LCD screen for your dockstar (cheap! <$5)

I think I have one of the 1.5" keychain picframes with AppoTech AX20x chip

..... 
  idVendor           0x1908
  idProduct          0x1320
  bcdDevice            0.00
  iManufacturer           2 BUILDWIN
  iProduct                3 Photo Frame
.....

Did you guys compiled hack on Dockstar?
If so, where did you get sdcc from?

Thanks
Roman

For now I only tried the hack on my AMD based laptop, running Linux Mint 10. And I only got the display to show a 128x128 picture. Tried to chnage it, but to no avail as of yet. It's the first time that I use these tools, so I'll need some time to figure out how to properly set them up. The plan was, to first get it to run on my laptop perfectly and then move on to the dockstar when all the potential problems are dealt with. There should be a debian package ready for sdcc.

Edit:
Didn't try it yet, but this should work:
ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/s/sdcc/sdcc_2.9.0-5_armel.deb



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/2011 08:31PM by ingmar_k.

You can just remove app_clr.ihx from the build rules, but here's a slightly newer dist:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21038858/dpfhack-0.1alpha.tgz

Some folks are supposed to hack on a framebuffer driver similar to the DisplayLink devices.
Since the libdpf supports simple blitting, it shouldn't be too tough for connaisseurs to implement support for the hacked AX206.
Also, there's some code for console support (implemented on the DPF like a serial interface) in the pipeline.

Hi,

>
> .....
> idVendor 0x1908
> idProduct 0x1320
> bcdDevice 0.00
> iManufacturer 2 BUILDWIN
> iProduct 3 Photo Frame
> .....
>

I'm afraid, this frame isn't hackable, it's AX203 based. Look for the ones with PID 0102 (AX206).

I tried to play around with it a bit, but I can't figure out how to get lcd4linux to use the full resolution of 320x240 on my 2.4" display.
What do I need to change to make it work? I'm sorry if it's a stupid question. Just can't find a working option and the output seems to be stuck at 128x128. Besides that it seems to work quite good. Just tried again with your new hack version and now it can be compiled right away.

Hi,

you just need the right configuration file. I've attached a rudimentary one, you might want to fiddle with the layout.

Hi all, I have been silently lurking in the forums while having some fun on my dockstars. I purchased an Innovage generic from ebay, and it appears to be the same as the ones on the st2205 wiki, dmesg is the same. hackfw.sh was able to backup the firmware of the device, and displays the message on the devices screen, but is not able to find a hack. Added the shift3 hack and no joy. tried the generate-hack.pl and get an error

Creating lookforme.bin...
12+0 records in
12+0 records out
12 bytes (12 B) copied, 0.000241658 s, 49.7 kB/s

Locating free space ..
ERROR: cant find free space in fwimage-seg0.bin

read through the forum and not really sure where to go next, my troubleshooting is limited as the dockstar is my first real, in-depth foray into linux, and I am learning as I go. Any help would be appreciated.

hackfin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi,
>
> you just need the right configuration file. I've
> attached a rudimentary one, you might want to
> fiddle with the layout.


Thank you very much! Now it looks really great. Will have a thorough look at the whole config file when I got the time. Your support is really highly appreciated.

bitz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
...
> generate-hack.pl and get an error
>
> Creating lookforme.bin...
> 12+0 records in
> 12+0 records out
> 12 bytes (12 B) copied, 0.000241658 s, 49.7 kB/s
>
> Locating free space ..
> ERROR: cant find free space in fwimage-seg0.bin
>
>
> read through the forum and not really sure where
> to go next, my troubleshooting is limited as the
> dockstar is my first real, in-depth foray into
> linux, and I am learning as I go. Any help would
> be appreciated.

generate-hack.pl looks through the first segment of
the firmware image to find at least 240 bytes of
free space (marked by 0xff bytes) to patch in the
new hack code. The script is complaining that it cannot
find such a location and therefore cannot continue.

There is usually plenty of space - my Innovage Generic
had 2303 bytes of contiguous free space, so its possible
somethign went wrong before that - perhaps when
the firmware was being dumped.

