Open Peak Devices

[pete]

Dumb question.

Is the NVRAM the same as the EFI.ROM file that I uploaded to the OpenFrame2 device?

Guessing that it is then maybe that was the reason my original "utilities" or "comed" image didn't work when I wrote it back. That said I had also updated the EFI.ROM file prior to the restoral.

I did notice when I changed it and it rebooted; it did the software update thing again but it also reset a bunch of stuff going back to a startup with which had me picking the language of use and IP stuff. I entered it and it went back to the updated with new widgets screen including the SB player widget. It did change things though because SB didn't work right.

[roobarb!]

Is the NVRAM the same as the EFI.ROM file that I uploaded to the OpenFrame2 device?

No, the NVRAM is actually nothing more than the first few hundred bytes of space on the usual 1GB (or 2GB on the OpenFrame 2 / OpenFrame 7) internal storage chip. The NVRAM command just reads and writes to that area, which comes before the usual partitions.

If you write an image to internal memory, you'll overwrite those NVRAM settings with whatever they were in the image file you used.

[pete]

Thanks Andy!

I noticed that the only "utilities" profile was for "comed" with is our local electric company here in the midwest.

[pete]

I've redone/resized the partitions now such that partition 2 is over a Gb, 3 is literally blank and 4 is what is left over.

I am running with a base provided by Offbeatdave with pieces from PnP3 including SP. It is working well this way.

It is reading the RTC hardware clock just fine on cold boot. It is doing an odd pause and update thing on cold boot with an update screen.

Ideally now though I would like to redo it all with roobarb's latest joggler/o2 firmware. Issue was that all appeared to work except for the sound pieces.

I am taking one of the Openframe2 boxes over to utilizing Seabios just to play some more. I am also now connecting up to the second USB port on the top of the Openframe box. I have ordered the connector but as of yet not tried it.

Wondering too if I can just install a tiny version of Mint on the 2 Gb flash drive.

IE: Could I just thin out the current Joggler Mint version and do a partition copy from the USB stick to the flash drive? Is this feasible?

It would just be like a 60Mb partition #1, 250mb partition #2 and the rest being partition 3?

[toadmazter]

For those that are interested, I sacrificed a Cisco branded unit so I could take some photos of its guts. Take a look.

HEC1.jpg

HEC2.jpg

HEC3.jpg

[pete]

Wow toadmazter; great pictures!

That WLAN card is what I see with a LSUSB/LSPCI command. It "could" be a combo bluetooth and wLAN card.

I wonder if the other side antenna thingy is just for Zigbee or maybe its a GSM setup for a sim card connection?

Yesterday took one of my units and installed the last coreboot/seabios on it.

Works fine with windows XP (last Mevi build).

That said though I cannot get the sound, Zigbee, wireless, bluetooth or built in network to work.

I think this one might have been a phone hub; not sure. It is a bit abused as the screen appears loose along with the speaker grill. I can't take it apart though. The back bracket also is a bit floppy. That said though in Windows XP mode the touch is very sensitive (more so than the Jogglers) and I can navigate well with my touchscreen HA application

The errors though relate to the BIOS where as each of the drivers is loading and saying that it has no resources to run.

I think that the Wireless card is a combo 802.11 X plus Bluetooth card. I have one of these in one HP laptop.

The RTC battery clock does work in that XP is keeping the time in sync with a cold boot. I configured it connecting a 12 port USB hub on it. That said it has one boot XP memory stick, USB NIC, Storage Memory stick with Joggler XP drivers, separate USB keyboard and mouse. All of these devices boot fine and it boots up to XP every time.

I cannot get the "DECT" OpenPeak phone to work with my other Openpeak DECT phones. I am wondering now if this is actually a DECT phone and maybe instead it is a bluetooth phone? I do not see the DECT chip in your pictures.

I was able to get the Verizon Hub OpenPeak DECT phone to pair up right away with my VOIP box (with DECT); so wondering maybe on some variance of design relating to their phone hub?? I cannot unregister and register this phone for whatever reason. The phone appears to be doing something though cuz it reboots itself when I try to register it. The other Openpeak phone does a double beep and saids its registered.

[roobarb!]

