Horst BorstIt all began with a big letdown.
Back in 2010 when the grass was greener and the blues bluer i decided to stop ruining my eyes and start taking a part in the e-ink revolution. I choose the IREX DR1000S for obvious reasons. The size and the possibility to scribble. But it failed horribly on me.
And here is how it did...
- I bought a used DR1000S of the behy. The LiPo battery was already at its end of life and lasted 90 minutes max. Sometimes just 30 with big pdfs and "heavy" browsing(like a page every 30 seconds.
- Some PDFs did not render or rendered too slow or where not displayed at all.
- All community effort was spun around some pulled together development environment with a bmware guest, qemu simulation images and loosely knit together anjunta poky gnutools whatnot. Even after updating to the latest Firmware and with the latest Mackx patches applied the device was still too buggy for serious use.
- It was far to unreliable to use it as primary device for taking notes or .
- IREX closed the doors. So all hope on support from the vendor to fix the power management and connectivity issues (USB OTG?) was lost like tears in the rain.
After some years have gone by and some occasional remembrances on the joy of reading the big e-ink screen tickling me it only happened by chance that i finally took on the work.
The main problem i had was the power issues. From the beginning until now. The original Varta LiPo was really dead by now so i knew i needed to get some replacement battery. Many have done that surgical operation before me, so i was not afraid. It was known land.
Just another day at the local supermarket i found a slim, big and black thingy sticking out a "battery recycling/collecting" bin. It was a Macbook Air's battery compartment. I tear it open (very good sticking tape and glue there is) and savaged 3 working 3.7V LiPo cells each with double the capacity of the DR1000Ss original cell. The connection leads for the 4th cell where torn out during the removal procedure.
Ten minutes later i cracked the DR1000S open following this guide,
snipped of the original batteries connector, soldered it too one of the
frankenmac's batterirs, connected it and et voilà the green LEDs started
to glow and a screen displayed the familiar IREX boot up screen. Now
everything was good. I fully charged and it was almost like a dream come
true.
On the left the DR1000S original Varta cell - PLF503759 3.7V 1300mAh. Next to it is the Macbook Air's cell - the Sanyo UPF3768111 3.7V 3800mAh battery.
[INSERT irex bootup video]
With the extra mWh i could use the device almost the whole day. I was happy!
But it did not last. I charged the device maybe 10 to 15 Times. Everything was alright, except maybe the battery gauge that was a little confused by the extra capacity.
Then one day i drained the battery fully and let the device sit alone for a week.
After that it was bricked as i would call it. Some other people have got the same symptoms and no one seems to have had much success in fixing this issue.
The device does not fully boot. It stops progressing a few seconds after the boot starts and displays some color coded blinken lights. All this while the boot animation endlessly continues (a dot running in circles) until the battery is drained.
[INSERT BLINKEN VIDEO]
Not much use for anything.
The debugging options on this device are really limited.
No Documented JTAG
No Documented UART
And a mysterious, undocumented connector on the bottom.
Some people have tried getting USB OTG to work on the DR1000, but they didn't succeed. [INSERT links to mobileread threads, Description blinken pulses]
No one so far seems tho have searched for or found any usable debugging interface
BUT THERE IS HOPE!
There is a very nice Labeled PCB.
It looks like there are some boundry scan test points right next to one of the CPLDs.
A bunch of freely available source code
[INSERT PLATFORM SPECIFIC CODE SNIPPLETS GPIO,UART ASSSIGNMENT]
There is a bunch of useful software for helping in finding some debug interface. For instance JTAGenum and RS232enum by cyphunk.
The CPU of the DR1000S is a very well documented an broadly used Freescale i.MX31.
