| Electronics > Repair |
| TDS3014 adventures |
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| sicco:
Again, speaking only for the older -no_suffix models, the MAC address is physically stored on the flash chip on the TDS3EM. I know for sure because that's where I put it when I make my 'TDS3000 Second Life Boards'. Also, for the original TDS3EM, why else would you have a sticker on them with the MAC address that they (and not the scope) has been programmed at ex factory). The first three bytes are 'Tektronix' and actually editing the 08:00:11:xx:xx:xx into something not starting with 08:00:11 also means the scope will refuse to do Ethernet! It may well be that some bytes in the NVRAM hold BOOTP vs DHCP vs manual modes for IP address, subnet masks etc. Possibly options for other legacy networking standards, who knows... These 'hidden' settings are not user editable and also not decently factory-defaulted when scope sees NVRAM is corrupted. BTW, for those interested in reloading TDS3000 NVRAM the easy way, so without taking it out of the scope mainboard and putting it in an EPROM programmer: see my latest 'budget version' for the 'TDS3000 Second Life Board'. Now with a FT4232 that does not only get you both serial ports on USB, but also is a BDM backdoor into nearly everything inside the scopes. A good old PC command line C program now reads, edits, writes everything with bytes/hwords/words inside: the motherboard flash chips, the RAM after VxWorks has loaded the application, the DS1742W of course, everything inside the XPC860 PowerPC, but also any I2C Expansion Module you might have slotted into the front panel :-DD. And of course there's a DS1744W on board to take over the role for the mainboard DS1742W with the dead battery. Still planning for a next version that has its own uController and a RTC with coin cell battery. One with a male and female 100 pins connector, so that other plugins like IEEE GPIB could still be fitted (but stick out an inch or so further). This will then copy battery backed NVRAM + clock/calendar data into the old DS1742W at boot time, keeping the PowerPC in debug mode for a second or so while copying the real real time clock and the battery backed settings. Then reboot the PowerPC. An dthen catch breakpoints on writes into NVRAM, and copy the data in real battery backed data on this expansion module. Anyone interested? PS ytsejam, on your direct wiring 3V battery to main board DS1742W pin 24 VDD: be aware that when the scope if powered off, it will mean you have /CS, /WE and /OE all pulled low, so expect your battery to run flat faster than what you might have hoped for... |
| ytsejam:
--- Quote from: sicco on March 07, 2021, 09:43:01 pm ---Again, speaking only for the older -no_suffix models, the MAC address is physically stored on the flash chip on the TDS3EM. I know for sure because that's where I put it when I make my 'TDS3000 Second Life Boards'. Also, for the original TDS3EM, why else would you have a sticker on them with the MAC address that they (and not the scope) has been programmed at ex factory). The first three bytes are 'Tektronix' and actually editing the 08:00:11:xx:xx:xx into something not starting with 08:00:11 also means the scope will refuse to do Ethernet! It may well be that some bytes in the NVRAM hold BOOTP vs DHCP vs manual modes for IP address, subnet masks etc. Possibly options for other legacy networking standards, who knows... These 'hidden' settings are not user editable and also not decently factory-defaulted when scope sees NVRAM is corrupted. BTW, for those interested in reloading TDS3000 NVRAM the easy way, so without taking it out of the scope mainboard and putting it in an EPROM programmer: see my latest 'budget version' for the 'TDS3000 Second Life Board'. Now with a FT4232 that does not only get you both serial ports on USB, but also is a BDM backdoor into nearly everything inside the scopes. A good old PC command line C program now reads, edits, writes everything with bytes/hwords/words inside: the motherboard flash chips, the RAM after VxWorks has loaded the application, the DS1742W of course, everything inside the XPC860 PowerPC, but also any I2C Expansion Module you might have slotted into the front panel :-DD. And of course there's a DS1744W on board to take over the role for the mainboard DS1742W with the dead battery. Still planning for a next version that has its own uController and a RTC with coin cell battery. One with a male and female 100 pins connector, so that other plugins like IEEE GPIB could still be fitted (but stick out an inch or so further). This will then copy battery backed NVRAM + clock/calendar data into the old DS1742W at boot time, keeping the PowerPC in debug mode for a second or so while copying the real real time clock and the battery backed settings. Then reboot the PowerPC. An dthen catch breakpoints on writes into NVRAM, and copy the data in real battery backed data on this expansion module. Anyone interested? PS ytsejam, on your direct wiring 3V battery to main board DS1742W pin 24 VDD: be aware that when the scope if powered off, it will mean you have /CS, /WE and /OE all pulled low, so expect your battery to run flat faster than what you might have hoped for... --- End quote --- Hello sicco, Thank