The next EEPROM Reader/Writer (picoPromSD)

[dtomcat]

Firmware source is live   

 

https://github.com/dtomcat/picoPromSD/tree/main/firmware/src

[dtomcat]

Initial board upload (1.1) will be tomorrow hopefully though I’d wait for 1.5H coming soon 

[dtomcat]

I know of a few being made (redesigned). Please let me know if you want one. (If they pass all testing)

[dtomcat]

Boards are live... Project is now fully open sourced.  It's stated on the GitHub... but the released board (1.1) ... I do not recommend building that board as 1.5H is on the horizon (Thanks to Harcroft for his time editing and finding same quality parts at a lower cost).  His edits lowered the build cost by atleast 50% and probably closer to 70%.  I HIGHLY recommend waiting for this revision.  Shouldn't be too much longer.   Boards are ordered and will only need to be tested (they were ordered assembled)

[GoTeamScotch]

Great job to both you and Harcroft! Congrats on the progress you both have made with this project.

[PRince404]

On 12/13/2024 at 6:11 AM, dtomcat said:

Boards are live... Project is now fully open sourced.  It's stated on the GitHub... but the released board (1.1) ... I do not recommend building that board as 1.5H is on the horizon (Thanks to Harcroft for his time editing and finding same quality parts at a lower cost).  His edits lowered the build cost by atleast 50% and probably closer to 70%.  I HIGHLY recommend waiting for this revision.  Shouldn't be too much longer.   Boards are ordered and will only need to be tested (they were ordered assembled)

So the "H" in 1.5H stands for Harcroft?

[dtomcat]

36 minutes ago, PRince404 said:

So the "H" in 1.5H stands for Harcroft?

It does.  He didn’t want any credit… so I mandated the rev at least had the H

[dtomcat]

Happy New Year!  1.5H initial tests seem great!   Files soon. Great work @Harcrofton the edits and hard work!

[dtomcat]

@Harcrofthas 10-12 ready to sell.  If you didn’t get in on the limited edition… this is your chance.  Functionally identical!   I’m sure he’ll pipe in with details.  Send him a message if you’re interested!  

[Harcroft]

All of the work listed here has been with @dtomcat's support and approval. In fact I specifically waited for permission before I even started looking at finalizing the board for him.

I have to do final assembly and testing on each board, but all parts are now on hand.
This is a ground up re-creation of the original design.
All traces laid down fresh, most components have been replaced with lower cost, equal or higher quality alternatives. All data lines were redone to be much closer to length matched.

Bill of Material (BOM) list for Digikey, LCSC and JLC are all complete. PCBA files for these boards with JLC PCB will be included with the new source files, as well as 3 part LCSC BOM for the 3 through hole components if a user does low cost PCBA.

Reset and Boot Sel buttons require 30% more force than the originals but equally or more easily accessible. This is to help protect from accidental button presses.
Resistor and capacitor numbering has been standardized, redundant capacitors have been removed. Oscillator has been changed to a lower cost, non programmable, easier footprint to fill model. Green LED resistor lowered to make the brightness between the LEDs more even, and a more visually appealing emerald green LED was chosen to replace the original yellow/green LED.

Serial TTL/UART port added (unpopulated) for dumping the user password from locked Original Xbox stock Seagate HDDs. Documentation added on both sides of the PCB to make the pogo pin adapter intuitive to use.

Two holes added for M3 screws if a user wants to use a 3d printed shield or case. The existing silkscreen has been redone from scratch as well to improve readability.

All software functionality is identical to original PicoPromSD. Here are some pics of the first assembled board. It's not fully clean but it'l give you an idea of what the new model looks like front and back.

I'll be assembling the rest in the next week, as well as producing pogo pin adapters and seagate HDD adapter cables.

EDIT: The inclusion of a reddish WRITE EEPROM button was intentional. I wanted to it to sort of warn the end user not to press it unless they meant to, even with the existing software protections.

Edited January 1 by Harcroft

[dtomcat]

@RazorX2018 see the above news if you are still wanting/need one 

[Harcroft]

I have a handful of boards and pogo adapters ready to go now!

[nikeymikey]

4 hours ago, Harcroft said:

I have a handful of boards and pogo adapters ready to go now!

Whats the price inc postage to the UK?

[dtomcat]

Alright... beta firmware if you'd like to test.    This is just ensure the eeprom.bin (in the writeep folder... for writing eeprom.bin to eeprom) is the right size and can be decrypted.  Not a fail safe... but will catch most bad eeproms from corrupting the eeprom on board.

This will not be posted to the github just yet.  would like it tested before mass consumption.   again... BETA... it's possible there are some edge cases I didn't catch...  The way i'm running the checks... It shouldn't mess up an eeprom at all...  just may prevent you from writing (even if a good eeprom is present... though I don't think this will happen)... but never know... BETA

picoPromSD2.4b-ND.uf2

[nikeymikey]

My PicoPromSD arrived today. Thanks @Harcroft for your work and for providing it. Thanks @dtomcat for all the work you did on the project originally.  

[dtomcat]

Welcome!  feel free to try out the new firmware... provide any feedback if you have it.  again... I feel the worse case scenario with this firmware is a false positive in which case you won't be able to write the eeprom.bin.   all other functionality is untouched.  I don't feel this would happen as all I'm doing is check the size and ensuring it can be decrypted (two signs it's a bad backup).

[Harcroft]

The first batch of PicoPromSD 1.5H has sold out.

When I have time (it's going to be a while) I'm going to focus on a further cost reduced, but also feature reduced, the absolute barebones cheap variant of PicoPromSD as discussed with dtomcat.

I personally recommend the 1.1 or 1.5H for the formactor, feature set and build quality, but if you want to build one for the lowest price possible, that design will be coming.