Sharp I/o Connector On C1000/3x00, which functions are supported? Options

[scholbert]

Hi folks,

in the last few weeks i followed some postings & tried to find out some facts about the sharp I/O connector on C1000/C3x00 devices (the port covered behind the plastic shield on the back). This led to some confusion .
So perhaps we might clear this up and collect some facts about this port, that's why i started this post.

You can find the specs of the I/O connector in this forum. It was released from sharp in 2001 and covers the SL-5000.
There are also some posts with a link to a document on hrw site where JTAG access for collie is mentioned (see link below).

All in all, these technical informations seem not to be completely valid for the latest C1000/3x00 devices.

Many of you reported that the serial lines are still available on the I/O connector of the C1000/3x00, because the standard sharp serial cable (C170) is still working with the C1000 as well as with the C3x00 devices. Another guy used it with a homemade cable as serial console output and had success.

I personally use a C3100 and did some measurements on the dedicated pins looking into the old spec from sharp.
The signals made sense to me, so i also assumed that the serial port is still there.
For now it is not completely tested by myself, but one may assume that pin 3-7 and pin 14 still carry the serial lines of ttyS0 (there's still some uncertainty about the handshake lines, i'd like to check this more intensely).

The behaviour of these pins may be identical to the SL-5000 spec.
So for the moment this could be taken as confirmed on C1000/3x00 devices!

Trisoft brought the JTAG thing on I/O into this forum.
At least in one of their famous documents JTAG is mentioned as service port available on I/O connector.

After having a closer look in the schematic published by hrw i thought it might be there as a secondary function of some of the serial lines.
Have a look at pin 13 (mentioned as reserved pull-down in SL-5000 spec), it is connected to VCC. Maybe there's a gate beeing activated through this pin which gives access to the JTAG lines of the cpu. At least on collie this should work.
This has to be checked for C1000/3x00!

Let's go further on!

How about the USB pins of the traditional I/O connector pinout (SL-5000 spec) on C1000/3x00?
No one mentioned a working USB connection using the USB pins on I/O connector.
Perhaps there's another USB host port waiting for connection.
As far as i remember albertr made some investigations concering additional USB inside C1000 (great page!!). The I/O connector is not discussed there.
I tried to connect a host PC as well as a memory stick with external power supply.
No success so far, but this has to be checked more extensely.
So the function of pins 9&12 of the connector is unsure (at least for me !)

Excluded on the C1000/3x00 I/O connector are pins 1,2 and 15,16. These were told not to be connected internally (formerly used as power input). This also seems correct.

The last thing is tested as well:
Pin 11 (VCC3) and Pin 8 (GND) deliver 3.3V power. These pins are allways under power. I don't think it can be switched without additional hardware.

Discussions are welcome!

scholbert

[TRIsoft]

Hi Scholbert,

in the last few weeks i followed some postings & tried to find out some facts about the sharp I/O connector on C1000/C3x00  devices (the port covered behind the plastic shield on the back). This led to some confusion  .

ok, let's maximize the confusion
I know, that we wrote in our startupguide that the connector is
for JTAG only now.
That's not the full truth. You're right, that there's also the serial
port functionality left. The funny thing is, that it only works well
with the original SHARP CE-170TS. We read a lot of reports that
the ZThinCableM/F and the ZBPDB9M/F fail.
The USB functionality is definitely not connected. Also the power
pins (used to charge the SL-C7x0/8x0 series) are now only connected
to testpoints.

Have a look at the pinout for the SL-C3x00 series here:
 CN601pinout.bmp ( 46.39K ) Number of downloads: 278


///TRIsoft

Marc Stephan

[Armagon]

Good thread. My first thought on seeing a related post was, "What? The C1000 has a serial port!?"

... there's also the serial
port functionality left. The funny thing is, that it only works well
with the original SHARP CE-170TS. We read a lot of reports that
the ZThinCableM/F and the ZBPDB9M/F fail.

I just want to be sure I understand correctly: If I get a CE-170TS cable, I have physical access to the serial port, and the signals it provides are correct for use with a PC. [Does anyone know how do the other cables differ? Are they just straight connections, or are there electronics inside? I imagine that I could get one of them and hack the connector off, but it seems like a lot of work since the original cable is still available.]

Do any of the current ROMs provide access to the serial port on a C1000 or C3x00?

Thanks,
Armagon

[Edit] PS. Does the cable act as a null-modem cable? Which is to say, if I plug it directly into my Z and into my PC, can I establish communications, or do I need a null-modem cable between the two of them?

[TRIsoft]

Hi Armagon,

Good thread.  My first thought on seeing a related post was, "What?  The C1000 has a serial port!?"

yes, it has. Shame on us because of the "only JTAG" in the manual.
But the cover is soooooo fragile and the serial port will only work
with the 170TS cable, so we haven't changed it.
OK, i should add that the first SL-C3000 sample we got, had no
serial I/O functionality. So, at the day i wrote that statement for
the manual, it was correct. Looks like Sharp changed something
for the mass production.

I just want to be sure I understand correctly:  If I get a CE-170TS cable, I have physical access to the serial port, and the signals it provides are correct for use with a PC.  [Does anyone know how do the other cables differ?  Are they just straight connections, or are there electronics inside?  I imagine that I could get one of them and hack the connector off, but it seems like a lot of work since the original cable is still available.]
Do any of the current ROMs provide access to the serial port on a C1000 or C3x00?

Yes, you understood it correctly. No black magic, no vodoo needed (OK,
throwing three dead cats over the cemetery fence at midnight could
help a bit ). Remove the cover, plug the CE-170TS in and you'll have
access to the serial port via /dev/ttyS0 .

PS.  Does the cable act as a null-modem cable?  Which is to say, if I plug it directly into my Z and into my PC, can I establish communications, or do I need a null-modem cable between the two of them?

The CE-170TS is a null-modem cable for use with a PC. If you want
to setup routers or do other strange things, you'll need a null-modem cable.

///TRIsoft

Marc Stephan

[TRIsoft]

Hi all,

just noticed that we forgot to answer one question:

Yes. There's some high-density, high-tech (haha) electronics
hidden in the cable (precisely, in the connector).
We assume, that the power consumption on the 3rd party
cables is a bit too high for the SL-C1x00 / SL-C3x00.
So the CE-170TS is the only one, that works.

///TRIsoft

Marc Stephan

[hvontres]

Hi all,

just noticed that we forgot to answer one question:

Yes. There's some high-density, high-tech (haha) electronics
hidden in the cable (precisely, in the connector).
We assume, that the power consumption on the 3rd party
cables is a bit too high for the SL-C1x00 / SL-C3x00.
So the CE-170TS is the only one, that works.

///TRIsoft

Marc Stephan

You could also try this circuit : pdaxrom serial board

[scholbert]

Fantastic,

it seems we got everything together concerning I/O connector on the new sharp models.
Below you find a reply from pelrun in another post.
I just wanted to add it in here for completion.

The 3100 schematic definitely provides for JTAG wired to behave as scholbert says: holding pin 13 high remaps 5 as TDI, 6 as TMS, 7 as TDO, 14 as TCK.

Unfortunately it looks like all the components in that circuit have been left off the production board, as one of albertr's nice highres photos of the board shows unpopulated chip positions right where I'd expect to see the two TC7WB66FK bus select chips, and the schematic has all the components in that part of the circuit marked as "OPEN". 

Maybe some warning is also required:
You should be very aware of what you're doing when using JTAG on the zaurus devices. Do not brick it forever!!!

At least you will need the bus switches on your board to use it .

Regards,

scholbert