you! The 3V battery is just for experiment, was trying to make sure the NVRAM can be stay in R/W mode during scope boot-up process. I have read through your 2nd-Lift-Board, that's a really great work! And your are right, if the non-B version and the B/C version of TDS3000 have different procedure in loading the MAC address, restoring NVRAM data into DS1742W on the mainboard from 2nd-Life-Board is a better way then direct writing into the Flash, since non-B and B/C version might have different Flash arrangement. I'll focus on the NVRAM as of now, since I got a DPO3054 as well, which has the almost the same issue with TDS3000, and I will face the same problem sooner or later. I'll have the EEPROM programmer arrived this week, and will dump/copy/backup the NVRAM first and then find the checksum for figuring out a way to program NVRAM directly. |
| ytsejam:
--- Quote from: YetAnotherTechie on March 06, 2021, 05:49:05 pm --- "Its dead Jim" A scope with a corrupted or cleared NVRAM will still show a seemingly correct MAC address in the config page. That address doesn't work, and it's not being used by the scope. The only way to have a correct address is to program the NVRAM correctly. --- End quote --- Update after reading the DS1742W with programmer 1. The reason for why a scope with a dying NVRAM which still stores MAC address, can't make it work with Ethernet: As YetAnotherTechie mentioned, the content of the NVRAM is corrupted. I tried to read the NVRAM with the programmer, even with a battery attached externally, dumped result are not the same almost every time. This inconsistency will make the scope CPU ignore the content of NVRAM eventually. That's why the MAC address will not be applied. 2. Confirmed the MAC address of the TDS3000B model is stored in the NVRAM at offset 0x06F0 - 0x06F5 3. Power-On hours is located at offset 0x07E0 - 0x7E3, in minutes. After boot up, the system will convert it into hours and shows it in the Diagnostic page. 4. No checksum were found, I modify the NVRAM dump of another TDS3000B with working NVRAM, changed the MAC address portion, and write it to a new DS1742W for the one with problem. System boot-up correctly with new MAC address applied and Ethernet is working perfectly. |
| Maxis:
Hello Sicco, I have a non-suffixed 3014 model converted to 3054. I plan to retrofit the serial port and Ethernet according to your project schematics. Could you, please, answer a couple of questions: - Is there a FLASH FW extension in the original TDS3EM module or all the ETHERNET FW is already stored in the o-scope FLASH? - Have you managed to get the Ethernet port working? If not then does it hang during the boot sequence with the Ethernet option enabled? How does the problem look like? Thank you for your incredible efforts in bringing the modern connectivity to our favorite scopes. You have done a great job! BR Maxim |
| sicco:
Hi Maxis, The Flash rom on the TDS3EM only has a MAC address, coded as an ascii string, null terminated with colons in between the bytes. I attach an example. If that's not found in a -no-suffix TDS3000 while a plugin module claims to be a TDS3EM, then it will complain about this via the first serial port (only the second serial port normally goes to an expansion module RS232 connector, but there's a first one also, see earlier posts). It is vital that the MAC address starts with 08:00:11:xx:xx:xx - so only change the xx values. It is vital also to have the NVRAM settings correct, and although a blank or corrupted NVRAM gets restored to most default scope settings, it fails to properly reset the Ethernet settings that are not user editable from the keyboards utility menus. I think it is more than a copy of that MAC address, but I don't know for sure which NVRAM bytes are the ones that cause trouble (like scope hangs when setting it DHCP, scope no longer finishes normal boot once DHCP is enabled etc). The workaround is to just load the NVRAM with a known good working image. Attached also. To edit the NVRAM, either take out the DS1742W and use something like an EPROM programmer with a DIP24 socket. Or, much easier, use the BDM port. I used Swiss made unit Abatron BDM2000 initially, but now have plugin boards with FT2232 mini module or FT4232 on board, and that's even easier for editing. Not just the NVRAM, but also the main board Flash ROMs (so that we can update models "-any" firmware to unlock weird bandwidth restrictions that may have been put in ex-factory by marketing forces. Or by export controls police departments, who knows... Also you can edit the I2C EEPROMs inside the Option Modules that you may still have in your scope. Mostly just for the fun because you likely have FFT and Advanced trigger options already working since going v3.41, and then there's only just one or two options left - weird options that you'd not want anyway I guess. I still have two 'Second Life TDS3000' plugin boards (ref the pdf manual shared 2 posts earlier) that I happily sell for EUR 175 each, ex shipping. I will have another 3 'budget version TDS3000 second life' boards next week - only those have the BDM FT4232 fitted. They do not have Ethernet though. They ship at 125 EUR each. With PC software for making the edits. |
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