Hacking Utils Board

intro

this project is in the concept phase but the idea is that a lot of embedded systems hacks use the same general components. this board will allow me to consolidate these tools in one place.

i'm just going to buy the breakout board i think.

circuits

these are the most common circuits that will be on the hacking utils board

breakout

breakout headers for various common chips (SOIC, 0.5mm pitch pads...), this could be used for LCD connectors, small ICs...

wiggler

the wiggler JTAG interface is really just a buffered connection to a PC parallel port. there are many JTAG programs that support this interface and is especially useful with linux.

DLC5

• * this is a maybe since the wiggler will be included*

similar to the wiggler this is a Xilinx JTAG interface that is again just a buffered connection to a PC parallel port. there are many JTAG programs that support this interface and is especially useful with linux.

RS232 Interface

many embedded systems have a serial port - this will handle level shifting to easily hook it up to a PC. to save space this will use something like the Acroname serial port (four header Vcc Tx Rx Gnd) and use a dongle to switch to a DB9 connector (i already made this) 32 pin and 48 NAND flash interface

the 48 pin is much more common but the 32 pin type are often on harddrives or very small embedded systems (like juicebox carts). this interface will simply pull the pins out to easy to solder pads/some connector

• these should be fitted with sockets - no point in having to solder/desolder these NAND chips all the time.

SmartMedia Connector

the idea being that a smart media card connected to the flash interface will make it easy to dump/flash the NAND to/from a PC. this could possibly be built into the circuit board itself but will more likely be an external connection to something like a xD to SmartMedia^? adapter. the drawback to building it into the board itself is the loss of a lot of real estate. Several Power Buses

Options include supplying power to some/all onboard circuits, target system... but need to allow seperate power supplies for the target and onboarc circuits. 3.3V, 5V, 12V should be easily accessible (what current draw?)

in addtion there needs to be many different connections to ground to keep a common ground between circuits. I2C Header

likely just a couple of 4 pin headers to wire into the target system and into something that speaks i2c (either pc or uC) and optional built in pull-ups

Vcc SDA SDL Gnd

SPI Header

similar to the I2C interface - really just some headers to consolidate the connections

DAC

is this really useful?

would be used to create specific voltages to output to the target system

ADC

read analog signals from the target system. if done right this can also be used as a simple oscilloscope.

General Purpose IO

any left over space will be used for GPIO because you can never have enough.

uC

An onboard uC to act as glue - if space allows make a avroncis header instead to allow for various daughter cards/ easy uC upgrades.

-- ChristopherPepe - 17 Mar 2006