notes for new users
Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2014 5:59 pm
after playing with a vocore for a day, i thought i'd share my cliff notes. most of these i found on the forum, or posts, but they're all over the place and the first places you go are usually wrong or incomplete
there are lots of schematics marked v1.0 they're not all the same and don't match the boards we got, so double check that if you hook up TTL and it's making the tx/rx led lights on the supplied usb adapter, its wrong. i ended up using the schematic image with the highlighted power in a red box ( since the power is switched around) its ok to have the dock connected when on serial, and usb powered, just dont connect the 5v/3.3v since the supplied adapter can't handle the load for the prolific chip and the vocore.
the prolific chip needs drivers to be installed on OSX.
flashing a new kernel by mtd/loadb switches off wireless by default, so you have to either preconfig or serial in. Using luci to update saves the settings.
there's a bug in uboot (well a few it seems) after you've done the loadb , use tftpbootd and control C out of it to make the spi flash work , not working it'll show a really small value and flash really quickly. if the kermit transfer fails, reboot and reenter the console with x, since it'll just add on to the existing transfer.
once you get the serial hooked up, and there is a uboot on there, you'll see data coming out a 57,600 ( i wasn't able to change the baud rate prepare for a 10 minute transfer of the firmware) you can also login and use openwrt from there.
we thought we'd just borked the flash since mtd finished with an [e] and it just seemed to freeze, turns out if was because the wifi/dhcp is default off when you load a firmware that way. i used scp to copy the firmware from bin/ralink/ it on to /
the schematics are a little hard to read at first since different nomenclature and version numbers stay the same in rev's, the wire thats not labelled and blue solid arrow is 5V/, the hole1/2's are ground on our board ( matches http://vonger.cn/upload/VoCore.v1.0.pcb.pdf this link for my board, not the ones on the wiki or howto's) this one has wrong diagram for our boards http://vonger.cn/?p=780
the manual has inconsistencies in power, http://vonger.cn/upload/vocore.manual.pdf 3.2V to 6.0V on input voltage isn't correct, its 3.5V to 6.0V (correct on pins)
if you use kermit, just loadb with no offset and then do the send with a full path from kermit, then ctrl \C out at the end , for those not used to SLIP kermits escape out is Ctrl + \ then the C key. its not a typo and means ctrl C
oncec you're in kermit at 576008n1 and connect then x to get into the console
fails, with wrong size.
after loadb is finished use tftpboot command, then break out of it with Ctrl+\c, then do the cp.linux <yoursize>
example
to turn the wifi on from inside busybox
there are lots of schematics marked v1.0 they're not all the same and don't match the boards we got, so double check that if you hook up TTL and it's making the tx/rx led lights on the supplied usb adapter, its wrong. i ended up using the schematic image with the highlighted power in a red box ( since the power is switched around) its ok to have the dock connected when on serial, and usb powered, just dont connect the 5v/3.3v since the supplied adapter can't handle the load for the prolific chip and the vocore.
the prolific chip needs drivers to be installed on OSX.
flashing a new kernel by mtd/loadb switches off wireless by default, so you have to either preconfig or serial in. Using luci to update saves the settings.
there's a bug in uboot (well a few it seems) after you've done the loadb , use tftpbootd and control C out of it to make the spi flash work , not working it'll show a really small value and flash really quickly. if the kermit transfer fails, reboot and reenter the console with x, since it'll just add on to the existing transfer.
once you get the serial hooked up, and there is a uboot on there, you'll see data coming out a 57,600 ( i wasn't able to change the baud rate prepare for a 10 minute transfer of the firmware) you can also login and use openwrt from there.
we thought we'd just borked the flash since mtd finished with an [e] and it just seemed to freeze, turns out if was because the wifi/dhcp is default off when you load a firmware that way. i used scp to copy the firmware from bin/ralink/ it on to /
the schematics are a little hard to read at first since different nomenclature and version numbers stay the same in rev's, the wire thats not labelled and blue solid arrow is 5V/, the hole1/2's are ground on our board ( matches http://vonger.cn/upload/VoCore.v1.0.pcb.pdf this link for my board, not the ones on the wiki or howto's) this one has wrong diagram for our boards http://vonger.cn/?p=780
the manual has inconsistencies in power, http://vonger.cn/upload/vocore.manual.pdf 3.2V to 6.0V on input voltage isn't correct, its 3.5V to 6.0V (correct on pins)
if you use kermit, just loadb with no offset and then do the send with a full path from kermit, then ctrl \C out at the end , for those not used to SLIP kermits escape out is Ctrl + \ then the C key. its not a typo and means ctrl C
oncec you're in kermit at 576008n1 and connect then x to get into the console
VoCore> loadb
## Ready for binary (kermit) download to 0x80100000 at 57600 bps...
ctrl +\c here
(Back at charliemac)
----------------------------------------------------
Kermit>send /Volumes/OpenWrt/openwrt-vocore/bin/ramips/openwrt-ramips-rt305x-vocore-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin
Kermit>connect
Connecting to /dev/tty.usbserial, speed 57600
Escape character: Ctrl-\ (ASCII 28, FS): enabled
Type the escape character followed by C to get back,
or followed by ? to see other options.
----------------------------------------------------
## Total Size = 0x00300004 = 3145732 Bytes
## Start Addr = 0x80100000
VoCore> erase linux
Erase linux kernel block !!
From 0x50000 length 0x3B0000
raspi_erase: offs:50000 len:3b0000
...........................................................
VoCore> cp.linux 300004
Copy linux image[262 byte] to SPI Flash[0x00050000]....
raspi_write: to:50000 len:106
.
VoCore> cp.linux 300004
fails, with wrong size.
after loadb is finished use tftpboot command, then break out of it with Ctrl+\c, then do the cp.linux <yoursize>
example
VoCore> tftpboot
netboot_common, argc= 1
NetTxPacket = 0x81FE59C0
KSEG1ADDR(NetTxPacket) = 0xA1FE59C0
NetLoop,call eth_halt !
NetLoop,call eth_init !
Trying Eth0 (10/100-M)
Waitting for RX_DMA_BUSY status Start... done
Header Payload scatter function is Disable !!
ETH_STATE_ACTIVE!!
*** Warning: no boot file name; using 'test.bin'
Using Eth0 (10/100-M) device
TFTP from server 10.10.10.3; our IP address is 10.10.10.123
Filename 'test.bin'.
TIMEOUT_COUNT=10,Load address: 0x80100000
Loading: *
ArpTimeoutCheck
T T T T T T T T T T
Abort
VoCore> erase.linux
Usage:
erase - erase SPI FLASH memory
VoCore> erase linux
Erase linux kernel block !!
From 0x50000 length 0x3B0000
raspi_erase: offs:50000 len:3b0000
...........................................................
VoCore> cp.linux 300004
current count: 3145732
Copy linux image[3145732 byte] to SPI Flash[0x00050000]....
raspi_write: to:50000 len:300004
.................................................
VoCore> reset
to turn the wifi on from inside busybox
uci set wireless.@wifi-device[0].disabled=0;uci commit wireless;wifi