Ok, So...I KNOW My Pogo is HOSED, here's why:

I have TWO POGO's

1 is the Pogo Ver4 that has the sata and the USB2 on the top.

The other is the POGO MOBILE that only has the one USB2 (or is it USB3?) in the back next to the Ethernet Port.

Both are now Non-operational:

First the problem with the POGO ver4:

In trying to follow Jeff's "Emdebian" post, I downloaded all the NAND tools, that he suggested...

and I typed in "/tmp/Flash_erase /dev/mtd0 0 4" because that's where I was told to put it.

And my doggie decided, right afterward, to pull the plug out of the wall, looking for whatever it was she was looking for....

So I'm not getting even a BLINKING Green LIGHT on the front of the POGOv4, but the Ethernet port lights are on SOLID, with the green one on it blinking occasionally, so it might indicate it's Looking to BOOTP for an OS or even a UBOOT over ethernet, or maybe NOT...I don't know.

Next the Problem with the Pogo Mobile:

Followed instructions with Arch Linux for the V4, but when I "sbin/reboot" permanently blinking green light.   

Did solder a  Mini-molex connector to the serial buds on the board. but the Serial Cable, a CA-42 that i got from Rakuten for 4 bucks, was a Chinese knock off and wouldn't even register with Windows 7!  so All I have now is a board that if I plug it in, has a permanetly blinking green light in the front!

Now, I know that with Both POGO's I have an MTD0 MTD1 MTD2 MTD3....and both have an SD port.

What i wanted to do, is put 16 gig SD Cards in the side slots, and have basic things run from the MTD's and the rest off the SD cards with about 8 gig's of memory from the SD's...

I used to have a WD MBWE I with the blue rings....and what I was hoping for with POGO's is to fulfill the promise of what the MBWE's were offering, using USB drives, and have it accessed anywhere from the internet using VPN, if it wasn't for the crappy network speeds the MBWE had.

Any help you could offer me would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance
Kapt Blasto

I originally used a proper Nokia CA42 cable - struggled to find drivers (did eventually) but I'd already decided to brew my own cable, if you can solder, have a female DB9 connector, then here's the level shifter circuit I used to get me out of a hole (used in conjunction with a conventional USB-Serial converter)

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n116/majic79uk/electronics/LevelConverterelcheapo_zps477f365e.png

I soldered this to a bit of veroboard and it worked (RS232 specs say voltage +3V to +15V for High and -3V to -15V for low, the 3.3V that the board provides is enough to drive it - the negative voltage is stolen from the TX line which is driven Low on idle)

Dear Majic:

Well that's what I thought I bought from Rakuten (formerly Buy.com) -- A Nokia CA-42 cable...and it looked like the cable, and it even had the ends like a nokia and everything...

But in the end...when I couldn't get it to work with Windows 7...the driver reportedly was a for a PL2303 chip, and everytime it came up "code 10: the device cannot start" And I checked with the makers of what supposedly that CHIP, and, they reported that there was a TON of Chinese knock-offs being sold as the real thing.

Well....I got hosed....both my POGO's got hosed...and I need to head off to Adafruit to see if i can get an FTDI cable....or see if i can find a reputable AMERICAN dealer that has a 3.3v USB to TTL/Serial cable available....I know there's GOT to be one....

I mean the cables can't ALL come from China....can they?!?!?

anyway, Majic...thanks for your message, and I'm looking at your schematic now. I'm not so sure, but, again, I might just have to cough up 20 bucks to get one from Adafruit.

Thanks again,

Kapt Blasto.

By the way....because of the "buds" on the Pogo Boards instead of a proper connector....

wouldn't it be a good idea to solder a USB-A receptacle to the "buds" and then dremel the sidewall to fit the receptacle?

I tried it, but....it didn't work so well for me...but any of you might have better luck. What I put instead was a receptacle that takes a "Mini-Molex" plug that you normally find in the back of 3.5" floppy drives. I took mine off an old USB2 Card that was broken and laying around...

i know some of you know what I'm talking about when I say "mini-molex."

I know that there is a page, depicting it's owner using what appears to be a Soundblaster-16 Stereo plug, or some other 4 pin plug receptacle, that had wires extending out from the soldered buds from the Bottom, and wrapped its way across the bottom of the pogo, to the other side of the pogo, where the 4 pin receptacle was...I think his name started with an H or something....i can't remember now...

BUT I'm guessing i'll have to order the adafruit USB to TTL cable, with the Single pin jumpers for 12 bucks and the 5 bucks shipping...

at least there's Win7 drivers for it...maybe win7x64 drivers because that's what I'm running, now!

does anyone have any idea How I can setup a BOOTP server, on Win7 Ult and have it feed my pogo UBOOT through my router? At least that way I can get the thing running again without having to crack open another pogo.