Taking a close look at the top-right corner of the board, I can just make out a Skyworks SKY65336-11 chip. These OpenPeak devices definitely have Zigbee on board, and the Broadcom card definitely has a Bluetooth chip on it as well.

My guess is that the Zigbee chip is accessed via the Cygnal CP210x, which enumerates as /dev/ttyUSB0. Exciting times!

[roobarb!]

My guess is that the Zigbee chip is accessed via the Cygnal CP210x, which enumerates as /dev/ttyUSB0. Exciting times!

I'm right! Looking through some of the code now - the CP210x provides a USB interface to the UART of an Ember ZigBee SoC, which in turn chats to the SKY65336-11 transmit/receive module. Haven't managed to get it to do anything as yet, but there are goodies in the internal memory. I've got some ZigBee devices from an AlertMe system - if they're not talking some confusticated version of ZigBee, it would be amazing to have them chat to this OpenFrame.

I wonder, did Cisco ever produce any accessories for monitoring energy usage?

[roobarb!]

My guess is that the Zigbee chip is accessed via the Cygnal CP210x, which enumerates as /dev/ttyUSB0. Exciting times!

I'm right! Looking through some of the code now - the CP210x provides a USB interface to the UART of an Ember ZigBee SoC, which in turn chats to the SKY65336-11 transmit/receive module. Haven't managed to get it to do anything as yet, but there are goodies in the internal memory. I've got some ZigBee devices from an AlertMe system - if they're not talking some confusticated version of ZigBee, it would be amazing to have them chat to this OpenFrame.

Okay, this is getting interesting. I can't boot the normal Cisco interface because it tries and fails to fetch a download. However, booting into a basic Ubuntu build, it is possible to use the command line tools on the internal flash to initialise the EmberZNet PRO stack on the EM260 SoC.

Weirdly, the EM260 is the exact same SoC they use in the AlertMe hub.

What I need now is some understanding of how to chat to the EM260. I believe that it can be done with AT commands, but this is completely new territory for me!

[pete]

Neato!

There is a test directory in the builds and tools inside for the Bluetooth, DECT and Zigbee stuff. I couldn't get the zigbee tools to work though.

I wonder if I could get something to work with minicom?

[roobarb!]

I'm in!

I have no idea what I'm doing, but I am definitely talking to the EM260. Which, as my reading has taught me, is not a SoC but a Network Co-Processor.

[roobarb!]

I have no idea what I'm doing, but I am definitely talking to the EM260. Which, as my reading has taught me, is not a SoC but a Network Co-Processor.

Well, I've had enough for now, but I did manage to put the Zigbee system into some sort of scan mode and I received four packets of data from a Zigbee motion sensor I have here. It's not 'real' data, as the device is only in search mode, but it proves that the system does work. The problem is that I can't find any more code on the main system that shows me how to use it properly. I was hoping it would be in the Linux or Tango parts, but I've a worrying feeling they've done it in ActionScript and buried it in the Flash code somewhere.

Basically, I found that:

- You can init the stack on the EM260 network co-processor by using /sbin/zping -p ttyUSB0
- If you fire up /openpeak/ember/zig, it begins listening on port 1236 for a connection.
- Use telnet to connect to that port (either over ethernet or locally) and type 'help' for the options.
- Using MfgStart 1 (I think that was the command) will begin some sort of scanning.

The tricks from this point on will be to join devices to form a network and figure out how to get data from them. I'm not 100% hopeful that this will be possible using the AlertMe devices, as they're not designed to be open, but they're certainly a place to start. There are technical manuals and user guides for the EM250 and EM260 chips on the Silicon Labs web pages, but the real nitty-gritty is only available if you've got a developer's kit. Those two binaries (zping and zig) are not reliant on the native OS to work though, and they're all that appears to be needed to get into that console mode.

Finally, from the versions I have seen it would appear that the OpenFrame 2 goes by numerous names, as it was adapted for different uses. I have an OpenFrame 2.0, which would seem to be close to the reference design - it has the Philips VegaOne audio chipset, which I assume is for use in conjunction with DECT for the handsets. There's CGH-100-ZB (which contains the ZigBee chipset and no apparent gear for phones), the OpenFrame 7E and the OpenFrame 7EZ. My guess is the OpenFrame 7 name appeared in the latter days of the devices as a re-badge.

