certain capabilities may be needed, but I'm unsure how to find out which kernel would work and if it would be compatible with stock ROM or CM12 (when it comes out). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Even if it's a pipe dream, I'd at least know not to continue to waste my time looking for a solution that doesn't exist
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The company I work for is developing a OTG cable that does exactly that: lets you charge your phone/tablet while using a USB peripheral.
We are testing it in the UK market currently, but not selling in the US at the moment. You can check it out here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sansys-Char...F8&qid=1417298449&sr=8-1&keywords=usb+otg+mlc
We were thinking about doing a kickstarter or indiegogo for it, but not sure the amount of interest in a niche device like this.
Can you confirm that it is working on the Nexus 9? (and/or the Nexus 5)?
If it is, I'll order one immediately. I've been looking for such a thing since I had my Galaxy S2.
lfrst05 said:
Can you confirm that it is working on the Nexus 9? (and/or the Nexus 5)?
If it is, I'll order one immediately. I've been looking for such a thing since I had my Galaxy S2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't confirm that it will work on the Nexus 9, but my partner from China is sending me a sample so I can try it out. I have a Nexus 9 and 5 also, and they'll be the first devices I will test it on.
We've also sent a couple out to some Youtube reviewers as well, so there may be a video review on them soon.
We just put up an Amazon US listing for this cable if any of you in the states want to try it out: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OLKFR44/
I should have one in hand in the middle of the week to test out.
mkygod said:
We just put up an Amazon US listing for this cable if any of you in the states want to try it out: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OLKFR44/
I should have one in hand in the middle of the week to test out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm really excited to get my hands on one of these! let me know if it works.
mkygod said:
I can't confirm that it will work on the Nexus 9, but my partner from China is sending me a sample so I can try it out. I have a Nexus 9 and 5 also, and they'll be the first devices I will test it on.
We've also sent a couple out to some Youtube reviewers as well, so there may be a video review on them soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sweet, this sounds awesome, let us know if it works :fingers-crossed:
mkygod said:
We just put up an Amazon US listing for this cable if any of you in the states want to try it out: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OLKFR44/
I should have one in hand in the middle of the week to test out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This arrived from Amazon today. Unfortunately I can't get it to work. When the micro usb is plugged into the N9 it lights up blue. At that point I'm able to mount a thumb drive, use a mouse and Playstation controller. But once the other end is plugged into a charger the light goes off and whatever is connected stops working. The N9 begins to charge at that point. If plugged into my PC, same thing.
Note: the blue light goes off when other end is plugged in regardless of if anything else is in use.
BTW, running elementalX kernel and Lollipopalooza rom.
TSman74 said:
This arrived from Amazon today. Unfortunately I can't get it to work. When the micro usb is plugged into the N9 it lights up blue. At that point I'm able to mount a thumb drive, use a mouse and Playstation controller. But once the other end is plugged into a charger the light goes off and whatever is connected stops working. The N9 begins to charge at that point. If plugged into my PC, same thing.
Note: the blue light goes off when other end is plugged in regardless of if anything else is in use.
BTW, running elementalX kernel and Lollipopalooza rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've heard some people say in certain other situations with OTG + charge, you need to plug everything in first, then plug the OTG cable into the device. Try that and see if it works?
saadi03 said:
I've heard some people say in certain other situations with OTG + charge, you need to plug everything in first, then plug the OTG cable into the device. Try that and see if it works?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gave it a shot with this method but still a no go. Tried it on my phone as well with no luck.
TSman74 said:
Gave it a shot with this method but still a no go. Tried it on my phone as well with no luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats a bummer, thanks for the info.
Would we happen to need a kernel that supports simultaneous charging and data transfer? I bought a usb y cable and that only allows me to use one or the other. Which sucks .
Some devices have been known to work with only modified OTG cables such as galaxy tablets and experia phones.
What would this modification be?
I finally got a chance to test out these cables. I thought my first cable was busted so I ordered a 2nd one.
I'm VERY sorry to report that this cable does NOT support USB OTG AND CHARGING AT THE SAME TIME. It is not just your device.
Apparently, there was some miscommunication between me and by business associate in China that lead me to believe that this cable would function this way but it only functions as a USB OTG OR CHARGER CABLE. Language barrier didn't help since I do not speak Chinese and he does not speak English very well. If you read the description, the functionality of this cable is not very clear and obviously written by someone with English as a second language. And also, I can see how the photos can be misleading as well. He went and listed this product on our Amazon account to sell before he even sent me a sample for me to test out and I'm kinda mad at him for doing that.