I suggest loading up fwimage-seg0.bin into a hex editor
(i.e. hexdump fwimage-seg0.bin | vim -R - ) and have a look.

You should see something like the following ( * means repeats)...

...
00036e0 ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff
*
0003fd0 ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff 4380 43b3 43b3
...

-PG



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2011 05:28PM by petergunn.

Looks like not so much free space on mine only 78 bytes?

0003f90 2ead 8d06 050d 7f29 2e8d 6006 ffff ffff
0003fa0 ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff
*
0003fd0 ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff 44b5 44e4 44e4
0003fe0 44e7 44e4 44e4 450f 4528 4541 455a 4599
0003ff0 44e4 45c8 45e1 45fa 4613 4630 4049 44e4
0004000

I think you might be out of luck unless you want to risk overwriting a non-empty area.

It would be interesting to see if generate-hack.pl completes if you comment out the line that complains about not being able to find space:

#die "ERROR: cant find free space in fwimage-seg0.bin\n" if !/(\xff{240,})/;

Obviously do not actually try to use any hack that might be generated if you try this.

-PG

Script makes it further with that line commented out. I really don't care if I wreck it, total investment was <$3. Already searching for a replacement.
Does the hack just write to the free space to patch it, or is it possible to do a full firmware replacement from someone elses dump?

pastebin

Do you have a link that shows the picframe you have? If it looks like my one you might want to try a full reflash. There is a good chance it might brick your device but the risk is probably no greater than modifying the hack to overwrite a non-empty area.

Whatever you decide remember to back up your current firmware:

phack -df fwimage.bin /dev/sdX

-PG

This guy link, opened her up and the board markings are "4919 DPF0G(sitr) MB 04
There is an outline for where a chip goes that cuts through the text, so a 6 may be a G, or an r an i and so on.

It looks identical to mine although the packaging is slightly different. Did it come with a CD full of software?

-PG

There was a CD, though I have not looked at it yet.

Send an email to st2205term at wingovers dot com to get whats needed to reflash.

-PG

Sent and thank you!

Well, flashed a new unmodified firmware, didn't brick it, looking at the fwimage-seg0.bin there is a block of zeros 0x00 that is big enough, but the script seems to be looking for 0xFF so it is calling out the same error as before.

0001ff0 10ad 8503 a535 2993 c978 f048 ef6a 2293
0002000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
*
0002130 0000 02d0 99e6 9ae6 02d0 9be6 a2da e8fa
0002140 fdd0 e8fa e3d0 f0a2 d0e8 a5fd f09b a53b

I even manually edited the zeros of a firmware dump of the non original (to mine) firmware that I flashed so that it would be all 0xFF and flashed that, only to find that it still wrote zeros to that area.

Second I tried ./hackfw.sh /dev/sdb fwimage.bin and the script returned "cp: `fwimage.bin' and `fwimage.bin' are the same file"

Could the script be modified to look for blocks of 0x00 instead of or in addition to 0xff?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/2011 10:56AM by bitz.

hackfin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>....
> I'm afraid, this frame isn't hackable, it's AX203
> based. Look for the ones with PID 0102 (AX206).

That's what I was afraid of...
But thank you, you saved me headache with trying to hack it.

Roman

Can someone has the original DP-152 firmware image share the file with me? In the process of trying to hack mine, I think I lost the original firmware image. Even though I have downloaded the DP-152 configures and rebuilt hack, the script does not see my unit as DP-152.

bitz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Script makes it further with that line commented
> out. I really don't care if I wreck it, total
> investment was <$3. Already searching for a
> replacement.
> Does the hack just write to the free space to
> patch it, or is it possible to do a full firmware
> replacement from someone elses dump?
>
> pastebin


I still have my Coby DP151 hacked sitting here. I just prefer the screen on the Shift3 Innovage that I hacked. $10 shipped if you (or anyone else) is interested. Pretty much selling it at cost.

