Re: More Status of "Home Grown" ActionTec Development Daughterboard

Very cool.  As for the USB cable, I used a standard male-to-male cable.  
I used the same USB brackets as the source for my connectors.  Male to 
male cables aren't all that unusual.  I had several in my cable 
collection.  However, given the size of the enclosure, a mini-usb 
connector seems very desirable, though those cables are a lot less 
common.  As a side note, the blank SW2 on the Actiontec board is 
connected to the #RESET pin.  For those who are so inclined to put a 
switch there, it would save the reset cutout in the top.

When "booting" in USB mode, you really won't see anything from the 
modem.  Put the switch in USB mode and power it up.  If you want to 
check and see if it worked, plug it into a USB aware OS.  The OS should 
enumerate the modem, though probably not much else.  The modem is pretty 
much waiting for a transfer from the flash program. 

I'm working on building a couple of different kernels.  First I want to 
build a kernel that will operate the modem in "stock" mode.  This will 
give us a base to work from.  Second, I want to build an NFS root 
kernel.  This would make testing much easier.  I'm also working on 
building a 2.4.24 uCLinux kernel.  This one is proving a bit more 
difficult. 

Thanks for the board Bruce, it will be put to good use.  I'll send my 
address off list.

Patrick M

Bruce D. Lightner wrote:

> Dear ActionTec Hackers:
>
> I spent the day "packaging" the "home grown" Actiontec Development 
> Daughtercard.  Here is a "clickable photo collage of the results...
>
>   http://www.lightner.net/ActionTec/ActionTec.html
>
> I moved the UART crystal to the underside of the PCB.  Given the extra 
> room on top, with a lot of unused copper foil, I decided to add the 
> "boot mode" and "reset" switches to the PCB.  (I'm good with an Exacto 
> knife under a microscope.)
>
> As you can see I added cutouts to the top of the enclosure for the 
> reset button and tiny surface-mount "boot mode" switch.  A little 
> bigger switch would make sense...I used what I had on hand.
>
> You can see that I added the DB9 RS-232 console port connector to the 
> side of the case.  I also added the USB Type A female connector to the 
> same side of the case.  However, when it came time to test USB boot 
> mode, I realized that I would need a very odd USB cable...Type A male 
> to Type A male.  This is used for PC-to-PC communications.
>
> I think it would be better to put something more standard on the 
> Actiontec case, like a Type B female USB connector.  (Assuming that 
> what everyone tells me about the Actiontec's ARM9 processor, namely is 
> can only be a USB slave device!)  Anyway, until I hunt down (or build) 
> a Type A male to Type A male USB cable, USB testing will have to 
> wait.  (Patrick, what did you do?)
>
> Anyway, when the "boot mode" switch is in "USB" mode, the Actiontec 
> sends nothing to the console and just waits.  I assume it is doing 
> it's "USB thing", and until I plug it into a PC USB port, nothing is 
> going to happen.
>
> You can find what *my* Actiontec Dual PC modem sends to the console 
> port here...
>
>    http://www.lightner.net/ActionTec/bootup.txt
>
> It's a lot of stuff.  (The PPP login info you see is junk, so don't 
> bother trying to use it! :-)
>
> Time to go drink beer and BBQ with my nerdy friends...because it's 
> Thursday, and that's what we all do every Thursday night.  Maybe I'll 
> update the Wiki while I'm there.  Maybe I'll even find someone with 
> the proper USB cable!
>
> I'll try loading the kernel that I built from the Actiontec source 
> release next...probably this weekend.
>
> Patrick, thanks for all the work.  Plan on getting one of these PCBs 
> (with the parts attached) from me as thanks.  Send me your address.
>
> As for the rest of you that want one of these, I'm looking into some 
> options.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Bruce
>

__
ActionHack Mailing List - ActionHack-W7/[email protected]
http://www.express.org/mailman/listinfo/actionhack
http://www.embeddedlinuxinterfacing.com/wiki.php/ActiontecDualModem