I was pretty excited at the prospect of it doing OTG and charging at the same time, but now im dismayed that this cable cannot do it. This whole thing was a waste of time to try to bring a product like this to the US that bares little benefit other than being a 2 in 1 cable that can replace a regular USB OTG cable and a Charging cable (albeit a very short charging cable). Sorry that I got your hopes up guys
I do want to clarify exactly what this cable does though: Basically all it does is switch from Charging mode to USB OTG mode depending on how you have it plugged in. If you plug the cable into the mobile device only, the blue light will turn on, letting you know that you can use the USB OTG port. However, once you plug the other end of the cable into a charger, the blue light will turn off, and the cable goes into charging mode. The USB OTG port will not work or light up again until you remove the cable from your charger.
hey there everyone, i'm trying to understand this a bit more. i have the same cable, but my understanding is that it wont work unless the kernel supports it. does anyone know if this is possible to actually fix in the Nexus 9 kernel? i really need this for a project
Currently running: Fire OS 7.3.2.1 - Fire HD 10 (2021 - 11th gen)
I think anything is possible. I don't want to hear that Fire OS 7 is "unrootable". Nonsense!
I also don't see many threads for this generation of the device on here, which is why I opted to make this thread.
But seriously, I want to try and tackle this crazy complex puzzle. Fire Toolbox is amazing and really improves the performance of the tablet. But I just want more. Would anyone have any tips on how to start brainstorming and planning how to find any vulnerabilities within the device/software? Are there certain files on the device I have to look in? Maybe running some scripts or doing some programming? I really wanna see what I can contribute but I just have no clue where to start.
I guess it would be helpful to mention what my personal end goal with this tablet is:
Unlock bootloader
Root
Install custom roms (upgrading Android version)
Any feedback/ideas/brainstorming/thoughts of any kind would be much appreciated!
How about HD8 plus latest edition android 11 12th gen? Google Play having issues installing. Tried manually as well as fire toolbox 29.2.
nsfxpython said:
Currently running: Fire OS 7.3.2.1 - Fire HD 10 (2021 - 11th gen)
I think anything is possible. I don't want to hear that Fire OS 7 is "unrootable". Nonsense!
I also don't see many threads for this generation of the device on here, which is why I opted to make this thread.
But seriously, I want to try and tackle this crazy complex puzzle. Fire Toolbox is amazing and really improves the performance of the tablet. But I just want more. Would anyone have any tips on how to start brainstorming and planning how to find any vulnerabilities within the device/software? Are there certain files on the device I have to look in? Maybe running some scripts or doing some programming? I really wanna see what I can contribute but I just have no clue where to start.
I guess it would be helpful to mention what my personal end goal with this tablet is:
Unlock bootloader
Root
Install custom roms (upgrading Android version)
Any feedback/ideas/brainstorming/thoughts of any kind would be much appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to burst your bubble of illusion, but it's practically impossible. The latest unlocking methods (amonet, kamakiri) exploited bootrom to achieve arbitrary RW of the eMMC. However, as you may well know, Amazon has disabled bootrom on their newer devices (or even on the 'older' ones, with OTA updates - that's called blowing fuses -). Considering the conditions presented, the chances of unlocking the new devices are minimal if not nil.
If you really want to do some research to find something useful, find an exploit in the preloader, which is still accessible. Another thing that could be useful is a root shell (even if it is temporary). That requires you to find some exploit that fits your kernel (which is probably new, considering the Android version).
That said, don't expect this to be a piece of cake.
A temp root shell should be possible via the waiting game. We could watch the still opensource upstream android OS code for possible kernel exploits. Then just find a way to run a found exploit in a fire hd before amazon rolls a patch OTA. Fire OS is highly customized, but obviously is still android in there somewhere.
The Android platform certs got leaked somewhere and are being used to sign malware as per this issue on the chromium bug tracker: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/apvi/issues/detail?id=100
It might be possible to spoof an application's signature to be that of the android uid using whatever those certs are to gain root access. Probably just grasping at straws here though.
loocool2 said:
The Android platform certs got leaked somewhere and are being used to sign malware as per this issue on the chromium bug tracker: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/apvi/issues/detail?id=100
It might be possible to spoof an application's signature to be that of the android uid using whatever those certs are to gain root access. Probably just grasping at straws here though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Smart idea! MediaTek is also affected.
Now only a public key-list is needed to run apps on system level.
Fire OS 8.3.1.1 gives elevated access to system apps via USB debugging; see here. likely another Amazon mistake - too bad its never been released on Fire HD 10.
Isn't there something about taking it apart and shorting the motherboard somewhere like the old psp battery.