Understanding the Device
The following tables will be updated regularly. When finished it should map labels->locations->functions and working/non working state.
the pcb
| label | manufacturer | part | function | ||||
| U1 | NXP | ALVC164245 L8A7S3 19 UnGO823D | 16-bit dual supply translating transceiver | ||||
| U2 | NXP | ALVC164245 L8A7S3 19 UnGO823D | 16-bit dual supply translating transceiver | ||||
| U3 | NXP | ALVC164245 L8A7S3 19 UnGO823D | 16-bit dual supply translating transceiver | ||||
| U4 | NXP | ALVC164245 L8A7S3 19 UnGO823D | 16-bit dual supply translating transceiver | ||||
| U5 | NXP | ALVC164245 L8A7S3 19 UnGO823D | 16-bit dual supply translating transceiver | ||||
| U6 | NXP | ALVC164245 L8A7S3 19 UnGO823D | 16-bit dual supply translating transceiver | ||||
| U7 | |||||||
| U8 | |||||||
| U9 | NXP | ALVC164245 L8A7S3 19 UnGO823D | 16-bit dual supply translating transceiver | ||||
| U10 | |||||||
| U11 | |||||||
| U12 | |||||||
| U13 | |||||||
| U14 | |||||||
| U15 | |||||||
| U16 | L8HM N192 816 | ||||||
| U17 | |||||||
| U18 | |||||||
| U19 | PEKI | ||||||
| U20 | PEKI | ||||||
| U21 | Maxim | MAX3377 EEUD 4815 | |||||
| U22 | |||||||
| U23 | Hynix | HY27UF082G2A TPCB 809A | |||||
| U24 | NXP | ALVC164245 L8A7S3 19 UnGO823D | 16-bit dual supply translating transceiver | ||||
| U25 | |||||||
| U26 | |||||||
| U27 | |||||||
| U28 | Texas Instruments | YE08 85K Q4 EK6-D | |||||
| U29 | |||||||
| U30 | |||||||
| U31 | |||||||
| U32 | |||||||
| U33 | |||||||
| U34 | Maxim | MAX3377 EEUD 4815 | Low-Voltage Level Translators | ||||
| U35 | |||||||
| U36 | PEKI | ||||||
| U37 | NXP | 505C 0203 ZPD822F | |||||
| U38 | NXP | 505C 0203 ZPD822F | |||||
| U39 | |||||||
| U40 | |||||||
| U41 | |||||||
| U42 | |||||||
| U43 | MYSTERYPART | ||||||
| U44 | |||||||
| U45 | |||||||
| U46 | AC2A | ||||||
| U47 | |||||||
| U48 | X07C | ||||||
| U49 | |||||||
| U50 | |||||||
| U51 | Hylinx | HYB18M512 160BF75 WVV15804 0816 B | |||||
| U52 | NXP | ALVC164245 L8A7S3 19 UnGO823D | 16-bit dual supply translating transceiver | ||||
| U53 | NXP | ALVC164245 L8A7S3 19 UnGO823D | 16-bit dual supply translating transceiver | ||||
| U54 | |||||||
| U55 | 7W53 8 C | ||||||
| U56 | 7W53 8 C | ||||||
| U57 | X61C | ||||||
| U58 | Hylinx | HYB18M512 160BF75 WVV15804 0816 B | |||||
| U59 | |||||||
| U60 | |||||||
| U61 | |||||||
| U62 | Freescale | MC34704 4APA8 | Multiple Channel DC-DC Power Management IC | ||||
| U63 | |||||||
labels on the pcb
| pin label | function | value | part of | located near | tested |
| BAT_MAN_GPIO2 | |||||
| COMPARE | |||||
| WD_RST | |||||
| CLK0 | |||||
| DVTS0 | |||||
| DVTS1 | |||||
| SJC_MOD | |||||
| FUSE_VDD | |||||
| I2C_PMU_CLK | |||||
| I2C_PMU_SDA | |||||
| VPG0 | |||||
| VPG1 | |||||
