How To Jtag Motorola SB6121 Modem With USBJTAGNT

SB6XXX,SBV6XXX

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CAPONE
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Post by CAPONE »

Pir8pete wrote:everyone said do no hot plug or use both external power and modems power at the same time,.... rrrrrrghhh now I'm mad. Glad someone posted what finally works. I have been going crazy over this ff,ff,ff deal, not detecting the flash

dam it, I just sent all my stuff to usbbdm today express mail, to figure out. oh well

I did everything the same, but here's what I didn't do, I didn't do it in that order. Funny how NO one knew this or spoke up and just told me.

I could take that ISP flash chip on and off 1000 times w/o ruining anything with my Vision engineering microscope and halo soldering iron. one tip cost $50 I have all sorts, pin pitch to the big blade


So this is the way we need to boot up the modem and usbjtag nt for it to read?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1) Plug in USB 5V cable
2) connect DC jack on modem and let the modem boot (done waiting when the blue light is flashing "Receiving")
3) while waiting go ahead and connect your USBJtagNT usb cable on both ends and start the software
4) set Category as Modem, Protocol to SPIFLASH and Target to SB6120
5) Connect USBJtagNT to ribbon cable (pay attention to pin 1 on the RED side)
6) set range to AllFlash and press ID to identify the chip
7) It should fail with FF,FF,FF
8) Unplug DC jack from modem (took me some time to find out)
9) ID the chip it should now be successful
USBBDM Is the one that always say DON DO HOT PLUG, I have always said its BS. Clearly you have not been paying attention to what I have posted or suggested. :rolleyes:
"If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime."
CAPONE
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Post by CAPONE »

digitalx wrote:so my question is it the same pinout as 6120 ?????
I have answered that 100's of times. An SPI flash is AN SPI flash whether its in a Modem, Laptop or a box of Corn Flakes.
"If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime."
CAPONE
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Post by CAPONE »

MoonGoon wrote:Bravo! This Man's a Solid! Even gave ya a look at his Bench. All the Tools in their proper place. A breath of fresh air to see a Tester be on time and punctual. God, I was getting slightly depressed before this went down. Without a doubt, an excellent teacher. The Man laid down a substantial track of wisdom. For a letter grade, I give him an A . Nothing more to say.
Well he sure laid it down in an IDIOT PROOF Way for sure. If people still don't have success, then they should find another hobby........
"If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime."
Killswitch
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Post by Killswitch »

Wow! If everybody here were a little closer to this Man's approach, things would be a lot more orderly around here. He put it up onto the Blackboard in a way that was meant to REACH the peeps here. And, as we well know. many of the Testers here are looking to catch edge in almost anyway they can without doing the necessary research. He's an effective Teacher. I applaud him.
CAPONE
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Post by CAPONE »

MoonGoon wrote:Wow! If everybody here were a little closer to this Man's approach, things would be a lot more orderly around here. He put it up onto the Blackboard in a way that was meant to REACH the peeps here. And, as we well know. many of the Testers here are looking to catch edge in almost anyway they can without doing the necessary research. He's an effective Teacher. I applaud him.
YEs no Doubt hid did an EXCELENT JOB, However at the same time he just Spoon Feed these folk that want to achieve a goal with out doing any work.

So in the End, the remain as Useless as before as far as learning how things work. Like I always say, YOU CAN TEACH A MONKEY HOW TO DO ANYTHING BY SHOWING THEM HOW ITS DONE. But if you Don't show them, They won't learn on there own, pretty Useless.........

Great Tutorial Non the Less.............
"If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime."
geant90
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Post by geant90 »

I agree. When you see that some people has been stuck trying to figure something out for months, however; there is nothing wrong with a helping hand. There are so many claimed SPI points that it could just lead people nowhere and destroying there equipment. I am not sure if there are newer unofficial "revisions" that prevent access to the SPI chip.

If someone was an early purchaser of the SB6121 can you please share your PN and SN feel free to leave out the last two digits. Some people claimed on other post that they had no problem ID'ing the flash. Where mine would not ID for any reason at all until I accidentally found the proper way. Like that other guy who had 3 of them and 2 flashed fine but one would not ID.

And how you got to ID the chip: just worked with external 5v or you had to follow the procedure I listed to gain access.
geant90
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Post by geant90 »

So after googling info on the SPI MX25L6405D my theory was right. As I was unaware:
"The MX25L1605D/3205D/6405D is designed to offer protection against accidental erasure or programming caused by
spurious system level signals that may exist during power transition. During power up the device automatically resets the
state machine in the Read mode. In addition, with its control register architecture, alteration of the memory contents only
occurs after successful completion of specific command sequences. The device also incorporates several features to
prevent inadvertent write cycles resulting from VCC power-up and power-down transition or system noise."