Brettroth said:
Isn't there something about taking it apart and shorting the motherboard somewhere like the old psp battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unlikely, i assume the motherboard got updated with last iterration of the 11th gen fire lineup
I don’t know the significance of this, but I was playing around with some old equipment that I had laying around and ran across something interesting. I don’t have the time or knowledge to do anything with it however…
I plugged one of these usbc converted into my HD 8 2020 and 2022. https://a.co/d/bRtoBPw
I then plugged in a uart cable that I had built for a different project. Which is essentially the nexus debug cable with a male USB end instead of a headphone jack. ( https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/File:Nexus-debug-cable.png )
I did try the headphone jack, but there is no output from there.
Looking at the output during boot up it sure looks like uart to me, I can’t seem to get the baud right - I tried everything that minicom has without success.
Long story short, I’m pretty sure there’s uart hidden in the USB c connector on the HD 8 2020 and 2022 devices.
Reverse-anastomosis said:
I don’t know the significance of this, but I was playing around with some old equipment that I had laying around and ran across something interesting. I don’t have the time or knowledge to do anything with it however…
I plugged one of these usbc converted into my HD 8 2020 and 2022. https://a.co/d/bRtoBPw
I then plugged in a uart cable that I had built for a different project. Which is essentially the nexus debug cable with a male USB end instead of a headphone jack. ( https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/File:Nexus-debug-cable.png )
I did try the headphone jack, but there is no output from there.
Looking at the output during boot up it sure looks like uart to me, I can’t seem to get the baud right - I tried everything that minicom has without success.
Long story short, I’m pretty sure there’s uart hidden in the USB c connector on the HD 8 2020 and 2022 devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Update:
I think that what I was seeing was probably just garbage from the USB OTG adapter that I was using. That would explain why I couldn't get the baud rate right.
I built a cable that should have worked the same way, without using the adapter, and got nothing back from the device.
MTK devices usually don't use the ID resistor method on their debug cables, but I did try that as well with various resistances - without success.
If I could figure out what multiplexer these devices use, I might be able to get somewhere, but as it stands, I think it is a dead end. If they left UART open on the device, it could lead to a root solution - and it doesn't appear that this has been investigated.
The boards on both the 2020 and the 2022 have pads marked RXD and TXD, I tried connecting directly to these without any success, so they must be turned off. I attempted to turn UART on via fastboot, but any OEM commands I tried were locked (not surprising)
If anyone has a USB C breakout like what is used for Google debugging; it would be interesting to see if it did anything. I don't have one, and don't really need one.
If anyone has any other ideas, I am willing to use my devices for testing. The 2020 model is pretty beat up by my kids, and it won't break my heart if I kill it. I got a pretty rocking deal on the 2022 model, I'd rather not brick it, but am willing to take some risk.
Reverse-anastomosis said:
Update:
I think that what I was seeing was probably just garbage from the USB OTG adapter that I was using. That would explain why I couldn't get the baud rate right.
I built a cable that should have worked the same way, without using the adapter, and got nothing back from the device.
MTK devices usually don't use the ID resistor method on their debug cables, but I did try that as well with various resistances - without success.
If I could figure out what multiplexer these devices use, I might be able to get somewhere, but as it stands, I think it is a dead end. If they left UART open on the device, it could lead to a root solution - and it doesn't appear that this has been investigated.
The boards on both the 2020 and the 2022 have pads marked RXD and TXD, I tried connecting directly to these without any success, so they must be turned off. I attempted to turn UART on via fastboot, but any OEM commands I tried were locked (not surprising)
If anyone has a USB C breakout like what is used for Google debugging; it would be interesting to see if it did anything. I don't have one, and don't really need one.
If anyone has any other ideas, I am willing to use my devices for testing. The 2020 model is pretty beat up by my kids, and it won't break my heart if I kill it. I got a pretty rocking deal on the 2022 model, I'd rather not brick it, but am willing to take some risk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Double Update:
I couldn't accept my failure - so I decided I had to sacrifice the 2020. I tore into it - and spent an unreasonable amount of time getting to know it with my multimeter. I stuck my probe where few have probed before!
I found an area around the main chip with an interesting bit of shielding and though to myself - you sneaky old amazon...what are you hiding here?
I found a nice little row of 4 pins...which have a hardwire connection to the USB-C port - on pin #3, or #6 depending on which direction you count from - and ground.
I am now 100% certain that the UART to USBC connection exists. I don't own a cable that outputs that pin - and unpowered my USBC-USBA OTG adapter does not output that pin - I assume that when it is powered with the resistors there must be enough crossover somewhere to see that a signal exists, it is just too corrupted to understand by the time it hits my serial/USB adapter.