| RESET_HOST | |||||
| RST_OUT_3 | |||||
| CAPTURE | |||||
| PWR_FAIL | |||||
| RESET_DEV | |||||
| IMX_BU | |||||
| VBORDER0 | |||||
| VBORDER1 | |||||
| DELTA_RST | |||||
| MCU_RST | |||||
| +1V8 | |||||
| 1V8_VBAT | |||||
| 1V8_CTRL | |||||
| DEBUG | |||||
| PWR_SW1 | |||||
| PWR_SW2 | |||||
| PWR_SW3 | |||||
| TDO_DIS | |||||
| TMS_DIS | |||||
| TDI_DIS | |||||
| TCK_DIS | |||||
| BUZZER2 | |||||
| BUZZER3 | |||||
| VBATT | |||||
| VNEG | |||||
| VP0 | |||||
| 5V_VCOM | |||||
| +5V_VCOM | |||||
| +5V | |||||
| GND | |||||
| USBDEV_VCC | |||||
| 1V5_CTRL | |||||
| +1V5 | |||||
| VEE | |||||
| VGG | |||||
| +3V3 | |||||
connectors on (or missing on) the pcb
| label |
connector type | number of connections | |||
| CN1 | |||||
| CN2 | |||||
| CN3 | |||||
| CN4 | |||||
| CN5 | |||||
| CN6 | |||||
| CN7 | |||||
| CN8 | |||||
| CN9 | |||||
| CN10 | UNKNOWN | 14 | |||
| CN11 | |||||
| CN12 | |||||
| CN13 | SD CARD | 10+1 | |||
| CN14 | |||||
| CN15 | |||||
| CN16 | |||||
| CN17 | UNPOPULATED | 3 | |||
| CN18 | UNKNOWN | 30 | |||
| CN19 | |||||
| CN20 | |||||
| CN21 | |||||
| CN22 | |||||
| CN23 | |||||
| CN24 | UNPOPULATED | 3 | |||
| CN25 | |||||
| CN26 | Mini USB | 5 | |||
| CN27 | |||||
| CN28 | |||||
| CN29 | |||||
| CN30 | UNPOPULATED | 3 | |||
| CN31 | |||||
| CN32 | |||||
| CN33 | |||||
| CN34 | |||||
| CN35 | |||||
| CN36 | |||||
the X labled parts on the pcb
| label | manufacturer | type | function | pins |
| X1 | UNKNOWN | 6 | ||
| X2 | ||||
| X3 | UNPOPULATED | 4 | ||
| X4 | D268F | |||
| X5 | D268F | |||
| X6 | DA810C | oscillator | 2 | |
| X7 | ||||
| X8 | ||||
| X9 | ||||
| X10 | ||||
testpoints
| label | function | value |
| TP1 | ||
| TP2 | ||
| TP3 | ||
| TP4 | ||
| TP5 | ||
| TP6 | ||
| TP7 | ||
| TP8 | ||
| TP9 | ||
| TP10 | ||
| TP11 | ||
| TP12 | ||
| TP13 | ||
| TP14 | ||
| TP15 | ||
| TP16 | ||
| TP17 | ||
| TP18 | ||
| TP19 | ||
| TP20 | ||
| TP21 | ||
| TP22 | ||
| TP23 | ||
| TP24 | ||
| TP25 | ||
| TP26 | ||
| TP27 | ||
| TP28 | ||
| TP29 | ||
| TP30 | ||
| TP31 | ||
| TP32 | ||
| TP33 | ||
| TP34 | ||
| TP35 | ||
| TP36 | ||
| TP37 | ||
| TP38 | ||
| TP39 | ||
| TP40 | ||
| TP41 | ||
| TP42 | ||
| TP43 | ||
| TP44 | ||
| TP45 | ||
| TP46 | ||
| TP47 | ||
| TP48 | ||
| TP49 | ||
| TP50 | ||
| TP51 | ||
| TP52 | ||
| TP53 | ||
| TP54 | ||
| TP55 | ||
| TP56 | ||
| TP57 | ||
| TP58 | ||
| TP59 | ||
| TP60 | ||
| TP61 | ||
| TP62 | ||
| TP63 | ||
| TP64 | ||
| TP65 | ||
| TP66 | ||
| TP67 | ||
| TP68 | ||
| TP69 | ||
| TP70 | ||
| TP71 | ||
| TP72 | ||
| TP73 | ||
| TP74 | ||
| TP75 | ||
| TP76 | ||
| TP77 | ||
| TP78 | ||
| TP79 | ||
| TP80 | ||
| TP81 | ||
| TP82 | ||
| TP83 | ||
| TP84 | ||
| TP85 | ||
| TP86 | ||
| TP87 | ||
| TP88 | ||
| TP89 | ||
| TP90 | ||
| TP91 | ||
| TP92 | ||
| TP93 | ||
| TP94 |