NAS326 serial

Hello,

I would like to get going with Dabian on my NAS326.
Unfortunately, I do not get it completely regarding the serial connection.
In my understanding there is already a header for serial on the mainboard.

Where is it located? Do I have to dismantle the box?
Maybe some pics?

I've already ordered a serial TTl to USB converter.

Thanks.

Kwekkel,

> Unfortunately, I do not get it completely
> regarding the serial connection.
> In my understanding there is already a header for
> serial on the mainboard.

Yes. You will need to open the case only, no other mods needed. And it will obvious where the header is, it is factory installed.

Let me see if I can find if I have pics (it's been a long time). I will post the pintouts.

-bodhi
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I've added Note D.2 in the installation instruction to describe serial console pinouts.

D.2. NAS326 Serial console pinouts 


          +----+----+           
          |    |    |
+----+----+----+----+----+
|3.3V| TX | RX |    | GND|
+----+----+----+    +----+

-bodhi
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2019 05:41PM by bodhi.

I've added Note D.3 in the installation instruction to mention that the serial console header picture is attached to the post.

Quote

D.3. NAS325 Serial console header Pic

The Zyxel NAS326 and the NSA325 serial header pinouts and locations are identical on these boards. I've attached the NSA2325 board pic to this post here to show the header location. If anybody has a better pic for NAS326 please post.

-bodhi
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Hello,

Thank you for your response.

The serial header is was easy to find.
Connected a cp2102 uart. Unfortunately the box then won't boot. It just switches on and hangs.
Only connected rxd, txd,gnd. Whenn pulling off the wires the box boots.

Any ideas?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2019 01:36PM by Kwekkel.

Kwekkel,

> The serial header is was easy to find.
> Connected a cp2102 uart. Unfortunately the box
> then won't boot. It just switches on and hangs.
> Only connected rxd, txd,gnd. Whenn pulling off the
> wires the box boots.
>
> Any ideas?

This is the expected behavior when you have serial console connected, as I mentioned in the installation instruction. The box BootROM senses there is a serial connection so it waits for incoming data. This behavior is particular for this box only (in general, for all boxes, it should be OK to leave seria console connected)

So when serial console is connected and live, we have to nudge it pass the BootROM and make it timeout:

A2. Installation 


1. Start kwboot on the serial console host 

For ARM32 kwboot: 
./kwboot -t -B 115200 /dev/ttyUSB0 -d

-bodhi
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Thanks.

Tried this, waited 5 mins but still hanging.
I get more and more the feeling i've got either a defective or i've purcased a wrong uart.

When powering up the nas i do not see any acivity on the rxd/txd leds on the uart. Neither can I stop kwboot with ctrl+c.
Without USB connected , i see activity on the rxd led for a few seconds.

Now I am very in doubt if I have the correct uart.

Kwekkel,

> When powering up the nas i do not see any acivity
> on the rxd/txd leds on the uart. Neither can I
> stop kwboot with ctrl+c.

It is Ctrl \ C (control backslash c) to exit kwboot.

> Without USB connected , i see activity on the rxd
> led for a few seconds.
>
> Now I am very in doubt if I have the correct uart.

What chip is in the module you have? and did you try to swap TX and RX wires?

Some CP2xxx module have the TX/RX already swapped. So you would need to connect its TX to the box TX, its RX to the box RX.

For all PL3xxx models we need to connect its TX to the box RX, and its RX to the box TX.

-bodhi
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Hi Bodhi,

Success! purchased a PL2303 and working now.
Text on the terminal was a little rubbish but a shorter usb cable fixed this problem.

Many thanks for your kind support! Perfekt!

Kwekkel,

Cool! always happy to hear a success story :)

-bodhi
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