I did throw my multimeter on the visible TXD testpoint on another 2020 device, and it did show some rapidly shifting voltage up to 1.8 volts during boot - so I assume I must have damaged the other one when I was soldering my jumper to it, so it must be outputting something. Also, there are RX0 and TX0 on the back of the logic board - when I get my replacement testing board I will investigate those for anything interesting before I fry it with random components(see below)
I plan on purchasing a USBC cable with all of the pin wires, and hooking it up to see if we can get rx and tx - Maybe Console? I can't tell for sure, but it looks like the same row of pins are present on the 2022 model, so this probably translates to that device as well.
Also, of interest, there is a post here on XDA of a person who got their hands on an onyx development device. There is a small component present on that device, as well as the one in the FCC auth photos, that is conspicuously missing on our production devices - It appears that it was soldered on, and then removed(on the production devices). There is also a cable connector that has been removed - I couldn't find anything too interesting, other than some oscillating voltage up to 1.8V, so maybe another UART? This applies to the 2022 model as well.
As near as I can tell - the missing component that I am interested in, is a diode, although I can't identify what kind exactly. The pins don't ohm out to anywhere that I can tell, but the upper pin does draw down my multimeter - as if it is grounded, but the pin is not ground. The lower pin seems to be leaking just a little bit of power - up to around 1.8 volts before resetting.
Just thought vomiting here - but I wonder if this component is essential to accessing BROM and bypassing the efuses that prevent one from entering BROM via short (Which BTW I am pretty sure I shorted every test point on the logic board, some do nothing, some return you to preloader, and some just completely prevent powerup (like CLK). I didn't find any that caused a brick that wasn't fixed by battery disconnect.
I plan on purchasing another 2020 board to test my diode theory on. If anyone has a vulnerable 2018 HD8 and a non-vulnerable 2018 HD8 it would be interesting to see if we could find the same cluster of components on their logic boards to compare.
Part of the reason that I am so interested in the missing diode, is that this component cluster appears largely unchanged from the 2020 model to the 2022 model of the HD8, and if it does lead somewhere interesting, it would be a pretty easy hardware mod - as far as such things go.
I attached some images below with the interesting stuff circled.
Reverse-anastomosis said:
Double Update:
I couldn't accept my failure - so I decided I had to sacrifice the 2020. I tore into it - and spent an unreasonable amount of time getting to know it with my multimeter. I stuck my probe where few have probed before!
I found an area around the main chip with an interesting bit of shielding and though to myself - you sneaky old amazon...what are you hiding here?
I found a nice little row of 4 pins...which have a hardwire connection to the USB-C port - on pin #3, or #6 depending on which direction you count from - and ground.
I am now 100% certain that the UART to USBC connection exists. I don't own a cable that outputs that pin - and unpowered my USBC-USBA OTG adapter does not output that pin - I assume that when it is powered with the resistors there must be enough crossover somewhere to see that a signal exists, it is just too corrupted to understand by the time it hits my serial/USB adapter.
I did throw my multimeter on the visible TXD testpoint on another 2020 device, and it did show some rapidly shifting voltage up to 1.8 volts during boot - so I assume I must have damaged the other one when I was soldering my jumper to it, so it must be outputting something. Also, there are RX0 and TX0 on the back of the logic board - when I get my replacement testing board I will investigate those for anything interesting before I fry it with random components(see below)
I plan on purchasing a USBC cable with all of the pin wires, and hooking it up to see if we can get rx and tx - Maybe Console? I can't tell for sure, but it looks like the same row of pins are present on the 2022 model, so this probably translates to that device as well.
Also, of interest, there is a post here on XDA of a person who got their hands on an onyx development device. There is a small component present on that device, as well as the one in the FCC auth photos, that is conspicuously missing on our production devices - It appears that it was soldered on, and then removed(on the production devices). There is also a cable connector that has been removed - I couldn't find anything too interesting, other than some oscillating voltage up to 1.8V, so maybe another UART? This applies to the 2022 model as well.
As near as I can tell - the missing component that I am interested in, is a diode, although I can't identify what kind exactly. The pins don't ohm out to anywhere that I can tell, but the upper pin does draw down my multimeter - as if it is grounded, but the pin is not ground. The lower pin seems to be leaking just a little bit of power - up to around 1.8 volts before resetting.
Just thought vomiting here - but I wonder if this component is essential to accessing BROM and bypassing the efuses that prevent one from entering BROM via short (Which BTW I am pretty sure I shorted every test point on the logic board, some do nothing, some return you to preloader, and some just completely prevent powerup (like CLK). I didn't find any that caused a brick that wasn't fixed by battery disconnect.
