Where to buy JTAG Cable

[Luca Toni]

Hi all,

I've searched and been through many forums and sites across the net looking for places where I can find a Solderless JTAG Cable.
I've fully read threads on this forum that have 43 pages, 18 pages, etc, etc. but I've still not found an answer.

I'm aware that there are similar threads to this one but their either dead or are at a dead-end (some poor souls never even got a single reply, see 2nd quote post below) so I decided to start a thread on it rather than hijack and post in someone else's thread as many have already done.

hello

can i buy a jtag cable or i must make it?

regards shiz

I have a crappy dm5620 that i dont have any connection tryed everything and resulted that i need a jtag operation for my patient.
Is there any place to buy a nice made jtag or a good description of making one reliable,dont whant to spend time to make a cable then blow the dm5620 not worth the time i think.
So plz fellows help me out with this......
Regards Gamias

thanx for the offer sKieth but iam in London, Can anyone let me know if i can buy a premade jtag cable and were from

Hi
Google dreambox jtag, and the popular auction site, they have them.
jbvid

can you guys tell me where to buy these plz.

Does anyone know where i can purchase one of these cables...?

you can also buy the cable from here:

hxxp://www.easymg.com/

or from here:

hxxp://www.diygadget.com/

hope it helps

Hello everybody,

Can i buy ready the jtag cable for dreambox 500s?
Thank you.

Then there's also this thread which is similar to this one: jtag cable help?

People have been asking for about 4 years now and people are still quite lost. Many popular places that were suggested like Tailor-Made Circuits, RS Online, Maplins, etc, etc, have either shutdown or don't have the cable anymore.


I've found some places of my own but I'd like to find out which cables would work or not.

Here are two JTAG Cables I've found on eBay by user ww21576:

JTAG Debrick wireless routers, WRT54GS, DD-WRT, FTA Receiver and more! | eBay

ALL IN ONE JTAG Debrick wireless routers, WRT54GS, DD-WRT, FTA Receiver and more | eBay

If you read the description carefully and look at the pictures, you can tell that to use that JTAG Cable I would also need Male-to-Male Jumper Cables to reposition the pin outlets (right?) because to a JTAG Cable with a DreamBox you need to use 8 columns of pins (see attached picture below), and as you can see in their description pictures they only use 5 (thus the need for Jumper Cables).


There's also a JTAG Kit on Eurosky and it says there that it would work for Dreambox 500, but is the 6 core cable supplied with it the right cable(s)?:

http://www.eurosky.co.uk/online/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=97

As for the only remaining popular sites, EASYmG and DIYGADGET which are nearly identical (except that the first also sells Male-to-Male Jumper Cables), they sell 20-pin JTAG Cables but I do not know the schematics/wiring inside these cables . If the wiring is the same as the ones from the eBay links then, again, I will need to use Male-to-Male Jumper Cables (right?):

http://www.easymg.com/jtag-cables.html?dir=asc&limit=25&order=price

http://www.diygadget.com/jtag-cables.html?dir=asc&limit=25&mode=list&order=price

They also sell 10-pin JTAG Cables but that (I think) is in need of a Male-to-Male Jumper Cable job as explained above.


I don't think anyone sells ready-made 16-pin (2x8-pin) JTAG Cables that are needed for the DreamBox as you can see in this picture of my BlackBox 500S motherboard:



Can anyone kindly tell me whether the links posted would work for a JTAG Cable? If not, could you recommend a place. Thank You in advance.


Luca

[Luca Toni]

Where to buy JTAG Cable

Okay, so the first attempt proved fruitless but never mind I've found the best of places to buy JTAG Cable parts from. As well as what you need for JTAG stuff, this place has it all - everything

Proto-Pic ? UK Electronic Components Distributors Online | Proto-PIC.co.uk

Check out my current basket that I've made so far! The prices...




