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Subject: 
Re: ROM image using USB tower
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.rcx
Date: 
Thu, 11 Dec 2003 18:31:11 GMT
Viewed: 
4077 times
  
Okay, I gave in and bought one of the serial towers listed on bricklink.
I now have a ROM image, but am unable to disassemble it. Whatever
options I pass to h8300-hitachi-hms-objdump I get:

BFD: rom.srec:12: Unexpected character `0' in S-record file

I notice in the srec file that every 12th line is shorter then the rest,
  is this wrong/part of the problem?

Could someone post an MD5 sum of a known good ROM image so I can check
mine is right?

Andrew

Chris Phillips wrote:

Andrew,

I grabbed a ROM image awhile back using a serial tower and an RCX 1.0.  I
haven't tried this on a 2.0 brick, but I think the ROMware is identical in all
RCX versions.

Although Kekoa's SEND.C uses the serial tower, it is not too hard to substitute
a USB tower for a serial tower on WIN32.  There are two "secrets" to doing this:

1.  Open the tower using the WIN32 CreateFile() API function as if it were a COM
port, but instead of a device name of "\\.\COM1", use a device name of
"\\.\LEGOTOWER1" to open the USB tower.  (Additional USB towers presumably can
be accessed by incrementing the number, but I've never tried this.)
2.  The USB tower driver automatically "eats" the echo characters that are
received by the tower as it transmits, so there is no need to read and discard
your output bytes as you transmit.

Of course, SEND.C was written to use fileio-style device access, so there are a
few other steps to convert this program to work under WIN32.  If you are not
able to get this working on your own, drop me an e-mail and I'll see if I can
post a version of SEND.C that has been converted to work with the USB tower.

You also need the original FIRM0309.LGO file, as Kekoa's firmware patch will not
work with the newer FIRM0328.LGO.  I am not sure of a way for you to get a
legitimate copy of the older firmware file if you don't already have it.

I've had an idea kicking around for a way to update this procedure to work more
automatically (without a specific firmware file or even a PERL interpreter) but
I will not be able to do anything with it until sometime next week at the
earliest.  Again, drop me an e-mail if you are desperate for an immediate
solution.

You could also search BrickLink to see if anyone there is selling a serial IR
tower and/or an old RIS 1.0 CD-ROM.  For example, I see two IR towers for sale
there, (cable sold separately!) one of which will ship internationally:
http://www.bricklink.com/search.asp?q=x87&searchSort=Q&sz=100&sellerUsername=&t=&c=&u=&i=&uR=&invNew=&itemType=P&invType=
This might be the easiest way for you to get what you need to make Kekoa's
procedure work.

For those of you just joining tonight's broadcast, you can find the ROMware
upload instructions on the following page:

  http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics/rom-image.html

I hope this helps!

- Chris.



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: ROM image using USB tower
 
(...) Andrew, I grabbed a ROM image awhile back using a serial tower and an RCX 1.0. I haven't tried this on a 2.0 brick, but I think the ROMware is identical in all RCX versions. Although Kekoa's SEND.C uses the serial tower, it is not too hard to (...) (21 years ago, 12-Nov-03, to lugnet.robotics.rcx)

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