I plan on purchasing another 2020 board to test my diode theory on. If anyone has a vulnerable 2018 HD8 and a non-vulnerable 2018 HD8 it would be interesting to see if we could find the same cluster of components on their logic boards to compare.
Part of the reason that I am so interested in the missing diode, is that this component cluster appears largely unchanged from the 2020 model to the 2022 model of the HD8, and if it does lead somewhere interesting, it would be a pretty easy hardware mod - as far as such things go.
I attached some images below with the interesting stuff circled.
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Wow, any more updates to this? I don't know much about finding these kinds of exploits via hardware but this "uart" that you mention is able to possibly give root access? I'm intrigued....
nsfxpython said:
Wow, any more updates to this? I don't know much about finding these kinds of exploits via hardware but this "uart" that you mention is able to possibly give root access? I'm intrigued....
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Not really - you can follow my progress over on my other thread. I am going to post an update today.
Hardware UART information
I have been playing with my 2018, 2020 and 2022 HD 8's, and made a few interesting discoveries. I had been posting in another thread, but it seems to be pretty dead, and I think this stuff is interesting enough to warrant its own thread. 1...
forum.xda-developers.com
Hey Guys, I tried searching here but couldn't find my specific answer. I just recently got a model XT2043-4 to use along with Octo4a to run my 3D printer remotely. The problem I am having is that I cannot use USB OTG and Charge the phone simultaneously with a Y splitter. I have been reading around and it seems like it is a Kernel issue with stock. Do any of you know if there is a Kernel that will enable this phone to charge while also using OTG? Or if this is even possible with this device?
Looks like your usb driver supports usb pd and pr_swap at first glance. Is your splitter supposed to be able to negotiate the role swap over the pd protocol or is it just a regular y-cable?
Hmm.. with it being a cheap Y splitter from amazon, I don't think it was supposed to negotiate the role swap. It advertised being able to, but did not specifically mention the Moto G stylus. Do you know of one that would allow and handle it?
For reference, this is the one I got: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Y6VQN99?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Lil B Rules All said:
Hmm.. with it being a cheap Y splitter from amazon, I don't think it was supposed to negotiate the role swap. It advertised being able to, but did not specifically mention the Moto G stylus. Do you know of one that would allow and handle it?
For reference, this is the one I got: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Y6VQN99?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
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Looks like it should be able to do the job, if you have a multimeter check the pinouts
Lil B Rules All said:
For reference, this is the one I got: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08Y6VQN99?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
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That looks like it should work from the listing. It looks like your kernel config does build the nessery modules
Code:
CONFIG_USB_PD_POLICY=y
CONFIG_QPNP_USB_PDPHY=y
After you plug it into your phone, try running dmesg as root to see if there are any recent kernel messages involving PD.
maddog3030 said:
Looks like it should be able to do the job, if you have a multimeter check the pinouts
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I'll give it a shot when I get home this weekend. Thanks for the path. It's a USB type C but I'll verify the pins.
fddm said:
That looks like it should work from the listing. It looks like your kernel config does build the nessery modules
Code:
CONFIG_USB_PD_POLICY=y
CONFIG_QPNP_USB_PDPHY=y
After you plug it into your phone, try running dmesg as root to see if there are any recent kernel messages involving PD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, for some reason when I have the splitter plugged in and OTG is connected and working fine, but I plug the power into the other side of the splitter and it drops the USB OTG connection and starts charging instead.
I'll attempt what you've suggested here when I get back to the house. Thanks for the tip.
I use this USB-c "Splitter" and it works perfectly. My primary use is with an external USB-C portable monitor from Asus. I plug in a USB-C PD power supply on one side and monitor on the other. Also have the other version with a 3.5mm headphone input with USB-C PD on the other, and you can additionally use a USB-C hub in tandem..
https://www.amazon.com/Headphone-Adapter-CableCreation-Charging-Splitter/dp/B07YD3BF4N/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3KM0TLMQPB2GB&keywords=cablecreation%2Busb-c%2Bsplitter&qid=1678723406&s=electronics&sprefix=cablecreation%2Busb-c%2Bsplitter%2Celectronics%2C125&sr=1-3&th=1
I am interested in making this work as well. I have a Moto G Pure and it drops the charging connection via software. I can watch this happen in connections with developer mode enabled.
I have actually gotten it to work by unplugging/plugging it in and changing it from connected device to this device in settings. Is there a dev that can modify the kernel to prevent it switching and leave it to charge the phone instead? I am pretty sure this is a kernel level issue but I am not a dev and cannot speak intelligently on this.