HOWEVER, I come back to my original question: Is the cable in that picture the right one I should be after? Could someone please, please, verify and help me out here?
Have a look at it: SparkFun Ribbon Cable - 6 wire (3ft) (CAB-10648) | Proto-PIC.co.uk

If not, should I go with the Eurosky link that I gave in my last post above? In need of desperate help people

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank You.


Luca


P.S. Could an Admin or Super Moderator please fix the typo ('cabel') in the Thread title/link? 'Cause that is really starting to bug me. Sorry, and Thanks.

[mtv1]

~~~~ it in the cut cheaper to buy a clone an less heartache ..

[Luca Toni]

Thank You

~~~~ it in the cut cheaper to buy a clone an less heartache ..

Thank You for replying but I'm still stuck stubborn on getting this done by JTAG. I guess I prefer spending ?4.62 (+heartache), over ?36.89 for a new box.

[Luca Toni]

JTAG Success

Ohai guys. It's been a while. Just wanted to drop by and update you all on this JTAG case... quick hint: everyone likes a success story.

Okay enough the fruity start to the post, good news is, I went a head and bought the parts that I showed in the 2nd post, once again amazing prices and quality.




My BlackBox 500S is up and running like a beauty. The date of the last post was 26th February, I got the box working again around 11th March. I simply don't give up, give in, and surrender to nothing, everyday after college 6hours of soldering straight, burning all fingers and thumbs. Kept the wire a maximum of 3cm, so I literally had no room to put the box I just had to hold it pressed against the back of the PC and stay steady. EVERY TIME the wires inside would either touch each other or they would simply just come off because after all they were being pulled alot. Anything over 5cm was a no-no in my case.

I try ALL options, downloaded nearly 90MB worth of JTAG tools trying each one out, and then you're only allowed 2 or 3 error attempts before you have to restart the PC. As I said I had no space so I had to disconnect the monitor cable then slide my fingers through a small gap and pry the 25-pin connector off, reconnect monitor cable, restart, login, open tools, disconnect monitor, reconnect 25-pin connector, reconnect monitor, retry. But through all that, there was a 98% chance that the wires would come off the board or they would touch, etc.

So anyway, after 2 weeks straight I just flipped it and remade the wire from scratch (I had 3ft of it anyway) but I only had the 5-resistors of course, so that was a one off chance to get right. By the way throughout all this hastle I managed to drop 2 big blots of solder on to the board, the first time was a complete fatal incident and the second wasn't so bad. The first time... well have a look for yourself:



The component of the right is shown with size comparison to a penny. The component is the black "101" box on the very far left of the image near the edge (although the actual component maybe be smaller, such comparable to that of the components on the PCM board around it) (see image below).


(Image from: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-4838...uit-board.html)

When that came off I spent hours looking for that and thought of buying new one of them components, didn't know what it was called though, and pricing would have been ridiculous anyway but still. But then I went for the option of getting an old PC motherboard that I had lying around hoping to get a replacement component off that. It had the part but then when I was inches away from taking the solder-iron to the board, my eyes glanced upon a dot in a ball of ruined solder.....



I found the original piece. Soldered it back on. Where? Well if you look in the very first post there's a pic a posted on the BlackBox 500S motherboard, and just above and to the left of the red rectangle I drew out, you can see 2 "750" black boxes just under the writing "R115" and "R116". The component was that "750" box under "R115". When I soldered the part back on (amazingly) I went and continued on with fixing the actual JTAG cable... I know, I know...

The actual solution came by a no-no which was a 'PC running Windows 7'. The actual problem was that the old PC was too slow and so when it came to JTAGGING it, it just sat at 0% and did nothing, it didn't freeze but it didn't do anything else either. I once got 3% or 6% but that was a complete unexplainable event. So I switched to my normal Windows 7 PC, and (important) ran the JTAG tool which for me was the DOS version MANUALLY via Command Prompt, but before I initiated the right commands I set the "JtagDm500.exe" tool to "Run this program in compatibility for: Windows XP (Service Pack 2)" (by right clicking > Properties > Compatibility > ...) and viola. It did it on the first time, and fast. I forgot to change the MAC Address to a desired one by not putting in the change MAC Address commands at the time but it turned to be a "genuine DreamBox" one (00:09:34:xx:xx:xx), the 'x' were random numbers/letters so it all worked out beautifully in the end anyway.