All:

so i finally figured out how to get LCD4Linux to show true free disk space. If you remember, I was trying to get it to show this late last year, and never could. I just finally got around to messing with it, and it works well. I want to post it on here, as somebody else may be wanting the same things

Don't know if anyone cares anymore, but here's how i have it set up:

I wanted my screen to show free space - in GiB - for each of my USB hard drives. The layout is:

HD98: (free space) HD44: (free space)
HD43: (free space) HD45: (free space)

Don't want to bore you with the entire config but here's the section for this. I hope somebody finds this useful in the future.

Widget ShowDriveSpaceHD98 {
class 'Text'
expression statfs('/media/harddrive98', 'bavail')*statfs('/media/harddrive98', 'bsize')/1024/1024/1024
prefix 'HD98: '
postfix ''
precision 0
width 9
align 'L'
update 10000
}

Widget ShowDriveSpaceHD44 {
class 'Text'
expression statfs('/media/harddrive44', 'bavail')*statfs('/media/harddrive44', 'bsize')/1024/1024/1024
prefix 'HD44: '
postfix ''
precision 0
width 9
align 'R'
update 10000
}

Widget ShowDriveSpaceHD43 {
class 'Text'
expression statfs('/media/harddrive43', 'bavail')*statfs('/media/harddrive43', 'bsize')/1024/1024/1024
prefix 'HD43: '
postfix ''
precision 0
width 9
align 'R'
update 10000
}

Widget ShowDriveSpaceHD45 {
class 'Text'
expression statfs('/media/harddrive45', 'bavail')*statfs('/media/harddrive45', 'bsize')/1024/1024/1024
prefix 'HD45: '
postfix ''
precision 0
width 9
align 'R'
update 10000
}

[/code]

I have one handy.

HTH, Jim

j10152 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have one handy.
>
> HTH, Jim


Thank you. After restored my DP152, hack script still doesn't see my unit.

When I run hackfw.sh, the screen changes from "USB Connected" to "baks r ok", but the script can't find it as a DP152.

dmesg shows:

[483783.814728] usb-storage: device found at 33
[483783.814739] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
[483788.842253] usb-storage: device scan complete
[483788.842963] scsi 25:0:0:0: Direct-Access     SITRONIX MULTIMEDIA       0.09 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0 CCS
[483788.856419] sd 25:0:0:0: [sdc] 4096 512-byte logical blocks: (2.09 MB/2.00 MiB)
[483788.868666] sd 25:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off
[483788.873793] sd 25:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08
[483788.873805] sd 25:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[483788.887423] sd 25:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[483788.893912]  sdc: unknown partition table
[483788.927049] sd 25:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
[483788.933355] sd 25:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2011 02:41PM by funtoy1001.

@petergunn:

Hey Peter, did you have any luck with getting your hack to work? I mean the one you were posting a comment about on hackfin's site?

I'm asking because I'm in the same situation right now. After more than 2 months I got my two pic frames from DX. One was already hackable and works fine. The other had no entry in the profiles.py.
I then added the infos as good as I could, but none of the patches seems to work for this particular pic frame. Any new info or insights from you?

@ingmar_k - I now have two 2.4" AX206 that have no entry in profiles.py and I think they would make great dockstar displays. Unfortunately quick and dirty attempts to find a hack didn't go anywhere.

I'm hoping someone will eventually create some newhack.txt style instructions like there was for the st2205 devices.

-PG

Hi Peter, I just posted a comment on hackfin's blog, asking him for some insight in howto add hack infos for currently unsuported pic frames.

Now let's see if he finds the time and motivation to help us out.

Hi guys, I got plenty of requests lately to further elaborate on this hack, but I'm afraid I've got to postpone stuff, so you'll have to look at the source file for existing working patches for the moment and see if you can adapt those.
So far I've been lacking time to figure out something automated, and I'm quite sure all the work put into the latter won't pay off, it's easier to hack each FW manually.
Anyhow, I hope to be able to pick up more fun stuff on these devices later on. Hopefully, we'll kick out some kind of development environment with SDCC soon. There are just a few unknowns to reverse engineer on this chip..

No problem. As I already said, if you don't have the time, never mind. ;-)
I already tried the different patches and adresses on the one frame that didn't work out of the box, but no luck. Anyway, I don't need that thing, so I'm happy nonetheless.