Time to stop and do other things.

[pete]

Great news Roobarb!

Not really sure where to start with Zigbee.

I can though purchase the same thermostat I have in place today with both a Zigbee interface and serial interface with a controller.

I did also get another Openframe 2 unit; worst shape of the bunch; this one doesn't power up; so I could use it maybe for spare parts.

BTW which firmware build are you using Roobarb?

Is it one that you have on your FTP site?

The one I have works but keeps booting to an upgrade screen then goes into the OS.

[pete]

Attached are scanned Openframe2 Acrobat files.

These came with the generic Openframe non branded phone hub. It was well packaged in the original box. This Openframe2 is currently running XBMC and it was the one that was a bit abused; screen seems loose along with the speaker grill. I cannot get the DECT phone to work with another DECT hub right now. Odd that I have another OpenPeak telco branded DECT phone which did pair up right away with my DECT hub.

I uploaded these to Dropbox.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1nzj05sguf8b2 ... guideA.pdf
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gudycb6yldpsy ... guideA.pdf

[pete]

Opened the hub which didn't work. Found out that its relatively easy to take apart; after cutting into the case some. The speaker grill and the LCD just lift up. Underneath the LCD and Speaker grill are 6 screws that hold a plastic cover to the motherboard. I left mine intact such that I could mount the assembly back together.

The motherboard is a bit different that the one pictured above.

It appears that one diode next to the power input is burned up. Maybe just replacing this diode will make the unit functional. I have no idea though about the value of the smd diode.

There is a DECT labeled connector on the motherboard with nothing plugged into it. There are also PATA port traces on it.

I really do not know whether this was an energy hub or telephone hub. There was no antenna connected to the Zigbee antenna jack and nothing plugged into the DECT jack. I purchased this one for $5 USD with the user telling me he plugged in the wrong power supply. That said I am wondering and hoping some that maybe its just the little SMD diode that is burned up?

Will take pictures.

[pete]

I originally started with some wire nippers cutting pieces out of the back of the case looking some sort of release mechanism. I then "lifted" the speaker cover off and saw the two screws. I then pryed up on the LCD (there is a kind of rubber ring around it holding it in place) and it came right up. That said the four holes on the bottom would be utilized to push on the LCD plastic mount tabs. It is just as easy though to slip a screwdriver where the tabs are and push while lifting the LCD. There are four screws behind the LCD which hold the plastic LCD mounting frame to the chasis.

The whole device is very well contructed.

[pete]

I played a bit with the pictures to provide more detail.

The burned 3 post diode appears to be an overvoltage circuit diode of some sort. That said maybe it was the first in line with the overvoltage and burned up before any other damage occurred to the circuit board? Nothing else appears to have scorch marks on it. When I plug in the 5VDC Openpeak power supply; the power supply gets hot really fast as if it is shorting out. The LED lamp on the transformer also blinks.

[pete]

I cut out the bad diode today and was able to power up the Openpeak2 device; in pieces right now.

It seems to be a combo Zigbee thermostat and telephone hub software version 26087. It does show a DECT FT: config file.

The PCiE clip is soldered in place but looks easy to move such that I can move it up an inch or so the the regular sized PCiE bracket traces. Since there was so little solder holding the bracket in place I just lifted it off the main board. For the testing its out of the way. To mount it on the top traces all I need to do is resolder it.

Forgot that I had a few of these little PCiE to ZIF adapters so using one of these with a 16Gb SSD card.

[hawsey]

Nice 1 Pete good to hear you got it up and running

[pete]

I'm guessing that the burned out diode was just an overvoltage protection piece which shorted out with probably an over 5VDC power supply.

As its all in pieces this one would make a good wall mounted "Joggler".

Right now just playing with it formatting the ZIF SSD using Buzz's Linux Mint USB boot. The PATA traces are on the motherboard such that I can use the SSD drive via ZIF on those connectors too and maybe utilize the PCiE slot for something else.

This OpenPeakII makes for a nice experimental device. Thinking of also soldering the SD card slot thing into place.