Point being is that I went through a helluva lot of crap and pain to get this up and running.

You know, I wasn't lying about what I said in my last post about heart-ache. Moral here is: careful what you say or wish for, it may come true.

Also, I was told to sling it (the box) by mtv1 above. But, meh, I'm glad I didn't.


So as I said I got it working by 11th March or something and I loaded the OpenPLI image onto it. Had all my stuff ready for the process. I've updated it with the image released on the 19th March, I can spot many things that need fixing though, and tried many versions of CCcam (sshhh...).

So here's the result:




Of course, you can see I've also got HotBird 13.0E as well as Astra 2 28.2E, running with CCcam 2.2.1.


Thanks for reading. Thank God for everything is all I can say.


P.S. This post is fruity enough to get banned for even though it's not against the rules but oh well. Worth it hehe.

[mast]

Hi

That made some reading and well done. I too have been trying to get one jtagged and like have gone through a lot well maybe not as much you but thats the way it felt till I read your story.

The outcome for me is not the same though, for me the dos programs would initilze and then sit on done, tried different options , pc`s, cables etc.

Soldered unsoldered countless times had tried the windows program that only managed to connect couple of times (both times with some errors) but on the 3rd time no errors and flashed 100% only for it to then give up the green light and totally die. Wont connect to dreamup at all.

I too dont like giving up but think this is the end of the road for me.

Regards

[smoggie]

nice effort m8, well done. Nice of you to come back let us know how You got on.

[Luca Toni]

Thanks

Hi

That made some reading and well done. I too have been trying to get one jtagged and like have gone through a lot well maybe not as much you but thats the way it felt till I read your story.

The outcome for me is not the same though, for me the dos programs would initilze and then sit on done, tried different options , pc`s, cables etc.

Soldered unsoldered countless times had tried the windows program that only managed to connect couple of times (both times with some errors) but on the 3rd time no errors and flashed 100% only for it to then give up the green light and totally die. Wont connect to dreamup at all.

I too dont like giving up but think this is the end of the road for me.

Regards

Cheers mate. Yeah, sometimes we encounter problems of certain kinds where we think no one else has come across before, it sucks to be in that situation. Of course regarding a no lights at all then some would recommend to you check the power supply, the power connectors, etc, etc.

When it does come to the end of the road like you said, the options available are buying a new one. I mean, you can get a BlackBox 500S for ?32.77 now. Win-win.

All the best.

[Luca Toni]

No problem

nice effort m8, well done. Nice of you to come back let us know how You got on.

No problem mate. Yeah, it helps out the community out who've got similar problems more than it helps me. Glad I got round to updating my posts. I never liked dead threads back when I was Forum Moderator.

[Bajos]

Ohai guys. It's been a while. Just wanted to drop by and update you all on this JTAG case... quick hint: everyone likes a success story.

Okay enough the fruity start to the post, good news is, I went a head and bought the parts that I showed in the 2nd post, once again amazing prices and quality.



My BlackBox 500S is up and running like a beauty. The date of the last post was 26th February, I got the box working again around 11th March. I simply don't give up, give in, and surrender to nothing, everyday after college 6hours of soldering straight, burning all fingers and thumbs. Kept the wire a maximum of 3cm, so I literally had no room to put the box I just had to hold it pressed against the back of the PC and stay steady. EVERY TIME the wires inside would either touch each other or they would simply just come off because after all they were being pulled alot. Anything over 5cm was a no-no in my case.

I try ALL options, downloaded nearly 90MB worth of JTAG tools trying each one out, and then you're only allowed 2 or 3 error attempts before you have to restart the PC. As I said I had no space so I had to disconnect the monitor cable then slide my fingers through a small gap and pry the 25-pin connector off, reconnect monitor cable, restart, login, open tools, disconnect monitor, reconnect 25-pin connector, reconnect monitor, retry. But through all that, there was a 98% chance that the wires would come off the board or they would touch, etc.