Or....can I jury-rig an ethernet cable to handle things? I noticed that when I soldered the leads to my "mini-molex" receptacle to the "buds" on the Pogo board....and then checked connectivity using a simple plug outlet tester with a bulb and battery setup...when I crossed the wires on pins 2 and 3 the green and yellow lights on the ETHERNET receptacle flashed! So I know that somehow, serial MIGHT be done through the ethernet receptacle....but HOW?????

>
> Any help you could offer me would be greatly
> appreciated.
>
You could build your own serial console cable using any Linux embedded system. Sometimes ago, I saw this article to turn a LaFonera FON2100 serial port into a serial console port. I happened to have a spare of LaFonera FON2100 device flashed with an openwrt firmware. Then, I installed a minicom package and turned its serial port into a serial console port. Now, I just use my FON2100 device to troubleshoot any device by connecting both serial ports with a CD cable (taking into consideration of swapping the TX/RX ports and removing the VCC line). If you have some other working Pogo device, I am sure you can use it to troubleshoot the other two that are currently bricked.

At home I'm almost exclusively using Debian (I have dual boot and Win7 x64 on another drive, but I only ever start it up if I want to play games or test something else), at work I have to use Windows XP (we're about to roll out Windows 7, but IT are a bit slow on the takeup), and I've used VMWare and VirtualBox - VirtualBox works quite well and you can shunt your USB devices to it (you'll need to download the USB/Shared Folder extension which isn't open source - it's on the same download page) I think VMWare can do the same thing - I can then use linux tools as many of the guides suggest

Can't help with the cable (while I'm thinking of making some and selling them, the boards I've made are tiny, are a pig to make and generally aren't suitable for retail) but you should be able to get all the components listed on that schematic at any electronics supplier (Mouser/RS/Farnell, there may be local suppliers in the area?)

The big problem with the CA42 cables is that while they do what you want internally, I'd only go near them if you've got one laying around - too many knock offs (I was fortunate enough to have one laying around) and in the end I settled on a Hirose HR10A-7P-4P (again, we use these at work, and have crimp tools around, there's solder versions of them and I'm playing with a personal device and using an identical one for a job at work) so fabbing my own cable is an option (I even printed my own PCB and got that to fit in a standard DB9 plug housing) but the circuit I posted does the same job in a pinch

The first cable I made up:

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n116/majic79uk/electronics/IMG_20130716_102204_zps96ab8adf.jpg

Proper level converter circuit:

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n116/majic79uk/electronics/LevelConverter_zpsd1f1a984.png

Tiny PCBs

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n116/majic79uk/electronics/IMG_20130806_223845_zps558f449d.jpg

No offence, but why do you bother him with schematics for serial converter boards and soldering this and that, when you can get a decent usb to serial converter board (PL2303) from Asia for about 3,-USD shipped?
It takes some time to get to your location, that's for sure, but the quality is good and it works perfectly.

ingmar_k Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No offence, but why do you bother him with
> schematics for serial converter boards and
> soldering this and that, when you can get a decent
> usb to serial converter board (PL2303) from Asia
> for about 3,-USD shipped?
> It takes some time to get to your location, that's
> for sure, but the quality is good and it works
> perfectly.

Becuase there's a risk that the asian converter (like the one he bought previously) doesn't do the job, whereas all the components on that schematic are available from any electronics shop for pennies? There's some soldering required at some point, and if you want something you know will work, then (in conjunction with any cheap USB/Serial converter) this is one solution?

I'm sorry, I thought I was in a hacking forum, discussing how to hack some devices and the chap complained that he couldn't get the phone cable hack to work. I understand his problem because I went through the same grief getting my mobile phone cable to work (and only because I'm using XP on one machine did I get further than him) so I developed two alternative solutions that work (for me) and I thought I'd share.

I don't get it - happy to crack open device, heat up and solder blobs of lead all over the place, not happy to put together a simple circuit on vero board to get it to talk to the PC.

I didn't say you shouldn't share. I think it's very nice that you did. Don't get me wrong. ;-) I solder something nearly every day and layouted my own usb to serial converter pcb and so on.

The point is the following:
Why reinvent the wheel, if there are working solutions readily available?
You don't even have to order the part from asia. That was just an example because it is the cheapest, if the shipping time doesn't bother you. Those usb to serial adapter (important: not the closed cable ones!!!) circuits do work. If you know what you should be looking for, you can get them nearly everywhere and really cheap.

So why let someone (who maybe doesn't have your expertise in soldering and layouting etc.) build their own adapter? It seems like really unnecessary complexity for someone who wants to start working with embedded devices.
If you don't get the point, then you don't get it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/2013 05:31AM by ingmar_k.

