dtomcat Posted June 22, 2023 Report Share Posted June 22, 2023 OK... Just starting a separate thread for my next project. I mentioned it in a different thread... but figured better to keep info in one place dedicated for this project. It's a remake of my ArdPromSD project. With the ArdProm... it was limited by program space. I am remaking it with a different MCU to allow more program/variable space. This gives me more room to add to the previous project. One benefit of the remake is only applicable to rev1.6 MBs... will only power on when xbox is powered on instead of being on immediately when plugging in the board. What I have so far (basically all of the ArdPromSD features): Read EEPROM and save to SD card (each read saves a different file name) Read BIN file from SD and write it to EEPROM Things left to do: Feedback (in form of LEDs like before) Reset button EEPROM data decrypting (hoping... will save encrypted data in plain text. This will also allow me to save the eeprom.bin as <serial number>.bin so if you can backup a few xbox's and know which eeprom backup is to which xbox) Really hoping the last one will pan out... I will try my hardest. I plan on shrink the board a bit as well. The downfall... some of the parts will be a handful to hand solder... so DIY'ers may have some trouble. I do plan to open source it eventually I'll post updates here when I have them. Now that I have it working as stated above... I'll get to designing the PCB and ordering everything to try out. I'm hoping to have prototype Hardware up and running within 2 months (china timeframe dependent). 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowlsnapper Posted June 23, 2023 Report Share Posted June 23, 2023 5 hours ago, Dtomcat18 said: OK... Just starting a separate thread for my next project. I mentioned it in a different thread... but figured better to keep info in one place dedicated for this project. It's a remake of my ArdPromSD project. With the ArdProm... it was limited by program space. I am remaking it with a different MCU to allow more program/variable space. This gives me more room to add to the previous project. One benefit of the remake is only applicable to rev1.6 MBs... will only power on when xbox is powered on instead of being on immediately when plugging in the board. What I have so far (basically all of the ArdPromSD features): Read EEPROM and save to SD card (each read saves a different file name) Read BIN file from SD and write it to EEPROM Things left to do: Feedback (in form of LEDs like before) Reset button EEPROM data decrypting (hoping... will save encrypted data in plain text. This will also allow me to save the eeprom.bin as <serial number>.bin so if you can backup a few xbox's and know which eeprom backup is to which xbox) Really hoping the last one will pan out... I will try my hardest. I plan on shrink the board a bit as well. The downfall... some of the parts will be a handful to hand solder... so DIY'ers may have some trouble. I do plan to open source it eventually I'll post updates here when I have them. Now that I have it working as stated above... I'll get to designing the PCB and ordering everything to try out. I'm hoping to have prototype Hardware up and running within 2 months (china timeframe dependent). Cool! Why go through the work of shrinking it though? Is it even worth it for any reason? It's already pretty damn small. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtomcat Posted June 23, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2023 Smaller the board… cheaper the cost (some PCB makers). And if fewer components… no need to have bigger board and longer traces 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowlsnapper Posted June 23, 2023 Report Share Posted June 23, 2023 36 minutes ago, Dtomcat18 said: Smaller the board… cheaper the cost (some PCB makers). And if fewer components… no need to have bigger board and longer traces I didn't know it was that much more expensive to make. Interesting. I'm getting one when it comes out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtomcat Posted June 23, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2023 Depends on where you get them oshpark is $5 per square inch (for 3 boards). but like JLCPCB is $2 for 5 boards (for every PCB i've made.. no matter the size). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtomcat Posted June 23, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2023 Alright... So the next eeprom reader/writer is exactly the same as the ArdPromSD (plus some extra code)... The new one is using 4% of available space... and the ArdPromSD was using around 88%. Feeling good about this 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMM Posted June 24, 2023 Report Share Posted June 24, 2023 Always good to see progress still being made with the OG Xbox. I do wonder about it being smaller and the cost benefit vs the ability of users to put one together themselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtomcat Posted June 25, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2023 Well... the MCU is kind of the part that would make it hard... and doesn't come any larger If you can solder the MCU... then you can solder the rest of the components. If not... the original ArdPromSD project would be your goto as it'll do the main function of EEPROM reading and writing. This one will (hopefully) add the ability to decrypt your EEPROM data and save it in plain text. Also toying with the idea of an optional addon... an E-Ink display to display your S/N, HDD key, and Online Key of last EEPROM read. This will allow you to see some of the data right away and not have to keep the reading connected. This will really only be helpful for those who do a lot of Xbox modding/repairs. this would connect via a connector so that those who don't want that feature...don't have to buy it Again... very early stages and details will probably change. Here is a sneak peak... I'm 100% this will change before release... but just kind of putting somethings where they will probably be to get a look at how it's coming and if I see anything obviously wrong... Meet PicoPromSD 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtomcat Posted June 25, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2023 anything I should add to this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweetdarkdestiny Posted June 25, 2023 Report Share Posted June 25, 2023 28 minutes ago, Dtomcat18 said: anything I should add to this? Take it over the edge and add wlan. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtomcat Posted June 25, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 25, 2023 Lol. Considered that. But I’m thinking that may be a bit much lol (as is the eink display) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtomcat Posted June 28, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2023 UPDATE: Well... after a lot of midnight Oil... It Works!!! so now just need to add all the code into one looks like I'll finish the code before I finish the hardware... was expecting the opposite! Here is my proof of concept on the decrypting... Some things I don't quite understand yet (video standard, region... don't match the wiki... but not too important) Hoping to have a nice way for those who mod for customers to be able to pop this in... and seconds later... be able to tell all you can before even firing up the xbox ... either way... here is the output of the POC 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowlsnapper Posted June 28, 2023 Report Share Posted June 28, 2023 On 6/25/2023 at 10:49 AM, Dtomcat18 said: anything I should add to this? Something wireless? Bluetooth? Lol. In a perfect world... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtomcat Posted June 28, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2023 Well... apparently ... it decrypts all except 1.0's Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowlsnapper Posted June 29, 2023 Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 7 hours ago, Dtomcat18 said: Well... apparently ... it decrypts all except 1.0's What's different about the 1.0 that would cause that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtomcat Posted June 29, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 Not sure. I’ll have to look. I’ll finished up the hardware and finalize and order. Then circle back to it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowlsnapper Posted June 29, 2023 Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 42 minutes ago, Dtomcat18 said: Not sure. I’ll have to look. I’ll finished up the hardware and finalize and order. Then circle back to it (Shiver) You just reminded me of Jen Psaki... Fuckin' YIKES. Id like one of those... just for the hell of it. I've never backed up my EEPROM before, but it's never too late to start! I wish there were an IDE insert that could capture the HDDs Unlock code! lol. Now that would be handy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtomcat Posted June 29, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 (edited) 11 minutes ago, Bowlsnapper said: I wish there were an IDE insert that could capture the HDDs Unlock code! I’ve actually tried with a mega2560… but ultimately gave up Edited June 29, 2023 by Dtomcat18 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowlsnapper Posted June 29, 2023 Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 3 minutes ago, Dtomcat18 said: I’ve actually tried with a mega2560… but ultimately gave up Why am I not surprised that you tried that. What was the reason it wouldn't work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtomcat Posted June 29, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 I didn’t know really where to get started coding. And there weren’t any thing like it to get an idea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowlsnapper Posted June 29, 2023 Report Share Posted June 29, 2023 11 minutes ago, Dtomcat18 said: I didn’t know the really where to get started coding. And there weren’t any thing like it to get an idea So it could actually be possible? Interesting. I feel you though. How would you get a leg up on knowing how to read a section of a HDDs firmware? That's a bit obscure for somebody who is in a situation where they're starting from scratch and don't have source to help them. Maybe it can be done one day, although every HDDs key would have to be able to be read... That would probably be difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtomcat Posted July 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2023 Couple hours of troubleshooting... and now it decodes ALL valid EEPROM bins 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtomcat Posted July 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2023 TODO: 1. Merge all code into one code base 2. Finalize PCB 3. Build and test But... Looking like this thing is going to work. Of note... the E-ink display is out. Was too much work for not a lot of value. I may add more software features since I have the space. (like writing errors to a file so that you can see what is going on without having to connect to PC). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtomcat Posted July 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2023 Updated output from information gathered from donated EEPROM.BINs now decodes numbers to show meaningful text. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bowlsnapper Posted July 3, 2023 Report Share Posted July 3, 2023 I know it's just good practice to black that stuff out, but it would be really sad if somebody used that info for nefarious purposes... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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