So anyway, after 2 weeks straight I just flipped it and remade the wire from scratch (I had 3ft of it anyway) but I only had the 5-resistors of course, so that was a one of chance to get right. By the through out all this hastle I managed to drop 2 big blots of solder on to the board, the first time was a complete fatal incident and the second wasn't so bad. The first time... well have a look for yourself:



The component of the right is shown with size comparison to a penny. The component is the black "101" box on the very far left of the screen near the edge (although the actual component maybe be smaller, such comparable to that of the components on the PCM board around it) (see image below).



When that came off I spent hours looking for that and thought of buying new one of them components, didn't know what it was called though, and pricing would have been ridiculous anyway but still. But then I went for the option of getting an old PC motherboard that I had lying around hoping to get a replacement component off that. It had the part but then when I was inches away from taking the solder-iron to the board, my eyes glanced upon a dot in a ball of ruined solder.....



I found the original piece. Soldered it back on. Where? Well if you look in the very first post there's a pic a posted on the BlackBox 500S motherboard, and just above and to the left of the red rectangle I drew out, you can see 2 "750" black boxes just under the writing "R115" and "R116". The component was that "750" box under "R115". When I soldered the part back on (amazingly) I went an continued on with fixing the actual JTAG cable... I know, I know...

The actual solution came by a no-no which was a 'PC running Windows 7'. The actual problem was that the old PC was too slow and so when it came to JTAGGING it, it just sat at 0% and did nothing, it didn't freeze but it didn't doing anything either. I was got 3% or 6% but that was a complete unexplainable event. So I switched to my normal Windows 7 PC, and (important) ran the JTAG tool which for me was the DOS version MANUALLY via Command Prompt, but before I initiated the right commands I set the "JtagDm500.exe" tool to "Run this program in compatibility for: Windows XP (Service Pack 2)" (by right clicking > Properties > Compatibility > ...) and viola. It did it on the first time, and fast. I forgot to change the MAC Address to a desired one by not putting in the change MAC Address commands at the time but it turned to be "a genuine DreamBox one" (00:09:34:xx:xx:xx) the 'x' were random numbers/letters so it all worked out beautifully in the end anyway.

Point being is that I went through a helluva lot of crap and pain to get this up and running.

You know, I wasn't lying about what I said in my last post about heart-ache. Moral here is: careful what you say or wish for, it may come true.

Also, I was told to sling it (the box) by mtv1. But, meh, I'm glad I didn't.


So as I said I got it working by 11th March or something and I loaded the OpenPLI image onto it. Had all my stuff ready for the process. I've updated it with the image released on the 19th March, I can spot many things that need fixing though, and tried many versions of CCcam (sshhh...)

So here's the result:



Of course, you can see I've also got HotBird 13.0E as well as Astra 2 28.2E, running with CCcam 2.2.1.


Thanks for reading. Thank God for everything is all I can say.


P.S. This post is fruity enough to get banned for even though it's not against the rules but oh well. Worth it hehe.

Nice one
My box has been sitting on my shelf picking up dust.
I have just ordered the parts to make up the cable. will keep you informed.

[Luca Toni]

Just noticed this thread got quite a few hits and so I may get round to reploading the pictures soon.

Also as said at the end of the second post:

P.S. Could an Admin or Super Moderator please fix the typo ('cabel') in the Thread title/link? 'Cause that is really starting to bug me. Sorry, and Thanks.

People would then be able to find the thread easier.

Thanks.

[digicon]

Just noticed this thread got quite a few hits and so I may get round to reploading the pictures soon.

Also as said at the end of the second post:


People would then be able to find the thread easier.

Thanks.

Fixed the main thread title cabel to Cable

[Luca Toni]

Fixed the links to the other thread, eBay, and also the pictures.