Which is why even without the ISP point we need it to boot properly, then power off the modem while still providing the SPI power to keep its current state. If you have a better source of 3.3v you can go for it but the voltage on my (and almost everyone else I've been told) usbjtagnt is just to low as (I used a multi-meter). Easiest alternative is a spare USB cable as everyone got one laying around.
CAPONE
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Post by CAPONE »

geant90 wrote:I agree. When you see that some people has been stuck trying to figure something out for months, however; there is nothing wrong with a helping hand. There are so many claimed SPI points that it could just lead people nowhere and destroying there equipment. I am not sure if there are newer unofficial "revisions" that prevent access to the SPI chip.

If someone was an early purchaser of the SB6121 can you please share your PN and SN feel free to leave out the last two digits. Some people claimed on other post that they had no problem ID'ing the flash. Where mine would not ID for any reason at all until I accidentally found the proper way. Like that other guy who had 3 of them and 2 flashed fine but one would not ID.

And how you got to ID the chip: just worked with external 5v or you had to follow the procedure I listed to gain access.
Personally, I have yet to be unsuccessful in reading and programming an SPI Flash, and Not just on Modems, I recently dumped and reprogramed an HP Laptops BIOS which was an SPI Flash, Which is Why I keep pounding the Fact that an SPI flash is an SPI Flash no matter in what equipment it is being Used and yet people are still DUMB enough to ask How to properly connect the USBJTAG NT to an SPI flash in X Model Modem....... WTF????

That aside, the other member you say that did flash 2 but was unable to flash a third one, Was more than likely an user error and may have burnt the flash or a pin on the USBJTAG NT. The simple fact that he was able to do 2 out of 3 is proof enough that the USBJTAG NT can do the Job..... ;)
"If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime."
geant90
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Post by geant90 »

I've never had a problem with any SPI flash either. but I can say this was my first one that was tricky. And I forgot what voltage was being put out by my NT on the 3.3v but it was definitely under 3.1. Well its been working just fine and dandy since 2010 so it is a damn fine product.
CAPONE
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Post by CAPONE »

geant90 wrote:I've never had a problem with any SPI flash either. but I can say this was my first one that was tricky. And I forgot what voltage was being put out by my NT on the 3.3v but it was definitely under 3.1. Well its been working just fine and dandy since 2010 so it is a damn fine product.
No Doubt, Mine has been taking a BEATING Since 2008 and Going Strong....
"If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime."
Pir8pete
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Post by Pir8pete »

geant90 wrote:Yes it will work. You know I primarily wrote this tutorial for you. lol Between your terrible English and the fact that you never gave up I had to do it. IDK if it is a new security feature on the board because I wanted to de-solder the entire SPI itself just to test if it would flash. While I did not bother reverse engineering it seems like there is possibly a circuit / lack of circuit that prevents from interacting with the SPI flash at all. I tried every method possible, just 5v + Jtag,power then Jtag etc. You do not need to boot with the 5V connected but I wanted an order every one can follow. The modem must power on and boot, and the 5V must remain on the SPI as i guess it is now "unlocked" then it will detect, read,write and even do a back flip. I guess this because the SB6121 was just a updated physical security version of the SB6120. They also included all solid capacitors (more or less same tuner).

I even went crazy and thought it was my soldering, however; I know even with a 15 dollar iron I could get the job done. I doubted my soldering and re-soldered a few points and then realized it could not be that afterwards.

thx bro, I really appreciate it, you really put together a great organized step by step.

alot of the times when I start typing being excited and don't go back to re-read, alot of times I leave out words and make typo's ;p
MrRogers
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Post by MrRogers »

I believe the only reason you have had to go through all these steps is because you have not found the ISP point as of yet, but it is there :D. Same as all the rest of the SPI modems :)

You just gotta know where to look, but I still gotta give credit to ya though, nice work on the tutorial. It is idiot proof for sure. And it also veers from giving too much info to the companies that produce the cable modems, they will not be able to change it up at the request of the service providers because the ISP pin is yet to be determined, or is it ;)
I JTAGGED your mom.
I was told that there is no such thing as a free lunch, I then learned through personal experience that the best things in life ARE FREE - Me

WE ARE ANONYMOUS, EXPECT US.

All posts/topics that I post in are completely hypothetical in real life and should not be taken seriously.
tlsmooth
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Old hp tower power supply

Post by tlsmooth »

i have been using a old power supply 3.5 orange wire and have not had to use the power cord to jump start the connection also has 5v but i have had better luck with the 3.5 i have a sb6120 that i think the usb power smoked ...... but just giving another option ........ great write up
ricktendo
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Post by ricktendo »

I have a FTDI 2232 UART board for external 3.3v power and was wondering if these power settings were too high

Image
Max Power

The max current drawn through the USB port when the device is connected. If this is a true self powered device then leave the field blank. Maximum value 500mAmps. (Default is 100mAmps)
Image
High Current I/O's

Setting this option will enable the high output drive level. The UART IO pins will drive out at 12mA instead of their normal 4mA. This will also cause the CBus and DBus pins to drive at 12mA.
CAPONE
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Post by CAPONE »

There is No need to use external Power on the SB6121 or Sb6141 for that matter.

Here is a Picture of the Location of the SB6121 ISP Point.

happy Testing!!!

http://imgur.com/a/DHGMA
"If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime."
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