Well, not everyone lives in or can buy from the US - it's nice for you if you can, I've tried to buy stuff from the US and then had problems. Unfortunately there's no way to tell where people are posting from, and while those cables are plentiful in some areas, in other areas they are just cheap reproductions that don't work so well (if at all - I found this out buying an OBD adapter for my car). This is always the risk of buying to a cost.

Depends what your personal limitations are: "Don't have time to bung something together so I can wait for something I've ordered", through to "well I can spare a couple of hours to figure this out and save some money in the mean time" (incidentally, the first schematic allowed me to debrick my GoFlex Home in a couple of hours - from finding a suitable schematic, documenting what connects to what, laying it out ready for vero board, scrounging up some parts and soldering it all, to UART-booting my device)

from my point of view (biased as it may be) the whole "here's an open source world, please buy this cable to connect to your device" seems a little counter-intuitive. I'd much rather see "here's an open source world. This is how you connect to your device, but if you don't want to build it yourself, you can order one pre-made here"

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1-PCS-PL-2303HX-PL2303HX-USB-To-TTL-Converter-Adapter-Module-cable-00024440/697742228.html
Just an example. ;-) And these are tested to be working perfectly. You can get comparable adapters virtually anywhere.

I'll leave it at that, because I don't think any further discussion would make much sense.

If you feel the need to build you own adapter, then feel free to do so.If you have the time and want to learn something, there's nothing wrong about it.

I've yet to see one for sale in a convenience store, or even a reasonably sized electronics store where you can walk in and just buy one - if this is different for you, then I am a little jealous!

Anyway, I like etching PCBs and doing my little electronics projects, if I'm not up against the clock, then I may have ordered something similar myself. I'm just showing that with a little patience and effort, you can do these wonderful things - this is all learning curve for me still, and some of the path isn't as well trodden for me as it was for the PogoPlug, so there's new things and new ways of doing things I can maybe contribute - not to mention that I'd much rather keep local businesses afloat than foreign ones

majic79 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Anyway, I like etching PCBs and doing my little
> electronics projects, if I'm not up against the
> clock, then I may have ordered something similar
> myself. I'm just showing that with a little
> patience and effort, you can do these wonderful
> things - this is all learning curve for me still,
> and some of the path isn't as well trodden for me
> as it was for the PogoPlug, so there's new things
> and new ways of doing things I can maybe
> contribute - not to mention that I'd much rather
> keep local businesses afloat than foreign ones

I like your attitude w.r.t being patient. That's why I prefer to place my orders from AliExpress than from Amazon to save a lot of money. The AliExpress' PL2303HX USB To TTL Converter above is one of many examples. Aside from a long waiting for the package to arrive (patient), the only problem is if the product is defective because it is not economically to ship it back for a full refund. However, with AliExpress satisfaction guarantee, buyers are entitled to get a partial refund or even a full refund for the damage goods so long the goods are shipped back to the seller.

Well, I should have gotten on here, and went to aliexpress.com like some have said...

I went to Banggood.com and ordered a similar product (one that uses a PL-2303HX chip) for an arduino board, and, in the picture the "wire" ends looks like they each have 1-pin connectors, so it might be good...I don't know...they also have a US warehouse, so, if I have to return it again, it just return it to their us warehouse, I guess.....

Kapt Blasto Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, I should have gotten on here, and went to
> aliexpress.com like some have said...
>
> I went to Banggood.com and ordered a similar
> product (one that uses a PL-2303HX chip) for an
> arduino board, and, in the picture the "wire" ends
> looks like they each have 1-pin connectors, so it
> might be good...I don't know...they also have a US
> warehouse, so, if I have to return it again, it
> just return it to their us warehouse, I guess.....

Kapt,

I use this serial module converter:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?8,13263,13264#msg-13264

FWIW, I agree with what ingmar_k said :) I want it to work with the minimum effort. And I buy little things from China all the time on EBay, and never had problem (I usually choose the vendor that has been selling on EBay for a long time).

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

Got the Delivery from Banggood.com, took 14 days from Hong Kong.

Anyway, plugged it into the Win 7 computer....and it was coming up a code 31, then I fiddled around with the earlier versions of the driver, and it was coming up a code 39. I was ready to chuck the cord again, but then I wondered, "well, what if my drivers for my other components were old or something....so I downloaded 3DP and checked my setup....upgraded my intel drivers to the latest for my win7x64 acer aspire board.

And whadya know....sucker worked! Have a COM4 (Or, a Com 5, com 6, com...any number I want above 3)

Now, I first have to hook this up to the MOBILE POGO, because that's where I was having trouble first off, (and because that's where I soldered a "mini-molex" receptacle to the serial buds!)

and that